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I meant on a queen bed. So two pillows per person. (But I could easily sleep with four pillows just for me and sometimes do at home. )
I wash the pillow cases every turnover of course. The pillow protectors too if necessary, but sometimes if they pass the see-and-sniff test and it’s been a short stay /one-nighter, I leave them until the next turnover.
During the turnover window, about four hours in my case, the pillows themselves are out in the sun on the balcony because that airs them and makes them smell so good.
Bear in mind that I have two apartments, mostly back-to-back and a lot of pillowcases and protectors. Occasionally I have a same-day turnover in both apartments which is particularly crazy.
Would it be rude to expect a guest who has specific “pillow needs” such as body pillows that you put in between your legs that go up to your head, to bring with them, instead of hoping to get showered with individual pillows to make do?
I personally don’t have any particular needs for sleeping and when we travel I don’t expect to find more than one pillow to rest my head on. In my opinion it would be even unreasonable to consider ‘just one pillow’ which may be too hard/soft/small/big to be a reason for a negative review unless they advertised more than one pillow.
Do you all specify in your listing that each guest has at least two pillows? Is this something I would have to add? I mean I can offer 3 pillows per guest if that gets me more bookings
Guests can give bad reviews for any reason. A selection of pillows is cheap insurance. We even have two types of bed mattresses (four beds - 2 of each firmness level) in case someone complains about their bed not being to their liking.
To me, it’s not really insurance against a bad review - it’s the little “extra mile” that makes guests feel like you thought of everything. (To be fair, we are able to afford the little extras because we charge a lot per night.)
We had a Superhost as a guest once we started out @ $35 per night and they complained that we didn’t include a bottle of wine as part of our welcome gift. Swiss chocolate and other sweets that we still offer were not appreciated.
Travelling in Italy right now and had a conversation with my last host regarding his linens.
The sheets were a poly/ cotton mix and had pilled to the point of sandpaper, damn uncomfortable!
The towel were worn out……
His TWO pillows on the bed were the flattest, tiredest pillows I had ever seen on a bed and 2 of them did not a decent pillow make. I sleep with 3 pillows due to shoulder and neck issues. Yes he had an extra pillow in the cupboard, but uncased. I could not get comfortable and my husband had to take cushions the couch to sleep with……
A couple of smaller issues were discussed, regarding noise……he is having an issue with long term renters in the same building and they complain about his STR. The neighbours would stand outside our windows on the street, smoke and have loud phone conversations at 2 am! I felt sorry for him and this has been going on for a year. He took the advice on the linens well and mutual 5 stars were left.
Thank you For your view.
I am a woman and I prefer simplicity. However there are 4 pillows on our queen beds and 2 pillows on our twin beds. More often than not they are used. I use pillow protectors plus a pillow case on all our pillows.
For myself, if I was travelling, I wouldn’t use any of the pillows as I take my own due to use of a specialized pillow.
@Hosterer You misunderstood. No one was suggesting 4 pillows per person- it’s 2 per person, so 4 for a bed sleeping two.
Some people like a firmer or thicker pillow, some a softer or thinner one. So just providing one per person, of a type that you would find comfortable, is not going to be comfortable for lots of guests.
Also, you might be the kind of person who gets into bed, turns off the light and goes to sleep, but many people sit up in bed at night to read (or watch TV if there’s one in the bedroom). One pillow is inadequate for that.
I definitely agree with you about piling up throw pillows to halfway down the bed. Or having “shams” that guests are somehow supposed to know they aren’t meant to sleep on. That’s just ridiculous IMO.
I deal with pillows the same way Jaquo does. I don’t necessarily wash the pillow protector every time, after all, it is covered with the pillowcase. (Same for the mattress pad.) I put the pillows, with the protectors on, outside in the sun to air (it’s sunny for at least 9 months here, and I don’t get guests in the hot, humid, rainy season) while I am cleaning and prepping the room.
I’ve found that people can be pretty picky about pillows. The majority of my guests have flown here but those who arrive by car (not a rental) almost always have pillows with them.
This may of course be for more comfort in the car but end up being dual purpose should they stay at a rental that doesn’t have great pillows.
Another advantage of having two pillows per person is that each guest gets a hardish pillow and a soft pillow. Then a couple can mix and match if they want to.
