I am now already in a +10 day discussion with Airbnb on an i...
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I am now already in a +10 day discussion with Airbnb on an issue of blocked days that are being switched to 'active' in the c...
Latest reply
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.
I'm impressed @Karen and Will ! and @Pia9 I'm always reviewing and reconsidering and making modifications, trying to keep the level fo amenities and service I prefer and keep costs/waste down while addressing low/no waste/eco-friendliness.
I've been seeking ideas to minimize the mountains of trash this business can create. I also refill normal sized bottles of liquid hand and dish soap and shampoos from bulk sizes, even for one nighters. I don't specify it in the listing, but my wish to reduce waste and recycle all we can is shared during the initial walk-through and has been well received by my guests, who have been great about separating recycling into a paper bag and trash into the can.
TP---I've only had 2 guests steal the extra I leave out to be sure there's enough.
Laundry--I have several sets of bedding, so I just change it, then launder the used set and hang it out to dry in good weather. Towels..."crunchy" ones don't cut it, so I always machine dry those, and I uuse nscented laundry products and a few drops of essential oils to provide a soothing scent.
Food--I DO food: welcome refreshments of wine and cheese (depending on guest preference) and a simple healthy inexpensive self serve home made breakfast with fresh fruit which has been complemented and there's never any left, along with local roast coffee, several kinds of tea, plus dairy and non dairy condiments, stevia, local honey, real brown sugar and spring water from our property in a reusable glass dispenser in the fridge.
@Pia, my one and only long term guest (2 weeks) chose no interim cleaning, and did her own towels and laundry with the machines in the unit. I left 4/4/4 of each, so she could get by not doing any if she preferred. It was just one person and she was clean and had food senstitivities, so did not want breakfast either. I don't do any longer then 2 weeks due to long term tenancy laws and squatter's rights here.
If I did, I would require weekly cleaning and charge my usual cleaning fee weekly for my time. It's way tooo much work to try to undo a month's worth of no cleaning than just stay on top of it, and I would do it while they were home to avoid any security concerns.
We provide 4 bath towels (2 per guest), 6 hand towels, 4 wash cloths. We keep a large bottle of each in the shower: shampoo, conditioner, body wash. This way it is less likely to walk off. Laundry is available to the guest at $1.00 per load. I had to do this because I had one night guests who would walk in, unpack, do 2-3 loads of laundry AND others who would be there for 2-3 days and do one or two items EVERY day. By doing this, reduced the number of guests doing laundry. I also charge a cleaning fee per reservation just for general cleaning.
We are essentially a campground, with a shared bath house. So, of course we supply toilet paper, shampoo, and soap in the bath house, but it is wholly unreasonable to require us to provide sheets and towels for campers. Is there an exception to this new requirement? Feeling very frustrated with this "one size fits all" approach.
Dan
Hi @Dan0 in Haarlem
Have you called Airbnb to ask them about this?
Is there a reason you can't provide towels for your guests?
The showers where we have stayed usually just have big costco sized bottle of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. I'm not a host, but I think I would cram as many amenities as I could reasonably without worrying that they would be taken, or cluttering up the place.
For instance I love the following about airbnb over hotels:
Coffee - I have always found an ample supply of coffee and a 12-cup coffee maker at my airbnbs. I am a coffee glutton and when I stay in hotels with just a 2 cup machine or a keurig, I end up out and about searching for more coffee 30 minutes after draining the supply. However I also need dairy for my coffee and never seem to manage to get myself some before waking the first morning so I end up out and about to buy milk or half and half when I'd rather be still inside getting ready. If I ever came about an airbnb that stocked those little land 'o lakes half n halfs that require no refrigeration (and are available at costco if you're wondering). I would be on top of the actual world.
Cleaning supplies - In both hotels and airbnbs I have had the occasion to wish things were a bit cleaner. Usually the hard floors that are leaving little bits stuck to the bottom of my feet. At a hotel I can only curse the maidstaff and contemplate using one af my precious white towels to clean the floor. But airbnbs usually have brroms and dustpans and little lysol wipeys so I can get everything spic and span and carry on.
