Short Term Rental Supply Checklist

Walk into any rental that's been hosted for more than a year and you'll find the same drawer in the kitchen: 14 ketchup packets, half a box of expired toothpicks, and three different brands of dish soap. Hosts collect supplies the way old houses collect rubber bands — passively, without a system.

Then the booking pace picks up and suddenly you're trying to remember if you have enough Tide Pods to get through a Thursday turn into a Friday check-in. A working short-term rental supply checklist isn't about listing every possible item. It's about agreeing with yourself, your cleaner, and your future self on what “stocked” actually means — per room, per category, per stay. Pair it with end-to-end Airbnb supply tracking automation and the list runs itself.

Who this checklist is for

Built for hosts running a single property up to a small portfolio, where you do your own restocking runs or coordinate with one or two cleaners. If your property is mid-size (1–3 bedrooms, 1–2 baths, sleeps 4–8), you can use this list nearly as-is. Larger or more specialized properties — cabins, beach houses, corporate units — should use this as a base and add 5–10 niche items.

If you have a dedicated cleaner who needs a checkbox version of the same list, the cleaner supply checklist for Airbnb is built for them; this page is for the host doing the planning.

What this list actually solves

The wrong question is “what should I stock?” The right question is “what am I going to be embarrassed to be out of when a guest messages me at 10 p.m.?” That second question gives you a much shorter, much more useful list. This guide is built around the embarrassment-reduction principle: the items that, when missing, generate complaints, low ratings, or last-minute store runs.

Once the list exists, you can wire it into automated supply reorder workflows for Airbnb so under-par items show up in your inbox as a Friday shopping list instead of a Tuesday-night text from a guest.

The supply checklist, organized by turnover stage

Stage 1: walk-in (entry, living, dining)

Welcome basket items (Lara Bars, Liquid Death, local snacks) — par 1 set per booking
Tissues (Kleenex Ultra Soft) in living room — par 1 box
Throw blankets — par 2, freshly laundered
Energizer or Duracell remote batteries — par 4 spare AA, 2 spare AAA
Wi-Fi card or QR code (eero or Nest Wifi network) — visible and current

Stage 2: kitchen restock

Coffee — Keurig K-cups, Nespresso Vertuo pods, or whole bean — par 12 servings
Filters or coffee maker accessories — par enough for the stay
Sugar, creamer, sweetener — sealed singles preferred
Tea bags (Yogi or Twinings) — par 6–8
Salt, pepper, cooking oil — usable level
Dawn Platinum dish soap, Cascade or Finish dishwasher pods, Scrub Daddy sponges, dish cloths — par as listed
Bounty or Viva paper towels — 1 on holder, 1 in pantry
Hefty Ultra Strong trash bags — par 5 of correct size
Reynolds foil, plastic wrap, parchment, Ziploc bags — par 1/4 roll or sleeve

Stage 3: bathrooms

Charmin Ultra Soft toilet paper — par 4 rolls per bathroom
Hand soap (Method or Mrs. Meyer's), body wash, shampoo, conditioner — refilled or fresh bottles
Bath towels, hand towels, washcloths — 2 sets per guest
Tissues — par 1 per bathroom
Conair or Dyson Supersonic hair dryer — functional, plugged in
Plunger and bath mat — clean, in place

Stage 4: bedrooms and laundry

Sheet sets — 2 fresh per bed in storage
Pillows, pillowcases — correct count, freshly cased
Spare blankets — 1 per bed
Hangers — par 8–10 per closet
Tide Pods 3-in-1, Bounce dryer sheets — par as listed
Iron and ironing board — functional

Stage 5: tech, safety, and exterior

Smart lock battery level (Schlage Encode, Yale Assure, August Wi-Fi) — check via app
First Alert smoke and CO detectors — lights green
Kidde fire extinguisher — pressure in green, not expired
First aid kit — sealed and stocked
Spare A19 LED bulbs (Philips or GE) in common color temps — par 2 each
Outdoor seasonal items (firewood, propane, beach gear) — par by season
Trash and recycling bins — emptied, lined

