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We have stand alone guest homes. We live nearby, but not on property. Husband and I are discussing whether we can put any holiday decorations inside the homes.
We have small trees, but thought that might be too much. We have Christmas gnomes, is that too Christmassy?
In the past we’ve limited ourselves to leaving them snowflake mugs with hot chocolate mix.
For stand alone homes, I wouldn’t. It’s been posted here that guests sometimes request decorations. So I’d consider that on a case by case basis. In my attached suite I sometimes do some small seasonal thing like a coffee cup or some seasonal candy but that’s it.
We do some greens and reds in floral type very small arrangements, and a few small shiny ornaments. I also have a “Christmas” vintage trailer ( purchased by my s.i.l ) that is about 12" x 9" x 9" that goes on an outside shelf. Most of the florals and other summer decor is put away by midwinter so its nice to have something to put out. I don’t think it is enough to offend anybody.
I’m not religious, but I do enjoy decorating our home, even if no one is coming to see it.
I have a very different philosophy. I think whether or not you do it should depend on the type of listing and your type of guest.
Here’s what I do in one of my AirBnBs. It’s an entire 3 bedroom, 2 bath Victorian house in a small town. Most of our guests around the holidays are here to visit family and often have children. I change the listing title on that house around this time of year and call it the Polar Express House.
Another house, in the same town, guests coming to visit family, we decorated like this. This house had only two bedrooms, one and a half baths, no tub, so it tended to attract couples without children.
If you like to decorate for holidays, I would just ask the guests. If they are staying for several days over the holidays, they might love it, depending on their beliefs and especially if they have kids. If they’re not Christian, they might hate it and find it offensive. Even some Christians, like Jehovah’s Witnesses, strongly disagree with Christmas being treated as anything but a religious holiday.
Otherwise, just decorate with a winter, snowflake-type scheme, no trees, Santas, angels or the rest of those trappings. Lights are fine, they are just festive and pretty.
If one wants to decorate their home and market it that way for a holiday, I’m all for it. Last year there was a halloween type house, some sort of gothic mess that I’m sure many folks would love to rent for end of Oct.
I’m cheap & a bit lazy so I don’t decorate my rentals. It has nothing to do with guest preferences.
Condo, entire unit rental: I like what my neighbor does. In the Airbnb photos she includes 2 pics of the Christmas decorations from a couple years ago. The pics are captioned, “December decorations ”.
The guests can choose to book or not.
It’s her condo. Her family usually stays for a week sometime during the month. She will decorate for them. Guests know what they are booking.
We do not decorate with holiday decorations. For bookings during the holidays, I let the guests know, as soon as they book, not to expect the place to be decorated. Nobody has ever had a problem with it.
I’m with @Annet3176 lol! But I also come from a multi faith family so not super into decorating for one holiday more than another. Tasteful seasonal decor seems like the easy way to go if you want to zhuzh up the space.
The only decorating I have ever done for Christmas was when I found (I forget where) a Santa hat and hung it on the bedpost just in case the guests wanted to have a Christmas themes session.
I go case by case. Once Christmas is booked, it is one time I do a little digging on my guests, looking for FB pages, etc to try and guess if they have not just said, “we’re coming to visit family for Christmas” or something. I did once get, “It will just be me, I’m not into the holidays and am looking for some downtime and to escape the madness” which was also helpful.
We will put a little tree, a midget pine or a small rosemary, something we can plant later, with tiny lights on it, in the apartment and some kind of seasonal treat. Each apartment gets a stocking stuffed with goodies hung on its doorknob on Christmas morning. That’s my favorite part, I love to put the stockings together, customizing them and sneaking down in the middle of the night to place them. I even did a non-holiday style stocking with non-holiday goodies for the person escaping the holidays and they loved it.
We don’t do decorations in the common area or anything. I get tired of all the decorations really quickly.
I would rent your listings specifically because of the wonderful holiday decorations! I love it. Whenever we have travelled for x-mas (very rarely) I have always brought my own decorations, but of course, I couldn’t pack that many into a suitcase.
I inform my guests that we do seasonal decorations on my page. I even show photos in season. When someone books for December, I will ask if they are Ok with Christmas decor. No one has ever objected. I actually get thanked and great reviews for the decor. I do assure guests the decor is kid proof so no one is stressed if there is an accident. Obviously I am not using antique ornaments or priceless decor. We regularly change bedding, shower curtains, throw pillows, wreaths, and floral decor for an instant seasonal change.
For Christmas we add Christmas dishes, mugs, put up a tree, change the table cloth in the dining room, add throw rugs and door mats that are seasonal, add greenery in all the rooms, bubble lights and greenery over the mantle. I do keep the interior secular.
The house is at the end of a cul-de-sac where the neighbors go all out decorating. In the circle, there are moving trains, planes, a few elves and nutcrackers; an 8 ft snowmen and a 6 ft Grinch with Max, a nativity, stars angels, and reindeer.
In short, every yard in the circle, looks like National Lampoon’s family vacation. Yes, we are competitive here! No way you can miss it so I just embrace it and decorate the house and yard. Lights and greenery everywhere. . The music and lights go off about 10:00 so it is not too bright to sleep. Kids of all ages love our circle.
So yes, I do ask if guest will object when booking between Thanksgiving and New Years.