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Having a vacation rental is quite different from a rental house in the city. I wonder what do you think attracts guests to a vacation house?
A large TV/projector? Outdoor shower? Great sound system?
We found that once we added a Jacuzzi the booking went up. What is for you?
Depends on where your vacation listing is.
Personally I would not care about a large TV, or a great sound system. I don’t go on vacation for that sort of stuff.
If I were at an on-the-beach house an outdoor shower would make perfect sense to rinse off sea salt, but it makes little sense at a mountain cabin. At the beach a hot tub or Jacuzzi doesn’t make much sense, but they do in a mountain/winter ski resort setting.
This is where checking out your “comps” – comparable – listings will tell you what other people are finding useful and what, probably, their guests (and your potential guests) are looking for.
I booked a vacation listing for this past summer. I wanted to take a group of friends (13 were invited, 7 plus me attended) and things I was looking for that I was able to find in single property included
several bathrooms
AC in the bedrooms
table large enough for everyone to sit together
wifi
pool
scenic view
The property also had a pool table, all in one weight machine and foosball table and those things appealed to me when selecting a property but we didn’t use them much.
This is the one I chose
Avoid the “great sound system” if you have neighbors. No sense in encouraging loud music. HDTV a must…if many bedrooms then put one in every bedroom if possible. Be sure the main room TV has multiple channel options…including Sports Channel. Hot tubs are a plus in the cold months, but do require upkeep, maintenance, and higher utility bills.
Of course a pool is the icing on the cake.
I agree with georgygirl - no big sound system. We provide some small Bluetooth speakers - it’s plenty of sound for the outdoor pool or bedrooms without being loud enough to bother the neighbors.
I agree with the sound system, but TV’s? When I am going someplace to vacation, I could care less about TV’s. I would much prefer a pool in the right climate.
TV’s might be important if you are in a place that half the year the sun sets around 4pm and it is cold. In more tropical and warm spots, a pool would be more important.
And I am always looking for a true kitchen. But that is a different topic no doubt.
I can only report what my guest groups look for. They want TV’s. Multi-gen groups want to gather for sports games in the family room, and when they are sick of each other they want to escape to a bedroom with a tv.
It is in the Joshua Tree desert. Guests love the TV and often ask about it since sometimes they simply want to veg at the house and do nothing (it can get very hot or very cold there). Seen it before many times. They love the sound system since it’s a large house and we connected it both the inside/outside patio so they can listen to music wherever they go. One out of 10 reviews will mention this feature.
I’m definitely checking the comps again to see what else can be added.
I feel the pool table is a great idea. At one point I was thinking of an old-school arcade machine but I don’t have the room for it at the moment.
My neighbors are fairly far and it was never an issue. Definitely got the HDTV, got a DVD with 30 movies (trying to hit the common genres). The hot tub is there already, great add-on!
Got a quote for a pool a month ago. Even through it’s small - we’re looking at $35K. That would take a loooong time to pay back. Not sure it’s worth it at the moment…
It’s an open floor plan house with 10 foot ceilings, The small Bluetooth speakers don’t cut it all if you want to bump it up a bit.
True. Although no one ever asked about what’s in our kitchen we really try to think of everything you need there. I really want to get a nice chef knife but heard too many stories of people damaging them (dishwasher anyone?) or stealing them.
I think in a summer vacation home, a pool is the biggest attraction. I think also good outside seating/eating areas and a barbecue are important too. If you decide to put a pool in, I think you can charge a higher price which you should take into account when evaluating the payback. We’ve always had a pool in our villa near Lugano. It’s hard to evaluate exactly the price premium we get- I’d guess it is around $150 per night gross. I think that pool heating is a big cost to watch however. I have noticed on some sites that pool heating is an extra but it’s hard to manage that on Airbnb. We have been able to charge substantIally when people have wanted the pool heated to over 25° or out of season.
I agree with @anon67190644, for us personally a well equipped kitchen is a must. We have equipped our kitchen to a high standard but never got any mention of it in reviews. We have stayed lately in several AirBnb’s with terrible kitchens, one had decent equipment but not one sharp knife, no cheese grater and no oven dishes. Seems kind of strange to me to provide an oven and dishwasher and only provide 4 plates and no ovenware. So now we have to start asking specific questions in the kitchen before booking. Pity this is not better covered in Air’s amenities checklist.