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Airbnb Design for Maximum ROI
PROVIDED BY ELIZABETH MAORA SICKELS Designing for vacation rentals can be a challenge! You have to think in terms of the guest, as well as resale value down the road. We run property rehabs, doing the full design and furnishing of he properties for our clients for vacation rentals. We’ve found the following as extremely beneficial in maximizing ROI for both immediate, and long term needs. I never design on trend, but rather for the long haul, assessing current needs and anticipating future needs. Making a space inviting, by providing a unique experience, is the goal. Every one of our properties are themed, everything from Downtown Serenity, Viva Las Vegas, Elegance in City, to An Upscale Dog’s Life and Indy’s Grand Slam. Sometimes our properties are themed around a piece of artwork. I was in Chicago and found a gorgeous oil flower painting. The entire property was themed around this painting. All you need in some cases is one piece of inspiration to get you going! Open concept, I believe it’s here to stay
and design for this factor. We have a lot of business guests, having an open concept, allowing them to work and eat and collaborate together in a private setting has been invaluable. Knocking down walls will make your contractors happy as well! Having the kitchen, living and dining rooms all open enhances the space, makes it look bigger and more inviting. In the dining room area, we buy as big a table as we can. The reason is because everyone gathers around food. Our business guests have commented on how great this table is for meetings and to have plenty of room to put papers and other items they’re working on out and really collaborate and get work done. Kitchens and bathrooms are where you want to absolutely maximize your budget if you rehabbing a property. Interesting fact, only about 10% of our guests ever actually use the kitchens. Most of the time they are just making coffee. However, everyone wants a gorgeous kitchen! We do granite counter-tops, soft close
cabinets, and tiled back-splash. Dishwashers are absolutely a must. The only time we don’t require dishwashers are in the efficiency units, a 1bedroom/1 bath property. Even though we do everything we can to make that happen. High end appliances are not necessary but welcomed. The fingerprint proof appliances are great to have, just to keep that clean look. You can have a lot of fun designing bathrooms now! I highly recommend the tiling, it’s classic and clean. Spending a little bit more money on shower heads and fun functionality will make for very happy guests. The bathrooms need to have as much light as possible, so we can see when putting on make-up and as many electrical outlets as well. We keep the décor simple in the bathrooms, typically some type of canvas or resin artwork and greenery. We are incorporating more and more greenery all of the time. Both artificial and