But as a guest at airbnbs I have felt truly neglected when it comes to linens. One lovely guest house that had everything I could possibly need (except half n half) had only ONE blanket and it was heavy, hot and made of down. It was 70 degrees in San Diego, we were cold with no blanket and sweating with that down monstrosity. She needed a cotton blanket. Another perfect guest home gave us only 2 full sized towels for 2 adults staying 4 days. I had to keep asking my boyfriend if I could use his towel for my hair... we need more than 2 towels guys... more than 2
I would just think about what the guest needs. If you were staying there what would you need? Airbnb should provide and "ammenities ordering" option allowing guests to pay extras, especially the kinds of things you might need your first night/morning, not have time to pick up the first not or be able to travel with (I'm talking about half n half again)
Heather,
You would be on top of the actual world at my place. I stock enough of those for your stay and you can always ask for more. We also supply whole beans and a grinder with decafe and regular with enough for any coffee lover in the freezer. We leave a bottle of wine, cheese and crackers, with pretzels, nuts and some kinda of chips, plenty of bottle water in frig and extra in laudry room, tea, hot chocolate, iced teas and lemonaid mix. We leave a new peanut butter and squezze jellys with bread if children are coming, waffle mix and a dozen eggs and butter in freezer. All paper products for trip and soaps, shampoo, conditioner, lotion and bath bubbles etc in hotel size and large sizes also. Racks of spices and our pots and pans are all All-Clad and Le Creuset. We have on average 3 to 4 towels per person stocked and extra sheets also stocked with lots of blankets. The list goes on. I did as you say as a frequent Vaction Renter and added all the things I needed when I stayed at places and never got.
We opened last month and are priced super low for what we offer, but we need reviews in order to raise the prices. Have had 3 AirBnB stays with two reviews hopefully the ones that checked out today will leave one also and 2 more 5 stars on HomeAway. Our guest book has wonderful comments they don't add to the reviews so fair wish they did.
Why don't you just send your guests a gentle reminder. Thank them for their lovely comments and ask if they would mind leaving a review on Airbnb.
Unless you are a high end property I don't think you need to leave all of those items in your listing.
Individual toiletries are going to be very expensive and wasteful, I think refillable containers, as other host have pointed out, is the way to go.
I measured the usage and cost for each set of guests of the following
By weight:
Liquid Soap,
Shampoo,
Washing up liquid,
Coffee,
Tea.
Meter reading:
Gas,
Electricity,
Water.
The soap in the bathroom was used obviously, the shampoo not so much as most guest bring their own toiletries, the problem as I see it is that Guests will take the individually wrapped toiletries even though they have no intention of using them while away.
Hosts have pointed out on these blog that laundry capsules (individual portions) have a very high usage, or in other words Guest help themselves and take them home. On reading these comments I started to hand out the capsules on request.
I am an on-site host, so my situation is a bit different, but for guests staying 8-10 days, I offer to clean their room and change their bedlinens half way through their stay, e.g. after 4 or 5 days. Guests staying longer get this once a week. Some guests appreciate this, but some don't particularly want it, and that's fine too as it saves me time!
I have found that very long term guests (1-4 month stays) don't expect me to clean their room or do the laundry. They are happy to wash the linens and towels themselves and buy their own detergent. I just make sure they have two sets of linens and towels. They do the laundry less often than I would so it saves on the bills.
However, if it seemed like they were never washing the stuff, then I would make sure I did as I don't want my linens ruined! I made this mistake once with an 18-year-old girl who only used one set of the linens she was given and never washed those or the towels in the month she was here! They had to be thrown away because I couldn't get them clean again.
Guests get a full set of towels (bath/hand/wash cloths etc.) per person and then I offer to replace these after about three days (or earlier if the guest requests). I am also conscious of the environment, and even 5 star hotels enourage guests not to go through fresh towels daily. However, if a guest asks for new towels every day, I feel like I have no choice but to comply. Maybe a hotel like sign about the environment would work, but most guests don't expect a daily towel change anyway, so I think it's a bit unnecessary. However, if you give them all the sets of towels at once, they seem to use them all and need replacements much sooner.
