How Interior Design Can Change the Guest Experience and Protect Your Property
Decorating should be an important part of your budget when you're thinking about buying, listing, or updating your short-term property or vacation rental
Neglecting interior decoration can be the one thing that sinks your whole investment and turns out to be a costly mistake in your vacation rental. While buying cheap furniture is tempting, it can break easily and ruin a guest's experience, costing you both money to replace and resulting in poor reviews. Remember, you're selling guests a vacation they want to get excited about and look forward to.
When I have a new client, one of the first things we do is discuss what kind of mood they want their place to give off for guests. This is an important part of what you're selling to guests, it's what they see in the photos of the listing, and where they'll live for a few days. Potential guests will be encouraged to book your place if it looks like thought has been put into it. Here are some important points to remember and guide you when decorating your short-term property:
• Personal touch without personal stuff:
It's tempting to just fill your place with things you don't want anymore, but unless your stuff is new, it'll likely just look like…your stuff. A few items can stay, especially things like matching plates and cute mugs. Otherwise, nobody wants to sleep on your old bed sheets or find ratty towels in the bathroom. These are inexpensive items that will go a long way. Feel free to add some things, like books or cool posters of your city. This is what makes things personal.
• Renter friendly:
This is the part of the decoration that is vital for owners to think about. Keep in mind that this is not a long-term rental situation, so when decorating and purchasing items think about how people move around your property or what they need for a short-term or vacation stay. For example, guests will have luggage, so don't make it hard to navigate the place with bulky furniture; provide luggage racks in every room so people can access their stuff easily; chose interior wall paint that is washable so the cleaners can easily remove scuff marks or kid's handprints; buy good quality bedding and towels so you don't have to replace them as frequently between washes.
• Extras that go a long way:
Thinking through the extras that your guests need, will make them appreciate your place more and encourage them to follow rules (especially if they have pets), and give better reviews. The easiest hack to doing this is to provide those bulky items that folks don't want to bring themselves.
Kids:
If guests are coming with children, they' ll appreciate you providing a pack-and-play (crib), a highchair, and sippy cups.
Pets:
If they bring pets, it's easy for you to provide a crate, sheets for the sofa (to avoid pet hair on your furniture), and bowls. If you're on the fence about pets in your property, read my other blog on that.
Vacation spot:
If your property is in a specific vacation area, like a beach vacation rental, make sure you provide beach towels and maybe beach chairs. Or if it's in mountains or a ski area, stock extra blankets for winter, and a makeshift mudroom at the entrance (with plastic shoe holder and spaced out coat racks for bulky coats). Little things can make a difference.
• Quality:
When I started out renting bigger properties, one of the owners I worked with in Florida left all of their beautiful and vintage, high end, furniture in the property—including a wood dining table and white Italian linen sofa. I warned them that this might be a bad idea given that accidents can happen, but they didn’t want to change the furniture. Suddenly a guest placed a hot place on their antique table and made a dent in it, and children had stained their sofa. We were able to salvage both pieces, but eventually they switched things out. While you’re not likely to run into big problems, putting expensive furniture in a property can be a risk. But putting very cheap furniture is also a risk—as it can break easily. Pick things in the middle, and unless your property is very expensive (in the thousands per night), there’s no need to put furniture that costs thousands of dollars per piece. Remember, it needs to not just withstand several people, but also needs to be being cleaned frequently.
• Decoration that sets the vibe:
So now you know what you should buy (doggy bowls, highchairs, thick blankets). But how do you put it together? Where to start? Think about how you want your place to look and the mood or vibe you want your guests to feel when they stay. This can be obvious sometimes, for example, you’re not going to decorate your modern apartment like a farmhouse. The main thing to keep in mind is that you want to make the space feel homey. Pick a style, like boho, farmhouse, industrial, traditional, or beachy, for example, and start decorating from there. This can include just adding accessories and keeping a good base in case you want to change your mind in a year or two.