The Fundamentals of Airbnb Design

To be an Airbnb host in 2024, it is crucial to ensure a practical and liable space for your clients by addressing the specific needs of each room when furnishing a property. Of course, the requirements will vary depending on the target market.

For instance, if your target market includes families with kids, you’ll need to make the space kid-friendly with the appropriate activities and basic living necessities. Similarly, if your target market includes pet owners, accommodation for dogs, such as beds and food.

We are here to guide you with design recommendations for the most crucial rooms (in our opinion), helping you style the space to its fullest potential to help you make your property stand out.

How to Style an Airbnb

Transform your Airbnb into a welcoming and relaxing retreat by blending comfort, functionality, and aesthetics and adding your unique touch. We’ve put together the best Airbnb interior design tips to help you transform the living room and bedroom of your vacation rental into a space that feels nothing short of extraordinary.

Living Room Interior Design Tips

The living room can make or break your Airbnb listing. It’s the space that welcomes your guests, so it should feel inviting, comfortable and relaxing.

Invest in a Good Sofa

The focal point of your living room is undoubtedly the sofa. Invest in a comfortable sofa, especially for the main seating area. Consider a pull-out sofa for a second living space for added versatility. Choose a practical colour palette, easily cleanable fabric, and consider fabric treatment for longevity. Also, add in some throw pillows which elevate not just the aesthetics of your sofa but also add a touch of comfort.

In our furniture packages, we often opt for sofas with fixed cushions to maintain their shape over time, a bonus hack of preventing small items from getting stuck between cushions. For projects where family members stay, we may choose a cloud-like sofa for ultimate comfort and aesthetics, trusting that the client’s home will be well-maintained.

Incorporate a Coffee Table

A coffee table helps fill the space between the sofa and modular and completes the look of the room. A hot tip to prevent your coffee table from becoming a convenient footrest is to pair your table with ottomans to prevent footrest-related mishaps. The primary purpose, of course, is for coffee and magazines, and to reduce the likelihood of spills on the sofa by providing a stable surface.

Let There Be Light

While ensuring that you utilize the natural light in your rental property, you can also brighten up the room by adding floor lamps. While floor lamps often go unnoticed, seen as an awkward element in the living room, they hold significant potential. Pay attention to the lamp configuration suited to the space, whether it’s a singular lamp or a cluster, and how it directs light – whether it offers a soft, ambient glow or targeted illumination for reading over the sofa. Floor lamps serve multiple purposes, providing task lighting, acting as decorative elements, and filling in awkward empty corners.

Add Life into the Space

So how can you turn your living room into an actual space that’s meant for living? Add some life to it! Add indoor plants to add a touch of life. You can place small, potted plants or or incorporate one big, decorative indoor plant inside the room. Another way to add life is to paint an accent or unexpected color around the window frames to add personality to the space.

Bedroom Interior Design Tips

Elevate the experience of your Airbnb guests by designing a bedroom that feels like their own personal space to rest and relax.

Incorporate Upholstered Bedhead

Incorporate an upholstered bedhead to create a warm and inviting atmosphere. In our furniture packages, we often source washable slipcovers for easy cleaning and versatility. This allows colours to be changed seasonally, keeping the Airbnb space on-trend and aligned with the client’s mood and intentions for their stay.

Provide a Comfortable Mattress

Ensure a comfortable mattress with all the necessary bedding, including mattress protectors, fitted sheets, flat sheets, pillow protectors, pillowcases, throws and washable decorative cushions. The quality of bedding is crucial for enhancing a guest’s stay and must meet high standards.

Add a Bedside Table

Integrate a bedside table with storage. Using side tables as bedside tables is a current trend and can only be practical for some guests with too many personal items. We suggest the most beneficial bedside table is one with drawers to provide storage for books, glasses, chargers and other essentials for guest convenience.

Spruce Up Your Space with a Mirror

Consider adding a full-length mirror in the bedroom. This not only earns bonus points from visitors but also serves as a decorative element, elevating the room’s aesthetics and creating the illusion of more space.

Let in the Natural Light

Pay attention to lighting, a key aspect in every room of your rental space. Make sure that there are windows in the bedroom to let in the natural light. And whilst downlights are standard, incorporating mood lighting or task lighting is equally important. Use these lighting elements strategically in Airbnb photos to set the mood of the house and offer practical benefits to guests.

Things to Keep in Mind When Styling Your Airbnb

When styling these spaces, the key is to fill them without overwhelming the area.

• Rugs are excellent for tying together a space, especially on floorboards where they can be placed under sofas, beds or even as runners in the hallway to soften the space.
• Consideration of window furnishings is also vital to complete the space. Ensure that blackout blinds are in the necessary rooms, and consider incorporating linen sheer curtains for added softness.
• When it comes to decoration, art is essential. Assess the space it will occupy and determine whether a landscape or portrait orientation would be more suitable. Opt for neutral tones and simplistic designs, as less can often be more in an Airbnb to appeal to a broader audience. Our hot tip is to use the colour of the frame to complement other elements in the room to truly bring it together. Such as an oak frame to match the floorboards or a black frame to accentuate the black legs of your sofa and coffee table.
• When it comes to small decorative pieces, simplicity is key. Opt for a handful of decorative cushions on your sofa and bed. Avoid overcrowding your sofa with numerous cushions; instead, stick to two on each side if the space permits, experimenting with colour, texture, and shape.
• For your coffee table, consider creating a visually appealing cluster of three items— one large, one medium, and one small—each with different widths and depths, adding variety to the arrangement.

Airbnbs offer flexibility and room for creative design. Ensure the essential elements are in place in each room to make it comfortable for your guests. Once the basics are covered, you can dive into styling and infusing your personal style to make it unique. If furnishing your Airbnb seems challenging or you’re on a tight schedule, consider Blink Living’s expertise in providing comprehensive furniture packages to fully equip your Airbnb for rent.

A Blink Living Airbnb interior designer can help you make your Airbnb stand out by creating a space that will attract guests and create a memorable guest experience. Feel free to reach out at 5455 5015 or via email at info@blinkliving.com.au.