Essentials

Pia17
Level 1
Sterling, VA

Essentials

I have been hosting for less than 6 months. I have a question regarding the amount of essentials you provide for guests. I provide mini shampoos and soaps to guests. I am not sure how many I should provide for weekly/monthly guests? What is the normal ratio of shampoo/soap to days of stay?  How about tissue paper?

And also, how many sets of towels (bath towels, hand towels and wash cloths) do you provide for weekly/ monthly stays? I give discounts to longer stays because It was my understanding that I do not have to provide for extras. I guess I was wrong.

i have stayed in other Airbnb units and those essentials were not even provided. I feel robbed.

 

 

32 Replies 32
Michelle286
Level 3
Auckland, New Zealand

following this as I would like to know what we are expected to provide also with the cleaning expected of long term guest 

Personally, for long term guests, we negotiate to make sure that we clean the room every week and we change the linens and towels.  We do not leave extras for guests to help themselves.  This  includes providing anything a guest can take with them, meaning, I refill the shampoo and conditioner bottles but we to not "give" them things to take away (we even make a note of it in our house rules).

What hosts provide and the expectations of what you will get during a stay is the same problem with not all providing breakfast or what constitutes breakfast to some.  There are many threads here in the forums about what they do, when they do it with along term guests - you can search for all of them. 

The "?" next to "Essentials" says: Towels, bed sheets, soap, and toilet paper.  The rest is negotiable. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

My understanding under essentials is that you should provide

 

linen

bath and hand towels

shampoo

hand soap

Shower or bath gel

Toliet paper

 

You should change towels/linens and clean once a week .

 

 I would provide a starter pack of toilet rolls and if you want basics for the kitchen - tea/coffee/milk/sugar/salt/pepper/oil. (if you are self catering)

Scott80
Level 10
Honolulu, HI

I guess I am atypical. I provide essentials (travel size soap, shampoo, conditioner, one roll of toilet paper) and four sets of bath towels, hand towels and washcloths bed linens and dish washing supplies but put in my house rules 'There is no maid service or supply replenishment during your stay.' Cleanliness is my lowest rated item so maybe that explains it. There is a convenience store in my building so if more supplies are needed, guests can buy them easily. Also, my average length of stay is only five days so there are only two guests that have stayed more than 10 days.

 

The main reason I don't provide maid service or supply replenishment is that I am not available during weekdays and really don't want the liability of being in the guest-room when they are not there. Also, I am only charging one cleaning fee and if anyone ever asked for maid service, I could refer them to an on-demand cleaner in my building that the guest could hire to clean/replenish (My building is a residential hotel so that why supplies and cleaners are easy to obtain).

Dede0
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Pia17 As others have noted, "Essentials" as defined by AirBnB are really quite minimal. However, a few more items and a slight willingness to provide replacements for things like toilet paper, can go a long way toward keeping guests happy.

 

In our case, we don't provide mini-shampoos, etc because the cost is simply too much, and it's not all that environmentally friendly. Instead, we place a very large, full bottle of an "all in one" body-wash/shampoo in the shower. Regardless of length of stay, we leave 2 visible towels per guest, and we leave more stashed in a cabinet that they're not likely to look in. After 4 days, we send them a message mentioning those additional towels, etc. (But we also have a card in the bathroom, like most hotels these days, that mentions how much it pleases us if they don't mind reusing towels a couple of times.) We provide liquid hand soap at the bathroom and kitchen sinks. We leave a bottle of nice hand lotion, some sunscreen, and some insect repellent in the bathroom. We provide makeup removal pads (mostly to reduce the chance that guests will use our towels for that purpose.) We leave tons of extra rolls of toilet paper on a shelf, along with spare rolls of paper towels. We also leave one local beer and one bottle of sparkling water, per guest, in the fridge to welcome them upon arrival. We provide unlimited fresh, locally-roasted coffee, and a selection of teas. We leave a small bowl of nuts on the dining table.

 

That's the full list of "amenities" that we provide. And all of that stuff is built into our rates and gets written off on our taxes as a business expense, along with all cleaning supplies, etc, etc.

Sounds very similar to how we run now , my first 4 weeks of running were a test of what to provide and where I was going a bit OTT, so I have scaled down as such, I don't offer a cooked breaky as I work full time but my guests have a sc kitchenette to themselves in here I have a fridge/microwave/cooker and teas/coffees variety of types and plungers/ cereals and provide bread and spreads for a light breakfast if they wish, also filtered water . I used to supply nice large bowl of fresh fruits in the kitchenette but I found these were just disappearing and ended up costing me a forturne each day to replace and some guests were not getting any, so now I will place a small fruit bowl in rooms .  As for amenities in each room I have gone to having a good pump soap and body wash in the bathrooms with extra rolls always in toilet holders, towels depending on nights stay to how many i provide and I also will ask on day 3 if they wish for me to wash their towels and replace with fresh ones, I have a "forget cupboard" in my kitchen where i keep some small supplies incase a guest forgets anything or our local supermarket is  only two minutes out my drive.  I always have a little treat by each bed and will often just put something for the kids if booked in.  All  a learning curve and Im still making little changes as I found some guests just kept wanting me to supply everything 😉

In the US, despite AirBnB's name, few hosts operate as true B&B's -- that is, they don't supply even the most modest of breakfasts. With US-based guests, that's *never* an issue, and even with non-US guests, we've never had any misunderstanding. We make it clear in our (textual) House Rules that we provide coffee and tea but don't provide any meals.

