One set for the beds. One set for the bathrooms. One fully stocked kitchen.
It sounds reasonable.
It also assumes that every sheet will always be clean, every glass will remain unbroken and nobody will ever leave your favorite bath towel in the trunk of their car.
Short-term rentals need a little more margin than ordinary homes.
The question isn’t just how much your guests need. It’s how much the property needs in order to keep operating smoothly between them.
Some things need duplicates because they’re being washed.
Some need extras because they break.
Some need backups because replacing them in the middle of a turnover is a nuisance.
And some things really do only need one. Nobody needs an emergency reserve of potato mashers.
The trick is knowing which is which.
Think in Three Kinds of Inventory
Instead of buying everything according to one master number, it helps to think about your STR inventory in three layers.
What is in use.
These are the things guests are actively using during a stay: the sheets on the beds, towels in the bathrooms, glasses in the cabinet and coffee supplies at the coffee station.
What is in rotation.
These are the things that need another complete set because the first may be dirty, being laundered or otherwise unavailable between reservations. Linens and towels are the obvious examples.
What is in reserve.
These are the replacements you don’t necessarily need every turnover but will be very glad you already own when something breaks, disappears or needs to be taken out of service.
Not every item belongs in all three categories.
That’s where we’ll start.
Linens: Buy in Complete Sets
For linens, the important number isn’t how many sheets you own.
It’s how many times you can completely remake each bed.
For every bed in the property, we recommend at least two complete sets of sheets and pillowcases. Depending on how your laundry is handled, how quickly the property turns over and how frequently it books, three sets may be the better choice.
And keep them together.
A fitted sheet in one closet, a flat sheet in another and a collection of unidentified pillowcases is technically linen inventory. It is not a system.
Store and label sets by bed size—or, even better, by the beds they belong to when a property has several different sizes.
King.
Queen.
Twin.
Sleeper sofa.
Your cleaner should never have to unfold a fitted sheet and stare at it thoughtfully while trying to determine its dimensions.
RELATED READING → How to Create Clear Turnover Standards for Your STR
Towels: Your Laundry Setup Determines the Number
Towels follow the same general principle, but the right quantity depends heavily on how laundry happens.
If everything is washed and dried at the property during the turnover window, your needs may be different from an STR whose linens leave the property for laundering.
At minimum, you want two complete rotations of bath linens, with additional backups for stains, damage and the occasional towel that develops aspirations of seeing the country.
Then account for the property itself.
A pool or hot tub needs its own towels.
A larger home with several bathrooms needs hand towels distributed appropriately.
Longer stays may warrant more guest-accessible towels than a property built primarily around weekend reservations.
The point isn’t to choose a universal number.
It’s to make sure one laundry delay doesn’t leave the next guest without a towel.
Dishes: Enough to Get Through More Than One Meal
Kitchen inventory works differently.
You don’t need a backup warehouse full of dinner plates, but you also don’t want every guest washing a plate before they can eat lunch.
For everyday dishes and flatware, around twice the number your property would use for one full meal is a practical starting point.
That gives guests room to eat more than once without constantly running the dishwasher and gives you some margin when a glass or plate inevitably breaks.
The same logic applies to mugs.
Especially mugs.
Requiring someone to wash yesterday’s coffee cup before today’s coffee has even happened is an unnecessarily dangerous social experiment.
RELATED READING → What Should Actually Go in Your STR Kitchen?
Glassware: Choose Things You Can Replace
Glassware deserves its own little warning.
It breaks.
Frequently.
So instead of putting all your energy into finding the perfect set, consider whether you can still buy another one six months from now.
This applies to more than glasses.
Dishes, flatware, towels, sheets and other frequently replaced items are much easier to manage when they’re repeatable purchases rather than treasure hunts.
That doesn’t mean everything has to be generic.
It means knowing which items should be special and which ones need to survive life as working inventory.
Pillows: Give People a Choice
One pillow per sleeping position may technically fulfill the assignment.
We’d still recommend more.
For most adult beds, two sleeping pillows per person gives the bed a properly finished feel and accommodates different sleeping preferences.
