What to Put in an Airbnb Welcome Pack, and Who Restocks It Between Guests

Written by Iva, founder of Iva Cleaning Services London.

A welcome pack is the first thing a guest touches after the door and the light switch, and it sets the tone for the review before they have seen the bedroom. It does not need to be generous. It needs to be right: the things a guest needs in the first hour and the first morning, present and fresh, every time, and nothing that has been opened by the last guest. This guide lists the essentials, the extras that earn their cost, the allergen and safety points that are easy to get wrong, what a pack costs per stay, and who restocks it between guests.

Restocking is a service we include in Airbnb changeovers and in our Airbnb meet and greet visits, so the list below is what our cleaners check against on every turnover.

The essentials: what every guest needs before they unpack

• Toilet roll: at least two full rolls per bathroom plus one on the holder. Running out is the most common bad-review line in London listings.
• Hand soap at every basin and shower gel and shampoo in the shower. Refillable pump bottles, filled and wiped at every changeover, or sealed single-use miniatures.
• Towels as set out in the linen par (one bath and one hand towel per guest, a mat per bathroom).
• Tea, coffee, sugar and UHT or fresh milk. A box of tea bags, a jar or sachets of instant coffee, or pods if there is a pod machine, with enough for the first two mornings. A small carton of long-life milk in the fridge.
• Bottled water: one bottle per guest, or a filter jug filled and chilled.
• Bin bags, washing-up liquid, a sponge, a tea towel, dishwasher tablets if there is a dishwasher, and a couple of laundry pods if there is a washing machine.
• Salt, pepper, cooking oil, and kitchen roll.
• The house guide: Wi-Fi name and password, how the heating and hot water work, bin day and recycling, the nearest shop and Tube, emergency contact, check-out instructions. Printed and laminated, or a QR code to a page, and in the same place every time.

Check the quantity against the length of stay. A two-night guest needs the first morning covered; a two-week guest needs a starter pack and the expectation that they will shop.

Nice to have: what earns five stars

• A few biscuits or a local treat: a packet, not an open tin.
• Fresh milk rather than UHT, bought the day of arrival, if someone is there to do it.
• A small bottle of wine or local beer for a longer stay or a special occasion flagged in the booking.
• Toiletry extras: a dental kit, a razor, a sewing kit, cotton pads. Cheap and remembered.
• Spare phone chargers (USB-C and Lightning) and a UK plug adaptor for international guests.
• A handwritten note with the guest’s name and one local recommendation. This costs a minute and appears in more reviews than anything else on this list.
• Umbrella by the door. London.
• Children’s items if the booking includes children: a plastic cup and plate, a nightlight.

Allergens and safety

This is the section hosts skip and regret. Two things to avoid: giving a guest an allergic reaction, and giving a guest something unlabelled. Keep every food item in sealed, labelled packaging so the allergen information is on it; a decanted jar of biscuits or a bowl of nuts is a problem waiting for the wrong guest. Avoid loose nuts entirely. If you provide fresh food (milk, fruit, bread), note its date in the guide and remove it at every changeover; a guest finding last week’s milk undoes the whole pack.

Toiletries: fragrance-free options for soap and shampoo suit more guests than scented ones. Never top up a pump bottle without emptying and washing it first; part-used bottles are where bacteria grow and where a cleaner in a hurry cuts a corner. Candles and matches are better left out of a short let. Check the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms at the same time as the pack; they live in the same checklist.

Long stays and corporate guests

A guest staying a month does not need a month of coffee, and a corporate relocation guest does not want a bottle of prosecco. For stays of a week or more, provide the starter pack for the first two days and say so in the guide, then offer a mid-stay clean and restock at a sensible interval; weekly is the norm for monthly lets. For corporate and relocation guests, swap the treats for practicalities: a good coffee, a spare set of towels, laundry pods, an iron that works, and a clear note on how to get more of anything. Those guests review on function, not generosity, and the pack should read the same way.

What it costs per stay

The essentials above, bought in bulk, come to roughly £6 to £12 per stay for a one-bedroom flat: about £2 to £3 in toilet roll and cleaning consumables, £2 to £4 in tea, coffee, milk and water, and the rest in soap and shampoo refills and a packet of biscuits. The nice-to-haves add £3 to £10 depending on the wine. Against a nightly rate of £120 to £200 and a cleaning fee that the guest already pays, it is a small line, and it is one of the few that shows up directly in reviews. Buy in bulk from a cash-and-carry or a wholesaler once a month and store centrally; buying per stay from a corner shop doubles the cost and the time.

Who restocks it, and when

The pack is restocked at every changeover, by whoever is turning the property around, from a checklist. There are three ways to run it:

• The host shops and restocks. Works for one unit and a host who lives nearby and is available on every changeover day. Stops working the first time they are not.
• The cleaner restocks from a store in the property (a locked cupboard or a labelled box) that the host keeps full. The cleaner’s checklist includes the pack; the host’s monthly job is to refill the store. This is the most common arrangement for one to three units and it is how most of our Airbnb changeovers run: the cleaner checks every item on the list, replaces what is used, removes anything opened or past its date, and flags on the report when the store is running low.
• The operator supplies and restocks consumables as part of the service, from central stock, on a par basis. This is the portfolio model and it is how we run it for multi-unit clients, with the consumables cost itemised.

Whichever model, the changeover report should say what was restocked and what is running low, so the host is never told by a guest. The restock line sits beside the linen count on our Airbnb cleaning checklist, and the guest’s first impression of it is the subject of our comparison of key handover options in London, because the person who hands over the key is also the person who can point at the coffee.

A one-line version

Loo roll, soap, tea and coffee, milk, water, bin bags and the Wi-Fi password, sealed and fresh, every single time; then one small thing with the guest’s name on it.

Want the pack checked and restocked at every changeover? Get a free quote for Airbnb cleaning with restocking, or meet and greet, and we come back within one working hour.