Clarification on essential amenities: Hosts can choose

[Airbnb]

Earlier this year, we announced that hosts will soon be required to provide a specific set of amenities in each listing that we consider “essential” to a comfortable stay.

Since then, we heard it was impacting some hosts’ ability to host successfully. So now, we’re giving you the choice.

You can choose whether or not to include the essential amenities in your listing. Having said that, we strongly encourage hosts to include them. Guests come from regions all over the world, and many tell us is that these five items are the minimum that they expect to find in a listing.

The five essential amenities include:

Toilet paper

Soap (for hands and body)

1 towel per guest

1 pillow per guest

Linens for each guest bed

We’re currently exploring the best way to keep guests informed about which amenities are provided in each listing so that accurate expectations are set.

Please, only select the Essentials option if you really are providing those items in the listing. Keeping listings as accurate as possible is a really important part of building trust with guests and setting you up for success as a host.

Listings that have Essentials selected but don’t actually provide the five items listed may be subject to penalties, including removal from Airbnb. 

Read this Help Center article for more details on essential amenities.

Thanks for being a part of the Airbnb community and for everything that you do to provide great guest experiences!

[David944]

My listing does not qualify for Family Collection, no continuous wifi. It is in a rural area, intermittent signal and expensive.

What is offered, grassy slopes to slide down, bush walks, whale spotting, lyre birds, wallabies and kangaroos, camp fires, nearby beaches with body boards, snorkelling gear and wet suits, beach towels, fishing gear, yabbies in the gully creek, even a kayak and sail boat. I could continue with this unfriendly family accommodation but hiking socks and sticks, hiking maps and compasses, golf club sets are not necessarily family activities or amenities... Nor are some movies, board games, card games, healthy air and hot showers before falling exhausted into clean sunkissed bed sheets. 

All the things that city kids watch when they log onto the internet, are right here, but I do not qualify for Family Collection.

As noted above, categories are needed for various types of accommodation, maybe one for REAL FAMILY accommodation as distinct from fantasy. 

[Gill32]

I wholeheartedly ageee David. I host in rural Scotland within beautiful countryside where there is freedom  for children to play safely outdoors, explore woodland areas, paddle in the burn, spot  wildlife, star gaze with no light pollution . . . . I also have toys, games, books, jigsaws, dvds but, because I have no WiFi or TV signal, I am not ‘Family Friendly’. It is a perfect place for a family holiday but would be missed if ‘Family Friendly’ is selected. Why has Airbnb decided that WiFi is an ‘essential’ for children? Many guests (with and without children)have commented about enjoying an evening chatting to family around the fire, whilst playing board games or working together on a jigsaw.

[Ashley242]

Sublime. I think you just gave the best explanation of a cabin lost in Airbnb category limbo I have ever read. 👏

pit funny tho. we have never felt the need to labeled our cabin as anything particularly unique but I feel like Airbnb has a very strong preference for niche listings. 

[John1080]

I would also like to add that one of the common themes on this forum is that guests do not read. 

So, even if it is very clearly states in the listing, I can imagine some situatins where individuals, particularly newbies to Airbmb arrive to a listing only to discover that there are no sheets or towels. This would, in my opinion, reflect very badly on the host and the AirBnb brand.

I do provide such items, but if I was not going to, I would be very clear, having it prominently displayed on my listing page, then telling the guest two times, once in a pre-approval message with policies and need-to-know and again in the pre-check in message a week before arrival so it is very clear. 

[Bill26]

The beauty of Airbnb is the ability to offer unique experiences, and if that means including or not including things, it should be up to the host, while of course maintaing transparency and up to the guest to choose what they want.

The job of Airbnb should be succesfully implementing a transparent system, where the potential client (like I've had happen) doesnt have the opportunity to come back with a complaint saying something like "I didnt know there was no iron."

All the best,

[Karlo0]

For those interested in a guest perspective, all of my friends and I agree that we would never book a listing that doesn't offer these essential amenities. It's the bare minimum. As bare as it gets. Most people travel light today in the face of increasing fees for luggage by airlines and also to remain mobile while visiting, rather than stationary in only one area. As traveling becomes more of a global phenomenon rather than regional vacationers, as people from farther areas are discovering new cities and places, the need to evolve the service provided up until now will become more apparent if a host is to remain competitive and find greater success. 

Furthermore, if a family is coming to a home that doesn't offer essential amenities, that means they would need to bring a set of sheets for each bed they use. That's its own suitcase on top of everything else they'll need for their stay and for the kids. I imagine that's why this is required. It seems wild, to me, to arrive to a place with no bed sheets. It's never happened to me.

