Providing Beach Towels

[James2566]

Hi everyone,

For those with properties near the beach, do you provide beach towels and how does that work? How many towels do you provide and since guests use beach towels a whole lot more than bath towels, they're spending their days in and out of the ocean, how do you manage the refreshing of beach towels, are you expected to provide several extras, or access to your laundry facilities?

Hotels are much pricier and have their own systems where guests can swap almost any day, but I'm not charging US500 a night to account for all these extra services. Maybe I should charge more and provide three beach towels per guest, per week, and have a laundry service collect them (between three units that's a lot of beach towels).

With experience though, I'm learning the more items you put in the space, the more items you're chasing after for refunds when they go missing. I can't provide access to my exterior laundry room anymore for countless reasons but mostly sand breaking my machines and guests abandoning laundry to go to the beach for the day (my housekeeper also needs this room).

Guests are not accustomed to laundering sandy towels (dry completely and shake off sand is not on their holiday agenda), I just can't offer the amenity anymore, it's proving to cost a whole lot more than the cost-per-load.  I'm curious what other hosts do, who live near sandy beaches and whose guests come primarily to be at the beach. 

[Emilia42]

Do you know what your guests currently doing? I'm guessing you are catering mostly to tourists. Are they traveling with their own beach towels? Buying them there and living them behind? Bringing your house towels with them to the beach?

[Sarah977]

@James2566  I ask guests to bring their own beach towel. I have a couple I can offer if they forget theirs, or their bag was full, and as I only host one guest at a time, it's no big deal as far as extra laundry goes.

I've found that many female guests use a sarong instead of a beach towel. It takes up next to no space in their luggage, they can lie on it, dry off with it, and use it as a wrap.

[James2566]

Thanks Sarah, I’ll ask guests to bring their own. We’re steps away from souvenir shops that sell cheap beach towels, I suppose guests could buy one too. I’m also not comfortable with providing amenities than are taken off my property, and I’m not beach front anyway so feel less pressure to have what AirBnb describes as beach essentials: “Beach towels, umbrella, beach blanket, snorkeling gear”. I can only imagine how fast these would get damaged and lost at the beach. Why should we provide things taken out of the apartment? 

[Sarah977]

@James2566  The only guest who took one of the bathroom towels out of the house took it with her on a booze cruise and came back with a different towel- a thin scratchy one that I would never use for guests. The only resemblance between them was that they were both green 🙂

Also guests can sit down to eat at beachside restaurant, hand their wet towel over the back if the chair, then walk off without it, forgetting.

[James2566]

Ok, the booze cruise explains a few things to me. Thanks for this. I forgot to mention that guests have also used my bathroom towels as extra beach towels and several go missing as well, probably as you say, left on a cruise or at a restaurant. They’re usually covered in sand or sun-bleached and left in my garden which is why I now limit my extra towels. I’m convinced now, no beach towels and a sign on the bath towel stack that says not to be taken outdoors. They’ll still stuff them in their bags, though, what can you do. 

[Sarah977]

@James2566  What you might find when you ask guests to bring their own, is that they end up leaving them behind because they don't want to pack them up and bring them home (part of the throw-away, buy more modern day wasteful mentality) , so you might eventually end up with some you don't care about that you can offer if they didn't bring one. That's how I ended up with the two I have.

[Clare167]

What I do @James2566 is not have a stack of spare towels. I agree, what is provided will very likely be used.

[Clare167]

I don't provide beach towels and would not do so, for the reasons you give. Guests can bring or, if they forget, buy. I never had any problems with useful items that can be taken out of the flat (folding chairs, picnic basket and rug) and as a guest, would really appreciate that sort of amenity.

[John5097]

@James2566 I provide beach chairs. In the summer I usually mention the beach chairs, hose in drive, outdoor shower stations at the beach, in the day before check in message, but will also include not even using towels outside in the guest guide and home rules. There is a washer dryer in the rental unit. I also use an embossing labeler and already have rules on the doors, "Clean lint screen after every use"  "Leave washer door open for 24 hrs after use" And they always follow the instructions. I didn't realize sand could damage the washer. Guest love the WD. A good many are on multi stay trip so would like to keep that amenity. You could have your guest only use the WD when house keeper isn't, and put rules on the door as a reminder. I may also add for guest to please try and follow user instructions so that I can keep offering these amenities. However if the WD doesn't hold up at least 5 years I won't be offering it anymore. 

[Sarah977]

@John5097  I once had a housesitter from hell who was apparently throwing towels full of sand in the washing machine. She emailed me about a week or two before I returned (I had been gone 3 weeks at that point) saying that the washing machine wasn't draining.

 I told her to stop using  it and take her clothes to the laundromat. 

When I got back and proceeded to check out the washing machine, I found the drain hose plugged so solid, for its full length, with sand, mud and dog hair that turning my hose on full blast to try to clean it out didn't work- I had to get a length of rebar and shove it back and forth inside the hose to break up the blockage.

Then I took the filter off the back at the bottom and several gallons of skanky water that had been sitting in there for weeks came pouring out, along with another 3 cups of sand. 

Then I had to run the washer twice with no clothes in it to remove all the sand in the tub.

After that it worked fine, but it took hours to deal with. I don't let guests use my washer at all. If I'm doing a load of wash, I'll ask if they have a few items they'd like to add.

[John5097]

@Sarah977 wow nice repair work there! With the beach chairs guest don't even use the towels for the beach. Putting down a towel to lay on picks up a lot of sand. Also took a day off to install hose in the driveway. Before that they would bring a lot of sand inside on their feet. Also started including a parking pass that has showers that I'll keep doing.  I'll update the listing again before this summer. I don't have a lot of rules so guest are good about following them. Although I don't blame you for not letting guest use WD. I've already decided I won't repair or replace them if they get broken in the rental. They were already back there for when I rented long term so just no where else to put them. 

[Sheila568]

I provide a beach blanket that folds up into a little bag it is waterproof and the sand shakes off and then I have a request that our linens are not to be brought to the beach.  To date I have not had a complaint.

[BenkaandKeith0]

We provide beach towels and the guests love them. They often comment how useful feature it is. One per guest per stay.