One other thing that I do with pillowcases, whenever possible, is hang them on the line in the sun. Although they are dried in the dryer, I love that lovely smell that line-dried laundry has.
I really don’t like that slightly musty smell of linens that have been stored so it’s an extra for my guests (that they probably don’t notice) that the pillowcase they are laying their head on is truly freshly washed.
Yes, preferred pillows are something quite common, I think, and often for a specific need. I do travel with a pillow, but it wouldn’t work for me as a pillow to put my head on to sleep- it’s a lightly stuffed, floppy feather pillow that I can drape over my eyes and ears to block out sound and light.
We use bottom sheet and duvet cover made from 2 top sheets. 4 pillows with pillow protectors. (Usually we host 2 guests). All are as high quality cotton and down filled as I can find and afford. The Pimacott 625 thread count by Wamsutta are amazing. Almost all my sets have survived very well as we use cold water and have no dryer.
No one has ever said anything except very positive about our 2 double beds! The pillows are down and 2 are less lofty than the other 2.
We used to have a beautiful coverlet and 2 decorative pillows that I asked the guests to put in the closet as they were only for show. But those were put away in Covid times.
So the wrinkled duvet and ironed pillowcases. (not to start an ironing subject(*&%^^)
There are multiple other blankets, a folded flat sheet and a folded empty duvet cover available for guests. One guest out of hundreds requested a poly fill duvet and poly filled pillows, we did comply, so those items are standing by never to be used again, unless a guest is allergic to real down.
Same here. I think everything lasts way longer like that, including one’s clothing.
I don’t get nearly as much turnover as most hosts do, but I’ve had about 75 guests since I started hosting, and while I’ve had to replace some sheets over the years, I am still using the same 2 sets of towels I originally bought when I started hosting in 2016! They aren’t stained, they are still soft and fluffy. I can barely believe it myself.
For this very reason we only have poly filled pillows and blankets.
Just recently we had a direct booking and the guests requested 4 poly filled pillows as they are asthmatic (travelling by plane).
How would hosts who only have down pillows handle this? Bear in mind that our nightly rate is about $60 (2 night minimum) and this would literally eat up any profits if we bought any particular bedding item a guest would ask for…
Is there a line to draw here?
Also, we only have one blanket per bed and after almost 4 years now, not one guest complained or mentioned that this is not sufficient.
I understand that there are these beautiful accommodations for hundreds of $$$ a night and I can see that a host would invest more into their bedding but for us it appears to work with this basic set up.
Yes. If a guest has a specific request, I ask myself if that item will be used again by future guests. If so, and the item is a reasonable price then yes, I’ll supply it.
If the item wouldn’t be used again then no, unless it’s something that I want for myself and can put it down as a business expense.
Of course, a guest requesting that the host go spend money on something they don’t normally provide is extremely entitled behavior. They should just say “I have an allergy to down and feathers. Do you have poly-filled pillows, or should we bring our own?”
Asking the host to go purchase something, out of their own pocket, is different from a guest, for instance, saying they have an allergy to scented products, and would the host be amenable to not using any when preparing for their stay.
And of course a guest should ask hosts things like that through an inquiry message, not after the fact when they already have a confirmed booking.
I deal with the ‘coming back to a dark house’ issue with timed lights - they go on at sundown, off at sunrise. It costs pennies, but solves the problem, and also prevents folks from setting lighting, since from the start they see they are taken care of.
Please folks, an LED light on 24/7 is pennies. It is not worth stressing over with your guests…
I definitely don’t want outside lights on all night and it has nothing to do with cost. I live in the countryside and one of the things I love about it is “dark skies”- I want to be able to see the stars. My guests like that, too.
I once read a survey which said that 80% of children in Tokyo said they had never seen the stars, except in photographs. That’s incredibly shocking and sad to me.
Our ‘outdoor lighting’ is downward facing and designed not to obscure the night sky. That said, I am in a fairly urban are with streetlights etc. We all do that we can…
They put in a glaring streetlight across from my house several years ago. My neighbors and I hated it. One of them tried to shoot it out with a slingshot, but it just bounced off the shatterproof plastic.
It burnt out a year ago and they haven’t replaced it, to our delight.
A friend in Canada paid a kid on her block who had a paintball gun to spray the one in front of her house with black paint.
)
Swiss chocolate and other sweets that we still offer were not appreciated. 
