Can anyone shed light on what the requirements are for a room to be officially considered a “bedroom” in my listing? Does a room have to be 100% dedicated to being a room in which someone sleeps in a bed, with no other use?
In my situation, I have two 100% bedrooms (each with a bed, closet) that aren’t used for other purposes. However, I’ve turned another room that used to be used as a 100% bedroom into a multi-use “living room”, which has a full-size futon/sofa for sitting/sleeping and a TV. As it used to be a 100% bedroom, the room has its own closet. Thus, my guests have 3 rooms in which they can hang their clothes in a closet, close the door and sleep in a bed.
I currently list my place with 2 bedrooms (only counting the 100% bedrooms). Should I be including the other room as a bedroom too, in terms of the bedroom count? I don’t want to be in any way misleading to my guests. I already clearly describe the room layout and sleeping arrangements in my listing description. If I include the futon/den room in the bedroom count, and clearly explain the arrangement in the listing description, would that potentially cause guests to feel misled?
Thanks so much!! – M
(* Sorry if this has been asked before but I searched but couldn’t find anything)
As long as it has a closet and a window allowing escape it’s a legal bedroom. You could list as a 3BR and just make some notation in your description that the third bedroom also has those extra features.
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Maybe in the USA but here in the UK a lot of homes do not have built in wardrobes - you buy them separately as stand alone units. Ikea does a roaring trade in wardrobes here… Wardrobes – Bedroom Wardrobes - IKEA
Going by those stands our home would only have one bedroom.
I believe in many cities the standard for being allowed to call something a “bedroom” (for, e.g., real estate listings), is as felixcat describes it: a room with a closet and a window for someone to dash out of in an emergency. There might be different standards for old buildings in places like New York.
Is there a living-room for guests besides this ‘multi-use’ room ?
The room in question is the only “living room” space (i.e., a room with a sofa/futon and TV/Xbox). The other rooms are two 100% bedrooms, a bathroom, hallway and a kitchen/dining room.
As a guest I would expect each room listed as a bedroom to be for private use only, meaning that no one else may need to enter this room (for instance to sit on a sofa and watch TV?) . If a room is intended as a living-room/gathering space for the whole unit, it is not a bedroom but a living-room with a sofa-bed.
When you edit your listing on Airbnb, go to “Basics”, you will be able to specify the number and types of beds, including beds in “common spaces”. In my opinion, your listing is a 2 bedrooms with a 3rd bed (sofa-bed) in a common space.
There are closets in kitchens and hallways but they would not become bedrooms even if you added a bed 
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Thanks very much for the advice!
Maybe I mistook what the OP was saying … I read it that the third room is also only for the private use of a guest, but is set up like a multi-purpose room and MAY be used as such when no guests are staying in it. If I’m right, then that definitely counts as a bedroom, at least in Europe (closet not obligatory, many of us don’t have them) in the same way that a similar set-up (i.e. with a sofabed) but with a kitchenette could be called a studio. There are plenty (too many!) of these in Malaga where I live. I think that as long as you describe the set-up and be sure to mention the futon (so that old people with bad backs like me can avoid it!) then you’re ok.
thanks for the perspective. yes, the room with the futon would be a mixed use room (but note: the entire space, all rooms, are exclusively for guest use; I don’t share any space with guests). the home’s only truly “common space” in the private guests-only house (i.e., with a guests-only hall, that guests walk through to get to another guests-only room) is the guests-only kitchen/dining room. aside from the 1 guests-only bathroom, the other 3 guests-only rooms (each with a door, window and closet) are: 2 100% dedicated bedrooms, and 1 room that was previously a 100% bedroom, but I put in a TV and full-size futon that guests can use during the day as a couch for watching TV when the room is being used as a “living room”, but a guest can close the door, put down the futon and have a closed-off “bedroom” for use during the night as a private sleeping space. i definitely don’t want to mislead guests, but also wouldn’t want to miss out if people are searching for 3 bedrooms and would be fine with an arrangement like mine. but I would obviously explain in very clear detail what the arrangement is so no one would feel misled. Make sense? I’ve gotten feedback saying it’s ok, and other feedback saying that it’s not ok. Very much on the fence! Thanks for all the helpful advice.
