The 14-minute pre-arrival supply check that killed my 11pm guest messages

I'll tell you the single message that broke me. 10:47pm on a Tuesday in October 2023, Brighton flat one, guest from Basingstoke: "There are no teabags and the Nespresso machine has a flashing light we can't work out."

I was in bed. I'd done a Sunday night run of my two Brighton flats to prep for the week. I'd brought teabags. I'd brought teabags specifically because the cleaner had said we were low. And I was sure — sure — I'd left six boxes in the kitchen cupboard.

I hadn't. I'd left them in the boot of my car. Found them on Wednesday morning.

That Tuesday was the last week my pre-arrival check was improvised. I built a proper one the next weekend, and across the whole of last year I got exactly one post-check-in message about missing supplies. The check is 14 minutes. Here it is.

Why the check matters more than the cleaning

Let me state the obvious. Your cleaner is doing a handover sheet. My cleaner does a 20-point list before she leaves. She's good. She's thorough. She's also human, and she's working under time pressure with a turnover window that's often three hours, and she's cleaning and restocking at the same time.

So here's my rule: the cleaner's list is a cleaning list with supplies as a subset. My list is a supplies list with cleaning as a verification. Different lens, same property.

The check happens between 3pm and 6pm on the day of arrival, after the cleaner has left, before the guest checks in. It takes 14 minutes on average. I've done it 200-odd times.

The list, in order

Stage 1: kitchen (4 minutes).

Open every cupboard. Count, don't eyeball:

• Teabags — minimum 20 on site. Empty the box into the jar.
• Coffee pods — minimum 12 per machine. Top up from the stash cupboard if under.
• Sugar — a full jar, always. I don't care if it's a two-night stay.
• Salt and pepper — shake both mills. Pepper mill empty is a guaranteed check-in message.
• Olive oil, vinegar, a jar of stock cubes — one of each, visible on the counter.
• Dishwasher tablets — at least 10 in the box.
• Washing-up liquid — shake the bottle, if it sounds under half, swap it.
• Bin bags — two in the bin, a stack of at least six in the cupboard.
• Tea towels — three clean, on the hook. Don't forget the oven mitt.

The thing about this list: I used to let "sort of full" slide. Now, if something's under half, I swap it. Half-empty olive oil bottles look cheap in a £180 a night flat. It's a £3 fix.

Stage 2: bathroom (3 minutes, each bathroom).

• Toilet roll — two on the holder (including the spare), a full pack of at least four in the cupboard. Four, because one guest will sometimes use three rolls in a weekend and I don't know why.
• Shampoo, conditioner, shower gel — in my case, refillable dispensers. Lift each one. If it's under a third, top up.
• Hand soap — full bottle at the sink, not the one the last guest left half-done.
• Towels — count them. Two bath, two hand, two face, per guest slot. Plus one bath towel spare. Folded, not rolled (rolled towels look worse when unrolled after a stay, don't ask me why).
• Bath mat — clean, laid flat, not crumpled from the laundry.
• Hairdryer — I plug it in, run it for three seconds. One out of thirty hairdryers has died since I started this check.
• Cotton buds, cotton pads, a small toiletries kit — check the container. This is what people message about at 11pm.

Stage 3: bedrooms (2 minutes per bedroom).

• Bed made? Corners tucked? Duvet cover not bunched?
• Bedside lamps on, then off. Test every bulb.
• USB chargers on the bedside tables. Unplug and replug. Loose ones die mid-stay.
• A bottle of water each side of the bed.
• Bin liner in the bedroom bin.

Stage 4: living room (1 minute).

• TV remote — does it work? Batteries?
• Wifi password visible on the welcome card?
• House manual in the right drawer?
• Throws folded, cushions plumped.
• Any personal items from the last guest? Check under the sofa. You'll find things.

Stage 5: entry (30 seconds).

• Doormat clean and straight.
• Welcome pack on the kitchen counter (I assemble these separately, covered in another post).
• Keys in the lockbox, tested once. I've walked away with the key in my pocket before. You will too.

Stage 6: message check (30 seconds).

Before I leave the flat, I send the guest a one-line message via Airbnb: "Flat is ready from 4pm. Keys in the lockbox, code is XXXX. Welcome pack and wifi details on the kitchen counter. Any questions just message me." Then I lock up.

That message closes a small loop. Most guests reply with a thank-you, and now I know they've seen it. If they haven't replied by 8pm and they had a same-day flight, I drop them a "hope the journey's going smoothly" — that's saved me from the "we can't find the flat" message at 10pm.

What the check replaced

Before the check, my process was: cleaner finishes, I trust her, guest arrives, I respond to whatever comes up.

The problem is guests don't message about 80% of the problems. They shrug, they pour the half-empty olive oil into a saucepan, they use their own travel shampoo because the bottle at the flat is clearly half-used. Then they leave a four-star review with a one-line comment: "A bit of attention to detail missing."

No specific issue. Nothing I can fix in response. Just a gut feeling that the flat was fine but not great.

The check fixed that. Five-star reviews mention specifics — and the specifics come from the little things. A full olive oil bottle. A tested hairdryer. A fresh hand soap. None of these are expensive. All of them are easy to miss if you don't have a list.

What I automated

The cleaner's list lives on a clipboard in each property. My pre-arrival list lives on my phone — I built it in a checklist app with the items grouped by room. Tick boxes, photos of problem areas if needed, sent to me automatically when I finish.

I do the check for the Brighton flats myself because they're on my way home from work. Edinburgh and the Lake District — I pay a second person (usually a friendly neighbour in Edinburgh, a family friend in the Lakes) £10 to do the check for me, with the same list. They photograph anything they're not sure about and send it to me before the guest arrives. I've had the Edinburgh checker spot a blown fuse that the cleaner missed; I had an electrician there before the guest arrived.

Yes, £10 × 90 turnovers a year × 2 remote properties is £1,800. It's the best £1,800 I spend all year. Not having a 10pm "the hob won't turn on" message is worth the money by itself.

The one exception

Self-check-in long stays (7+ nights) where the cleaner's done a deep clean — I skip the day-of check and do a mid-stay check instead. Guest's been in for three days, they know what's missing, I can drop supplies in a second visit. This only works if you're happy popping in mid-stay, which not every host is.

The cottage in the Lakes is different again. Rural, one turnover a week on average, I've got slack in the schedule. The family friend does a full check the day before arrival, not the day of. Gives me a 24-hour buffer to fix anything they find.

The before-and-after

Before: two to three post-check-in supply messages a week, most on Sundays and Tuesdays for some reason, all of them at unsociable hours.

After: one last year. Total. Across 180-odd turnovers.

Average review score went from 4.78 to 4.91 over the year I made the change. I can't prove it was the check — loads of other things changed — but the specific "attention to detail" negative reviews stopped appearing around the same time.

If you're on your phone at 11pm because of a missing teapot, build a list. Fourteen minutes up front saves hours of apologising later.