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?!

I could never work out the answers to that ha ha

We often stay at hotels within the Hilton chain, i stay at the Holiday Inn hotels with work and recently we stayed at an airport premier inn and all of them had big bottles of shower gel, shampoo and soap that were attached to the wall for guests to use. They were reused by the next guests until they ran out and were eventually replaced. What's unhygienic. You just squirt/squeeze the bottle.
Your guests are being unreasonable!

Our ones are less heavy than a topper but heavier than a sheet by quite some way.

You can get those waterproof ones I guess, that are very thin. But the ones with sort of diamond quilting are quite slow to dry. I do wash ours quite a bit, but some weeks I just skip it as I don't have time to get it dried. I know hotels use laundry services with massive machines, but I still never see them being stripped by hotel staff.

But what stops you from using bottles that are supplied for people to use to clean themselves? Do you recall the occasion when the feeling first came to you? presumably you were able to do it at one point? Your mum made sure you used whatever was available in a public toilet but then at some point you couldn't do it any more. Just wondering what caused you to change.

Ita sounds lovely op. Iv stayed in many 4 star hotels in uk and many have big bottles like this

I don't get too precious about using the facilities in public loos, I'm just grateful they are there!
Different when you are shelling out to stay somewhere on a holiday. For that little portion of time, it is your home.

Yes maybe but my point is that if you are so worried about weird people putting stuff in your shower gel then you wouldn’t be able to eat in a restaurant either. Or get a take away. Or go on public transport. If you worry about weird people then it’s going to really restrict your life!

Exactly. Everything in our environment is covered in bacteria, viruses and mould spores. We have more bacterial cells in us than us cells but as long as they are not pathogens, they are good for tuning our immune system and they have to live too. Does she never eat in restaurants or cafeterias or eat in other peoples homes? Bring on the bacteria I say.

Ignore this ridiculous review !
I just came back this evening from a stay in a fabulous 5 star hotel. All of the toiletries were in big bottles with pump dispensers. Beautiful high-end products that I enjoyed using.

no reasonable person wants all of those tiny little plastic toiletry bottles any more. They’re so bad for the earth.

you can reply to your 4 star review publicly and explain why a star was deducted. You care about the environment and you provide luxury toiletries for your guests.

🤣🤣 frankly put no! And I honestly have no interest in thinking about it that deeply. It makes sense to me which is what matters and doesn’t stop me from living my life and honestly a little bit surprised that this has engendered such a response. Honestly it’s not that deep. So many other things to think about!

I’m an Airbnb host and I do the same. Never had a complaint. It’s basically the same as in a budget hotel where they have e.g. shower gel dispensers on the wall. As long as the container is clean what’s the problem?

Yes- we once went a bit mad for our anniversary and treated ourselves to a really posh hotel and all the toiletries were in bottles to use as much as you wanted. There was a polite notice next to them saying that if you chose to keep the bottle, it would be charged to you, and they recommended buying a full, unused bottle from the spa if you wanted to take the product home. They were about £28 a bottle so we didn't. 😂

@Yogafiend ok sorry if my posts have felt intrusive. Glad it's not stopping you live your life.

@loislaneloves if you want to pm a link to your property I would love it.
Quality toiletries, beach towels, crisps and wine, a deck to watch the sunset and croissants, jam and home grown fruit ticks all my boxes.

Consider getting a wall mounted dispenser for the shampoo and conditioner and a nice bottle for the hand soap to be decanted into.

WOW. I think of myself as a worrier and get anxious about lots of things but this is genuinely a concern that wouldn’t even enter my head!!!! I love staying somewhere that provides nice toiletries - it’s such a treat and using them out of big pump containers is actually easier than using the tiny ones, as well as being better for the environment of course.

ignore the crazy person OP. She is the one BU, you are not and your Airbnb sounds lovely!!

How is it unhygienic? The ladies loos in the Savoy don't provide personalised bottles of soap, and it's not as if people are licking the shampoo bottle. Anyway, its very normal and appropriate now that hotels - even luxury ones - are so conscious of the environment. A miniature plastic bottle gets thrown away after 2-3 uses - such a waste. The fact that your bottles last 10 months demonstrates this - you'd go through tons of them if you had to give each guest their own shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. Personally I'd be delighted to find aesop toiletries in my airbnb and would rather use a large bottle of that than a cheap mini hotel shampoo. I know how important ratings are to owners, and you've tried so hard to add lots of little touches to make people's stays nice. I think she's been very unfair to you to take off a star for this.

I'm baffled that some people would have an issue with this, surely it just means that other people have touched the outside of the bottle?

The same people will have touched the shower, sat on the toilet, drank from the cups etc. It's not like you were leaving them a used bar of soap that people may have rubbed anywhere.

It’s mad. Maybe if we were talking about deodorant or a face cream you put your fingers in … but shower gel? Also the little bottles are a waste nightmare.

I am dumbfounded that anyone would find this unhygienic -
do the people who do never wash their hands in a public toilet? Gross 🤮 every single hotel I have stayed in for years has large bottles locked into a shelf etc so they cannot be stolen. And of course they don’t top them up after each guest!! Take them down. Sad prats have now ruined it for other guests

Even the fancy hotels now have the large bottles attached to the wall, I've noticed! It's been at least a year since I saw little tiny bottles of toiletries in hotels - I guess because what they're doing now is better for the environment!

@loislaneloves please could you send me a link to your AirBnB? It sounds wonderful! And you've gone above & beyond with all the extras!!

Mental.

If you are going to be that paranoid you should take your own toiletries. The hotel staff are just as likely to tamper with your new bottles due to you being a demanding nuisance as any previous guest tampering with the old bottles.

I’m travelling and am lucky enough to have just checked out of a 5 star hotel, I can report that this place also had large bottles of toiletry items (shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hand soap and body lotion). It was all lovely, I didn’t for one minute think anyone had tampered with it. One thing I’ve noticed with the last couple of places I’ve stayed at is that the large bottles were all topped up and the dispenser head had been turned around to ‘closed’ so I had to turn it around to ‘open’ in order to use it. I don’t for one minute think that the bottles were all brand new, but it was a nice touch to ‘open’ the products in order to use them.