Properly furnishing AirBnb(privateroom)

[Matthew Moore]

Hey BP family! I'm back with some more questions, I’m have previously considered doing M2M room leasing however, being that I’m quite the outgoing individual that’s all about experiences. I’m currently trying to find all that I can about properly furnishing private room Airbnb. I’ve looked online but I haven’t really read about why are good setups for rooms(bed size, night stands, dressers, mirrors???) I live about 10-15 minutes south of downtown Colorado Springs in fountain. Rooms that I’ve researched go from 30-50 a night. Just curious as to what kind of setups do you guys use in private room for Airbnb. Oh another question is there any other websites like Airbnb to help with decreasing vacancies? Home is a tri level with room #1 being the master bedroom on the third floor and #2 being on the bottom floor. Not sure if that helps any but I’m in a creativity bind. Thanks BP family! -Matt Moore

[Jennifer Ward]

@Matthew Moore even though people rent your room knowing its not a hotel, they tend to still expect hotel amenities.  I think @Trevor Kolb made great suggestions but I would also add a TV, you don't have to have cable or satellite necessarily but definitely at least a Roku or something similar.  Other things to consider when attracting guests if you allow pets or not.  We have been hosts for two years and do allow pets and almost every guest brought a pet and we rarely have vacancies.  

Also, I don't know how your house is setup but if you have a way to offer private entrance, guests tend to prefer these types of properties.  We bought our house with the intention to do AirBnB and our guests use our garage entrance as the private entrance, so it doesn't have to be a formal front door.  Also, we tend to get month long renters because of the private entrance.

Finally, Trevor already mentioned the other sites I would recommend.  I have attempted using more than one site to market the same property, however you have to be very careful that your calendars sync so you don't double book.  VRBO is more flexible about canceling or denying requests, AirBnB is definitely more strict.  I think VRBO's service charge is slightly hire than AirBnB.