Of course ‘back stock’ is kept in the home - but under lock and key.
2 Likes
I wonder what guests imagine is in locked rooms or cupboards that’s so interesting or valuable that it warrants breaking into.
Stacks of gold bars? A dominatrix sex dungeon? The rotting corpses and skeletons of all your past guests?
Must be quite anticlimactic when all they find is a 24 pack of Costco toilet paper, a jug of dish soap, some spare towels and some cleaning equipment.
10 Likes
Ummm…yeah
2020202020
So funny you say this! We just replaced our floors and couldn’t find the right trim for the hole in the floor to the water cistern. It’s covered up but there is a little gap that needs trim (on order), so I used blue tape to cover up the gap. My housekeeper asked what to tell the guests if they asked what was under there, and I joked that she should tell them it was the dungeon where we throw all the bad guests.
8 Likes
Sadly, you’ll need to put a sign on your pantry - or in it, too - saying “Private, for Host Use Only. Ask if you need something.” Because that was rude!
I’ve had guests walk off with a 6 pack of toilet paper - before the crazy pandemic buying. I’ve had guests clean out the little amenities and anything loose in their linen closet. Now everything is in a private cupboard.
5 Likes
Some people are just greedy piggies.
I learned my lesson with towels when we had a couple (2) use two large trash bags of bath towels over two days. Prior to that incident, I kept stacks of towels in cubby holes in each bedroom. Not any more.
I also had a guest, at check in, have a major meltdown because he forgot ketchup. I told him the local market was a five minute drive away but no good. I ended up giving him a brand new, very large bottle of ketchup and asked him to leave it in the fridge. He took it home. I now have a tiny, room service size jar on the kitchen shelf.
5 Likes
I only provide a snack basket too. I provide 2 Oatmeals, 2 oodles of noodles, two granola bars, two breakfast bars and 2 bags of chips. I also provide a coffee/tea cart but for the coffee I only allow 2 regular and 2 decaf per day. Everything else is locked up.
I’d say maybe 1 in 5 guests have some snacks, every so often all of my snacks are eaten.
1 Like
I appreciate this comment and putting a sign up today! Sad that it even has to be said (written).
1 Like
I can’t believe someone thought taking the ketchup (or using all the towels) was remotely okay. Like buddy if your ketchup desires are that strong, I’m surprised he was ever without it in the first place.
2 Likes
Oatmeal is a nice touch I hadn’t thought of.
I have two of the following: oatmeal bars, chips, cheeze itz, mixed nuts, dried fruit, snack size Oreos/chips ahoy, & funsize m&ms & snickers.
Just added 1 bag of microwave popcorn and slim Jim’s today. And I just leave the boxes of k cups in the cupboard.
Like you said, majority of people don’t eat them, or may have 1-2 things. And others clean you out.
2 Likes
I just stayed at an Airbnb where some bottled water and snacks were left for us. We didn’t eat much of it but it was appreciated. Leaving something seems like such a no brainer to me; it’s one of the differences between good hosts and great hosts.
As for the rentals where people take everything… I wonder if it would make a host feel better if they kept track of each guest who didn’t use anything. A spreadsheet where things like “no coffee consumed,” “only a half roll of TP used in a week,” “Thermostat set at 78 for three days in 95 degree heat,” could be made note of. And then when you have a bad guest and feel fed up, you could go back and see what a small percentage of guests abuse your generosity. Or maybe realize you have no reason to continue doing Airbnb. LOL.
11 Likes
As a frequent Airbnb guest, I’m curious and it is a bit of fun to poke around in other people’s houses. (That’s why some of our local realtors have a “pre-viewing” of a listing for the local neighbors. They know some will want a look-see.)
Sometimes I get good ideas for organizing my space. However, I would never bust into a locked area or one marked “private.”
We had a family trip and stayed in one Airbnb, the adult kids found a computer projector in a cupboard, we downloaded a movie and projected it on the wall. There was no mention of this amenity in the host’s meticulously detailed house manual, so maybe we weren’t supposed to do that.
Clarity in communication, no assumptions, is the best. “Supplies, please do not use. Contact host with any needs.” sign, etc.
Like many hosts here, I find the heavy snackers/supply users are balanced by those guests who don’t use up anything.
5 Likes
I think similarly about hosts fussing about guests charging EVs. Some guests take 20 minute hot showers, leave the AC on when they go out, turn the heat up to 85 degrees. And some don’t. Usage of utlilities and amenities vary- you just have to average it out so you don’t get fussed if someone drinks up all the coffee- because, in fact, some other guest doesn’t drink coffee at all.
4 Likes
Maybe put up a different sign. A friend of ours, Fiona, used to run a bnb and would leave eggs, beans, butter, a loaf, all the condiments and spreads, cereals etc. but then had a note that said “Help yourself to anything you want but please replace what you use or leave a donation in the jar”.
She said it worked really well with guests usually contributing more than they took and with the supplies being supplemented by contributions of other goods too. Her cleaner would take home or chuck anything that wasn’t presentable and let her know what needed replacing.
5 Likes
When I was little, I had some children’s records. One was about a bear who got his tongue stuck in a beehive in a tree because while he’d already gotten some honey, he wanted more. Something like that.
A song accompanied the narration, with ominous background music, the chorus of which went, “Don’t take more than you NEED! If you do that is GREED!”
How about that for a sign? 
(That record used to scare me so much I still remember those words and the tune- I couldn’t have been more than 5)
5 Likes
We also provide snacks, local popcorn, wine and drinks in fridge and keep the bulk offsite from our whole house STR. Also applies to supplies; cleaners and items needed for cleaning as we clean STR ouselves.
2 Likes
Odd, isn’t it? Lock it, looked into. Keep open, left alone.
1 Like
Old house, antique furniture…. Sometimes I find when doing the turnover that every drawer had been opened……no idea what they are looking for as they are all empty….some lost treasure?
2 Likes
@Airbnb_mama I never leave anything other than what I allocated to the specific guest. Surprisingly, there are some guests who stay for several days or for weeks and do not eat or drink anything I’ve left – the guest simply doesn’t touch the dozen eggs, the bubbly water, the regular small water bottles, yoghurt, bread, individually packaged snacks or anything else. Naturally, there are guests who eat and drink everything I leave. If a guest eats a few slices of bread, a few slices of Swiss cheese or some of the sliced turkey, the cleaning lady can take the leftovers home or dispose of it. But I really find it odd that someone would stay for several days/weeks and not touch any of the food or drinks (yes, I communicate that everything in the apartment is indented for the guest at no cost and with no need to replace anything). Do you also have guests who don’t eat/drink anything?
2 Likes
While I homeshare and don’t provide any snacks or food, other than what I
grow in my garden and freely share, I do provide coffee, tea and the fixings, and guests are welcome to use my kitchen to prepare whatever meals they want and use my oil and spices.
Some guests avail themselves of none of it- they always eat out. I’ll know they drink coffee, because I see their take-out coffee cups in the garbage, but they never bother to make a free cup of coffee here. (And I provide good quality beans, a coffee grinder, and real cream).
Maybe some guests think that, even though you tell them it’s all provided for them free of charge, it might have been sitting in the fridge for a long time or some other guest has handled it?
Or maybe they just prefer an Egg McMuffin to frying up a real egg themselves?
Some people have never prepared any food in their lives. When my daughter was 13, she signed up for cooking class at school. She was flabbergasted when the first two lessons involved how to fry an egg and make toast and tea, things she’d been doing since she was 6.
2 Likes