Today I am handing my blog over to Val, from Quill Decor. She will be running through with you why design matters and how to get started. Back in March I did a guest post of my own over on Val’s site on how to gain 5 star reviews by customizing amenities for certain guests- you can read more here. Passing it off to Val now! Be sure to check out information about her upcoming course Design your BNB below!
Hi there, I’m Val from Quill Decor. I’ve dedicated my design firm to creating exciting and relevant content to teach others how to best design and decorate their short term rental properties. I’m very excited to be visiting Tracey’s blog to share some fun design concepts about decorating rentals with you!
In this post, I’d love to share with you why design matters for a vacation rental, and the best way to get started with the design process.
I was recently searching for a place for my family to stay in the Lake District of Central England. We needed a 2 bedroom place ideally, and when searching the various Short Term Rental channels, Airbnb included, I noticed a trend:
The Vacation rentals I was finding all looked the same. Cookie Cutter. Generic. Not bad necessarily. But also, FAR from good.
They were completely boring, unoriginal, and lacked any real depth or character. They were NOT memorable. At all. The thing is…Design matters!
I had a really hard time distinguishing one boring sterile looking place from the next and ended up not booking any of them and instead searched out a well designed boutique hotel.
The point is, the short term rental market is flooded increasingly with folks trying to get in on this investment property game. This industry is growing! And like any flooded market, you should absolutely invest in ways to differentiate from the masses of beige Ikea sofas inside a boring beige box.
(above image via: Quill Decor)
The foundation of your success as an Airbnb host is going to be the design and decor of your property. You can hire the best photographer to capture your place in the right light at the right angles, but if your decor is boring or dated, those photos can only take you so far- this is why design matters!
The idea of decorating an entire property to be insta-worthy can feel really overwhelming to some, so that’s what this post is all about!
(above image via: Quill Decor)
Where to start with decorating your
Short Term Rental:
Step 1: Define Your Ideal Guest. In my Airbnb Design Course the very very very first thing I have my students do is to define their Ideal Guest. Who are you trying to attract to your rental? This is such a critical question. And you can’t say everyone or anyone with a pulse and a credit card, because although that may be true, it won’t help you create an atmosphere. If you know what your ideal guest is like and what they value, you’ll be able to create a cool space for THEM to enjoy a lot easier.
Hint: This is how you attract the type of guests you’d like to have staying in your Airbnb. You design it for THEM. And you will attract them.
So how do you define your Ideal Guest? To start, just sit down with a journal and dream up an imaginary future guest you hope to host. What are their names? Why are they traveling to the area of your rental, and what are they there to do? (Business, touring, beach going, etc.) You can really get as creative and detailed as you want with this exercise! The more detail you put into this Ideal Guest profile, the more you’ll understand who it is you’re trying to please with the decor and details of your property.
Step 2: Define the Style. Pinterest and Instagram are great and even maybe essential for design inspiration and research. However, watch out for rabbit holes! If you’re wanting to design and decorate your rental on your own, you want to be careful not to aimlessly wander into this adventure without a plan.
Knowing what Style you’re after for the decor of your rental is mega helpful BEFORE you head to those major time trap sites that can leave you wondering where you are, what day it is, and why your children are so hungry again. (It’s because you’ve been scrolling for hours!)
Check out my FREE BNB Style Quiz here for some help narrowing down the style of your space. Keep your ideal guest in mind when taking this quiz, and the inherent features of your property. Are you near water for example? Is your rental a cabin in the woods? Take this quiz as many times as you like and be sure to check your email after you submit the quiz (and your spam folder just in case!) for more in-depth information about that style outcome and how to achieve it in your rental property.
Step 3: Image and Inspiration Research. Now that you have defined your Ideal Guest and your Design Style, you can begin to plan and scroll and dream. Be sure when you’re searching to search for your exact style name along with the room. For example, I might type into Pinterest: Eclectic Mid-Century Modern Living Room.
For me the inspiration search looks something like this: Search around Pinterest and Airbnb Plus, Pin away, fall down a rabbit hole, climb out of the rabbit hole, find more inspiration, pin it, stumble upon some cool blogs to read, keep pinning, and then STOP.
Stop? Yes, stop. Stop pinning. Stop Searching. Why? Because your time is finite, and if you ever want to get this house decorated for guests and ready for business, you’ve got to get cracking on the one million decisions that need to be made.
So stop, then look at what you’ve gathered. Hone your inspiration to about 4 of your favorite images for each room, and then get away from Pinterest and those other sites for a hot minute.
Your 4 fav images all pulled together are what make up an inspiration board or Mood Board. I pull them together into one board in Powerpoint like this:
So you’re inspired, now what?
(above image via: Quill Decor)
To find out what’s next for me in the design process, head over to this blog on my website, Quill Decor. This article was adapted from that original post where you can see a case study of this living room design come together with all of the design principles taught here, and more.
If you think you would like to learn more about the design process for short term rental properties, join the waitlist for my E-course here to be informed when we go live again! We will go into more about why design matters! (Happening in early July!) I filmed this course inside of the 3 bedroom Airbnb you see pictured above, and my goal with creating this course was to give you an easy to follow roadmap for creating a gorgeous rental that stands out and stops the scroll.
You can be the designer. I’ll teach you how.
Happy Hosting!
disclaimer: We may receive a small introduction fee from vendors. This will not affect any prices that you are charged. But I will only recommend vendors that I know and love and ones that I have used for myself as a customer.
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