Design is the most overlooked part of launching a short term rental.
The vast majority of STRs are owned and set up by men and it sure looks like it lol.
Here are five common problems we see across the board with amateur STR set ups:
Divorced Dad Lewk — Ever have a friend that’s starting over in life and it makes you sad for no reason? That is NOT what we want your property to look like.
Captain D’s Chic — Have you ever been to a Captain D’s, Long John Silvers, or Red Lobster and said to yourself, “I would pay $300 a night to live here”? We don’t think so. So don’t decorate your house like an old sea captain’s quarters if you want to attract people trying to have a fun vacation.
The “I’ll just go to the thrift store” Approach — Just because you can fill up a house with furniture for cheap doesn’t mean you should. In the early days of Airbnb, you could get away with this. But the market has moved on. Guests have high expectations and there are THOUSANDS of other listings to choose from. If people get the feeling you don’t care, then why should they? Also, you have to look at the cost of your own time. Driving to a thrift store or your great aunt’s storage unit is easy, building an entire cohesive plan out of one thrift store is impossible.
The “I’ll just have my girlfriend/mom/aunt do it” Method — A lot of owners pawn this huge task off on the nearest woman in their life. It’s admirable that someone would help you do something like this, but if you hire an amateur, you’ll get amateur results. We are not designing something for individual comfort, we are designing to delight guests.
The “I can find it cheaper or better” Owner — You wouldn't believe this, but sometimes people hire us to design a property and then start using their own valuable time on this planet to try to find a table that is $50 cheaper or a lamp they think fits the room better.
Most owners completely underestimate what it takes to get a property fully furnished. Once they get in the middle of it and start to feel the enormity of the task, they start cutting corners to speed to the finish line. That is a short term solution that will have long lasting negative consequences.
Nowadays, people are launching properties with an entire design team behind them. Obviously this is probably out of the budget for your average Airbnb owner and that’s where we come in…
We offer start to finish design services that can take you from the idea stage to the functioning listing stage in the fewest amount of steps.
Contact us at joseph@elephantescapes.com to get started today!
