Quality furniture, games for rainy days, decent linens, comfy beds etc.Think of the things you want in a place. 

I also require all furniture placed on the hardwood floors to have felt pads placed under the legs.

However almost three weeks later and I was supposed to get back designs for furniture and get moving and not a single contact from any phone number or their main email they work from. 

any fundamental structural ideas you would use to reduce usage of furniture?

If you don't have to worry about the flooring or furniture you could scrape most rooms in an hour or less.Make sure your home is a later model do you don't have to worry about lead or asbestos.

You likely need to replace much of the furniture in the home to give it more of a modern feel.

I was ~ $12k all in with furniture, security deposit, first month rent and maxing out my personal credit cards to get it ready with photos.That $12k provided me with an airbnb profiting me $1.4k/mo in profit.

Maybe one that fits their furniture. 

They can and will send someone over there and knock on the door and peek in your windows looking for furniture and signs of life.

If you’re in a vacation market it’s going to be implied that it’s coming with the furniture in most cases.