Guest cleaned out toiletries basket, should I post in review?

[Kelly---Jack0]

We are new to Airbnb and just had our 12th guest clean out the toiletries basket.

This is the first time that’s happened, previous guest have rightfully used an item or two but I was a little shocked to see the entire basket empty. We provide single sized items of shampoo, conditioner, lotion, toothpaste, toothbrush, mouthwash, body wash, bar soap. I put these items out for their use so I’m trying to be understanding but for them to use “everything” seems a little much. I’m wondering if this is worth including in their review. Additionally, this guest parked in our 1-car driveway leaving my boyfriend and I parked on the street all night. They arrived in the afternoon while we were both out, and we didn’t bother saying anything as we expected they’d go back out in the evening,  but they never did come out of the room after the arrived. We found it a bit presumptuous of them to leave their car there the entirety of their stay.

Is any of this worth putting in the review or should I just let it go?

[Susan151]

@Kelly---Jack0 .  A good rule of thumb is, don't put out anything more than you are willing to have guests use/take. One out of twelve gifting themselves toiletries might be about right. In the future, you might want to have a list of what you can provide if the guest has "forgotten" an item, and then give them a toothbrush upon request.

As to the parking, your listing states "free parking on premises" so it doesn't seem out of line that this is exactly what your guest did. If you expect guests to park on the street, you should change that amenity to "free onstreet parking." This should prevent any future misunderstandings.

[Sarah977]

@Kelly---Jack0  Consider changing the toiletry amenities you provide to small pump containers you can top up between guests, rather than a basket of single-use items. It's much kinder to the environment, and would cut down on this sort of thing. No, I wouldn't mention it in the review. Many people assume that if there are single use items, they are free to take them, as they might in a hotel. Yes, it was a bit greedy of them to clean out the basket, but I don't think they did anything particularly wrong.

As for the parking issue, I echo what Susan said.

[Alexandra316]

@Kelly---Jack0We keep everything in a drawer, and just tell guests that they can help themselves if they've forgotten something. Maybe consider keeping it out of sight, or put a note on the basket that says something like "Forgotten something? Please take a replacement" to make it clear that it's not a free-for-all. We have never had a guest take more than one or two things and we're around the 200-stay mark now. 

And no, I wouldn't negatively review for that: they probably thought it was fair game. 

[Julie143]

I might mention something in the private part of the review.

”taking all of the toiletries and leaving none for future guests is not in the spirit of Airbnb.”

[Christine615]

I use large, pump style shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Have gotten appreciative comments in my review. 

I did that because single use was wasteful and expensive. And as you guess, people believe they can take all the unused items. 

I also leave snacks and flavored bottled water. I noticed it is mostly a few families on road trips that clean out the snacks and go in the cabinets without permission to get more for the road.

Lock up the extra, but don’t ding them in the review. You wouldn’t care if they used them in the premises so in their mind what’s the difference? 

I think it’s a bit piggish, but not worth a bad review.

[Francesca-and-Dave0]

We set out a specific amount of toiletries and supplies for guests to use based on what we think (after 20 years of hosting) they will use, plus an additional 50% more...so there is 150% of what we think they’ll need. This includes toilet paper, soap, shampoo and moisturizer ALL in large size PUMP TOP bottles. The PUMP TOP bottles conserve resources and make it difficult (but not impossible) to pack up and run off with the supplies that are also intended for future guests. We encourage people to fill up their own travel bottles from our supplies and NOT to take our big pump bottles.

We also leave tea, coffee and snacks. Some guests use a little, some a lot and a few will use IT ALL. They figure they are paying for it so why not take it? Which is why we don’t leave out more than we are comfortable giving away.

Our experiences in “classes” of guests:

“Budget” - looking for low cost accommodations and frugal, but lovely people.

“Cheapskate” - clean out ALL the supplies and take them when they leave including toilet paper and paper towels because they “paid for them”, but still generally decent people.

“Criminal” - take the towels and a pillow and then don’t leave cash in the box for the produce they stole from the next door neighbor’s vegetable stand that runs on the honor system...NOT good guests.

