Holiday rentals: top tips to get your bathroom guest-ready

Bathrooms may not be the first room people look at when booking their accommodation, but they can certainly make or break your reviews. With faultless cleanliness and a few choice extras, you’ll be enhancing every stay. Read on to learn our top tips for getting your bathroom shining bright. 

Give your guests what they want

What do we all want from a bathroom? Well, based on the results of our Travel Trends 2023 report, a clean – and fully functioning – suite should be a focus. For 20% of global travellers, the cleanliness and hygiene measures taken at their chosen accommodation is what they worry about most. Alleviate their concerns in an instant by transparently highlighting the cleanliness steps you’re taking. 

So, beyond sparkling taps and smear-free shower screens, what else can you do to keep your guests impressed? Good water pressure, well-placed mirrors and efficient ventilation should do the trick. Also, 60% of travellers re-use the same towel multiple times when on holiday, so make sure to provide towel hooks or racks they can use during their stay. 

Ambience shouldn’t be underestimated either. The top motivation for travelling (83% of global travellers) is to ‘give myself time to relax’. A bath could be just what they’re planning. With that in mind, make sure if you do have one, you include it in your listing, and you provide all the extras that make a wind-down soak tempting – a bath rack for their book and drink, candles and bubble bath are sure to be well received. If you don’t have a bath, a fancy shower head and top-quality toiletries will fit the bill too.

Refresh your holiday rental bathroom regularly

To manage your costs alongside your property, small refreshes go a long way. Swap out towels as soon as they look a little bit worse for wear. Nobody wants a nice fluffy towel with a stain on it. Own a property near the sea? It’s worth discouraging your guests from taking your best towels with them on their seaside adventures. Whether that’s with a polite notice in the bathroom or a small fee deducted from their deposit if you find them to be damaged – that’s up to you. Either way, it should extend their lifetime.

Black mould is inexcusable and it’s easily prevented. Make it simple for guests to crack open a window or turn on a powerful-yet-quiet extractor fan and you won’t need to redecorate after every booking! The occasional touch-up shouldn’t be overlooked though as it will help maintain that all-important fresh feeling.

Clogged plugholes are another common pitfall for holiday rental owners and, for obvious reasons, it can be really off-putting if on arrival the drains don’t clear. The quick fix for this is to check everything is flowing smoothly at changeover. If it isn’t, add a ‘drain unblocker’ to the cleaning routine and by the time the next guests arrive, you should be all set.

Search for opportunities to surprise and delight

To make their stay all the more carefree, consider what they might have left behind by accident – and answer their needs. To be helpful, cost-effective and more sustainable all in one, provide refillable bulk-dispensers for your soap, shampoo and conditioner. It’s also worth keeping a generous stock of toilet roll, toothpaste, razors and menstruation products.

For all these toiletries, you should also carefully consider who your suppliers are. You want to aim for those that are reliable, more sustainable and reasonably priced but still premium in quality. If you can support local businesses while you’re at it, great!

Slippers and robes are the ultimate holiday treat to provide for your guests. If you are planning to make this investment, it’s also worth thinking about how you can be inclusive. Don’t opt for the ‘Mr and Mrs’ sets. Make the conscious decision to be an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and provide gender-neutral options instead. It’s this attention to detail which will earn you glowing reviews.

If your property is listed as pet-friendly, you should consider how you can cater for doggy bath time – without it impacting on the overall cleanliness of your bathroom. For instance, you could provide a paddling pool and encourage your guests to clean their pooch in a utility room or outside.

And finally, listen to what your guests are saying. Ask for suggestions and feedback and monitor any recurring themes that come up in reviews. If you can act on these quickly and effectively, this will also set your property up for greater success in the future.