Hospitality
Airbnb Welcome Basket Cost Tracker: How to Know What Each Stay Costs You
By MAXORI Studio · Updated 15 October 2026 · 6 min read
Coffee, tea, toiletries and a few snacks feel like small expenses, but across many stays they add up. To keep control, you need three numbers: what you buy, what each guest uses and what one stay costs you. This guide shows a simple way to track them and decide what is worth keeping.
Why welcome extras are easy to underestimate
Each item is cheap on its own, so most hosts never add them up. Yet a shampoo bottle, two coffee capsules and a snack, repeated for every booking, is a real line in your monthly costs.
Knowing the figure lets you decide on purpose: keep a generous basket for longer stays, simplify it for one-night stays, or build the cost into your nightly rate.
What to track
Start with a short list and keep it consistent. These are the pieces that answer most questions:
- Each item you supply, with the unit it is bought in (pack, bottle, box)
- The price you paid and the date of each purchase
- How many units go into one stay, which can depend on the number of guests or nights
- How many stays you hosted in the period
- What is left in stock and the level at which you want to reorder
How to calculate the cost of one stay
Work out the cost of one unit of each item: the price of the pack divided by the number of units inside. Multiply by the units you leave per stay, then add up all items.
Example with made-up numbers: a pack of 100 coffee capsules costs 25.00, so one capsule costs 0.25. If you leave 4 capsules per stay, that item costs 1.00 per stay. Do the same for toiletries and snacks and add them together.
- List every item you leave for guests.
- Divide each purchase price by the units in the pack.
- Multiply by the units left per stay.
- Add the results to get the cost per stay.
- Compare the total with your average nightly rate.
Stock and reorder reminders
Running out of an item on arrival day is more stressful than paying a little more for a bulk pack. Note the current stock after each purchase and each turnover, and set a reorder level for each item.
Check the stock list at the same time as your cleaning routine, so restocking becomes part of the turnover and not a separate task.
Decide what to keep, change or drop
Once you see the cost per stay, compare items. A small, well-chosen extra that guests mention is often worth more than a long list of items nobody notices.
Review the figures every few months, because prices and your number of stays change. This guide offers general bookkeeping tips, not tax or accounting advice.
Questions
How much should a welcome basket cost per stay?
There is no single right figure. It depends on your nightly rate, your guests and your market. Calculate your actual cost per stay and judge it against your own rate.
Should I count the cost per night or per stay?
Per stay is simpler for items left once, such as a snack. For items used daily, such as coffee, a per-night figure can be more accurate. You can track both.
Can I include these costs in my rates?
Yes, many hosts build typical extras into the nightly price. Check how your local rules treat these costs for tax purposes with a qualified professional.
Ready-made tools for this
The Welcome Basket & Guest Amenity Cost Tracker is a one-time digital download: an Excel workbook with Start, Dashboard, Stays, Items, Purchases and Setup sheets, in a blank version and a demo version with fictional data, in English, Italian, Spanish, French and German. It calculates cost per stay, stock levels and restock flags from the data you enter.
