Guests are spies: Sorry for the bad advice, beach house/mountain cabin hosts

[Lawrene0]

The background: When we first heard that bedsheets, towels, toilet paper, and soap would be mandatory essentials, some of us freaked out a little, especially the beach house and mountain cabin hosts in certain areas where for decades guests have understood they would bring their own linens/supplies and everyone was happy. 

Here, for six years we have asked our guests to carry their own sleeping bags a kilometre down a footpath. They have given us five stars for this.

I know. It's been great. 

In our case, we have all the essentials covered except bedsheets. As hikers ourselves, we understand the mud, smokiness, and burrs that are part of the outdoors experience, and how sliding into our own sleeping bags at night reduces worry about ruining someone's clean sheets. 

The apology: I have been postulating here in the forum that surely we beach houses, mountain cabins, tents, and treehouses will be fine as long as we tick the box and provide the ability to request backup linens. 

We will not. I am sorry. Two things happened to me in the past week and I learned:

1. You can spell out the bring-your-own thing and mention the backup linens in your welcome message, but the email that guests get from Airbnb just before their trip reminds them to check the house rules and amenities. When they look at those amenities they see they are getting bedsheets. They will bring their sleeping bags, and not request anything, but dock a cleanliness star because, in their words, they didn't know where else to take stars from but they were sure they read something about bedsheets somewhere. And here we are thinking guests never read. 
2. I was a guest myself on the weekend, and the system asked me some new upfront questions. I had to say yes or no to: Did I get a towel per person? Did I get bedsheets? Did I get a pillow per person? Did I get soap? Was there sufficient toilet paper?

Right. Guests are spies for the system, and that's what did it here. Bedsheets it is. The problem here is that in order to provide bedsheets, one needs to provide a bed... Our sleeping platform's custom 4' x 6' dimensions mean we have, for all these years, merely softened the planks with blankets and ground pads. No standard mattress will fit.
So we have cut a piece of 6" gel memory foam to size and made the bed. With sheets. 
We are still hoping our guests decide bringing their sleeping bags is the best choice, and that they enjoy this king of all groundpads as a luxury. And that they remember they had sheets if they wanted them and will not tick the "no" box. I'll let you know.

Specifics: You can cut gel memory foam easily with an electric knife. Thank you, YouTube. Also, thank you, everyone here. I listened to all of you and sprang for a mattress protector. Nothing bad will happen now, right?

Right?

[Charlie148]

AirBNB knows exactly what they are doing.  Every new requirement or action such as Instant Booking reinforces that they want to become more of a "hotel" business.   After all they are the largest online booking site for lodging.  Our little vacation village of 10,000 has "over 300 listings".  A very popular other hotel site has only 60.  Maybe they should consider changing their name as they will probably require a conventional bed in the future.

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

Here's what I would do:

Make it clear in your house rules and listing that guests should continue to bring their own sleeping bags, pillow cases, towels, whatevers that they have usually been bringing.

Purchase several sets of brand new, in the original packaging comforters, sheets, pillowcases, towels, whatevers from an inexpensive source (we use Amazon Basics for most everything.)  If the towels do not come in a plastic zipper case put each towel set (large, small and wash cloth) individually into extra large ziplock bags or large reusable food storage containers, one set in each container. 

Tuck a small sachet into the top fold  of the towels or put a little piece of tape on the edge of the lid so you can easily tell if the container was opened.  (That's for the sneaky guest who uses the item but doesn't want you to know because they feel bad about opening a brand new package.  That's weird but very possible.)

Install a linen cupboard or shelving unit.

Place a sign on the cupboard that says

AIRBNB  will ask you if we have provided these amenities for you:  bedding, sheets, pillowcases, towels, whatevers.  We are happy to do so and these items are here for your use and at no extra charge.  Please use them ONLY if needed.  If you use any of the items please leave  them on the floor after your stay so that we can launder them.

Most guests that are experienced campers will not use the items.  It is easy for you to tell if the items have been used.  The items are there for their use so they can check the box YES.

If something gets used, launder and iron it and put it back in the packaging as close to original as possible so that it continues to look brand new and unused.

For your mattress pad just make sure it has a waterproof cover on it.  They can add sheets if they want.

[Anonymous]

  what happened to their Air beds on the floor start up - it's what AbNB stands for !!!!