Airbnb amenities checklist: what to stock in a managed unit, room by room

An Airbnb amenities checklist for a managed unit has three layers: the essentials Airbnb expects in every listing, the amenities guests filter on, and the safety equipment the law and Airbnb’s rules ask for. Airbnb’s essentials are toilet paper, soap, one towel and one pillow per guest, and linen for each bed.⁴ Beyond that, stock what you tick in the listing, keep enough linen that a turnover never waits for the laundry, and check every advertised item works, because a missing or broken amenity can cost a refund.⁸

In this guide

1. Which amenities Airbnb guests filter on
2. Durable items and consumables
3. The stocking checklist by room
4. Linen and towel par levels
5. Safety equipment and the Belgian and Dutch rules
6. What goes wrong, according to Airbnb’s own rules
7. Questions people ask
8. Sources

The listing guide covers how amenities fit into the listing itself. This guide is about what physically has to be in the unit, and how to keep it there.

Which amenities Airbnb guests filter on

Airbnb groups amenities into 12 categories when you add them to a listing: Basics, Bathroom, Bedroom and laundry, Entertainment, Family, Heating and cooling, Home safety, Internet and office, Kitchen and dining, Location features, Outdoor, and Parking and facilities. Many guests filter search results by amenities, Airbnb says, so adding everything you offer may help you increase bookings.³ The full list has nearly 150 options; when you create a listing you only see a short list of popular ones, so add the rest after publishing.⁵

Airbnb’s guest help page on search filters lists what guests can actually filter on. The ones that matter most for a city flat:¹

• Popular (recommended for you): wifi, kitchen, air conditioning, washer, free parking, iron.
• Booking options: Instant Book, self check-in, allows pets.
• Bathroom: hair dryer, shampoo, conditioner, body soap, shower gel, hot water, cleaning products, bathtub.
• Bedroom and laundry: bed linens, essentials, extra pillows and blankets, hangers, iron, dryer, drying rack, room-darkening shades, clothing storage.
• Kitchen and dining: coffee maker, coffee, hot water kettle, dishwasher, microwave, oven, stove, refrigerator, freezer, toaster, cooking basics, dishes and silverware, wine glasses, dining table.
• Internet and office: wifi, dedicated workspace.
• Home safety: smoke alarm, carbon monoxide alarm, fire extinguisher, first aid kit.
• Family: crib, high chair, travel crib, baby safety gates and similar items.
• Accessibility: step-free entrance and access to bedroom and bathroom, grab bars and other features, each as its own filter.

The amenities Airbnb highlights

Airbnb publishes which amenities guests search for most. Its ranking for 2025, based on Airbnb’s internal data on searches worldwide, is pool, free parking, wifi, air conditioning or heating, kitchen, hot tub, washing machine or dryer, self check-in, TV or cable, and BBQ grill.² Its October 2026 tips page names wifi, pool, hot tub, kitchen, air conditioning, free parking and self check-in as top amenities that guests consistently search for.⁵

Most city flats will never have a pool or hot tub. Within reach are wifi, heating or air conditioning, a full kitchen, a washer, self check-in, a TV and sometimes parking; each one missing is a filter that removes the listing from some searches, and a conversation with the owner. Self check-in in particular is both a filter and a booking option; how to set it up is in the self check-in guide.

Durable items and consumables

Split the stock list in two before you agree costs with the owner:

• Durable items are bought once and replaced when worn or broken: furniture, appliances, mattresses, duvets and pillows, pans, crockery, the hair dryer, the iron, safety equipment. They belong to the owner, are part of the furnished property and go on the inventory you check at handover.
• Consumables are used up by guests and restocked at every turnover: toilet paper, soap, shampoo, dishwasher tablets, coffee, bin bags, cleaning products, batteries.
• Linen and towels sit in between: durable in that they last many washes, consumable in that they wear out and stain. Track them as their own category with a replacement budget.

Who pays for each is a matter for the management agreement, not this guide; the agreement clauses guide lists the cost questions to settle. A common split is that the owner pays for durable items and their replacement, and consumables are covered by the cleaning fee or recharged at cost, but whatever you choose, write it down.

The stocking checklist by room

The table below is a full stocking list for a managed one- or two-bedroom city flat. It is our recommendation, built around Airbnb’s essentials and its filter list; the last column shows which Airbnb filter each group lets you tick honestly.⁴¹

Two rules keep the list honest. First, tick an amenity in the listing only when it is in the unit and working: Airbnb’s ground rules say the listing must reflect the features and amenities available from check-in to checkout, and guests rate accuracy partly on whether everything worked.⁷⁹ Second, quantities follow the maximum number of guests, not the usual number: a flat for four needs four of everything, even if most stays are couples.

Linen and towel par levels

A par level is the stock you keep per unit so a turnover never waits for supplies. The turnover guide explains the principle; here is the calculation.

For each bed, count:

1. One set on the bed.
2. Every set that can be away at the laundry at the busiest moment. With a service that collects at each turnover and returns two days later, and one-night stays on consecutive days, the sets removed yesterday and today are both away when the next guest arrives.
3. One spare for a stained set, a late delivery or a guest who asks for a change mid-stay.

With a two-day return and daily turnovers that gives one on the bed, two away and one spare: four sets per bed. If the laundry reliably returns before the next clean, three sets can be enough, which matches the planning rule in the turnover guide. Neither figure is an official standard; work it out from your own laundry times. Towels follow the same logic, per guest rather than per bed.

