How to Select Furniture for Your Airbnb Rental

Every unit must have furniture so what should you consider when purchasing furniture?  Choice of furniture can be distilled into two things: function and form.  You must consider what pieces are important to your guests?  What need is it fulfilling?  What ambiance is it creating?  Lastly, consider your budget and time.

Function

    What will it be doing and what benefits/challenges does it provide?

Your guests will have needs and you must fulfill them to create a great experience.  Think about the pieces your target rental audience will be using most.  If I have a studio apartment that I am using for business travelers, I would concentrate mostly on a finding a comfy bed and awesome desk.  I want to give the impression that this place is a built for productivity and can accommodate the hardest working individuals.  Focus your money where your guests will find the most utility.

Don’t get things that are hard to use or difficult to operate.  Someone’s trip can be ruined if the couch bed sometimes sticks and you need to use a screwdriver to get it unstuck.  Fix it or replace it!

Form

    What is it and what does it look like?

You have to balance perceived value vs. cost.  The few extra dollars you spend on making something look nice can pay for itself 10x in more bookings.  The look of your furniture will dictate your asking price as well.  If it doesn’t look like a nice place in the pictures, you won’t be able to charge top-dollar.  Remember, people are primarily choosing your place on pictures!

You may need to look for furniture that is heavier duty than normal.  With constant traffic, your things will take more of a beating than if you personally were to be using them.  Having to buy a furniture piece twice can get expensive, so try to invest in some quality pieces.  Real easy gut-check, ask yourself, how can I break this piece?  If the ways to break it are pretty far fetched, purchase it.  Avoid glass top tables – wouldn’t be optimal if someone got hurt or broke your furniture.

Remember you must clean it every time a new guest comes.  Time = Money, so the longer it takes to clean, the more it costs you.  Some things do take a long time to clean, but are necessities, like stoves.  A 1,000 piece crystal accent light is difficult to clean and probably unnecessary.  See the difference?  Avoid items with lots of little crevices – dust loves to hang out there.

 Other Tips

• A majority of leisure stays are planned by women, so come from the view of what moms, wives, girlfriends and female traveling companions would want to see.
• If you can qualify, try to find the 12-18 month 0% interest deals that many furniture stores offer.  This will help save upfront cash.
• Ambiance Tip: Imagine your Airbnb rental is a person, and it walks through a door into a room of people.  What four personality traits would people say about your rental?  Charming? Clean? Simple? Tough? Write those 4 traits down and guide your entire design choices around that.  Learn More.
• Make sure that one, or some, of the pieces you have are Instagram worthy.
• Need inspiration:  See what top-rated hosts in your area are doing and copy them.  Don’t waste time reinventing the wheel.  Also, check Pinterest.