Airbnb Amenities Checklist for New Hosts (Room-by-Room Guide)

A nice-looking unit with an empty kitchen and one thin towel per guest will still collect complaints. This is the amenities checklist we wish we had before stocking our first short-term rental — room by room, with the items that earned their cost and the ones that turned out to be a waste of money.

On this page

• The 5 amenities Airbnb expects every host to provide
• How amenities affect your bookings
• Bedroom amenities checklist
• Bathroom amenities checklist
• Kitchen amenities checklist
• Living room and entertainment checklist
• Workspace amenities checklist
• Safety amenities checklist
• Small extras guests actually notice
• What amenities are a waste of money?
• Do amenity lists differ across booking platforms?
• What order should you buy amenities in?
• How to keep amenities stocked between guests
• Frequently asked questions

What are the 5 amenities Airbnb expects every host to provide?

Airbnb strongly encourages every host to provide five essential amenities: toilet paper, soap for hands and body, one towel per guest, one pillow per guest, and linens for each guest bed. These are the baseline items guests expect in order to have a comfortable stay.

There is a real compliance angle here, not just a comfort one. If your listing has the “Essentials” amenity selected but a guest arrives and the items are missing, Airbnb states that listings may be subject to penalties — up to and including removal from the platform. You can read the current policy in Airbnb’s essential amenities help article and its guidance on confirming amenities.

Two practical rules follow from that:

• Never check an amenity box you cannot back up. Every amenity you select is a promise, and guests do check.
• Provide more than the minimum quantity. One towel per guest is the floor, not the target. For longer stays or more guests, scale the quantities up.

This post covers what to physically buy and stock. If you are still building the listing itself — photos, description, rules, pricing — start with the Airbnb listing setup checklist, which covers how to present your amenities honestly on the listing page.

How do amenities affect your bookings?

Amenities work on three levels: they help guests find you, they help guests choose you, and they shape the review after the stay.

Guests can filter Airbnb search results by amenities, so every real amenity you leave unchecked is a search you silently drop out of. According to Airbnb’s own guidance for hosts, the amenities guests search for most often include practical features like WiFi, kitchens, free parking, air conditioning, and dedicated workspaces — you can see Airbnb’s current list in its Resource Center article on the amenities guests want. That data changes over time, so verify what is current for your market rather than treating any list as permanent.

One honest caveat before the checklists: amenities alone will not guarantee bookings, occupancy, or ranking. Results vary by market, pricing, photos, reviews, and competition. Amenities are one lever — an important one, but a lever, not a promise.

What should be on your bedroom amenities checklist?

The bedroom is where a stay is won or lost. Guests forgive a small kitchen; they do not forgive a bad sleep.

Bedroom essentials

• A quality mattress — this is the single best money you will spend. We use a 10-inch hotel-quality mattress, and comfort is one of the most-mentioned themes in our reviews.
• At least two pillows per guest. We keep four plush pillows on a queen bed for two guests.
• Complete linen set: fitted sheet, top sheet or duvet with cover, pillowcases — plus at least one spare full set for turnovers.
• A duvet or comforter appropriate to your climate, and a spare blanket within reach.
• Blackout or thick curtains. City units with bright surroundings need them.
• Bedside table with a lamp or accessible light switch.
• Hangers and somewhere to hang clothes — a small rack works if there is no closet.

Bedroom upgrades worth considering

• A full-length mirror — heavily used, cheap, and often forgotten.
• Extra pillow options (one firm, one soft per guest).
• A luggage rack or clear floor space for open suitcases.
• USB charging or a socket within reach of the bed.

What should be on your bathroom amenities checklist?

Bathrooms are judged in the first thirty seconds. Stock them like a hotel would, at whatever price point you operate.

Bathroom essentials

• Toilet paper — at least one spare roll visible, more for longer stays.
• Hand soap and body wash. We provide hand wash, body wash, shampoo, and conditioner as standard.
• Two body towels per guest minimum, on a proper towel rack.
• Hot water. If your market expects it, a shower water heater is an essential, not an upgrade — ours has a water heater and a handheld showerhead.
• A mirror with decent lighting.
• Bath mat and a small trash bin with liner.

Bathroom upgrades worth considering

• A hair dryer — inexpensive, and one of the amenities guests most often assume will be there.
• A basic dental kit: toothbrush and toothpaste. We include one per stay and guests regularly mention the toiletries in messages.
• Hand towels and washcloths in addition to body towels.
• A few cotton buds, cotton pads, or a small vanity kit.

What should be on your kitchen amenities checklist?

Kitchen access is one of the main reasons travelers pick a rental over a hotel. If your listing advertises a kitchen, guests expect to actually cook in it — a hotplate with one dented pan does not count.