Safety equipment and the Belgian and Dutch rules

Airbnb’s safety requirements say a host is responsible for safety throughout the home. If a listing says it has smoke and CO detectors, they must work and the host should test them regularly; Airbnb strongly encourages installing both and offers a free smoke and CO detector to eligible hosts on request.⁶ Hosts must fix known hazards, such as fire or electrical hazards and poorly maintained appliances, before accepting bookings, and must follow local fire code requirements.⁶ Airbnb also says lockboxes and entry codes must remain secure and that hosts should change codes between each reservation.⁶

The legal minimum depends on where the unit is. The maintenance guide sets out the detector rules for all three Belgian regions and the Netherlands; in short:

• Flanders: every home needs smoke detectors on every floor, CE marked and meeting NBN EN 14604; in a rental the landlord must buy and install them, and each detector is replaced after 10 years at the latest.¹³
• The Netherlands: a smoke detector is compulsory on every floor with a living room, bedroom or kitchen, and in a rented home the landlord must make sure they are there. The obligation does not cover shared areas such as a stairwell.¹⁴
• Brussels and Wallonia: both have their own detector rules; see the maintenance guide.

Registered tourist accommodation in Flanders

Annex 2 of the Flemish fire safety standards for tourist accommodation adds equipment and information that a manager has to stock:¹⁰

• Detectors: every room on the route from a sleeping place to the entrance, the bedroom included, has at least one autonomous detector with a non-replaceable battery that lasts at least five years, and at least one per floor.
• Extinguishers: at least one foam or powder extinguisher of at least 6 litres or 6 kg per 150 m², in or right next to the accommodation.
• Information in every unit: fire instructions in at least Dutch, French, German and English, including the ban on using any lift in a fire; a simplified plan showing where the unit is in relation to escape routes and fire equipment; the emergency number 112; and the contact details of the person guests can reach in an emergency during the stay.

Laminate the instructions and plan and fix them inside the front door, so they survive turnovers. Registration and the fire safety certificate itself are covered in the Belgium and Netherlands rules guide.

CO detectors, fire blankets and first aid

CO detectors. None of the Belgian or Dutch pages we checked makes a CO detector compulsory in a home, but the Dutch government advises hanging one, and Airbnb’s amenities page strongly urges hosts to install smoke and CO alarms where fuel-burning appliances are used.¹⁵² Fit one wherever there is a gas boiler, gas water heater, gas hob or fireplace, and tick the filter only when it is installed.

Fire blankets. Annex 2 requires extinguishers, not a fire blanket.¹⁰ If an owner wants a blanket in the kitchen, know that the Dutch fire service advises not to use a fire blanket on a pan fire: cover the pan with a lid, switch off the heat and let it cool, and never use water.¹¹ A 2013 sample by the Dutch product safety authority NVWA found that 4 of 11 blankets tested caught fire themselves and one did not put out the pan fire, and that an EN 1869 marking on the packaging was no guarantee that the blanket met the standard.¹² A lid that fits the largest frying pan, and a line about pan fires in the house manual, are a better use of the space.

First aid kit. Airbnb’s amenities page suggests a first aid kit, and it is a filter guests can use.²¹ We found no Belgian or Dutch rule that requires one in a holiday home. Keep a kit in a fixed, labelled place, and check expiry dates and contents at the same quarterly visit as the detector test.

What goes wrong, according to Airbnb’s own rules

We found no reliable published ranking of what Airbnb guests complain about most. What Airbnb does publish is where missing or broken amenities lead:

• Missing essentials. A listing that ticks the essentials without providing them may be penalised, up to removal from Airbnb.⁴
• A broken or missing advertised amenity. Airbnb’s Rebooking and Refund Policy treats a special amenity or feature that is advertised but not present or not working, with a pool, hot tub, major appliance, heating and air conditioning as examples, as a reservation issue. A home that is not reasonably clean and sanitary or contains safety or health hazards counts as well. Guests report within 72 hours of discovery, and Airbnb can refund all or part of the stay or help the guest rebook.⁸
• Ratings. Guests rate accuracy on whether all equipment and features worked properly, and cleanliness on whether the home was free of health hazards like mould and pests, heavy dust and unwashed dishes.⁹

That gives a practical priority list for every turnover: essentials restocked, every ticked amenity working, safety equipment in place. How each rating category is earned is in the guide to 5-star reviews, and how to photograph what you have stocked is in the listing photos guide.

Questions people ask

Sources

All sources checked 2 November 2026.

1. Airbnb Help Centre, “Search filters on Airbnb”
2. Airbnb Resource Centre, “The amenities guests want”, Dated 31 August 2026; ranking based on Airbnb internal search data for 2025
3. Airbnb Help Centre, “Add amenities to a listing”
4. Airbnb Help Centre, “Providing essential amenities for guests”
5. Airbnb Resource Centre, “Help your listing stand out”, Dated 20 October 2026
6. Airbnb Help Centre, “Safety requirements for homes”
7. Airbnb Help Centre, “Ground rules for home hosts”
8. Airbnb Help Centre, “Rebooking and Refund Policy for homes”, Effective 6 February 2025
9. Airbnb Help Centre, “Ratings for homes”
10. Toerisme Vlaanderen, “Bijlage 2. Specifieke brandveiligheidsnormen voor toeristische logiezen”, In Dutch; annex to the Flemish government decree on fire safety standards for tourist accommodation
11. Brandweer Nederland, “Vlam in de pan”, In Dutch
12. Nederlandse Voedsel- en Warenautoriteit (NVWA), “Factsheet brandblusdekens”, In Dutch; dated 6 December 2013, hosted in the NIPV archive
13. Vlaanderen.be, “Rookmelders”, In Dutch
14. Rijksoverheid, “Hoeveel rookmelders moet ik in mijn huis hebben?”, In Dutch
15. Rijksoverheid, “Hoe voorkom ik koolmonoxidevergiftiging in mijn huis?”, In Dutch

We check every figure against the sources above. Spotted something out of date? Email systemen@hostproacademy.com with the guide title.