Looking for Strategies to Minimize Item Loss (Towels, etc.)

​@Azur attached is a spreadsheet we tape to the inside of our locked supply cabinet. I haven’t asked our cleaners to do anything with it, but once in a while my wife and I run down the list and count things up to see if anything is low or missing. It lets us take stock of things across time so that we can notice “Hey, we used 20 rolls of paper towels this week -- that seems like a lot, why is that?” It also helps us notice things like, “Hey, the scissors are missing, let’s get new ones” even if we would never bother a guest about such small things. 

Other things we do:

• Don’t give guests access to your “stockroom.” It’s for you and the cleaners only. In a larger house you might designate one closet. In our smaller condos we keep a tall cabinet with a hinged door that has a hasp and a combination padlock on it. (We don’t use keys because they get lost.)
• Only put out a reasonable amount of supplies for each guest. Examples: A small container of dish soap, not a huge one. Keep the huge one in the locked cabinet and use it to fill up the small one when it gets half-empty. Same for hand soaps… dishwasher pods… dryer sheets… laundry soap… etc. 3 rolls of toilet paper per bathroom. 2 rolls of paper towels.
• Figure that once in a while a guest is going to think that all these things you set out for them are theirs to take home with them. So be it. It’s not worth grilling a guest over how they went through 6 rolls of toilet paper in 3 days.
• Guests are going to break dishes accidentally once in a while. They probably won’t tell you about it. So be it. They will also sometimes accidentally throw things away (e.g. throwing away their fork when they scrape their plate into the trash… or leaving your pizza cutter in the pizza box and then throwing it in the dumpster). So be it. The remotes are going to get lost under the bed or behind the entertainment center. So be it. 
• Also consider that larger group of guests, or guests that don’t live together at home, will have trouble keeping track of each other’s things. They might accidentally pack up something that belongs to you, thinking that it belonged to someone in their party. When our kids were little, we came home from staying at an Airbnb to find a DOORKNOB in our luggage. How did that get there? We have no idea. The host thought it was funny and said not to worry about it :-)
• Pillows are a common item that get taken home frequently because guests confuse them with their own or lose track of how many they brought with them vs. how many they’re taking home. Usually they’re at least nice enough to leave behind the one that was actually theirs (sweat-stained and gross, of course). 
• The trick is that you have an inventory sheet of things to check for once in a while. Have backups handy (in your supply cabinet) for the things that disappear more often.
• Even stuff like towels, we don’t harrass guests about. Maybe someone puked or bled and they figured it was better to throw the towel away than to deal with it.
• Try not to have things that are SO NICE that a guest will covet them. I promise you that no one is eyeing up our $4 Walmart towels and scheming to steal them LOL.
• If you use third-party cleaners, consider that it could be THEM causing the shrinkage. I had to coach our cleaners that it’s OKAY to leave a 3/4 full roll of toilet paper for the next guest. Some cleaners might think that every turnover needs a brand new full roll and they might think the half-rolls are a “perk” for them to take home with them.
• Be very careful about accusing a guest of taking your things. Especially before they’ve left their review LOL. We once had a pair of couch cushions go missing. My wife was so mad! How RUDE of someone to TAKE them! We asked the guest and they said they don’t remember seeing any cushions on the couch. Hmm, so maybe it was the previous guests? Well later that day we unfolded the sleeper sofa and found our couch pillows under the mattress, where even the cleaners didn’t see them. A previous guest had used them for back support and apparently they had been “missing” for quite a while before we noticed. 
• Many times when a guest accidentally brings something home with them, they will reach out and let us know. Our parking pass is a classic example. If it’s worth less than what it would cost to mail it back to me, I say, “No worries, thanks for letting me know, I’ll grab a new one. Let me know when you’ve got the dates ready for next year’s trip :-)”

I think the theme here is to think of most things as “supplies” that need to be replenished or replaced once in a while. You’re in the hospitality business and it is extremely rare for someone to knowingly abuse your hospitality. If you notice something like a blender missing and you’re positive it was there before check-in, that might be worth asking the guest about. But phrase it like, “Hey, we’re getting ready for our next guests and we’re having trouble finding the blender, do you recall which cabinet you might have put it away in?” It’s also helpful to let enough time pass for them to get home and unpack to discover anything they don’t recognize as their own. 

I’m excited to hear from others about what sorts of things they do to keep things from “walking away” :-)