Reducing GuestPoints to guests that does not provide bed linen and towels

Lately, I’ve increasingly encountered hosts who do not provide bed linen and towels—or who only offer them for an additional fee (While charging extra for these essentials is technically not allowed, I find myself repeatedly having to report such cases to HE)

This happens especially with second homes or properties used for holiday rentals. I understand that some hosts may want to reduce their workload, but if they are not offering the full level of hospitality expected, it’s only fair that they receive fewer GuestPoints in return.

To address this, I suggest introducing a checkbox for hosts to indicate whether bed linen and towels are included. If not, the system should automatically reduce the number of GuestPoints awarded for the stay. This would promote fairness and help ensure a consistent experience for all members.

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In 6 years of exchanging and 65+ exchanges I’ve only encountered this situation on a very few occasions. So the great majority of members exchange their main home and include sheets and towels. I’ve come across this situation with second holiday homes where the cleaning of sheets and towels after hosting creates a management and financial burden for the host. If members don’t agree with complying to the hosts request to pay or supply their own sheets and towels they can just look for a different host. If there was an option of a checkbox I think we’d see a huge increase in the number of members no longer supplying bedsheets.
I supply bedsheets and towels for 3 double rooms. I have it all professionally cleaned at my own expense because thats the way I welcome my guests and I have no cleaning fee. Some hosts insist that their guests should wash and dry all sheets and towels before leaving and remake beds . I consider that far worse than providing a cleaning service or saying upfront that linen isn’t provided. Again, this is something I’ve heard about but none of my hosts have asked me to wash sheets and make beds before leaving. It’s something I’ve done when I have time to help out , but its never been required.

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Actually would be useful to know upfront how the cleaning and linen situation is, so such a feature would be great.

Especially a search filter where you select a home based on those criteria.

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A very interesting suggestion. However I have to agree with @SusanJbrn to say that this is something I haven’t yet come across. Although I do tend to favour reciprocal exchanges so rarely exchange with second homes. I have young children so having a house full of toys and play equipment is a real bonus for us! :slight_smile: I do fear that adding a check box such a this would encourage more people to not offer sheets and towels - which overall would be much more of an inconvenience for me than paying a few more guest points, especially when travelling abroad.