Kitchen essentials

• A working stove or cooktop. Ours is an electric stove with a range hood.
• Refrigerator.
• Cookware: at least one pot and one frying pan, plus a spatula, ladle, and a decent knife.
• Plates, bowls, glasses, mugs, and cutlery — enough for your maximum guest count, plus spares, because things break.
• Electric kettle.
• Dishwashing liquid, sponge, and a dish rack.
• Drinking water. We installed a water purifier for unlimited purified water; large refill bottles work too. Do not make guests guess whether the tap is safe.

Kitchen upgrades worth considering

• Microwave — arguably an essential for short city stays where guests reheat more than they cook.
• Coffee maker with free coffee. Cheap to provide, warmly received, and it shows up in guest messages.
• Basic pantry starters: salt, pepper, sugar, cooking oil.
• Region-appropriate appliances. In the Philippines and much of Asia, a rice cooker is not optional — know what your market’s equivalent is.
• Food storage containers and cling wrap for longer stays.

What should be in the living room and entertainment setup?

Living area essentials

• Comfortable seating sized to your guest count — ours is a 3-seater sofa with a blanket folded on it.
• Air conditioning or heating, depending on climate. In tropical markets, aircon is a hard essential and a filter guests actively search.
• Reliable WiFi — and state the real speed in your listing. Ours runs up to 100 Mbps and we say exactly that, because “fast WiFi” with no number convinces nobody.
• A TV. Ours is a 55″ smart TV, and the TV setup gets its own mentions in our reviews.

Entertainment upgrades worth considering

• Streaming app subscriptions. We provide Netflix, YouTube Premium, HBO Max, Apple TV, Prime Video, and Disney+ — for staycation and couple guests especially, this is one of our strongest selling points and it costs far less than a furniture upgrade. Use accounts you are allowed to share under each service’s terms.
• An air purifier — a quiet comfort upgrade guests notice in city units.
• Board games or a deck of cards for rainy evenings.

Do you need workspace amenities?

If remote workers or business travelers exist in your market at all, yes. A dedicated workspace is an Airbnb search filter, and it is one of the cheapest “amenities” to create: a proper table, a comfortable chair, good light, and sockets within reach.

• Desk or table usable for a laptop, with a real chair (not a stool).
• Power sockets at desk height, or a safe extension strip.
• WiFi strong enough for video calls — test it at the desk, not just beside the router.
• Decent lighting for evening work and video calls.

We position our unit for solo travelers, couples, and work trips, and the work-from-home setup plus the published WiFi speed is a big part of why that positioning works.

What safety amenities should every rental have?

Safety items are not optional extras, and some may be legally required depending on your location and property type.

• Smoke alarm.
• Carbon monoxide alarm, especially if the space uses any fuel-burning appliance — Airbnb strongly urges this for all hosts.
• Fire extinguisher, with guests told where it is.
• First aid kit with the basics.
• Secure locks on all entry doors. We use a smart lock, which doubles as a self check-in amenity guests genuinely value — see our guide to Airbnb check-in instructions for how to build the process around it.
• Emergency contact info and basic instructions inside the unit.

One caution: if you use any security camera, noise monitor, or similar device, disclose it in your listing and follow the platform’s device rules and local privacy law exactly. Rules on monitoring devices are strict and violations can get a listing removed.

What small extras do guests actually notice?

These are the low-cost items that quietly generate good reviews:

• An extension cord. We did not stock one at launch — guests kept asking, so we added it. Sockets are never where guests need them. This is the cheapest guest-request fix we ever made.
• House slippers. We leave two pairs out. Small cost, hotel feel.
• A spare blanket on the sofa. Signals comfort before anyone even sits down.
• Umbrella by the door. Especially in rainy climates.
• Universal adapter if you host international guests.
• Phone charging cables (the common types) — frequently forgotten, gratefully found.

Keep a simple rule: every time two different guests ask for the same item, it goes on the permanent stocking list. That is exactly how the extension cord earned its place.

What amenities are a waste of money for new hosts?

Just as useful as the buy list is the skip list. Based on our own spending mistakes and what guests never touch:

• Expensive breakables. Premium mugs, delicate glassware, fragile decor. Guests break things — that is normal wear, not bad guests — so anything fragile should be cheap to replace.
• Decor that photographs well but serves no function, especially anything guests might damage or that clutters small units.
• Duplicate small appliances nobody asked for (juicers, sandwich presses, air fryers) before the basics are complete. Add these later if guest messages actually request them.
• Premium toiletries in bulk. Start with solid mid-range basics; upgrade only if your nightly rate and positioning justify it.
• Anything conditional you cannot fully control. Our building pool requires paid vouchers arranged in advance — so we do not sell it as a free amenity. We explain the exact conditions in the listing instead. An amenity with hidden conditions creates worse reviews than not having it at all.

