Our place sleeps 3. The sofa folds into a twin sized bed for the third person. We leave the sheets and pillow close to the sofa and simply show them how to unfold the bed, etc. when they check in. I keep wondering if we should make up the sofa bed when we know it will be used. We don’t really want to make the bed then fold the sofa back up as I worry about sheets getting torn, etc. (although I realize the guest could do this), and don’t want to leave it folded out and made because it doesn’t look as nice and I worry about that first impression. So basically I’m wondering what other hosts do?? To make the bed or not???
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I wonder if you could invest in a really comfortable, washable sleeping bag type arrangement? As a guest, I think I would prefer that because it would be much easier to make the bed and yet still be able to use the sofa for sitting on during the day.
Or a sleeping bag?
Hmm. I never thought of one of those? I wonder what the quality is like. Might be good for a kid, especially. I like to use fairly high quality sheets so not sure an adult (I often get two young women traveling together) would like one of those??? I guess I could but one and see what it’s like.
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This is probably better (and more expensive) as it gets good reviews.
We do make up the sofa bed, but only if they have specifically stated there are 3 guests. We use a fitted sheet and thin duvet (we only host in the summer in Spain so no thicker bedclothes needed). We have the Ektoprp sofabed from Ikea and the bedclothes fit easily with the sofa folded up, but it depends on the mechanism, I suppose. I agree with you about not leaving the sofa unfolded, but also we ask guests to fold it during the day. We haven’t had a problem with torn sheets.
When I first started to host, I did not make up the sofa into a bed. The bedding was all nicely folded ready for them to place on the bed when they opened it up at night. I assumed that people would unmake the bed each morning so that they would have the sofa for sitting. No one unmade their bed. And then the bro’s arrived and they never made up that sofa bed. He slept on that sofa night after night, and day after day since he didn’t feel well, sweating on my sofa. When they left, I took the futon cover to be dry cleaned and I now make up the bed for any guest that requests the second bed. [And yes, I ask them before they arrive.]
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I actually stayed in an Airbnb recently which had one king bed and one sofa bed (we were traveling as a 3).
The host left the sofa bed as a sofa for us to make up later on, which I thought was fine as (a) he left all the sheets and blankets folded neatly in the cupboard, and (b) the living room was quite small, so if it had been made up already, there would have been much less space and as mentioned by others, nowhere else to sit.
I guess some of the main factors depend on how much room you have and if there is anywhere else to relax apart from that one sofa.
Thanks for all of your replies. I think we will continue to leave the sheets and let them make up the sofa bed. It is a pretty small space and just doesn’t look as great with the bed folded out. We also have an air bed that could sleep 2, but so paranoid about it losing air or something going wrong with it that I don’t advertise we can take 4 people, but we’ve been offering it as a alternative to the sofa bed and that I do make up for them.
I’ve been hosting with my sleeper sofa for a few months now and I always leave it made before the guest arrives. I want them to see bed as soon as they walk in so they feel welcome and know where they’ll be sleeping. To date I have yet had a guest question how to put the mattress back into the couch.
I do the exactly the same. I ask them then make the sofa ready before they arrival.
Thanks for this post! If I can, I’d like to ask the same question, with some differences: My place sleeps up to 14. Three private bedrooms with Queen beds. A fourth Master Bedroom with a Queen bed and a pull-out Full sleeper sofa. A family room, separate from the main living area, with a full-size-futon and a pull-out Queen sleeper sofa. These pull-out sofas are being used a lot and I have the exact same question as you! My options and why:
- Pull-out and make all beds since there would still be a main living area and small sitting area for groups to gather. I also like the thought of this since many of our groups tend to be professional work groups and it feels slightly off-putting to have them making their own beds?
- Leave sheets readily available for all beds. (fitted sheet, flat sheet, pillows and comforter.)
The problem with making the beds up is that I will need to make up ALL the beds every time since I don’t want to choose which area the extra guests sleep? If they are kids, they might want to sleep with their parents in the Master rather than with random friends of their parents in the basement/Family Room area.
There seem to be a lot of options and not a particularly right or wrong, so any aspects I might be missing will surely help!
I have owned many a fold away sofa bed in my day and never have sheets been torn by folding the bed up. As a guest, I would expect the bed to be made, even a fold away sofa.
It must be our sofa bed because they have indeed ripped.
To be honest I used to give my guests an option. Now I make the bed myself as I started to put a matres protector under the fitted sheet to protect the sofa.
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