5 Furnishing Tips to Increase Your Airbnb’s Nightly Rate

A lot of Airbnb investors are right now buying a lot of properties whether it be CBD, in the suburbs or even along the coast on Peninsula because the Airbnb market is booming. But the big problem that they have is there’s so much competition and there’s a lot of things that you need to think about. Everyone’s trying to buy properties to put on Airbnb before Christmas which is in under two months.

Here are the common problems when you put your property on Airbnb:

• Competitive market 
• Bad reviews 
• Poor occupancy rates 
• Low nightly rates 

It’s really hard and difficult to make sure that your property is going to be doing well because it’s just so much competition. Why is someone going to rent your property or your holiday home compared to the one next door? If your property is not set up right, or if it’s not set up straight away then you’re not going to get many good reviews which will not lead to many bookings. If there aren’t many bookings, that means you’re not going to be able to charge more or even worse, you have to lower your rates to try and attract guests to stay in your holiday home.

At MORC, we’ve furnished so many properties that we’ve identified some of these 5 tips that could easily and some even straight away increase your nightly rate right now! 

1. Consider your audience 

• Who would travel to your area? 
• Why would they stay in your holiday home/Airbnb? 
• How would they use your space?   

Most people when they buy an Airbnb property, they go “Alright, It’s just an empty space. I can simply put furniture in here.” and that’s what they do. But the number one thing that they don’t do, is think about who’s actually going to stay in the property. Is it going to be working professionals, couple or family? Where is your property located, is it by the beach or in an urban city location? How big is the property and what kind of property is it, is it a house or an apartment?  All these things you really have to think about so that you can be a lot more intentional with how and why you’re furnishing your property. Why are they going to be staying in your property? Is it because either they’re going to the CBD for a mini staycation or are they’re going away to Mornington Peninsula with their whole family to go and visit the beach, so that’s something that’s very important.

2. Get rid of the old 

• Is your furniture more than 10-years-old?
• Is the furniture breaking down, wobbly or breaking down?
• Does the furniture smell or have stains?

A lot of times when we work with Airbnb managers, they come to us and say, “We’ve got clients who’ve got properties and want to put it on Airbnb”, but they look at the property and they’ve got old furniture that they’ve used for over 10 years. You really need to know who you’re trying to attract to your property and obviously, make sure you don’t put old furniture. From our own experience, we’ve visited some properties where there’s actually broken beds, stained couches and you can even smell the dog’s pee. That’s not going to really look good on your reviews so please make sure you get rid of old furniture.

3. Invest in quality 

• Travelers and guests are smarter now 
• Travelers look for an experience 
• People don’t want to stay in a low-quality holiday home for longer periods 

Once you get rid of the old, invest in new quality furniture because guests and travelers are a lot smarter nowadays, they know how to look at photos and be would say “Wow this is a lot more presentable. This looks like it’s a better-quality mattress or sofa compared to the one next door. I’m definitely going to be booking that one.” Because of COVID, they’ve saved up a lot of money so they want a really good experience and they don’t mind splurging a little bit more. And if you’re going to invest in quality, you’re going to attract guests who are happy to pay a premium. So, that means you can easily charge more and guests are going to pay that premium.

4. Include a study desk

• Many travelers/guests bring their laptops for work 
• Stands out compared to properties without a study desk 

Because of COVID, most people bring their laptop around and they want to work from home. As such having a study desk in your Airbnb is really important and can be a deciding factor for some people when choosing an Airbnb listing. If you have space or a corner in your property that’s next to a power point, why not put a study desk and chair. It’s only two extra items that can easily attract your next guest compared to the listing next door that doesn’t have a study.

5. Use a sofa bed

• Sleep more guests 
• Increases your nightly rate 

Lastly, using a sofa bed can easily increase the number of guests that you can sleep in your property. For a one bedroom apartment, you can double the number of guests from one to two extra guests that can immediately increase from $30 to $50 per night. If you multiply that over a year, that’s almost $5,000 to $10,000 extra rent per year from just investing a $2,000 sofa bed. Just make sure you get a sofa bed has a mattress that pulls out and not the sofa bed that drops the back down.

4-Bedroom Torquay Holiday Home

Here’s an example of a Torquay holiday home that we did early this year.  

Before we went in, they were getting about a $1500 per week. Now, it’s getting about $2100 per week but it’s actually increased a lot more.  

If someone didn’t really plan their space well it can look very cluttered, very tight and not very appealing. Whereas when we plan it properly and we know what size furniture to fit, what can really attract well in terms of how to style the property, it can look a lot more warm and inviting which could result in $2645 per week near the end of September in 2022 as shown in the photo.

These are some of the good reviews that were left on that Airbnb property and the client is absolutely happy they left us an amazing review we’re so happy about it.

So those are some of the things that if you’re a property investor and you either have or you’re planning to buy an investment property to put on Airbnb or just any short-term rental market, you want to make sure that you’re setting up for success.

Recommendation

Our client was absolutely happy and has given us an amazing review.

“Second time we have used MORC. From a 2BR inner city apartment to a 4BR Coastal retreat. Extremely efficient, delivered on time with minimal fuss. Overall finished product furnishing and styling is amazing. Looking forward to enjoying it. Would highly recommend!”

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If you are looking to furnish and style your home or investment property that is focused on achieving the results you want, contact us so that we can help you out.

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