New requirement to provide linens and towels

[Nicole-And-John0]

We have been Airbnb hosts for less than a year and until this new requirement have had guests provide their own linens and towels. 

We have many guests who booked for the summer prior to this new requirement and I wonder if we need to change our policy for these guests or strictly for the guests who book after this officially comes into effect (July I believe). The additional costs to provide linens cannot be added to the existing bookings ... or can it? 

Feeling a bit unsure how to proceed.

Any thoughts would be welcome!

Nicole

[Toodle0]

Hi there, Can I what the new requirements are? I have been messgaing Airbnb back and forth asking them and cannot get a straight answer out of them.

This is what they have come back with -

You should provide:
Hair dryer
Hangers,
Iron,
Shampoo,
hand, & body soap,
Smoke and carbon monoxide detector,
Coffee maker,
TV (must be connect to media entertainment like Roku, Netflix, cable, etc.),
Wifi (speed should be 5 Mbps min),
Towels,
Bed sheets,
Toilet paper,
Printed house manual

Any clarification or help would be great!

Thanks,

Becky

[Nicole-And-John0]

This shows the basics....https://www.airbnb.com/hospitality. Does that help? As far I as I know, the "essentials" are now mandatory instead of optional.... 

🙂 Nicole

[Suzanne302]

Read the link @Nicole-And-John0 offered. The ONLY thing that is required is:

-Toilet paper

-Soap

-Linens/Sheets

-At least one towel per guest

-At least one pillow per guest

All those other things you've listed are optional amenities.

[Toodle0 · Accepted solution]

Thank you so much! Very much appreciated! 🙂

[Daniel7682]

I heard of a company called Bonsai Hospitality Management that provides many of these at affordable prices if you want to check them out. 

[Gillian19]

@Nicole-And-John0 Hi Nicole, My understanding is that any amenities, costs, cancellation policies etc are taken as at the time the booking was made. So bookings made pre the new directive fall under the booking conditions at the time. Which of course makes it very hard if you want to only give the new linen and sheet requirements to guests who book after July 1st as you would need to track who booked when and set the property up accordingly. I am gonig to continue to not provide towels post July 1. Guests booking holiday homes in the area my property is, don't expect towels. They don't read the amenities anyway so won't be expecting them just because Airbnb have decided it's a good idea. Plus they won't want to pay more to have them.

[Maria-and-Steve1]

I am also in the same boat at the previous posts. I am unsure if Airbnb will be micromanaging my account or if they might remove my lising when I continue to choose to not provide sheets/towels. I reside 2 hours away from my place in coastal NC and the norm is to not provide these.  I would need to charge guests for these services which defeats the purpose of my bugdet friendly place.  I see that they made some adjustments to their Strict Cancellation policy that they recently rolled out after many people complained. How do we get them to make linens and towels an optional amenity?

[Gillian19]

@Maria-and-Steve1 As long as you tick the box they will be happy. Although why they are keeping the box if everyone has to tick it seems a bit odd. It has always been something that can be ticked and therefore optional to be provided. I can only surmise that Airbnb want to pander to guests that can't be bothered to read what amenties are provided and just provide as much as possible. It's a shame, as the ability for a host to chose what to provide was one of the things that set airbnb apart from other platforms. No longer. There was something on host voice where your vote to remove this new requirement could be voted on.

[Jennifer416]

I am exact same as you.  I have the ability to offer a linen service if people choose it and that has been a struggle because there’s not a way to up charge for that until after the guest arrives. It’s really been a pain .

[Ned-And-Laura0]

Maybe its just me but as a guest I wouldn't stay at a place that didn't have sheets and towels.  I would never think to pack my own linens.  As a host I always make sure there are plenty of linens. I'd be to worried guests wouldn't read all the descriptions and leave a terrible review. 

[Gillian19]

@Ned-And-Laura0 Then you obviously don't visit places where it is the norm to BYO. In Australia it is very common in holiday destinations. In big cities it would be expected. That's our point. Not everywhere is the same. Let everyone chose. You don't have to stay somewhere that doesn't offer what you want. You might see a TV as essential. Someone else wouldn't. Then you would pick somewhere with a TV. So why is it any different with linen and towels?

[Colin106]

I host in France and most of my guests are American. They would never bring sheets, quilt covers, pillowcases, towels.

[Jihan18]

It's different  everyone sleeps with it being a basic human function and all while not everyone watches tv as there is nothing essential about it; this is comparing apples and kumquats.

[Daniel2057]

As a guest, you are a good host. Treat your guests with respect to at least provide basic hygenic material, and we will surely flock to you (instead of your competition, which seems more concerned with costs than providing a decent service).