Toilet Paper Conservation

Melanie58
Level 10
Boise, ID

Toilet Paper Conservation

I have noticed, but not given a great deal of thought to, the fact that many of my guests use a roll of TP a day.  This seems like a lot for one or two people, especially since most of my guests show up around 10 at night and leave early the next morning.

 

Obviously, I WANT people to use toilet paper if they need it!  I'm not interested in putting up signs or rationing or anything like that. But it made me wonder if there is something I am not providing that I should - like I provide kleenexes, which would be a way to reduce TP use.  Is there an unweird way to provide extra cloth towels that could be used for whatever non TP things people are using TP for?  Or am I crazy and is it thoroughly normal for a human to use a roll a day?  There are five people in our family - if we all used a roll a day, I would be at the store every day buying more.

 

BTW, this is not people just taking extra rolls from under the sink.  And because I'm a creeper, worth mentioning that I'm not seeing gobs of TP in the trashcan, so it is getting flushed I think.

 

It's a weird topic I guess, but I figure I'm probably not the only one who has thought about it. 

21 Replies 21
Cassie11
Level 1
Dallas, TX

I've been wondering the same thing - how are they going thru so much TP?! Perhaps guests who are traveling through or making pit stops at our places are taking whole rolls to-go to have for the car? Unsure.

Something I tend to do to ensure guests just don't take everything they see is to ration what's in sight/is findable. For example, I provide coffee for the keurig. Instead of leaving the entire box of k-cups out on ththe coffee shelf, I provide 2 per day per guest. The rest I keep in an opaque storage bin in a storage closet.

I started doing this with the TP last week. I notice that when there is just one roll on the wall-mount and one spare, they never go through it. But when there are 5 spares sitting next to ththe sink in plain sight, they disappear.

Cassie nailed it. 

 

🙂

Melanie58
Level 10
Boise, ID

But this is the weird thing - they are using it off the roll - NOT taking the extras from under the sink, but leaving a roll that is 95% used.  I usually put a new roll on, and use the partials for our family because I don't know I guess at a hotel they usually have a full roll is my thought process.

 

One idea I had is maybe they are wiping out the tub basin - that would be awfully nice wouldn't it?  But there is never excess tissue in the bin, so it's getting flushed, or they are unwinding it and stuffing in their luggage which seems silly.  If someone is wiping their butt that much in a 10 hour period, I just feel so badly for them.  If they are stealing it, I kind of wish they would just take the whole roll - it would cause me less mental anguish imagining what awful thing happened to them at dinner.  If there is a mystery use for the TP that I don't know about, I just want to provide an alternative - there's a hand towel, washcloths, towels, bed linens, Kleenex...I don't know what else I should provide?  

@Melanie58, I think that some people are wild consumers and others not. I know a couple of people (used to live with them) who literally free-spin the toilet roll and let it ringle down by the metre. This they consider approproate to flush down the toilet. When I ,etion the insane consumption they are totally non-plussed. ''What do you mean this is not normal?'' The same people also tend to brush with a running tap etc. Nothing you can do, unless they have an epiphany and realise that there is not a square to spare.

My toilet roll holder is fairly tight, hard to free-spin but I find that some guests have disengaged it by leavng the lid in an open position all the better to let it roll!

Sigh.

 

oh and another thought: If there is such a thing as ''double length'' toilet paper in the US, much more expensive but seriously nothing as good, buy it. You will not be changing the roll anywhere near as often, and the paper is better quality so they don't really need as much. Look out for it, test it at home. Would not buy anything else.

Dede0
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Melanie58 Maybe the restaurants in your area are just... well... a bit on the sketchy side?   🙂

 

Totally kidding. What I find is that some guests go through TP like crazy (we leave 6-12 rolls out as spares), while others use so little that one worries about their health. Weird and inexplicable.

Susan990
Level 10
Redmond, OR

I am so happy to find your post so that I can chime in and add a nuance to the subject which I think is worth considering.  As a Super Host I always strive to keep up on the tips and tricks which Airbnb suggests for making guests feel like 5 star treatment. So when Airbnb suggested that we consider 'upgrading ' the toilet paper quality to impress our guests I followed suit.  What happened as a result was expensive and a learning lesson. You see, the cheaper the toilet paper the more easily it breaks down in the water quickly with the flush.  The more expensive and dense the toilet paper the more sturdy it is and stays whole and solid all the way down the sewer line. So when my guest said the drain in the shower was so 'slow' the shower pan almost spilled over I called Roto Rooter thinking I had a blocked line due to someone flushing things down the toilet and jamming my drain lines.  I got an education about toilet paper.  My drain lines were stressed from my guest use which is intense this time of year and I had upgraded to a line of TP which my plumber guy said had changed their formula to less than desirable sturdiness.  And Charmin was the worst.  He suggested Angel Soft, which ways on the package septic system friendly. I am here to say that it is not just the septic systems which need easily broken down TP,  as my city sewer plumbling could not keep up with moving the heavy dense non-decomposing stuff along down the line quickly enough to keep things rolling.  It cost me 3 blocked off days and $310 for a sewer scope test to investigate and solve the mystery.  Host Susan

Susan
Louise231
Level 10
Manchester, United Kingdom

Hi @Melanie58

 

Firstly i love this thread because it is so randomly perfect for the airbnb CC.

