A Simple Guide to Furnishing Your Vacation Rental

When getting started with any new business venture, it’s always a little tempting to cut corners. After all, if you have just bought a home to use as a vacation rental, you might not want to spend a lot on furniture as well. However, your furniture isn’t purely functional in a vacation rental. Instead, it is part customer satisfaction, part functionality, and part marketing since many people choose their rental based on photographs of the property with furniture.

Here is a great way to choose your furniture wisely and get a good value for the money you put into the property’s furnishings. It can even influence your ability to sell the home in the future.

Do Research on Similar Rentals and Create a List

The great thing about vacation rentals is that you can often find the listings for popular vacation rentals in your area and learn from their listings. Look through some of the most comparable vacation rentals to your own and start documenting the furnishings you see. You want to know how many beds, nightstands, coffee tables, and such you need but notice other furnishings, from how much wall art looks good versus cluttered, and how many area rugs, curtains or window blinds, and partitions you might need.

Creating your list allows you to begin shopping sales and slowly find the right items over time, but it also helps you notice other things: does your beachfront vacation rental need a breezy theme of light blues and seashells? Does the modern look of your building lend itself to more neutral tones and lots of open space? Especially if you don’t have a design background, this list can guide your shopping and help you pick items that really work together.

Look at Your Sourcing Options and Choose Used Versus New

If you’re an estate sale whiz, you might know exactly where you’ll find the perfect mix of good prices and old-school durability and glamour. However, many of us are dealing with two options: used furniture and new furniture. While finding surprise treasures at yard sales and thrift stores is fun, more often, these items are not quite right for your space or show a lot of wear and tear, which can detract from the appeal of your property to a swath of potential visitors.

Unless you have a reliable source of easy-to-match, durable used furniture, you’re better off outfitting your properties in a minimal way with timeless, durable new furniture. The key is that a chair that costs 20% more but will last many years longer is a better investment, especially because people can be more careless with a rental than with their own homes and possessions. Check reviews while shopping to ensure that you purchase particular items that don’t have a penchant for breaking easily.

Remember That Certain Furniture Can Increase Profits

Two major areas where furniture can make you money as a vacation rental owner are storage and beds. The extra investment for a trundle bed, hideaway bed, or sleeper sofa (with a comfortable mattress – don’t want bad reviews!) quickly pays for itself because larger groups can rent your space at a higher per-night rate.

Storage is also helpful, whether it is an organization for storage closets or storage furniture throughout the home. You want your guests to have places to put their things, but also, the less you have to bring to and from the rental, the easier it will be to turn the rental over for the next group. By saving the minutes of hauling cleaning items from place to place, you’ll create a better experience for you and any staff you have.

Finally, let the demand in your area guide you: do properties with a hot tub rent very well in your area, or do they barely get more notice than non-hot-tub properties, for instance. Focusing on the items that more renters want, from barstools by the kitchen to excellent patio furniture for stargazing, will help you to see the best return you can command.