The golden rules of furnishing your short-term rental.
You just closed on your first short-term rental… Wahoo! You’re probably filled with a mixture of excitement, nervousness, and a level of anxiety and something that might feel like buyer’s remorse, or maybe you just ate some bad shwarma. Then it hits you, you’re going to have to figure out how to take this shell of a home and turn it into a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind vacation destination that can compete with the thousands of other rentals around you. To complicate it more, you don’t live in the same city as your rental and need to figure out how you’re going to make this happen on time and budget.
Here’s the good news, you got this, and we’re here to help! Here are 3 rules we follow and some resources to help you get across the finish line.
Furnish for Flair — Here’s the first barrier you’ll have to break. You are not designing the home you plan on living in. You’re designing a home that will do something called stop the scroll. Think of it this way, when someone initially goes to Airbnb (or any other OTA) and searches for your market, something like 1,000 vailable homes will pop up. As their lizard brain takes over and they aimlessly scroll through the listings, what will cause them to stop and pause on your listing? You get 1 hero shot to stop them, so it better be good, and it better pop. If your home has as much beige and brown tones as a 90’s Baptist church, it won’t work. Don’t be afraid to use bold colors, textures, and patterns to stand out and make an impression. Bold pillows, accent walls, throw blankets, and rugs are a great way to accomplish this.
Build your team — Do you remember the final battle scene in Avengers Endgame when it looks like all hope is lost, and then suddenly, all 38 Marvel characters come through some warp hole and save the universe from Thanos pulling a Lil’ Jon and snapping his fingers? Spoiler alert, there will be a moment when you’re sitting on the floor of your new home, tired, worn out, covered in paint, asking yourself, “What in the world am I doing?” This is the very moment you need a wormhole to open up in your house and have your future team walkthrough. Don’t try and do this on your own. In fact, if you do, you’ll miss out on one of the best opportunities to build your team of handymen, contractors, and cleaners. Use this as prooving grounds to vet and test some people who may become permanent members of your team. Two of the most important people you’ll need are a cleaner and a handyman. Both people can be found during the furnishing process and should be relied on to help during set up!
Stay Organized — You will be doing somewhere in the realm of 100 - 300 transactions and spending tens of thousands of dollars. If you're planning on furnishing remotely, you'll need to map out exactly when you'll need to order everything so it arrives when you or your team will be there and doesn't get left in the rain or stolen if it was delivered early. To do this, we typically start with this furnishing checklist and identify what the home needs. After that, we'll start building a physical shopping list on a Google Sheet, inputting all the information to help us dial in the budget and timing of everything. Here’s an example.
In addition to your shopping list, you'll want to keep track of your actual expenses; there are significant tax implications for everything you spend on your new short-term rental. We've used a tool as simple as Google Sheets to keep track of spending and Google Drive to store receipts, but we prefer using a program called Harvest. A tool to store receipts is handy if you have to make any returns.
Here's one last pro tip for staying organized... Get a dumpster. Seriously. You'll generate more trash in 2 weeks furnishing an STR than Greta Thunberg will generate in her life. It seems excessive, but if you don't have a place to dispose of all the boxes, styrofoam, and other waste you'll accumulate, it will pile up in your house, making it even more challenging to put together. You can safely plan on needing five yards of dumpster space for every 500 sq. ft. If you’re home is in the Poconos, we use Cascioli Dumpster Rental. Just do it. You'll thank me later.
I'll end where I started; although the road ahead is long, you got this, and we’re here to help. Don't hesitate to reach out if there's anything we can do!