 

People are weird, - ive noticed people using next to nothing by way of toilet paper (so little i noticed)  and absolute oodles of it.

 

Weirder still that i've stood in the bathroom after cleaning wondering about it, and had inner debates 'should i give them another roll? yes? no?'

 

Odd but funny that i'm not the only one spending a liiiiiittle too much time on these things.

 

Ps adding a box of tissues in the room defo does help.

 

Before i left a tissue box in as standard i kept finding rolls from the toilet in the room, morning sneezes, evening pleasing, whatever, tissues come about the box one at a time, toilet rolls not in a holder come off the roll via a wrap around a hand, one wrap, two wraps, who knows....

Brett3
Level 10
Gold Coast, Australia

Hey @Melanie58,

cool post and you are definitely not alone wondering about these things. I use to leave the cupboard open where I stored the spare toilet paper but learnt pretty quickly that was an expensive mistake.

I leave out 1 roll per bathroom per day of stay. So 4 guests staying for 3 days would have 6 rolls to use in my 2 bathroom apartment. I have found my Chinese guests will use a bit of every roll I leave out for some reason. European guests tend to use every millimetre, and locals seem to not use much at all. 

 

Years ago when I started, I was much like @Susan990 following suggestions to upgrade, go premium etc. It's okay for Airbnb to suggest these things but they are not paying for the ammenities you supply. I now just buy the toilet paper bulk packs of 24 rolls and no one has complained or said anything. (I am not however using that nasty single ply stuff that feels more like waxy tissue paper)

This will sound weird, but try tearing off the first few squares when you put the toilet paper on the holder. My experience is when it's not brand new guests use less. If I put a brand new roll of paper towel in the kitchen, guests tend to use the whole roll in their 1 night stay. If I tear off a bit so it looks like it's being used, they tend to only use what they need. I have had the same experience with shampoo, conditioner, body wash, dishwashing liquid, soy sauce etc. If I put out a brand new bottle, 3/4 will be used. When I leave out half full bottles, guests only use what they actually need.

 

This might sound stingy, but when you go through the volume of ammenities I do, these things make a huge difference financially by the end of the year. Have a go and see if these suggestions make a difference to your guests usage patterns.

Brett

Wow~ I can't believe I've only just come upon this post....... Henry and I have actually been having this conversation for a while. We've always used 4-ply TP at home and it's what we put in the guest bathroom at first. Since we host a private room in our home, we didn't want to bother with having separate host use vs. guest use items. 

But even though our guests spent less than half their time at home compared to Henry who works from home, they would go thru a roll of TP much faster. So a while back, Henry picked up a 20 roll pack of 2-ply TP just to see if it made a difference and we were very surprised that it did!!!! Guests use a 2-ply roll much longer - which means they will use a certain length of TP regardless of the qualilty.

John1080
Level 10
Westcliffe, CO

@Melanie58, I think it goes to show just how wasteful many people are. We just had the same situation with some terrible guests, who I posted about in a different thread. They also went through 6 rolls of toilet paper. We like to put out a some extra rolls because we don't want people to run out, but we don't expect them to use it all! 

 

At home, we are very frugal and like to conserve, so I guess it's easy to forget that lots of people think nothing of going through rolls and rolls of TP, of wasting water and throwing out tons of food. 

Louise231
Level 10
Manchester, United Kingdom

@Melanie58

 

Also random but do you rememeber that Friends episode where Chandler and Ross stay in a hotel and take all the amenities when they leave, toilet paper, batteries, lightbulbs, bathroom stuff.

 

I live in fear random guests like this, not so much to the extream of lightbulbs, but people who take the toilet rolls and the spare tea and coffee suplies,

 

and they do, 1 guests booked for 1 night, yet the 2 bottles of water, 2 porridge pots, 2 sets of biscuits and chocs, all gone the next day, and nothing in the rubbish... not all the time but, when they do its such a pain.

I find guests to be overwhelming be honest. Two incidents if you can even call it that: once where a guest helped themselves to my large shampoo and liquid ivory body wash (they were jerks as guests) and once a guest who asked for more coffee a day before departing and left with the entire box! Odd, and by all other accounts she was a wonderful guests-  I suppose she just loved the coffee!

Drinking chocolate. And peanut butter with honey & cinnamon in it. Both disappeared!  Twice. So I don't provide those anymore, as Guests seem unhable to resist them! 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

I've never had a guest (only host solo travelers) go through more than a roll and a half in 2 weeks. Most much less.

I do know some **bleep**-retentive people, though, who seem to have to wrap the toilet paper around their hand about 15 times for one wipe 🙂