What to do about stolen items?

[DiAnna14]

My recent guest took a bath towel home, along with two full spare rolls of toilet paper.  Don't care about the toilet paper obviously, 🙂 but I am curious if I should ask her about what happened to the towel.   It was a single person staying in my studio, so it's very obvious that one towel is missing.  Normally I would dismiss the issue, but it has happened twice now (with different guests) where towels are gone missing.  

Should I deduct the towel cost from the damage deposit, or just let it go?  

[Tim457]

I think I’m going to make a towel policy. 2 per guest, $10 per missing towel. I have had a lot of them taken. Has anyone done this yet?

[Chris469]

Sounds sensible. Between towels and sheets its getting a bit challenging. 

[Karen3310]

For our entire place with 1 bed and 1 bath, I set up 2 black makeup washcloths from Bed, Bath and Beyond then use Sam's club commercial white towels, hand towels and washcloths. I set up the suite with 2 towels, 2 hand towels on 2 towel bars and 1 of the 2 towel bars also gets 2 black makeup washcloths. Then I put 2 extra hand towels and 4 extra white washcloths in the closet (these I assume will get stained and I'll use for cleaning if they do, but they're inexpensive). This set up is for 2 guests which is 4 bath towels, 6 hand towels, 4 washcloths, and 2 black makeup washcloths. So I know exactly what I have in there (and I have enough to turn the suite between check out and check in on the same day, if needed). With the last guest I had one white hand towel and one washcloth go missing. I was thinking of trying to file a claim or just asking the guest to cover the cost, but the hand towel is about $2 and the black washcloth is about $11. So is it worth doing anything over $13? But it all adds up and cuts into the bottom line. As far as proving it, I have taken a video after I clean and set up, but for this particular guest I didn't. Going forward, I think I will probably make it a point to so I have proof of what was there before their stay. 

[Chris469]

I find it problematic that so many hosts here are just ho hum on people taking towels. Hotels charge you for hotels. If I leave X number of towels, and X-1 or 2 are missing when I turn the house over where'd they go? Most of us aren't getting rich doing this, so having to replace towels bc of "careless" guest is a bit ridiculous. I'm often a guest, and I don't just arbitrarily pack towels.

[Linda108]

Towel theft has never been a problem for me, @Chris469, but I totally agree if I had to replace towels, it would eat up any profit.  For whatever reason this seems to be an issue for you, so I wonder what process you could have that would keep track of the towels and if you are short, then you can make a damage claim.  Perhaps other hosts have some suggestions.

[Chris469]

Hi Linda,

No process. I set up the house on a Monday with my parents who were visiting. 8 towels provided, including two matching sets. I cleaned on Thursday, and 1 towel from the set was gone, along with two wash cloths. In additon, I've got a set of sheets that are discolored (like bleach exposure) to the point they're unusable. Guest says it wasn't them. 

CH

[Matt453]

Unfortunately I am now a member of the 'having towels stolen club'. I checked out this post to see if I was the only one having this problem, but it seems as if I'm not. It's a bit of a dilemma isn't it; if you approach the customer they could write you a poor review which will cost you much more in the long run. 

Lately I've been reinvesting the profits I've made from Airbnb (which isn't all that much) into improving the property, upgrading the amenities etc, but I think in future I'm going to just have to put out cheap towels and the like and have no spares stored in the room. The towel was brand new (he was the 1st to use) and part of a set, which is now obsolete unless I buy another.  😞

[Christine615]

I have had this happen. Five brand new towels . Turns out the guest was chaperoning teens . One got sick as usedcthe towels to clean up the vomit. Threw them away but didn’t tell me. I had been paid $650 for their stay so I wrote off the cost which was $25 to replace them (on sale at Costco).  I have also had three instances where idiots used my blue and white dish towels to clean floors and tools. Couldn’t remove the stains. Tons of dark towels, paper towels and shop towels available but NO! They grab the pretty white ones. Sigh.

i didn’t charge. Or the person who stayed a week and tried to start laundry to be helpful and washed my white towels with something red. 

Still - hotels DO charge for missing towels and hosts who are renting small spaces at a reasonable market rate price can’t afford to buy towels after every theft. That could be as much as 10% of their nightly rate.

I would assume it was a mistake and inquire to give the guest a chance to return them. Otherwise change listing to say missing towels will be billed at $10 each to compensate for time, gas and cost to get a new one.