[Lizzie]

Thanks @Karlo0, it is always nice to hear from a guest on different matters here in the Community Center. 

A couple of hosts have mentioned about how Essential Amenities (Linen, towels etc. are supplied) are shown to a potential guest on a listing, so that it is clear to them what the host offers before they book. If you have any thoughts on this, it would be great to hear your ideas on how this can be shown clearly to a potential guest. 🙂

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Mao4]

It also be great if Airbnb can remove the required TV from family category as the strong internet from WiFi at my home can entertain the guest more than enough. It’s ridiculous to exclude the host and their house from this category because they can’t provide TV. 

Thank you.

Mao

[Monique51]

Wow. This is fascinating, and goes to show how much we have to learn from each other, as Airbnb 'shrinks the world'. I am surprised to discover that some of my fellow hosts not so far from me in the United States routinely do NOT provide linens because it is not expected in their regions. I had (apparently wrongly) assumed that the US was like Canada, and that all Airbnb accommodations would have those 'essential' items. Whereas in recent travels in France, I had to hunt for listings that DID include linens (apparently not always so 'essential' there). Fascinating. I understand that it varies from region to region, and that traveller expectations vary, but perhaps those then become search criteria that travellers can choose from, just as they can with 'wifi' or 'kitchen'. If you absolutely must have an iron, for example, then you could restrict your search to only those places actively listing their iron (or what have you).

The second B still causes me pause. I provide breakfast items at my listing, and Airbnb reminds hosts before a guests arrival to put out food (I think the email says bagels and juice or something to that effect). However I was surprised to discover that many Airbnbs do not provide breakfast items at all, and many don't even include coffee/tea. Was a decision made to consciously get rid of the 'bnb' part of Airbnb?

[Lizzie]

I agree with you @Monique51, I've learnt so much too. 🙂 

Interesting topic about offering breakfast. Perhaps you might like to start another topic on this in the Hosting board, it would be great to hear other host's opinions on this. 

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Keith212]

I personallythink there is a real danger of  Airbnb losing the ethos under which it was established. Many people now view it as a money-grabbing/quick buck scheme. And that is a shame.

Who's kidding who over talk of charging less if not providing essentials?

As hosts who are proud of our record in providing value and sharing the enjoyment & experience of our home and island, I don't like the way the business is heading. 

Last year we were shocked when asked to pay for bedding and turning up at a place with half a toilet roll for a week and not even salt in the kitchen.

We will keep on doing our thing by providing essentials and more for our guests until such times as Airbnb becomes so far removed from what it set out to do.

By then there will, undoubtedly, be a new kid on the block.

[Deborah393]

We do not get international visitors !!! we are totally professional and have been for 13 years , all our guests are happy to bring their own towels. A one size does not fit all . Airbnb is toooo generic and controlling. Do you really think owners would undermine their own businesses, profiteering is insulting, most have reduced their tarrifs ?????

[Deborah393]

Its Illegal to provide food to an unlicensed BNB in Australia due to health and safety regulation !!!!

[Nachu0]

Hi, all there! 

 
We totally agree with providing the Essentials required, which are the same we as guests would expect to make our stay easier.

Our concern is about the frequency with wich some guests require  the change or renewal of the Essentials, in special the hygienic paper, the towels or sheets change. We are not a hotel, as some partners stated above, and although we provide the essential items, it is also upon the guests to take care of them. 

We suggest to put some kind of sign or clue about the Essentials; for example, in the case of the towels, to indicate that the basic is "1 per person"; we offer 2 per person, and indeed have happened that they asked us to change them nevertheless, during short stays. Should these changes be included in our budget prices?

Thanks for your attention, and kind regards, 

Chris & Nachu

[Lynne133]

From the other side of the remarks I’ve seen, I’d EXPEXT  linens and towels to be provided, and I do provide them!   And, YES, we have doubles of linens and towels but my cleaning service washes and changes 5 beds and cleans 3 bathrooms and a three story house between guests, all within 6 hrs. If you can’t handle that, don’t offer checkouts and check-ins on the same day. 

And, we also provide “the extras” like children’s toys, books,  beach towels, beach chairs and umbrellas. I’d personally hate to have to fly to a vacation destination and haul all of those linens and towels for my family, and honestly, my guests seem to love this system!   I’m just saying, it works beautifully and gives guests a quality vacation experience.