Is this unhygienic?!

[loislaneloves]

I have an Airbnb on my property. It’s basically a tiny home at the bottom of our large garden with an amazing view. Most people come for the weekend by train and I don’t want people to spend their holiday shopping for stuff like coffee, tea, milk or having to cram suitcases full of toiletries or beach towels so I provide all of those. I also provide a little evening snack (crisps usually) some wine to watch the sun set on the deck with and fruit from the garden and a croissant and jam for breakfast. People love it and I make it quite clear on my ads that these things are provided.
Just got a review from a couple who stayed with us a few days ago. They gave us a good review but took one star off and in her private message to me she said ‘We loved our stay with you but we weren’t very happy that the toiletries are in big shared bottles rather than individual use. This is obviously very unhygienic (we don’t know who has used them!!) so we had to make the trip to buy some for ourselves which was an expense and effort we weren’t expecting’.
To be clear I offer Aesop Shower Gel, Shampoo and Conditioner in the shower and Aesop Hand Wash by the sink in 500ml bottles. They get replaced when empty which is usually about every 10 months
AIBU to think this is not unhygienic?!

Maybe the reviewer doesn't get out much and hasn't been anywhere since the small bottles were the norm! Silly woman.

I just stayed at a 6 star hotel in Barcelona. They provided body wash, shampoo & conditioner, body lotion, and hand cream, all in large containers which were just refilled between guests. Perfectly acceptable. In recent times, this has been the norm at places I’ve stayed, and so it should be given that we’re all trying to reduce unnecessary plastic use. Your place sounds lovely OP!

I'm not following the bar of soap comments.

I don't think any hotel would leave the last guest's bar of soap there would they? They usually have small wrapped ones, one for each guest.

Or they’ve seen too much of Four in a Bed where guests are looking in the cistern or on their hands and knees round the pipes behind the wash basin.

I’ve heard of the pants in the kettle… but also - and I dare say it’s an urban myth- hair remover in the conditioner bottle.

Silly. You might as well object to the same taps staying in place - a big bottle can be wiped just like a tap can. In nice pubs and restaurants there's usually a bottle of handwash, and that's probably been used by a lot more people in the course of any given evening.

I’d be more disappointed if single use mini toiletries were provided - terrible for waste and the environment.

A tap is an excellent analogy.

That's bonkers. I agree with a PP who suggested photos of the toiletries in the ad so people know what they are getting.

We have recently stated in a hotel and they had single use little bottles and large pump dispenser bottles. My DH actually went to use a single use one and I said don’t, it’s bad for the environment when we have the same toiletry right there to use from the other bottle. IMO if they are in a bottle with a pump this is the absolute best option. People need to think about the environment more.

Also. Where is your little place? It sounds idyllic! Do you allow a well behaved Labrador?

For me the issue would be anyone could open whatever is there (handwash,coffee,sugar etc) and put whatever in it

I assume the type of people staying at your airbnb probably aren’t the types but you never know.

Does the listing say that toiletries will be provided? If not they would have arrived expecting to provide their own anyway.

I don't use air b'n' b - can you reply to their review and say thanks the review, glad you enjoyed your stay and I appreciate you letting me know that the star rating was due to the toiletries being for shared use? Maybe with a photo of the toiletries.

I wouldn’t like to use a bar of soap or the same toothpaste tube as a stranger.

But shampoo/conditioner/shower gel in a pump bottle (like in various hotels) is absolutely fine.

I’m sure any potential (normal) guests won’t be put off by the review.

You and your place both sound absolutely lovely 😍

I'd be delighted to find such lovely toiletries provided. All perfectly acceptable from a hygiene point of view too.

This is what most hotels offer now. And quite rightly - the tiny bottles are such a waste of plastic.

This is a very odd thing to complain about imho.

What things are people worried that previous guests "might have put in" the soap??

I think that is probably what people are thinking.

And, to be fair, it's true BUT it is so unlikely it's a phobia the OP shouldn't have to cater for. For instance, a previous guest could have smeared anything anywhere. There are lots of clear substances that I don't want to be touching. Danger lurks if you have a vivid imagination!

I can also confess that I might not be above worrying about this myself (or the possibilty it had been refilled with a different product which, let's face it, undoubtedly happens in hotels) and would prefer to have my own products BUT I would accept it was my issue and wouldn't take a star off to damage the op's business for a perfectly normal hospitality practice.

The place sounds lovely OP, and it is exhausting when you are trying hard to make it lovely and people are throwing their phobias in your face.

If one review dropping a star has dropped your 5 rating to 4.8 then I suspect you've not had many reviews yet. I think you'll find that unless several reviewers more give you dropped ratings, it will be inconsequential in the long run. I'm a seasoned AirBnB user and, like other PP have said, I read the reviews in reverse order, looking first at the least stars and then the most recent. If their review was good and there was no mention of an issue with cleanliness in it and no other reviews had said anything about cleanliness, I'd be disregarding their rating. I wouldn't change how you provide for toiletries at all, but I also don't think it would hurt your sales if you just omitted mentioning that they were provided. That way your guests will be pleasantly surprised. I'm not particularly impressed when a host provides food because I'm vegan and I don't like having to dispose of food that I'm not going to eat. It's one thing to have staples there like olive oil and some condiments, and possibly coffee (especially if you have a specific kind of coffee maker) but I think it's OTT to provide beyond that.

She's being weird, imo. Those are all things you lather and wash away! Not like you're sharing a pot of moisturiser and inviting a hundred random people to dip their germ-covered fingers in. I think you'd struggle to make soap 'dirty', if you tried. Assuming there are any germs on the dispenser, you're immediately washing them away when you use the product.

She should always bring her own toiletries if she's this fussy.

People who think this is unhygienic, can you explain how? - genuine question as I can’t see the difference between this and using a soap dispenser in a public toilet.
Surely we are all touching things that others have touched all the time. What do we think people are doing to the shampoo 🙄

All these villains renting an airbnb just so they can put acid in the hand soap.....

It's only really unhygienic if your imagination is concocting skulduggery. And that's a them issue to deal with privately, not in a review.

Exactly. Or ejaculate into the conditioner bottle.

Even a bar of soap is not unhygienic. It just looks nicer when new.
let alone liquids.

you aren’t obligated to provide them at all so just ignore

Geeze you have to wonder what some people are doing with a bottle of shower gel to the extent they think it would be unhygenic for others to use the bottle after them.

The mind boggles!

I wouldn’t give a monkeys but clearly some people do. Your Airbnb sounds wonderful! Maybe put a note in the bathroom that if they want one use size stuff, they have only to ask - then give them travel size Boots stuff.