What do I need in place before my first short-term rental guest?

The first guest should not be the person who discovers the shower curtain is missing. Most first-stay problems are small things nobody checked. The fix is a short, deliberate setup pass, done room by room, and then one night spent in the place yourself.

What to have in place

Beds and linen

• A good mattress protector on every bed, plus a pillow protector on every pillow.
• At least three full sheet sets per bed: one on the bed, one in the wash, one spare. The linen and towel guide explains the count.
• A spare blanket per bed, stored where guests can find it.

Bathroom

• One bath towel and one washcloth per guest, two hand towels per bathroom, and a bath mat for each bathroom with a shower or tub.
• Toilet paper on the roll and at least two spare rolls per bathroom.
• Hand soap, body wash and shampoo. A plunger and a small trash can with a lid.

Kitchen basics

• Enough plates, cups and cutlery for your maximum guest count, plus two extra of each.
• One decent knife, a cutting board, a pan, a pot, a kettle or coffee maker.
• Dish soap, a sponge, paper towels, trash bags, and a fire extinguisher within reach.

Entry

• A tested way in: a keypad, smart lock or lockbox, plus a backup method if the main one fails. See the self check-in guide.
• A working porch light and a visible house number for night arrivals.

Safety alarms

Smoke and carbon monoxide alarm rules differ by state, county and city. Some places require alarms in every bedroom, some require hardwired units, and some require inspections before you can get a short-term rental permit. Look up your local code, install what it requires, and test every alarm.

House manual

• Wi-Fi name and password, checkout steps, trash days, parking rules, quiet hours.
• How to reach you, and what to do in an emergency, including the full street address.
• Keep it to one page. Long manuals do not get read.

Run a test stay

A test stay finds what a checklist misses. Do it at least a few days before the first booking so you have time to fix things.

1. Arrive as a guest would, at night, using only the instructions you plan to send.
2. Connect to the Wi-Fi, run the shower, and make coffee with what is in the kitchen.
3. Sleep in each bed if you can, or at least lie down and check for noise, light and drafts.
4. Make a list of everything you reached for and could not find.
5. In the morning, follow your own checkout steps and time how long they take.
6. Do a full clean and reset, and note how long that took and what you ran out of.

A worked example

Here is a hypothetical one-bedroom with one Queen bed and a sleeper sofa, listed for up to four guests.

Linen: two beds count separately, so 3 sets for the Queen and 3 for the sofa bed, for 6 sets in total. Towels: four guests means 4 bath towels in use, and with one cycle in the wash and one spare cycle, that is 12 bath towels and 12 washcloths, plus 6 hand towels for the one bathroom. Counting before you shop avoids a second trip. During the test stay, this host found no bottle opener and only one roll of toilet paper, and added both before the first guest.