A king or queen bed will usually have four sleeping pillows. Twins may have one or two depending on the setup.
Decorative pillows don’t count.
They’re pretty. They have other employment.
Keep at least a few replacement sleeping pillows in reserve as well. A pillow can become unusable without much warning, and replacing one should not require an emergency shopping trip between guests.
Bathrooms: Stock the Room, Not Just the Guest
Bathrooms need their own operating inventory.
That includes the obvious things—bath towels, hand towels and washcloths—but also the things that tend to be forgotten until somebody needs them.
A bath mat.
A wastebasket.
A plunger.
A hair dryer.
Hand soap.
Backup toilet paper.
Whatever toiletries you’ve decided to provide.
Each bathroom should function as a bathroom without requiring guests to search the rest of the house for basic necessities.
The goal is not to provide everything anyone could possibly want. It’s to eliminate the obvious inconveniences.
RELATED READING → The Things Guests Notice That Never Make the Listing Photos
Consumables: Decide the Refill Before the Cleaner Does
Coffee. Toilet paper. Paper towels. Dishwasher detergent. Trash bags. Laundry detergent. Toiletries.
These are not one-time purchases. They’re recurring operating expenses.
So decide in advance what gets left for each reservation.
How many rolls of toilet paper?
How many trash bags?
How much coffee?
Are dishwasher pods counted out or is a container left in the cabinet?
Does the amount change for longer reservations?
There isn’t one correct answer for every property.
But there should be an answer for your property.
Otherwise the amount guests receive slowly becomes whatever the person resetting the house happened to grab that day.
Keep the Backup Supply Separate
One of the easiest ways to burn through inventory is to make the entire inventory available at once.
Guests need access to what they reasonably need during their stay.
The property needs access to much more.
Those are different things.
Keep reserve inventory organized separately for whoever maintains or turns over the property.
Extra linens.
Replacement towels.
Light bulbs.
Batteries.
Backup glassware.
Cleaning supplies.
Consumables.
Small replacement items.
And establish a point at which something gets reordered.
Finding out you’ve used the last backup isn’t a restocking system. It’s an announcement.
RELATED READING → How to Create Clear Turnover Standards for Your STR
Some Things Shouldn’t Be Bought in Multiples at All
This is where generic STR shopping lists can get a little ridiculous.
Not everything needs to be multiplied.
One can opener may be perfectly adequate.
One toaster may be enough.
One ironing board.
One vacuum.
The actual property should determine those decisions.
A sprawling house may need a hair dryer in several bathrooms or laundry baskets on multiple floors. A compact two-bedroom may not.
A house built around outdoor entertaining will need different backup inventory from a downtown apartment.
Buy for how the property operates, not because a checklist told you to buy twelve of something.
Keep a Record of What You Bought
Once you’ve figured out the right quantities, don’t make yourself figure them out again.
Record the products you’re using, where they’re stored and what should always be kept in reserve.
For frequently replaced items, save the exact product information.
The towel.
The sheets.
The light bulb.
The glassware.
The air filter.
The coffee maker.
That way, six months from now, replacing something doesn’t require comparing twenty-seven nearly identical white towels online and trying to remember which one you bought.
RELATED READING → How to Build a Property Reference Guide for Your STR
The Right Amount Is the Amount That Keeps the House Running
There is no universal shopping list that can tell you the perfect quantity of everything for every STR.
A weekend cabin doesn’t operate exactly like a twelve-person vacation house. A property with same-day turnovers has different demands than one with several days between reservations. On-site laundry changes the equation. So does a pool. So does the number of bathrooms.
The useful question is not:
How many do I need to buy?
It’s:
What needs to be available so this property can move from one reservation to the next without scrambling?
Once you start thinking that way, inventory stops being a shopping list.
It becomes part of how the property operates.
And that’s a much better way to decide whether you need another set of sheets.
Or whether you can safely put the second potato masher back on the shelf.
Keep Reading
What Actually Needs to Be Done Before Your STR Is Ready for Guests? →
One set for the beds. One set for the bathrooms. One fully stocked kitchen.
