Turning your home into an Airbnb is a great way to make a little extra money while introducing travelers from far and wide to your corner of the world. But it’s not as simple as slapping pictures onto a website – it takes planning, research and a little home improvement to make your home a 5-star destination.
If you’re wondering how to prepare your house for an Airbnb guest, check out these tips and home improvement projects suggested by our favorite Superhosts and Airbnb experts from around the globe.
How to Rent Your Home on Airbnb Like a Superhost
Before getting started, make sure that you:
Short-term rental expert Dany Papineau is more than familiar with Airbnb fine print – the city of Montreal once surprised him with a $62,000 tax bill for his home sharing business.
Papineau, now the CEO of Airbnb Secrets and WeChalet , shared with us his tips for navigating landlords and local legislation:
Airbnb Host Tips: Check Your Lease and City Zoning Laws
“If you’re in a rental unit, make sure your apartment allows short-term rentals in the building. Try to make a deal with your landlord – if you offer them a portion of your revenues, they might allow it. Then, check with your city. Cities have zoning laws attached to specific addresses. In Montreal for example, one part of a street could allow short-term rentals and another part of the street could deny it.”
“If you’re in a rental unit, make sure your apartment allows short-term rentals in the building. Try to make a deal with your landlord – if you offer them a portion of your revenues, they might allow it. Then, check with your city. Cities have zoning laws attached to specific addresses. In Montreal for example, one part of a street could allow short-term rentals and another part of the street could deny it.”Dany Papineau | CEO | Airbnb Secrets & WeChalet
Once you’ve done your due diligence, you’re ready to turn your home into an Airbnb. We’ll show you how to prepare your home for Airbnb’s three listing types: shared room, private room and entire place.
Airbnb Home Preparation: Shared Room
A shared room provides guests with a non-private place to sleep – this means they’re sharing the entire space either with the host, other guests or both. Hostels fall into this category, but even providing a guest with your living room pullout couch can be considered a shared room listing.
Preparing Your Home for an Airbnb Shared Room
According to Papineau, the most important tip for renting a shared room is to be very clear about what you’re offering:
Airbnb Host Tips: Describe the Space Clearly Online
“Guests should understand that they are renting a shared room. You want to create an online listing that accurately represents what you’re renting: will they have full access to your kitchen or living room? Are there any parts of the house they won’t have access to? The more you explain, the more your guests will understand the expectations, which will help you maintain great reviews.”
“Guests should understand that they are renting a shared room. You want to create an online listing that accurately represents what you’re renting: will they have full access to your kitchen or living room? Are there any parts of the house they won’t have access to? The more you explain, the more your guests will understand the expectations, which will help you maintain great reviews.”Dany Papineau | CEO | Airbnb Secrets & WeChalet
Airbnb Home Preparation: Private Room
Lisa and Martin of Edinburgh, UK rent out their spare bedrooms (pictured) as private room Airbnbs.
This listing is closest to the bed-and-breakfast model Airbnb was founded on. Private rooms allow your guests their own private sleeping area, with some shared common areas like the bathroom and kitchen.
Superhosts Lisa and Martin of Edinburgh, UK have been renting their spare rooms on Airbnb since purchasing their flat in the heart of Scotland’s capital in 2017. Here are a few tips from Lisa on how to prepare your home for a private room listing:
Preparing Your Home for an Airbnb Private Room
Lisa says one of the biggest home improvements was upgrading the technology and furniture for the space, as well as adding security measures for their guests:
Airbnb Host Tips: Upgrade Your Home’s Technology
“As I wanted to make the guest rooms as nice as possible, there was an initial large spend of furnishings and technology. I purchased beds with integrated smart TVs and put digital locks on bedroom doors. The living area needed to be furnished as well.”
Lisa McKinney | Airbnb Superhost | Edinburgh, UK
Airbnb Home Preparation: Entire Place
Jeremy and Melissa of Colorado Springs rent this spacious, custom lodge, as well as their tiny home on Airbnb.
This one is self-explanatory: your guests get the run of the place. But how do you rent your entire home on Airbnb when you live there? How do you rent it when you don’t?
To tackle this category, we’ll break it down into three sections: renting out your primary home, renting out a guest house and renting out a vacation home.
Renting Out Your Primary Home on Airbnb
Jeremy and Melissa alternate between residing in their lodge (pictured) and their tiny home when they have guests.
Renting out the home you reside in can present a number of challenges, but Jeremy and Melissa of Colorado Springs came up with a unique solution: an on-site tiny house.
Airbnb Host Tips: Renting Your Entire Home? Have a Place to Stay
“Our biggest challenge in getting started was trying to figure out how to rent out the whole house, but still have a close enough presence to be able to manage and respond to any issues. Thus, the tiny house idea was born! It took about four weeks to totally prepare the area which included building a retaining wall, having asphalt put down in the space, planting some large trees and seeding the area with wildflowers.”
Jeremy and Melissa | Airbnb Hosts | Colorado Springs, CO
As an added bonus, Jeremy and Melissa are now able to rent both their tiny house and their lodge alternately.
