I never said it was the most environmentally friendly option - but I won’t lie - that wasn’t my main focus with setting up my Airbnb.
Lovely little gift bag for the guests to walk away with, which will encourage them to take unused items from their next stay.
Nothing but giant sized bottles at my place.
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So we already had a guest clear out every single large bottle in the property - we aren’t doing that again!
The whole tourism/discretionary travel gig is terrible for the environment and I travel so I have no stones to throw. But if there’s someone who does care about the reduction of landfill waste lurking and reading and they are thinking “what a great idea, little individual bags for my little individual travel size toiletries” maybe they will think again and decide against it.
Which brand of individual toiletries did you find that was competitive in price to the large bottles? It seems counterintuitive to buy something that’s 3x more expensive in order to avoid theft. I’ve only hosted about 1000 guests so far but no one has taken my large bottles of anything yet. Maybe you just had an unfortunate early experience?
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Some hosts have wall dispensers in the shower which just get refilled, so guests can’t walk off with a large bottle of something. Or you could use smaller containers and top them up between guests so if someone takes it, it’s no big deal. There’s alternatives to either/or large bottles or single use.
And just because one entitled guest walked off with what wasn’t theirs to take isn’t a very good reason to give up some environmental responsibility.
From here : https://www.webstaurantstore.com/ - they are generally cheaper than anything I’d buy larger unless of course I buy their industrial jugs. But for a larger bottle that we leave on display - they work out cheaper by the ounce
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For us - wall dispensed isn’t going to fly for our type of property - not in the area where we are and not for our price point within it. People are expecting closer to a hotel-type experience
Very Smart! Mind if I steal this for a “turnover kit”? I am the “cleaning crew” but this could still be a time saver.
Good call. We are fortunate to have one of their stores 15 min away.
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In our case, we do like putting re-fillable pump dispensers on shelves. Like you, our ascetic does not suit a wall-mount solution.
Anything to simplify life for the cleaning crew is my goal. Even my welcome baskets - I have just prepackaged them in a tub so they can just grab it and put it out - so there’s no getting frustrated that they missed something. I’m also planning to install a wireless printer so I can print off the welcome letter for them.
But but but (sounding like a motor boat) I have bunches I accumulated while traveling for work. I put each set in a baggie & place a few at a time in the “Did you forget something?” Supply basket.
I purchased multi-use pump shampoo & conditioner dispensers (pre-Covid) and no one used them. My little bags are used rarely however I noticed the lotions all disappeared so I put a pump lotion in the condo. It gets used—Sunburns I guess….
When my stash runs out, I will not provide additional single use items. There’s a Walgreens 1/2 mile away & a 24/7 Walmart 3/4 mile away so if they don’t like what is there, they can buy what they want.
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As a guest I don’t use the large bottles or wall dispensers. I don’t know who the last guest or two was, I don’t know what is in those bottles. I’m just imagining what drunk 25 year olds will put in bottles when they are mad at the host.
We provide individual bottles in our welcome pack. Admittedly, most the time the seal isn’t broken, so we know they aren’t using them. What does get used are the little sunscreens, because well, Florida. We are coming up to snowbird season, where our few day renters give way to those staying a month or two. So all the tiny bottles are stored for the summer.
I’m sure there are many people who use the single use items in a justifiable way. And it’s not like a few thousand hosts who quit using them are going to stop the planet from drowning in plastic. Ideally there would be a huge increase in refillable container use globally.
I hope everyone using single use plastics doesn’t think they have to defend their doing so just because I choose to remind anyone reading that we’d all be better off if single use plastic went the way of the dinosaur.
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FYI- I found the best 30 spf tubes of sunscreen at Dollar Tree (works & decent scent). People seem comfortable using those, I guess because they are not easily tampered with.
I have everything refillable (even laundry detergent) & during the first return after covid there was little to no usage but I’m always refilling now…especially hand soap and body wash, followed closely by shampoo and then conditioner.
Personally, I’d only bring my own if I were driving.
Very few of my guests fly in so this makes sense
Same here - most of my guests drive in.
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I only advertise soap and toilet paper as bathroom amenities. But I also have a basket in the bathroom of toiletries guests have left behind which other guests are welcome to avail themselves of.
Of course I sterilize the containers and don’t leave stuff in there that is just dregs- only if it’s at least half full. There’s almost always some shampoo and conditioner, sunscreen, bug spray, and assorted other stuff. And as a home-share host, if a guest needed something before they were going shopping anyway, I would offer them some of mine.
I once had a male guest check out and leave a bunch of men’s toiletries a few days before another male guest from Boulder was due to fly here. So I messaged him to let him know that the previous guest had left an almost full can of shaving foam and other stuff, so he wouldn’t have to pack them if he didn’t want to.
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Absolutely any amenities a host lists need to be there.
What I have found is that my female guests seem to all arrive with their own bathroom products, I guess because women are more likely to be particular about what they use.
The guys seem to go out and buy things and leave it behind, even if they’ve barely used any, because they don’t feel like packing it. They are also the ones who seem to make use of the stuff in the “help yourself” basket, much more than the women.
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I have a friend/neighbor who was a rep for Clarins her entire working life. She was also married to a well-off guy when she lived in the US, and they attended social events and could be seen in photos on the society pages of the newspaper. She was named “Best dressed in Pittsburgh” two years in a row.
She’s 75, but always looks great. She knows how to apply make-up flawlessly, gets her hair done regularly, and has a great wardrobe.
But years ago she asked me why she always gets quoted really high prices by the local tradesmen, compared to what others get that work done for.
I suggested that when she gets people to come do estimates, she take off the gold jewelry, forego the make-up, and wear one of her around the house dresses, instead of looking rich. (She isn’t rich, but you wouldn’t know it to see her when she goes out) 
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