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!

[William--Bill--And-Carol0]

Amazing! I have traveled around the world several times and never once had to pack my own towels, linens, pillows, and toilet paper. I would expect these items and if they are not provided it should be made very clear! Now I'm guessing, in your area  if you call Uber you'd better check to make sure their fee includes the tires and gasoline!

[Joseph401]

Airbnb should stipulate minimum standard for rental rooms so guests (customers) can confidently book it instead of wasting a lot of time searching for a room with minimum amenities. Remember, customer is the king and there should be an easy way for them to book rooms without any hassle. We (hosts)are the ones dictate room rates. We are all in this for making some money and I don't believe hosts do this for charity. I am sure with one or two different standard settings guests can easily book rooms and avoid any confusion. For resorts and speciality properties it is a different story. Those category of customers have time to search for what their mind desires. 

My guests are mostly executives (95% occupancy) and they expect it more like hotel rooms with basic amenities such as bed room with linens, comforters, pillows and bathroom with towels, soap, shampoo and toilet paper etc. Anything other than that it is up to us to provide for guests to enjoy the stay. If you want to get the "wow"effect from guests, provide something extra always. They are our ambassadors. It is our business and let us make it a long standing one! Airbnb is an inexpensive pipeline for bringing these customers for us. So let us take advantage of this great opportunity.

[Susan1081]

 Since I can’t seem to understand how to reply to specific post I’ll just start one myself. And it’s about family friendly. I do not understand either why I cannot be a family friendly site when I do not provide a TV. Most guests, if they are interested in staring at a screen, bring a laptop or an iPad or a tablet for the family. What I offer .... Coloring books, crayons, 25 acres of certified organic fruit trees and nut trees, horses to ride, horses to drive, or to brush.

If you are going on a vacation and you are bringing your family, wouldn’t it be nice to do something besides staring at the television set. I think the family section should just have a bunch of tick boxes and we mark what we have.

And I guess I might as will talk about amenities too...I would expect to have towels and a washcloth and sheets and bedding when I travel in a place that has a real room like a bedroom. I offer all of those items and don’t think twice about doing it, and I wash all of those items and make sure they are clean for the next guests. Isn’t that part of what hospitality is? Making sure that you provide things for people so that they don’t have to lug them all over the country with them?

I also do provide a continental breakfast, because it seems to other countries that is the norm, and many people do not think of bringing a cooler of food, so starting them off with a little bit of protein in a little bit of carbohydrate and some tea and coffee and condiments seems to make everyone very pleasant in the morning. I think this is one reason why I do not lower my prices because I do provide things that other places do not provide such as food.

[Suzanne312]

If travelling by air many people need  bedlinen and towels provided. The ability to offer a discount for  guests bringing their own would be wonderful. I used to do this before being with Airbnb and it was popular with people travelling by car.  Enough toilet paper, soap etc should be provided to get guests through the first few days, after that the option for self catering should be available.  It is all about staying clearly what's provided and what you charge.  Building in flexibility for guests would be great.  There needs to be an easy way to do this and to charge appropriately.  

[Deborah393]

Airbnb is only interested in the booking fees we generate for them. They are not interested in our costs, local communities or potential guests we may be forced to take ( we are penalised if we reject bookings) We are at 80% and have been warned if we do not stay at 84% we will be de listed. I wish Airbnb would disapear , its only a fill in for us anyway , really tired of being treated like a child and the divide and conqueur  B.S. in these forums. I think 13 years experience with a very successful Short Term Rental Beach House is good enough, Oh I forgot Airbnb has only been around  approx 5 years in Aussie land. They are still an arrogant child with to much money !

[Gilbert75]

In New Zealand we discourage having the tenants own linen. 

The mainreason is hygiene for for things like bed bugs which have hit hostels here. 

The other her aspect is people lie about it and don’t bring it or just sleep on the bed with no linen...ugh

[Jack264]

As soon as Airbnb said I must provide toilet paper for the guests ENTIRE STAY, I called to ask for clarification . How do I fit 1000 tp rolls in a small condo? Should I leave 20 packages filling their living room?

