Are Shared Toiletries and Spices in Your Airbnb Making Guests Sick? The Science Says Yes.

Most short-term rental hosts obsess over the visible stuff. Freshly made beds, sparkling bathrooms, a well-stocked kitchen. And rightfully so. But there are two things sitting quietly in nearly every vacation rental right now that are making guests uncomfortable and, in some cases, genuinely sick.

Shared toiletry bottles. And shared spice jars.

We started Mountain Comfort Supply Co because we noticed this problem in our own rental properties. Guests would use what was there because it was convenient, but we knew and now the science confirms that sharing these items between guests is a real hygiene problem. So we stopped doing it. And then we built a solution so other hosts could stop too.

Here is what the research actually says, why this matters for your reviews and your liability, and what the best hosts are doing instead.

The Problem With Shared Toiletry Bottles in Vacation Rentals

Walk into almost any short-term rental bathroom and you will find one of two things: a large shared shampoo bottle that has been there since the property launched, or a wall-mounted dispenser that gets refilled between guests. Both are a problem.

What the University of Arizona Found

In 2019, researchers from the University of Arizona conducted a study on behalf of Clean the World specifically examining bacterial contamination in refillable dispensers used in hotel and vacation rental settings. The results were striking. 100 percent of refillable dispensers tested showed bacterial contamination, and nearly 75 percent of samples exceeded the threshold that the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition considers safe for non-eye-area products, which is 1,000 colony-forming units per gram.

Three out of four shared shampoo and body wash dispensers in the study harbored unsafe levels of bacteria.

What the WHO and CDC Say

Both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explicitly recommend against adding product to partially empty containers. Once bacteria colonize a dispenser, they are extraordinarily difficult to fully remove. Refilling the bottle does not solve the problem. It can actually make it worse by adding fresh product on top of an already contaminated base.

One study by researchers at Montana State University found that bacterial counts in bulk soap dispensers returned to pre-wash contaminated levels within two weeks, regardless of the cleaning method used.

Dr. Charles Gerba's Warning to Vacation Rental Hosts

Dr. Charles Gerba, a professor of virology at the University of Arizona who has studied this topic extensively, has stated clearly that bacterial growth in refillable dispensers grows to large numbers across shampoos, conditioners, and body wash, not just hand soap. The warm, damp bathroom environment that guests stay in for days at a time is exactly the kind of environment where bacteria thrive between turnovers.

His conclusion: the safest option for guests is individually sealed, single-use products that cannot be contaminated by a previous guest.

The Tampering Problem No One Talks About

Beyond bacterial contamination, shared bottles in vacation rentals carry a secondary risk that property managers and hosts rarely discuss: tampering. Large shared bottles in STR properties can easily be opened by guests. Individual sealed packets eliminate this risk entirely.

The Problem With Shared Spice Jars in Vacation Rental Kitchens

If the toiletry issue surprised you, the spice jar research will genuinely change how you think about your kitchen setup.

The USDA Study That Every STR Host Needs to Read

In 2022, the United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service funded a landmark study published in the Journal of Food Protection. Researchers observed 371 people preparing a meal in a kitchen setting and used a tracer organism called MS2 to track cross-contamination across surfaces.

The result: spice containers had the highest degree of cross-contamination of any surface tested in the study. Not cutting boards. Not countertops. Not even trash cans. Spice jars.

48 percent of spice containers sampled showed evidence of bacterial contamination from the raw turkey used in the study. And in 81 percent of meal preparation sessions, at least one kitchen surface tested positive for cross-contamination.

As Benjamin Chapman, Ph.D., a food safety specialist at NC State University explained: people are mindful about washing cutting boards and countertops. They almost never think about spice jars.

Why This Is a Bigger Problem in Vacation Rentals

In a private home, the same family uses the spice jars consistently. In a vacation rental, every guest who has ever stayed at your property has handled those jars. Each turnover introduces new hands, new cooking habits, and new contamination, without the jars ever being washed or replaced.