Here are some of Jeremy’s top tips for renting out a primary home:
Preparing Your Primary Home for Airbnb
Many hosts opt for RemoteLock security features (pictured) to simplify check-ins and check-outs for guests.
Airbnb’s partnership with RemoteLock makes it easy for hosts to upgrade their space’s security and guest accessibility. RemoteLocks are integrated with Airbnb’s booking software. This means new, unique codes can be sent directly to guests for each stay, eliminating the potential for lost keys.
“Old locking technology can present risks because keys and codes can be used over and over. RemoteLock locks are different. A reservation is created on Airbnb, and an access code is automatically sent via email to the guest and the lock for the time of stay. Codes expire at the reservation’s checkout time, so there is no worry for a previous guest to return and gain access to the property. ”
John Cargile | Director of Marketing | RemoteLock
Renting Out a Guest House on Airbnb
Doug and Rick of Blue Sky Place, Victoria, BC rent their home’s attached guest suite (pictured) as an entire place listing.
If you have a guest home or an in-law suite like Superhosts Doug and Rick of Victoria, BC, it’s important to create an individual, separate space for guests.
“Guests access our suite via a gate separating the driveway from our garden and front door, with a path leading around to the side of the house and stairs leading down,” explains Doug. “We tell guests that everything from the top of the stairs downwards is their private space.”
Preparing a Guest Home for Airbnb
Doug and Rick’s idyllic backyard glade, complete with seating and BBQ equipment.
The couple currently have plans to upgrade the suite to make it more self-contained and allow longer stays for guests:
Airbnb Host Tips: For Longer Rentals, Make Kitchen and Laundry Upgrades
“We’re in the early design planning stages for upgrading the kitchenette into a more full-featured kitchen. This will likely include installing cupboards and a countertop with a built-in 2-burner induction cooktop and range hood with a combination convection microwave above or below. We’d then install a mid-size fridge, replacing the current bar fridge. Eventually we’d like to use the living room’s built-in closet space for a washer/dryer.”
Doug and Rick| Airbnb Superhosts | Victoria, BC
Renting Out Your Vacation Home on Airbnb
The spaciousness of Jeremy and Melissa’s family lodge (pictured) makes it a popular spot for large gatherings.
If you’re renting out a larger home like Jeremy and Melissa’s four-bedroom, 3,500 square foot lodge in Colorado Springs, be prepared to host large groups of ten or more people for each booking.
“The guests in our larger house tend to be families getting together for vacation and reunions,” says Jeremy.
You’ll likely be able to fetch a higher price due to the space alone. But because of this, your vacation guests will have high standards for the home’s amenities. Here are a few Airbnb home preparation tips to help you really “wow” your vacation home guests:
Preparing a Vacation Home for Airbnb
Jeremy and Melissa’s Airbnb includes an outdoor fire pit with seating – perfect for cool, autumn evenings in Colorado.
As you get the hang of your new vacation home rental, you might want to expand your operations. If you’re planning on managing multiple vacation homes, you’ll need to find a way to keep track of day-to-day things. This includes booking calendars, cleanings and maintenance and repair schedules.
The experts at Guesty, a cloud-based property management software for vacation rentals, say the key is to consolidate and centralize your operations:
“If you’re going to manage five or more properties, you’re going to want to list them on multiple sites including Airbnb, Booking.com and Trip Advisor. Guesty can help consolidate all of those channels into one dashboard with one calendar, one auto-pricing and one messaging system, including auto-messages for guests and cleaning staff after check-outs, which can save hours of work.”
Matthew Barnes | Head of Content | Guesty
To monitor each of your properties’ security easily, RemoteLock also offers centralized WiFi locking systems for multi-property owners:
“RemoteLock is the preferred choice of many Airbnb hosts and property managers because of its scale-ability. Hosts can have multiple doors and properties on the same system. Plus, cleaners and other staff can have their own codes, so owners and property managers can have scheduled access times that can be monitored.”
John Cargile | Director of Marketing | RemoteLock
Final Tips: How to Become a Great Airbnb Host
Lisa, Doug and Jeremy all know a thing or two about preparing a house for Airbnb, but most importantly, they know how to be great hosts.
“All our reviews have been five stars, which I think reflects the effort we put into making the place clean, bright, comfortable and appealing,” says Doug.
Lisa says it’s important to understand that each guest is different: “Some guests will want to sit and chat about boyfriend troubles for hours, others will only have booked you because it was cheaper than a hotel and don’t actually want to see or speak to you.”
“Being friendly and responsive, but not obtrusive, goes a long way towards enhancing the experience and making sure everyone has a great time during their stay,” says Jeremy.
Ultimately, becoming a great Airbnb host comes down to one key factor: a great guest experience.
“There are loads of nice Airbnbs online,” says Matthew Barnes of Guesty. “What’s going to set two places apart is not the space, but the guests’ experience with the owner. Was the owner nice? Were they responsive? Did they solve problems quickly? Improving the guest experience is how you build relationships and get returning guests.”
Looking for more DIY projects to turn your home into a five-star destination? Check out our Exceedingly Comprehensive Guide to DIY Home Improvement to get started.