 

That said, I wish AirBnB had spent a little more time considering the implications of their name...

Hi Dede! Also in Austin here 😉 what local beer do you provide? I've thought of doing this as well but I'm undecided on the brand. Also I appreciate your post mentioning the environment. I've read so many posts from hosts that provide mini bottles to each guest and it's just so horrible for the environment. Most people travel with their own items and if they don't want to use the big bottles we provide, they will use their own. 

Я живу в Москве и думаю, что для меня неприемлемо оставлять какие-либо бутылки.

Объясню почему.

Пиво - это алкоголь а в моих условиях сказано, что пьянства не может быть в моём доме.

Различная сладкая газированная вода - это вред здоровью. Я не пью и никому не советую.

А вот чай, кофе, фильтрованная вода, это очень хорошо. 

По утрам я варю себе и своему сыну овсяную кашу ГЕРКУЛЕС. И когда мой завтрак и завтрак гостя проходит в одно время, я впредлагаю гостю такую кашу. К каше предлагаю мёд,  соль, (я варю кашу без соли - только вода и чуть-чуть молоко), сливочное масло, варенье или сахар.

 

Andrea9
Level 10
Amsterdam, Netherlands

 BnB = Bed-no-Breakfast  😉

 

I add the 'Bed-no-Breakfast' as one of the points in my summary.

 

Karen-and-Brian0
Level 10
Bragg Creek, Canada

Hi @Pia17 I hear your frustration. It's so hard to know, especially for longer term stays. I don't like the mini bottles of shampoo etc. because they're more expensive & they tend to disappear when guests check-out. We entered into an arrangement with a local company that makes soap - they have a hotel program (they call it their "Green Bubbles" Program) & they supplied us with refillable bottles for shampoo, conditioner, body wash and body lotion, and the bulk bottles of these, so we can refill as we go. MUCH cheaper! And no one has taken any of the refillable bottles.

 

For towels etc. - do you have a washer & dryer that your guests may access? If so, I would think you could supply them with linens & towels initially & then they could wash them themselves throughout their stay. If no washer & dryer, then I would think bed linens & towels should changed weekly.  And you might want to double up on the towels (2 bath, 2 hand & 1 face cloth per person for a 2-3 day stay, so times 2 for a week).

 

Tissue paper - I realize that some guests like to steal it if too much extra is provided, but I keep a reasonable supply on hand. Always better to have too much than not enough. 

 

It's really a fine line we walk as hosts - try to provide as much as you need to keep your guests happy & your ratings up. I hope that helps - Karen

 

 

Отличный совет! Я тоже не ставлю маленькие бутылочки с гелем и шампунем. 

У меня стоят большие бутылки и различное мыло - жидкое и куском. 

Karen, 

 

I'm interested to know: How much do you pay for these refills for this Green Bubbles program?

Karen-and-Will0
Level 10
Maryland, United States

@Pia17:  Great questions.  I have struggled with what to offer as well preferably in an environmentally friendly way.  We try to live a zero waste and plastic free life and that translates into our hosting style.  So far I do the following: 

 

Bathroom - 10 organic cotton towels (the house can sleep 9 guests), 4 bath hand towels, and no washcloths (which I tell guests about in advance).  Soap is from Whole Foods and is a full bar.  The cool thing about the soap is that it comes in bulk with no packaging and costs $2/bar so not a big dent in my budget.  I also put out travel size toothpaste and toothbrushes.  As I mentioned we are plastic free but the toothbrushes are actually plastic name brand we get when we go to the dentist.  We don’t want them so we lay them out for a guests.  Shampoo we really struggled with.  Didn’t want to use plastic and wanted something in bulk to cut down on the waste.  Ultimately though we made the decision to use a standard size plastic shampoo bottle and refill it as needed.  We were concerned the containers we were finding for shampoo if dropped could either break or hurt a person if dropped.  So we went with the plastic bottle (original container just keep cleanning and refilling).  Toilet paper we use Natural Value recycled version.  We leave out enough to cover what we think they will use.  When in doubt I will leave out a little extra.  I would prefer to lose $3 if they take the extra home rather than to be downgraded on a review.

 

Kitchen – hand towels, unique denim “sponges” that can be thrown in the washing machine and reused, 3 different types of organic teas, organic coffee, sugar (the real kind) and real maple syrup.  We will also leave something that we feel the guest may be interested in.  So for a group of guys staying for a “guys weekend” of fishing and kayaking we left a 6 pack of beer.  For another group who were there celebrating someone’s 80th birthday we left chocolates and champagne.  We don’t provide a trash can, except the big one outside the city gave us.  We tell guests about zero waste lifestyle in advance and tell them to bring trash bags if they need them.  However, we do have about 4-6 paper grocery bags in a cabinet if they want to use them.  Surprisingly no one has had an issue with the lack of trash cans.  Actually had someone comment how they appreciate the change in lifestyle.  Go figure!

 

Laundry – we have a full size washer and dryer they are welcomed to use with our homemade laundry soap.  We have a sign on top of the towels and in the laundry room about washing the towels if they want.

 

My challenges have been around trying to identify organic and zero waste products that doesn’t freak out people that are mainstream and not environmentally aware. I hope my info helps.