Do amenity lists differ across booking platforms?

Mostly they overlap — WiFi, aircon, kitchen, parking, and workspace matter everywhere. But the platforms present amenities differently, and it is worth reviewing your amenity selections separately on each one.

From listing the same unit on Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Agoda, and Trip.com, the pattern we have seen is that Booking.com offers a noticeably longer and more granular amenity menu than the other platforms — many more individual checkboxes covering items the others group together or skip entirely. In practice this means two things:

• Do not assume your Airbnb amenity list transferred completely to other platforms. Go through each platform’s amenity section item by item — you will usually find real amenities you have that were never selected.
• The honesty rule applies everywhere: on every platform, only select what is actually available and working. Each platform has its own accuracy expectations, and the review damage from a missing “listed” amenity is the same regardless of where the booking came from.

Platform interfaces and amenity menus change regularly, so treat this as a pattern to check, not a permanent spec.

What order should you buy amenities in?

Do not try to buy everything before launch. Stock in three passes:

1. Pass 1 — Launch essentials. Airbnb’s five essentials, plus everything marked “essentials” in the room checklists above. No upgrades yet. The mattress is the one place to spend properly in this pass.
2. Pass 2 — First-month additions. After a handful of stays, add what guests actually asked about. Our extension cord came from this pass. Guest messages are your shopping list.
3. Pass 3 — Positioning upgrades. Once reviews are coming in, invest in the amenities that match who books you: streaming subscriptions and workspace gear for staycation and work-trip guests, family items for family markets, and so on.

Actual costs vary enormously by country, unit size, and quality level, so build your own list and price it locally rather than trusting a generic budget figure from the internet — including from us.

How do you keep amenities stocked between guests?

Stocking is a launch task; restocking is an operations habit. Consumables — toilet paper, toiletries, coffee, dishwashing liquid, water — should be checked on every single turnover, and quantities topped up before the next check-in, not after a guest complains.

The cleanest way to make this automatic is to fold a restock section into your turnover checklist so your cleaner verifies amenities the same way they verify cleanliness. Our Airbnb cleaning checklist guide covers how to build that turnover routine, and the same routine should catch broken or missing amenity items (remember the mugs) so your listing never advertises something that is no longer there.

If you are still earlier in the journey than this — property not listed yet — the full path from empty unit to first booking is in our pillar guide: How to Become an Airbnb Host: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners.

Frequently asked questions

What are the 5 essential amenities Airbnb expects hosts to provide?

Airbnb strongly encourages all hosts to provide toilet paper, hand and body soap, one towel per guest, one pillow per guest, and linens for each guest bed. Listings that select the essentials amenity but fail to provide these items may face penalties, including removal from the platform.

What amenities do Airbnb guests expect beyond the essentials?

Most guests expect reliable WiFi, air conditioning or heating appropriate to the climate, a usable kitchen if one is advertised, basic toiletries like shampoo and body wash, a TV, and clear drinking water arrangements. Practical amenities like free parking, a dedicated workspace, and self check-in are also frequent search filters.

Do I need to provide toiletries like shampoo and toothpaste?

Shampoo, conditioner, and body wash are expected at most price points and are inexpensive to provide. Extras like a toothbrush and toothpaste kit are optional but cheap, and they are the kind of small touch guests mention in reviews. At minimum, never leave a bathroom with only a bar of soap.

What amenities should new hosts skip at the start?

Skip expensive breakables, decorative items with no function, duplicate small appliances nobody has requested, and premium toiletries. Complete the essentials in every room first, then add upgrades based on what your actual guests ask for in messages and reviews.

Do amenities affect Airbnb search ranking and bookings?

Amenities affect visibility because guests filter search results by them — every real amenity you leave unselected removes you from those filtered searches. Accurate, well-stocked amenities can also help reviews. However, no amenity guarantees bookings, occupancy, or ranking; results depend on pricing, photos, reviews, location, and competition.

How often should I restock amenities?

Check and top up all consumables — toilet paper, toiletries, coffee, dishwashing supplies, drinking water — on every turnover, before the next guest arrives. Build the restock check into your cleaning checklist so it happens automatically, and use the same check to catch broken or missing items.

This article shares general hosting guidance based on our own experience and is not legal, financial, tax, or platform advice. Platform policies, amenity menus, search filters, and local laws change and vary by country, city, building, and property type — always verify current rules directly with each platform and your local regulations. Nothing here guarantees bookings, occupancy, ranking, review outcomes, or income.