Hello Airbnb Host Community,
I am host who has a four season destination vacation rental in Windham (Catskills mountains). My home can accommodate up to 14 persons and the majority of times gets booked by groups of 8-10. Durning the ski season it does get booked to its capacity by variety of end users including student groups.
As a host I would never be interested in people bringing their own linens because the number of guests equates to the number of different bacteria they will leave with their linens on your beds. You can only have control over maintaining clean environment when you provide clean sheets and towels yourself.
Please consider this: There might be chances that your guests will bring the bed bugs imbedded in their linens as well.
In addition, if their hairy pet friends sleep with them at home, the dog or cat hair will be added to the things that will be left on your beds. Imagine if your next guest is severely allergic to cats and ends up walking into the room and just sitting on that bed not to speak about sleeping in it.
What makes you think that every guest will bring linens?
If the guest forgets linens he/she will sleep directly on your white mattress protector pad if you have one. So you will still have to wash it to avoid cross contamination ideally.
What guarantees that the linens are washed with Clorox bleach or they are clean to begin with?
It makes me not confident to think that the students have resources to wash their linens well consistently and that they have extra clean sets to bring with them when they travel.
I am an an interior designer specialized in healthcare facilities and infection control an creating spaces that influence the behavioral pattern of it users is always on my mind. Having said that I think it is a good policy for Airbnb to contribute to keeping the guest environment clean and as bacteria free as possible.
What I do not support in Airbnb requirements for family friendly homes is the TV amenity. If there is WiFi in the house the guests can use their own devices. The groups that come to our home spend most of their time skiiing or hiking and being outside. We provide an abundance of table games to help guests socialize and create positive memories. And we did host successfully a lot of families that never complained about the lack of TV.
Warm regards,
Lyudmyla