As for the other stuff, I don't do breakfast, but provide tea, coffee, sugar, hot chocolate, honey, jam, oats and a few other cupboard staples, but no fresh food. I have been putting bowls of fruit in rooms, but this hardly ever gets eaten, so I will stop doing that.
Guests get mini bottles of toiletries in their rooms (only because I had a stack of them - I often get given sample sized products as part of my job). I also put full sized bottles of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel, plus hand soap, in the bathrooms. I give them a few other essentials such as mini sewing kit, nail files, razors, toothbrushes, shower caps, combs etc. depending on what I have available. The bathrooms are always well stocked with lots of toilet paper, but I top it up as necessary, rather than leaving stacks and stacks of it on view. I also leave some magazines and tourist leaflets in the rooms.
Guests can go through a lot of tissue. They sometimes use or take the travel size toiletries, but more often, they don't. They never take the full sized toiletries or any food supplies with them. Nor do they take towels, magazines etc.. The one thing that does keep disappearing is the travel adaptors I leave in the rooms. I really can't believe that some guests steal things like laundry capsules!
RE personal laundry, I only offer this for longer-term guests (although I do make exceptions in some cases). There is too much room for user error and breaking my expensive washer/dryer, plus, personally, I think it's rude to show up to a host's home with a load of dirty laundry and expect to do it there (you'd pay a fortune for it in a hotel), but this does happen. I'm also not willing to let guests put on a load for a couple of t-shirts or a handful of socks. It's not good for my pocket nor for the environment!
Even though it's in my house rules that laundry is only available for longer-term guests, short-term guests often still expect it, so that can lead to some awkward discussions. Sometimes it's just not worth the antagonism, so I say yes, but I will put the laundry on, not let them use the machine themselves.
Since I posted above, I started charging short term guests for laundry. I will wash and dry a load for £3, which is nothing as it would easily cost double to do it themselves at a local laundrette (and much, much more for a service wash) and they would have to buy their own detergent, lug their stuff there and back etc. Guests either seem happy to pay the fee, handwash their stuff instead, or decide they really don't need to do laundry after all. I don't see the £3 as income, but it's a good way to deter guests from taking advantage when it comes to laundry.
RE the adaptor plugs, so many of these were disappearing. I have now started labelling them. Only one guest has taken one since I started doing this. If guests do take them, I now message them asking them to send it back or pay for a replacement. I don't want to seem mean, but I can't buy new ones every week!
I feel like it really has to do with the type of place you are renting. If you rent a really nice, beautiful and modern apartment and it costs quite a bit, then perhaps more towels and extra cleaning, is expected.
I have both stayed at units and rented out and while I personally am really happy when I get a very cheap place to stay and when a towel is included or some coffee,et other chose the cheapest available and complain about everything.
On the other hand people who spend a lot of money can be more likely to not even care about extra soaps,and wont even use the ones provided,while cheap people take everything home !
Also what i find a slap in the face is when some hosts OFFER FREE BREAKFAST (included in a chep 20 euro room) and people complain about it not being good.lol it is a free thing you get as a bonus!
When i rented out my place i also bought new sheets and new towels and i put out cookies,tea,coffee and soaps for everybody and nobody touched anything! People even brought their own sheets 😂i dont blame them cause being an experienced traveler I came across "sheet re-users" many many times😕
I am guilty too. I kind of complained once about a place i rented last minute during high season and only later i realized how much value for money we had gotten...
I use to provide all the mini bottles of shampoo and shower gel etc, but as we’re are becoming aware of what a problem plastics are and how few actually get recycled, I’ve moved to a dispenser on their shower wall. I still provide a mini guest soap as no plastic involved. It’s working very well so far and I’m not constantly throwing half full mini plastic bottles out. It would also solve the problem of having to reissue supplies for longer stays. I would always go in for a clean around for stays of longer than a week, at an agreed time unless the guests specifically didn’t want this.
When a host says they do not provide ‘essentials’ does that mean there is no bedding on their beds, or does it mean they don’t supply a change of sheets? Also, no towels? We are traveling from the U.S. Can’t imagine having to pack sheets and towels.
We are in the same situation with an air bnb in costal italy 30 euros per night no essentials it says no provided sheets, towels, loo paper, soap, though provides a hair dryer and hangers.