99.9% of our guests have been GREAT — even the “cheapskates”! But it’s good to be prepared for that .1% who are not...and when they’re “criminal”, they should be reported to ABB and given an honest review.  

[Alexandra316]

@Francesca-and-Dave0Funny story about TP: I used to think we left at least 150% of the needed amount. One Saturday night last summer, we were at the cottage, and we got a call: the guests are out of TP, where can they find more? My husband had to drive home at 10 pm (thankfully less than an hour each way) to drop more off. Needless to say we now leave A LOT more than we think we'll need. Thankfully no guests have been TP thieves (that I know of!). 

[Amy-and-Brian0]

We leave things like soap for the dishwasher and washer on top of the basics of soap, shampoo, TP and trash bags. We used to leave a bunch of each in the condo we rent figuring people would use what they needed and leave the rest. Then one time someone "cleaned us out" too. Who takes a whole box of trash bags? There were like 200 in there...We even have dispensers for the shampoo, conditioner and body wash - which they also drained. Into their own containers? Who knows...

It was like a month's supply of each gone with a 3 night stay...

Anyway, we now only leave a few of each, enough to "get them started". 

Most people are ok and take what they need but it only takes one to ruin it for everyone.

[Noel102]

I also subscribe to the "get them started" idea for amenities.  I provide one complete set of individual toiletries for each guest, six bottles of water, coffee service (jar of coffee, sugar/sweetener packets, individual creamer packs), and a few snacks, regardless of length of stay.  I also provide a spare roll of paper towels and four rolls of toilet paper, again regardless of length of stay.  To date, I have never once had a guest ask for more of anything.  I do keep the extras in the unit (except toiletries), but they are tucked away where they are not likely to be visible, even though a guest could feasibly get to them.  Pilfering hasn't been a problem, either.  With that in mind, I never place anything in the unit I don't want a guest using.

[Ben551]

@Kelly---Jack0  I'm afraid you are offering "Poodle bait" in your Airbnb and this is one of the reasons why you shouldn't do it.

Offering individual sachets or packets of things in your listing is never a good idea.  It results in excessive packaging waste, so is't great for the environment.  It's expensive, so not great from a business perspective. But lastly, it results in Poodling... guests will take more than their fair share.

The answer is to move away from "single serve" mentality and go for things that aren't individually wrapped.  My listing, for example, has refillable decorative containers for everything.   If a guest wants to clean me out they would need to bring containers and a funnel!

Everything from food items, to toiletries, has a solution for it that doesn't involve single serve wrappers.  A few adjustments and you'll not only be saving money but you'll never have this issue again.

[Sarah977]

I also think that hosts providing hotel-style amenities, both through single-use packaging, and a large diversity of items ("body wash" to me is just a marketing gimmick to sell what is essentially soap, and I'm sure that hand lotion, face lotion, foot lotion, and all the other lotions specifically for various parts of the body are all the same thing, with different labels) could tend to lead guests to, in fact, treat the accomodation as if it were a hotel. And review the listing accordingly, as if comparing it to a 5* hotel.

[Kelly---Jack0]

I appreciate everyone's ideas and I will be chalking this up to one unfortunate experience among many good ones. Sadly sigle serve options are the only thing that works for us right now because we have multiple roommates in the house who would use the items if they were bulk items available in the bathroom, and I'm not supplying the whole house with shampoos and soaps... but I do understand where everyone is coming from on that issue of packaging and the environment. Thanks for the great feedback!

[Sarah977]

@Kelly---Jack0  That's too bad that you have roommates who wouldn't respect that the pump containers you refill would be solely for your Airbnb guests.

[Kelly---Jack0]

Yeah, it totally sucks. I can't stand our roommates. As it stands right now the only thing I provide our guests and keep in the bathroom is toilet paper and they use it like it's there for everyone no matter how many times we've asked them not to. They burn through it and it infuriates me!! I wouldn't think of putting any other supplies for guests in there with these jerks around.