According to the CDC, four groups face elevated risk from cross-contamination in kitchens: adults over 65, children under 5, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems. Short-term rentals host all of these guests regularly.

The Review and Liability Exposure

A guest who notices a grimy shared spice jar is not going to just be grossed out. They are going to mention it in their review. Reviews mentioning cleanliness concerns can tank your ranking on Airbnb and VRBO overnight. More concerning for property owners: if a guest reports a foodborne illness and traces it back to contaminated kitchen items at your property, shared spice jars represent real liability exposure.

What Five-Star Hosts Are Doing Differently

The shift toward individual, sealed, single-use amenities is already happening in the best-managed short-term rentals. Here is what top-rated hosts are doing:

Individual toiletry kits per bathroom per stay. One sealed kit including shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, and hand soap, professionally packaged and placed fresh in each bathroom at every turnover. Guests see immediately that no one has touched it before them.

Individual spice and condiment packets. Sealed single-use packets of salt, pepper, garlic, Italian seasoning, sugar, coffee, creamer, honey, and pantry staples, replaced completely at every turnover. Nothing from the previous guest remains.

A thoughtful arrival experience. The best hosts do not just remove the gross stuff. They replace it with something that feels intentional. A welcome box with local mountain goods. A coffee setup with individual packets. Small touches that signal the host thought carefully about every detail.

The Mountain Comfort Solution

We built Mountain Comfort Supply Co specifically to solve this problem for short-term rental hosts, starting with our own properties in the Snowmass and Aspen area.

Our Host Supply Program provides:

Individual Toiletry Packs. Professionally packaged single-use kits, one per bathroom per stay. Sealed, fresh, and completely free from contamination risk.

Individual Spice and Condiment Packets. Sealed single-use packets for everything in your kitchen that guests touch. Salt, pepper, garlic, seasoning blends, sugar, coffee, creamer, honey, and condiments, replaced completely every turnover.

Consumables Restocking. Bulk-sourced toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, and pantry staples delivered on your schedule at prices far below resort retail.

Welcome Gift Boxes. Curated mountain arrival experiences with local goods, perfect for setting the tone from the moment guests walk in.

We deliver locally to properties in the Snowmass and Aspen area and ship anywhere in the United States.

Learn more and get started at mountaincomfortsupplyco.com/pages/host-wholesale-program

The Bottom Line for STR Hosts

Shared toiletry bottles and shared spice jars are two of the most contaminated surfaces in short-term rentals. The research is not ambiguous. A University of Arizona study found 100 percent bacterial contamination in shared dispensers. A USDA study found spice jars are the single highest cross-contamination surface in any kitchen.

The fix is not complicated or expensive. It is replacing shared items with individually sealed, single-use products that are refreshed at every turnover. Your guests may not know the science. But they notice the details. And the hosts who get five-star reviews consistently are the ones who thought of everything, including the things guests would never think to check.

References

1. University of Arizona / Clean the World Study (2019). 100% bacterial contamination in refillable hotel dispensers. 75% exceeding safe CFU thresholds.
2. World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Guidelines against adding product to partially empty soap and hygiene containers.
3. Montana State University. Bacterial counts return to contaminated levels within two weeks regardless of cleaning method.
4. Dr. Charles Gerba, Professor of Virology, University of Arizona. Bacterial growth in refillable dispensers grows to large numbers across all hygiene products.
5. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service and Journal of Food Protection, November 2022. 48% of spice containers showed bacterial cross-contamination. Highest rate of any kitchen surface across 371 participants.
6. Benjamin Chapman, Ph.D., NC State University. Most people never think about spice jars during food preparation.
7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Four high-risk groups for foodborne illness: adults 65 and over, children under 5, pregnant women, and immunocompromised individuals.

Mountain Comfort Supply Co is available to any short-term rental host. Based in the Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado. Local delivery in Snowmass and Aspen. Ships nationwide.

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