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First of all, thank you thank you thank you all. I find everyone here is SO much more candid than the air formal forum!
I have one guest room with a shared full bath, and an second one 2 floors down with a shared half bath. My max stay is 3 nights. I noticed that many guests do not use the towel i leave out on the bed of the room with the shared full bath, and ZERO people use the ‘bath mat’ that looks like a thicker towel. My question for THIS room is, would It be a good idea to put in the house rules to ‘ask if you will need a towel if you are not bringing one’? Or leave it in the closet and not mention it? Or should I continue to lay out a towel?
For the basement airbed with shared HALF bath, I assume I do not have to leave out anything, since the half bath has a towel laid out for hand drying.
I guess my question is, is it going to look cheesy not to lay out a towel in this very specific and limited situation?
Well, I can only share the way I do it and that is via a ‘chest’ I have in the bathroom that is filled with towels - I advise my guests that if they need one they can help themselves, and it normally works quite well!
I think you need to have towels readily available. Even if guests don’t use them. I have a stack of beach towels available in the room and I lay out a clean towel on the bed. I also point out the linen closet and tell guests to help themselves if they need more towels. I also have a basket of about 30 clean washcloths on the sink to be used as individual hand towels/face cloths.
Even though you are not a hotel, there are certain aspects of hotel stays that guest expect. Access to fresh clean towels is one of them. We put two bath sheets out (as our room can accommodate two) and have extras in the drawer underneath the bed. The guests get white towels, and we use colored towels that hang on a separate rack in the shared bathroom. For most guests this works perfectly. You will get the occasional odd guest who will do weird things (like the lesbian couple we had a few weeks ago who kept stealing our dark colored hand towel that hangs in the bathroom to remove their make up at night…grrrrrr).
@jackulas That happens a lot; I just buy SIMPLE (makeup remover wipes) and leave them in a designated cabinet in the bathroom. I also have very expensive toiletries, including shampoo and conditioner, soap, etc.
I set aside their towels in the bedroom so it’s OBVIOUS that these are your towels to use and if you need additional feel free to take one from the linen closet.
Try removing your personal towels from the bathroom so they’re forced to use the guest towels…
Bob, you are welcome… We don’t sugar coat it around here! We tell it like it is!
As for the towels. Yes, continue to leave them out. Adding something to the guest rules would make me as a guest nervous about bothering you for a towels. Jackalaus is right. Towels are expected. Although I have had some guests ask me if they needed to bring their own!
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I have two bath sheets, two hand towels and two washcloths, and a stack of washcloths. I also have plenty o dish towels as I don’t buy paper towels. Oh, I also have beach towels.
I stock black and red and do not have trouble with staining.
Bob, glad you’re enjoying using Air Hosts Forum as a candid space . I would definitely recommend leaving out towels or at least putting them in a basket that’s in an obvious place. Guests rarely want to say anything and would sometimes rather suffer in silence than ask, leading to a negative experience without the host ever knowing or being able to fix it during the stay.
and formal forum is a waste of space and needs to go ha!
We have a shared bathroom, which we share with our guests (we only have a two bedroom space and Air our second room). I always put one or two towels on the bed and mention to the cupboard in the bedroom there are more towels there if they need them. They never do thus far. We don’t have space in the bathroom for storing towels.
You might be interested in improving your guests’ experience at your AirBnB with higher quality towels. There’s this company called Everplush that has designed a towel that works really well as an AirBnB towel. They’re odor resistant, quick-drying and last a lot longer than regular cotton towels: https://everplush.com/pages/everplush-technology
I provide make-up remover wipes, list in on the ‘guidelines’ I HAND to the guest at check-in, AND specifically mention that they are to use the wipes, and not the towels…
and yet…still…I have a wash cloth right now with nice red lip prints…as @jackulas said “GRRRRRR”. I will now have that wash cloth in my hand for a visual aid…
Oh, gosh, I just saw how old this thread is…
But to answer - my first airbnb had a huge basket full of nice white towels. I liked that feeling of abundance. So I provide that for my guests, too - a large amount of white towels - and surprisingly they’ve never used more than one per guest.
Make up remover wipes. That’s a good plan. But you’re still finding make up on the towels. I been fighting this for months now. I used to have these really really nice expensive comfortable soft awesome towels. Most of them are ruined, tried oxiclean, stain remover, bleach, soaking for days. Now I just buy the 6 pack Costco towels. I leave it on the bed. Whether it’s used or not, I wash it. 5 star cleanliness, I rather keep it that way then to have some crazy guest decide to be go full retard and hide a pube in there or something.
Our rental is a separate apartment and in the bedroom I leave three bath towels and three hand towels. (The place sleeps two).
I leave four facecloths in the toiletries basket in the bathroom, with two hand towels on the rack. There are also a few spares in the linen closet along with two beach towels. I tell guests to ask me if they need more and no-one ever has.
95% of the time, guests uses the towels I supply and don’t ask for a new towel.
5% of the time, guests asks for a new towel after a few days.
1 guest, has asked for a new towel after each shower. She showers twice a day.
1 guest, has asked for a new towel for 1 night stay. I came to learn she ruined the first one with make up.
Yes, I provide 2 types of makeup remover pads, which I show on the walk thru…they still use the facecloths! Which is ok…I can usually get the stains out, I buy facecloths at costco for 60 cents each,they are cheap. I do buy plush high end white towels from Ross or Marshall’s. They are about 7 dollars;but guests love the thick towel!They always mention it in the review.I keep them looking brand new,if they get even a little wear…they move into my bathroom!.I spend a lot on stain removers but I can get most stains out…its just a little time consuming…I provide 12 towels and 15 facecloths so they dont bug me for more.Its funny;some people will use one towel,others will use 6!
I heart Costco.