It sounds reasonable.
It also assumes that every sheet will always be clean, every glass will remain unbroken and nobody will ever leave your favorite bath towel in the trunk of their car.
Short-term rentals need a little more margin than ordinary homes.
The question isn’t just how much your guests need. It’s how much the property needs in order to keep operating smoothly between them.
Some things need duplicates because they’re being washed.
Some need extras because they break.
Some need backups because replacing them in the middle of a turnover is a nuisance.
And some things really do only need one. Nobody needs an emergency reserve of potato mashers.
The trick is knowing which is which.
Think in Three Kinds of Inventory
Instead of buying everything according to one master number, it helps to think about your STR inventory in three layers.
What is in use.
These are the things guests are actively using during a stay: the sheets on the beds, towels in the bathrooms, glasses in the cabinet and coffee supplies at the coffee station.
What is in rotation.
These are the things that need another complete set because the first may be dirty, being laundered or otherwise unavailable between reservations. Linens and towels are the obvious examples.
What is in reserve.
These are the replacements you don’t necessarily need every turnover but will be very glad you already own when something breaks, disappears or needs to be taken out of service.
Not every item belongs in all three categories.
That’s where we’ll start.
Linens: Buy in Complete Sets
For linens, the important number isn’t how many sheets you own.
It’s how many times you can completely remake each bed.
For every bed in the property, we recommend at least two complete sets of sheets and pillowcases. Depending on how your laundry is handled, how quickly the property turns over and how frequently it books, three sets may be the better choice.
And keep them together.
A fitted sheet in one closet, a flat sheet in another and a collection of unidentified pillowcases is technically linen inventory. It is not a system.
Store and label sets by bed size—or, even better, by the beds they belong to when a property has several different sizes.
King.
Queen.
Twin.
Sleeper sofa.
Your cleaner should never have to unfold a fitted sheet and stare at it thoughtfully while trying to determine its dimensions.
RELATED READING → How to Create Clear Turnover Standards for Your STR
Towels: Your Laundry Setup Determines the Number
Towels follow the same general principle, but the right quantity depends heavily on how laundry happens.
If everything is washed and dried at the property during the turnover window, your needs may be different from an STR whose linens leave the property for laundering.
At minimum, you want two complete rotations of bath linens, with additional backups for stains, damage and the occasional towel that develops aspirations of seeing the country.
Then account for the property itself.
A pool or hot tub needs its own towels.
A larger home with several bathrooms needs hand towels distributed appropriately.
Longer stays may warrant more guest-accessible towels than a property built primarily around weekend reservations.
The point isn’t to choose a universal number.
It’s to make sure one laundry delay doesn’t leave the next guest without a towel.
Dishes: Enough to Get Through More Than One Meal
Kitchen inventory works differently.
You don’t need a backup warehouse full of dinner plates, but you also don’t want every guest washing a plate before they can eat lunch.
For everyday dishes and flatware, around twice the number your property would use for one full meal is a practical starting point.
That gives guests room to eat more than once without constantly running the dishwasher and gives you some margin when a glass or plate inevitably breaks.
The same logic applies to mugs.
Especially mugs.
Requiring someone to wash yesterday’s coffee cup before today’s coffee has even happened is an unnecessarily dangerous social experiment.
RELATED READING → What Should Actually Go in Your STR Kitchen?
Glassware: Choose Things You Can Replace
Glassware deserves its own little warning.
It breaks.
Frequently.
So instead of putting all your energy into finding the perfect set, consider whether you can still buy another one six months from now.
This applies to more than glasses.
Dishes, flatware, towels, sheets and other frequently replaced items are much easier to manage when they’re repeatable purchases rather than treasure hunts.
That doesn’t mean everything has to be generic.
It means knowing which items should be special and which ones need to survive life as working inventory.
Pillows: Give People a Choice
One pillow per sleeping position may technically fulfill the assignment.
We’d still recommend more.
For most adult beds, two sleeping pillows per person gives the bed a properly finished feel and accommodates different sleeping preferences.
