Ha! Me, too. But I realized responding to the posts that didn’t agree with me just kept the “fight” going, so the smartest thing to do was read what they had to say, wait a bit to let my emotions settle, then either respond if I had something constructive to say, or drop it if I did not. Even this old dog can learn a new trick!
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This ^^ is really important. I’m going into my ninth year of renting our vacation home out, and people still surprise me with their laziness/stupidity/selfishness. So hope for the best, but have a plan for the worst. As much as you can, keep things simple, and buy backups. Things will disappear - get broken or lost or stolen.
If possible, budget for damage and put some aside so when a guest does $20US of damage you don’t have to stress about going after them for that. But if they do something stupid like use all your towels to wash their car and destroy them? Yeah, they get charged for that.
I disagree with @cleobeach, though, on the number of utensils. Our place sleeps six so I have service for 12. That way they can get through two meals without having to wash dishes. Less water and electricity use, and if a plate or two gets broken the next guests still have extras and you don’t stress about replacing them during turnaround.
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@PitonView makes an excellent point about not sweating the small stuff. Things will get broken, lost and stolen. My kitchen stuff is sourced from a common source so it is easy to replace a glass or two, a fork, etc. from my supply in the owner’s closet. Ikea is an excellent source for glassware. I use Fiestaware for dishes/mugs and the stuff is fantastic for a rental, no chips in 10 years.
Piton shares my husband’s view of stocking a kitchen but because of environment, I actually want the dishwasher run regularly due to bugs.
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Hey kurrutia13! Welcome and congrats on starting your venture!
We started our STR in July of 2022, since then we have learned so much! We’re on our third cleaning company and second laundry service. You may have a property manager, but when meeting them, make sure they align with what you want your brand to stand for. Also, I agree with the comments here - be careful if they want to do it under their profile only.
We can have up to 6 guests at our place and have 3 sets of everything. Why? Because when you have back-to-back bookings, you don’t want to run out. We do provide two pillows for guests also, have a bath towel, hand towel, wash cloth and makeup towel, plus bath mats per bathroom. We also provide basic cleaning supplies and laundry detergent, as we find that when guests have those things on hand, they will tend to keep the place tidier. We do have the extra towels available, but we find that guests like the idea of having them at their disposal, but don’t tend to use them.
Other must haves are mattress encasements and protectors, as well as pillow protectors. If you host 4 guests, have utensils and plates for 6-8, depending on how often you want them running the dishwasher. We have wine glasses and water glasses as well. We also have a coffee machine and kettle. What you offer depends on who your target demographic is.
We went keyless for our entry and that eliminates anyone having to be present for check-in. We send our manual and their PIN code the day before.
What you should have inside your place depends where you’re located, your target demographic, and what you aspire your STR to become. Do you want to be luxe or just offer the necessities? Will you cater to families with younger children, families with teens or older children or adults only? These are things to consider because if you’re going to be higher end, you have to make sure you add little things like hand cream, room sprays, etc. If you cater to families with younger children you may want some easy-clean toys, you’ll need a pack-n-play and high chair as well as kid plates and utensils and maybe baby blankets. If you have families with teens, you may want to consider an Xbox or board games. Books and board games for adults.
There’s essential questions to ask yourself: will this be a place to cook dinners and hang out or will it be a base for tourism where they take off for the day then come back and sleep?
Once you know this, we can help more on the extras that are must-haves for you to provide.
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