6 Things to Bring to an Airbnb

Ah, my first Airbnb.  I’ll always remember you fondly for a few reasons.  First, we did good and the property was as advertised..  We had a great time at the property, the pool was a real winner.  And most importantly, we were prepared for our stay.  In fact, we were over prepared but more about that shortly.

As a first time Airbnb user, I really didn’t know what to expect.  I didn’t know what to bring to an Airbnb.  I had no idea what I should know before staying in an Airbnb and I certainly didn’t have an Airbnb packing checklist. 

I’m going to share with you what we learned on our recent trip so that you don’t make the same mistakes, and you go in as prepared as possible for your first Airbnb stay.  

First things first, what did we bring to our Airbnb stay?  Waaaay too much! I knew that we would need some things but I over estimated.  We traveled from New York City to Orlando by car for a three week work from home stay before our vacation began.  And I have to tell you that it felt like I packed our whole house and moved it with us.  

Now that I know better, I would make different choices.  Here’s what we packed for our Florida Airbnb stay and see below for where we went astray.   

Paper Products

Yes you will need paper products.  Your host if they supply them will typically only supply a roll or two of toilet paper per bathroom and one roll of paper towel.  You do not by any means need all of the paper products that I attempted to pack in our Airbnb packing video above.  We were going to Orlando, not the middle of no where, and as it turns out were less than five minutes by car to the grocery store.

Cleaning Products

This one is a little bit trickier.  At the time we took this trip we were  still in the middle of a pandemic that ebbed and flowed, and keeping things as clean as possible was even more top of mind than usual.  Having said that we did go just a little overboard here.  We needed our disinfectant wipes, spray and hand sanitizer.  You’ll see that we have two disinfectant sprays in the Airbnb Packing video but would have been fine with one.

We also did not need the two bottles of hand sanitizer that you see in the video, one would have sufficed there as well.  The hand soap was a nice touch and I would bring one small one for each bathroom again.  Overall given the circumstances, I’ll cut myself a little slack here.  

Food Items

Yes well, this is another area where things just went off the rails and with not knowing what to expect, I over did things here too.  In the Airbnb Packing video you get to see the non-perishable items that we packed.  Most of which I would do again because as anticipated some of our favorite items (meaning my sons favorite items) were not stocked in the local store.  However, I packed way to many perishable items that I could have picked up locally.  Here again, I would bring only enough depending on your length of stay to get you through three full days of eating then pick up anything else you might want at the local grocer.  

Utensils and other Kitchenware

We had a hidden agenda here.  We specifically purchased individual sets of utensils to use during the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival.  They came in handy and I would do that again.  As I mentioned above, having some small selection of your favorite things can give your Airbnb a true home away from home feel.  So, I would bring our favorite cups and mugs again.  Also, no matter where I go, we bring extra plastic bags because they have so many practical uses. You can’t go wrong here and they are easy to pack.  

Safety Gear

We did bring flashlights, batteries, a nightlight and doorstops to help us be prepared for the lights going out.  That’s overdoing it, you say?  I thought so too until a bad thunderstorm hit, and the lights did go out for a few minutes.  Thankfully, they quickly came back on but we would have been prepared if needed.  I’d also suggest the doorstop to jam under the front and back door as a security measure.  Our Airbnb did not have a security system and I slept better at night knowing that while the door stop would not have been a complete fail safe, it would have slowed an intruder down and alerted us to their presence.  

Toys

Yes, as you might expect we had to bring an assortment of games, toys, books and can’t sleep without them blankets on this trip.  Without hesitation I would do this again to make our son as comfortable as possible.  Would I bring a few less toys?  Yes and this includes things to entertain him on the car ride since he slept most of the way down and for a good chunk of the ride back home.  

Yep, it was too much.  Here’s what I did learn about packing for an Airbnb.

Top 5 Tips for packing for an Airbnb:  

Tip #1:  How you pack matters.  Having the storage cubes for the car was key to getting all of our items neatly squared away for the trip.  We used, Drive Auto Car Trunk Organizer and would use them again.  In fact, we’ve kept one in the car and use it to store our groceries after shopping.  Get a look at the Drive Auto containers in our Packing for an Airbnb video.

Tip #2:  Take only what you need.  Depending on your length of stay and access to a grocery store, take only what you’ll need for the first few days of your trip.  You’ll always be able to drive or ride-share your way to a grocery store to pick-up anything that you’ve left behind or may have run out of.

Tip #3:  Do take some of your favorite things.  Having our own mugs and other favorite items does make the Airbnb feel more like home.  Take along those things that will bring you comfort and joy (just not everything ;-))

Tip #4:  You will need the basics.  Our host did start us off with the basics, toilet paper, paper towel, laundry detergent, dish soap, etc.  However, as I mention in Picking an Airbnb Tour, we were left hotel-size soap and lotion which would not have gotten us through our entire stay.  

Tip #5:  Get and stay organized.  You absolutely will need a checklist to keep yourself organized and to keep track of what has been packed and what still needs to be done.   Remember to adjust according to your length of stay.

I hope this helps and you’ve learned from our Airbnb packing experience.  Don’t forget to take the tour of our Florida Airbnb and see how we packing cubes worked out for us.

Until next time, Enjoy the Journey!

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