The market for short-rentals via Airbnb is booming. AllTheRooms reports that in 2021 alone, there were 56.9 million nights of stays booked on the platform, with an average of over 8.5 million active listings. As consumers shift further away from hoteliers and take their vacations into their own hands, Airbnb hosts look set to profit for many years to come.
Or at least they will if they play their cards right. The ever-growing popularity of listing through these platforms presents a unique problem for the owners of holiday homes: how do they stand out from the crowd?
With such a saturated market, hosts need to step up their game to keep the reviews and revenue coming in. So, if you’re a budding host looking to fill your calendar with bookings, keep reading — these are our top three ways to get your Airbnb to stand out from the crowd.
1. Hang interesting local art
Unique artwork will give your property character that can’t be replicated anywhere else. By hanging a series of small artist pieces from your area, you can support the local art scene and add a distinct flavor to your interior design.
Be sure to choose beautiful art that captures the spirit of your neighborhood — whether inspired by its distinct scenery, architecture, or people. This way, your Airbnb will be unique to your location, while also avoiding looking overly beige or sterile. Though we tend to personalize our own home decor using family photos, this tends to be frowned upon in the world of Airbnb properties. Instead, you should look to use art to inject some personality into your interior design.
Beyond picking good art, it’s also important to make the best choice of frame, as a poor choice here can undermine your carefully curated aesthetic. The experts at Soho Frames expand upon this, advising that you should “pick a frame for the piece, not the room in which it is going to be hung. This will help you ensure that your artwork looks stunning, no matter where it is displayed.” This also works to future-proof your property so that if you move the piece, “you won’t have to recreate the old room’s design for your framed art to look great.”
2. Use a bold color palette
A simple way to create a bold visual identity for your property is to think in color. A cohesive color story throughout your property will make it memorable to guests curating a shortlist of properties. Your first step will likely be a lick of paint — a cheap DIY fix to make, especially if you only have a small square footage to cover in city property.
Once your walls are drenched in your shades of choice, consider some complementary accents with fixtures and soft furnishings like curtains, throws and upholstery. If you’ve gone with pared-back neutral tones on the walls, consider adding some bolder pops of color here and there to breathe some life into your interiors.
Home Guides offers advice on contrasting colors in a complementary way, explaining that, for example, you could “add bright blue pillows and a vivid orange vase, and they will glow, being the brightest versions of the featured complementary pair. The same concept can be applied to other complementary pairs, such as green-gray and red, or purple-gray and yellow.”
3. Create a unique welcome table
Beyond the standard welcome pack, a table in your property set up with local goods could make for a rich greeting experience for your guests. This doesn’t have to be a particularly large or impressive setup, just repurpose any surface you currently have and stock it with fresh flowers and the type of things you would expect in a welcome pack.
It’s these kinds of details that incentivize repeat visits and keep the five-star reviews coming in. If your local area is particularly known for a certain kind of food, drink or other good, highlight this on your table and give guests a taste of what to expect on their stay.
This is also a way to help visitors with any queries they might have, particularly if you include things like travel guides and maps on the table. This information is especially helpful if you’re not around for the duration of their visit, allowing them to use these resources as their first port of call for questions about the area.
