Free guide

Restocking a holiday let between guests

Keep one in use and one spare for the things a guest will notice, and write down the welcome items you always provide.

The short answer

Restock on every changeover, from a spare box kept at the property. A useful level is one in use and one spare of anything that would be embarrassing to run out of: toilet roll, hand soap, washing-up liquid, bin bags, and dishwasher tablets if there is a machine. That is a working habit, not a stock formula.

Decide what you provide, then stop adding

Write a short list and buy that. Toilet roll, hand soap, washing-up liquid, bin bags, dishwasher tablets, and a surface cleaner the cleaner is allowed to use are the core. Tea, coffee, sugar and a small packet of biscuits are enough if you want a welcome. Salt, pepper, oil and washing powder belong on the list only if your listing says they are there.

If the listing promises it, it has to be there. If the listing is silent, you can keep the pack small. Adding a new item because one guest asked is how the box becomes a shop you cannot keep filled.

Match the list to the listing, word for word.
Use the same products each time so the cleaner is not guessing.
Keep a note of what one changeover uses, then buy against that rather than a hunch.

Make the welcome pack honest and small

A welcome pack is a kettle the guest can use in the first ten minutes: tea, coffee, a long-life milk or a fresh pint put in the fridge on arrival day, sugar, and a few biscuits. A note about the heating, the bins, the parking and the wifi is more useful than a hamper.

Fresh milk, bread and flowers only work if someone is there on the day. Do not leave them on a Monday for a Friday arrival. Long-life milk in the cupboard, replaced when it is short-dated, survives a gap between guests. Check dates on every changeover. An out-of-date biscuit tin is worse than no biscuits.

Keep the spare box where the cleaner can reach it

One labelled box, in a cupboard the guest is not invited to empty. The cleaner restocks from it and writes what is getting low, on the day, not in a message three days later. You refill the box between stays or on a set weekday.

Do not store spare toilet roll in six different drawers. One place means the next person can see the truth in a minute. If you have several properties, the same layout of the box saves a phone call.

When something runs out during a stay

Tell guests in the house notes what is provided for the stay, and what they replace themselves if they run through it. A spare in the cupboard covers a normal stay. It does not cover a house of eight using the guest shampoo as shower gel every day, and you do not have to pretend it does.

On the changeover, low supplies are a tick on the list and a note if the spare box is empty. In Changeover Master the cleaner can report missing or low supplies from the job link, with a short note. You see an open-problem flag on the changeover. The report is not emailed by itself. When they mark the clean done, the account owner's email can include those open problems, so a missing toilet roll is not only a scribble on paper. You can start a free trial and put restock on the checklist for that property.

Worked example · illustrative

The empty spare box

The situation

The cleaner restocks the loos and finds one toilet roll left in the spare box, no washing-up liquid, and a welcome note that still offers fresh milk.

What you do

They put the last roll out, note both gaps before leaving, and do not buy milk on their own card unless that was agreed. The owner refills the box that week and changes the note so it matches what is actually provided.