And I can barely fit a few in my small car!

i do many 6 month rentals and aim for longer than week stays. Professional cleaners supply the condos with starter rolls as they’ve been doing over 30 years, to change that just for Airbnb guests would wreak havoc on scheduling cleaners to start bringing more tp and I pay $50 for deliveries. I tried to get clarification and airbnb insisted I had to provide tp for the entire stay. That is a “consumable”, sort of like the condiments that are there when you show up(salt& pepper at least), if you use it up or take it to bbq area ad forget it out there, I don’t drive over to deliver more. Regarding the tp(shampoo etc), we start you off, if you use a lot, then you may need to buy more depending how long you stay.& same as another Host said, we provide lots of other amenities that are not requirements such as boogie boards, large beach towels and a washer and dryer , so if you have to spend an extra $4 on tp per week during your stay it’s way less than an hour boogie board rental or snorkel(for example). I had to leave the airbnbagent saying that I might have to drop hosting on their site because of their tp requirement and was quite upset at their new RULE.  I am very glad to hear this rule is modified now.

i will now add back in the$2 new sponge I used to provide each new Guest and I was going to stop providing a paper towel roll since I was going to have to spend hundreds on tp and $50 trip charges to assistants to make deliveries (costs for reliable help on Maui can be outrageous).

[Becky-and-Ryan0]

After reading through a lot of posts; it does sound like different areas of the world have different expectations. Our home is in a rural mountain area in Colorado US, but it’s expected that the guests will have towels and linens and of course, toilet paper. 

A number of guests fly to Colorado and rent a car to visit different parts of the State. It wouldn’t be likely that they’d pack linens to haul w them on their flights and in their suitcases. 

We personally have 2 Airbnb trips coming up; one domestic and one international; and now I’m getting worried that linens and towels may not be included at some of the stays? I would hope hosts would be very vocal about not providing linens, if the norm in the area is to bring your own, or if it’s standard in the area to choose to bring your own linens to save $$.

I’m wondering how you’ve set-up the correct billing options within the Airbnb format to allow guests to pay for linens? Or how to reduce their fee if they bring their own? I didn’t realize the nightly pricing listing gave guests a way to check on various pricing options?

Breakfast: Add $15 pp

Linens: Add $5 pp

Toilet Paper: ?????

[Deborah393]

If you want to classify your self as a hotel you will need to comply with all the regulations & taxes hotels need to comply with, I classify our property as a short Term RENTAL in a residential property, rentals should not be required by a third party to provide these hotel supplies especially "towels". 

[Deborah393]

Hotels are heavily regulated , their supplies need to meet certain standards, I think you should check if your insurance will cover you if you supply these options and they cause an issue to a guest. Not sure its legal to supply alcohol as some have mentioned. We do not supply towels so can not tick the box.

[Tibor7]

Not to provide bed linen to my guests is unthinkable.

I'd never rent a place where linen is not provided unless I'm a hiker with a rucksack and would only pay US$10 per night for a dry place under a roof.

[Joseph313]

I agree with John from Colorado... sheets and towels for my place is a given. There are 8-10 beds in my home of various sizes. How could you expect someone to bring in that many sets of sheets and 14 towels? Granted this is an owners decision and each opportunity is quite different.  For me I would be appalled to arrive at my home and the beds were devoid of linens. I also understand that every Airbnb is different, and expectations levels of both guests and owners also.  I think going the extra mile pays off in the long run, even if you have to pass that cost onto your guests.  

[Kathy383]

Hello Airbnb,

You have simply inroduced inflexibility.  We provide 4 of the 5 amenities - ie. all but towels.  Ours is a holiday home that we rent for minimum 1 week at a time, not a 'stay for 1 night' place .  Our experience is that guests do not expect towels in this situation so your amenities policy does neither our guests nor us any favours.  We should be able to click on each amenity that we provide.  If we provide towels we would put the prices up which is not something you would want I'm sure, unless you are trying to drive up prices to inflate your commission.  Please give us the flexibility of choice.

Many thanks!

Ron and Kathy [Surname hidden]

[Lizzie]

Hello @Kathy383,

Another host here mentioned, they other all of the Essentials listed except linen. As in many parts of the world towels are on a par with linen if expected. Therefore, to make it clear to the guest, how would you propose displaying this on a listing?

[Rentals-One0]

As Superhosts, active for 7 years on Airbnb, with over 100 glowing reviews, what Airbnb considers “essential” our guests absolutely do not. Linens are an added cost and environmental burden most of our guests don’t want.  We direct those needing linens to a local rental agency. We agree with the comments that linens are not a valid component of “family friendly”.  It was wise of Airbnb to climb down on “essentials”. We book 100% exclusively through Airbnb, but that would have ended out of regretted necessity had the “essentials” policy been imposed. Informed decision should be the basis - except where the protection of life and property or compliance with the law is concerned. Most else should be disclosed and left to guest and host discretion. One size does not fit all.