Setting it up so the list actually gets used

Pick one tool: Airtable, Google Sheets, Breezeway, Properly, or even a laminated card. Don't run two in parallel. Our broader Airbnb inventory checklist shows the column structure that survives across every tool.
Mirror the five stages above as five sections in your tool.
For each item, fill in: par level, where it's stored, status dropdown.
Bookmark the form on the cleaner's home screen and walk through it once together.
Set a weekly reminder to scan the list yourself and place reorders for anything trending Low — better yet, route it through batched restock reminders for Airbnb so you only review one digest a week.
Optional: mount an Aqara Wireless Mini Switch or Flic 2 button by the supply closet for one-tap urgent flagging. The smart-button supply request walkthrough covers the wiring.

Privacy and guest-experience notes

Keep this list internal. The only thing guests should see is a brief mention in your house manual: “Starter coffee, paper goods, toiletries, and basic kitchen supplies are provided. Restocked between every stay.” That's enough — it sets expectations without committing you to specific brands or quantities. Don't post your par levels publicly; you'll just get gaming.

Don't use any indoor cameras or microphones to monitor consumption. Cleaner-driven checklists plus a single outdoor Ring Stick Up Cam at the driveway is the right pattern. Anything inside the rental is off-limits.

Common mistakes

Treating the list as static. Update it after each season and after any guest complaint about a missing item.
Stocking too many “nice to have” items. Three brands of olive oil and a spice rack of 30 spices means more to track and more to spoil.
Not consolidating storage. If supplies live in 4 spots, restocking takes 4x as long and gets skipped.
Failing to label storage bins. “Cleaning supplies” or “bathroom restock” labels save 10 minutes per turnover.
Letting the cleaner buy supplies on their own without reimbursement structure. You'll overspend and lose visibility.

Host pre-launch checklist

Five stages built in your tool of choice with par levels.
Storage spots labeled and consolidated — ideally behind a Schlage Encode keypad lock so guests can't graze.
Cleaner has form bookmarked and has done one walk-through.
Weekly reorder review on your calendar.
Amazon Subscribe & Save active for top consumables.
Backup contact for emergency restocking when cleaner is unavailable.

Optional AI prompt

Try this in your AI tool: “I run a [property type] in [region] sleeping [N] guests with average stays of [X] nights. Take this short-term rental supply checklist and (1) add 3–5 region-specific items I'm probably missing, (2) flag any par levels that look too low or high for my booking pace, (3) suggest a Subscribe & Save lineup.” Verify against your actual usage before committing.

FAQ

How is this different from a cleaning checklist?

A cleaning checklist tells the cleaner what to do; a short-term rental supply checklist tells them what to verify and restock. Both should exist. The cleaning checklist drives the physical work, and the supply checklist captures the state of consumables when they're done. Combine them in the cleaner's workflow but keep the underlying lists separate so neither becomes too long to read on a phone.

How often should I audit the full supply list?

Quarterly is a good baseline. Walk the property yourself, count what's actually there, compare against par levels, and adjust either the par or the storage. Also do a refresh after any major seasonal change — switching to or from holiday bookings, ski season, summer beach traffic. These shifts change usage patterns and the par levels should follow.

Can I reuse the same checklist for multiple properties?

The structure, yes. The actual par levels, no. Each property has different layouts, different guest profiles, and different storage. Use the same five-stage skeleton across all units, but tune the per-item pars and storage notes per property. In Airtable this is one base with a Property field; in Sheets it's a tab per property cloned from a master template.

What about an Airbnb consumables checklist for guests?

The guest version is a much shorter list in your house manual: what's provided, where to find it, what to do if something runs out. Our Airbnb consumables checklist page covers the par-level reference. Don't show the operational version with par levels — it confuses guests and invites comparison. Keep the guest-facing version focused on convenience: “Coffee, soap, paper goods provided. If you need more, message us.”

Where to go next

For the cleaner-side version of this list with checkbox formatting, see the cleaner supply checklist for Airbnb. The full turnover automation hub ties supplies, scheduling, and notifications into one workflow.