@Kim23 The sustainability angle is cool. Thumbs up from me! I would love to know what response you receive to that.
Hi Everyone!
I am a newbie host in Wales, UK and I am afraid I do not generally include any towels, but request people bring their own! I only provide towels for hand-washing in shared areas like the bathroom and kitchen as a rule. I also repeat "Bring your own beach towels" in one section of the description, because we are directly on the ocean and I simply cannot be washing and drying two-three-four towels per person per day! I actually do all washing at the launderette, dry on a clothes line outside and air indoors. I only machine dry at the laundrette when I have no clean laundry left and/or the weather is inclement but need to make up the bed immediately.
However I do make an exception when hosting international guests, walkers/hikers or bikers. Indeed anyone "traveling light" from necessity can help themselves to a towel from the stack. It is on open shelves in the shower room alongside all my own shower, hair, make-up, dental products and hair driers, etc. which anyone is free to use if they so wish. I notice people chose two hand towels each as a rule. Unusual for them to use a face flannel or the small individual hand-towels on the basin. How often they are replaced by a new one seems to depend on how wet they get and how quickly they dry out ready for next time.
Am I being mean? I don't think so and nobody has mentioned it yet, but as I have only had a few guests thus far, I may just have struck lucky! I offer a room with a view, no breakfast, no cooking facilities, no tv, no internet, no shared living space, no eating in bedroom, etc. In other words a very basic sleeping space (allbeit with stunning view and sunny aspect in the Master Bedroom) with a shared shower room and WC. I am an old lady in an old house, so all the young whipper-snappers who have been my guests thus far have all been very kind and accommodating of me and my little ways. I may be wrong, but I think the key has been communication and setting out exactly what to expect and the limitations. They then accept on my terms, not hazy preconceptions. I sometimes get really upset about unfair comments left on other host's pages, berating them for what they already pointed out in their description! If something does not sound like it will suit, why chose to stay there? It comes back to penny-pinching and boorish behaviour learned from some pretty defamatory TV series which are teaching people to be utterly rude and inconsiderate of other people's feelings. I will be gutted when it happens to me, because it is bound to sooner or later! 😞