A king or queen bed will usually have four sleeping pillows. Twins may have one or two depending on the setup.
Decorative pillows don’t count.
They’re pretty. They have other employment.
Keep at least a few replacement sleeping pillows in reserve as well. A pillow can become unusable without much warning, and replacing one should not require an emergency shopping trip between guests.
Bathrooms: Stock the Room, Not Just the Guest
Bathrooms need their own operating inventory.
That includes the obvious things—bath towels, hand towels and washcloths—but also the things that tend to be forgotten until somebody needs them.
A bath mat.
A wastebasket.
A plunger.
A hair dryer.
Hand soap.
Backup toilet paper.
Whatever toiletries you’ve decided to provide.
Each bathroom should function as a bathroom without requiring guests to search the rest of the house for basic necessities.
The goal is not to provide everything anyone could possibly want. It’s to eliminate the obvious inconveniences.
RELATED READING → The Things Guests Notice That Never Make the Listing Photos
Consumables: Decide the Refill Before the Cleaner Does
Coffee. Toilet paper. Paper towels. Dishwasher detergent. Trash bags. Laundry detergent. Toiletries.
These are not one-time purchases. They’re recurring operating expenses.
So decide in advance what gets left for each reservation.
How many rolls of toilet paper?
How many trash bags?
How much coffee?
Are dishwasher pods counted out or is a container left in the cabinet?
Does the amount change for longer reservations?
There isn’t one correct answer for every property.
But there should be an answer for your property.
Otherwise the amount guests receive slowly becomes whatever the person resetting the house happened to grab that day.
Keep the Backup Supply Separate
One of the easiest ways to burn through inventory is to make the entire inventory available at once.
Guests need access to what they reasonably need during their stay.
The property needs access to much more.
Those are different things.
Keep reserve inventory organized separately for whoever maintains or turns over the property.
Extra linens.
Replacement towels.
Light bulbs.
Batteries.
Backup glassware.
Cleaning supplies.
Consumables.
Small replacement items.
And establish a point at which something gets reordered.
Finding out you’ve used the last backup isn’t a restocking system. It’s an announcement.
RELATED READING → How to Create Clear Turnover Standards for Your STR
Some Things Shouldn’t Be Bought in Multiples at All
This is where generic STR shopping lists can get a little ridiculous.
Not everything needs to be multiplied.
One can opener may be perfectly adequate.
One toaster may be enough.
One ironing board.
One vacuum.
The actual property should determine those decisions.
A sprawling house may need a hair dryer in several bathrooms or laundry baskets on multiple floors. A compact two-bedroom may not.
A house built around outdoor entertaining will need different backup inventory from a downtown apartment.
Buy for how the property operates, not because a checklist told you to buy twelve of something.
Keep a Record of What You Bought
Once you’ve figured out the right quantities, don’t make yourself figure them out again.
Record the products you’re using, where they’re stored and what should always be kept in reserve.
For frequently replaced items, save the exact product information.
The towel.
The sheets.
The light bulb.
The glassware.
The air filter.
The coffee maker.
That way, six months from now, replacing something doesn’t require comparing twenty-seven nearly identical white towels online and trying to remember which one you bought.
RELATED READING → How to Build a Property Reference Guide for Your STR
The Right Amount Is the Amount That Keeps the House Running
There is no universal shopping list that can tell you the perfect quantity of everything for every STR.
A weekend cabin doesn’t operate exactly like a twelve-person vacation house. A property with same-day turnovers has different demands than one with several days between reservations. On-site laundry changes the equation. So does a pool. So does the number of bathrooms.
The useful question is not:
How many do I need to buy?
It’s:
What needs to be available so this property can move from one reservation to the next without scrambling?
Once you start thinking that way, inventory stops being a shopping list.
It becomes part of how the property operates.
And that’s a much better way to decide whether you need another set of sheets.
Or whether you can safely put the second potato masher back on the shelf.
Keep Reading
What Actually Needs to Be Done Before Your STR Is Ready for Guests? →