5 Simple Things That Help An Airbnb Feel Like Coming Home
As someone who is constantly traveling from place to place, I’ve ended up spending a lot of time in different Airbnbs. They work better for us than hotels, especially with kids. Having the extra room to spread out a bit, the ability to cook our own food, and not having to worry if our kids get a bit too loud all translate into a feeling of being home in ways that a hotel room just doesn’t.
Some stays are definitely better than others at giving us that feeling. I can only speak from my own experiences, of course, but these are 5 of the things I expect from my Airbnb stay that best help it to feel like coming home.
1. Fast WiFi Speeds
Since my wife and I both do most of our work online, fast and reliable WiFi is hands down the most important factor for us when we’re choosing an Airbnb. In a world filled with Zoom meetings and remote work positions, an internet connection able to handle 2 or 3 different streaming connections from opposite sides of the house ends up being expected, even in stays that are a little off the beaten path.
This is such a big deal for us that I’ve ended up traveling with my own wifi network extender, in case there’s a dead spot in the house where I can’t get a good connection. It works well from my end, but it can sometimes be a pain to set up, and it’s not a great look for the Airbnb host.
Suggestions for Airbnb renters:
I currently travel with a TP-Link Travel Router and have found it to be extremely helpful in various situations. Not only have I used it as a range extender, but when my hosts have had slow or broken routers, I’ve just plugged the ethernet cord directly into it and use it as the main router. It’s also great for hotels that require you to pay per connection since it can rebroadcast the signal. That said, it is far from being the best in its class. If you want the best you can get, I’d suggest traveling with a NetGear Nighthawk Mobile Hotspot. It can do everything that the TP-Link can and more, faster.
Suggestions for Airbnb hosts:
The best practice is to not use the router your internet provider offers you. Instead, buy your own router to make the most of your connection. For smaller houses, a single high-quality router located in a central place should be able to provide good coverage for the whole house. In larger houses, a network extender can ensure a strong connection throughout the house, or you can use a set of mesh routers like Amazon’s Eero routers to get the best possible network with the least amount of effort.
(Note: If you live in an area with slow speeds, getting a faster router won’t help all that much. If your local ISPs aren’t giving you the speeds you need, but cell networks work fine, you should look into Nomad Internet. They offer high-speed unlimited data plans for the home that work using 4G-LTE networks so you can connect from almost anywhere in the States.
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2. Comfortable Beds
Airbnb stays are, first and foremost, places to sleep when you’re away from home. And since a good night’s sleep is important for being well-rested enough to rock the rest of your trip, having a comfortable bed available should be front and center when it comes to choosing an Airbnb.
It’s probably not true of all guests, but my wife and I have really become accustomed to having a King-sized bed in our stays, and we’ll often pass up a slightly less expensive stay to opt for the one with a King bed. Having room to stretch out is great, but where they really shine is on the nights when our kids are having trouble sleeping and end up in our room.
Even queen beds are fine, really, but we actively avoid houses where the biggest bed is a double. There’s just no way we’re getting a good night’s sleep, even if only one of our kids decides to visit us. And most likely, if you have enough space for a double, you can probably fit a queen.
Suggestions for Airbnb renters:
There’s more to consider about a stay’s sleeping arrangements than just the number and sizes of beds. Be sure to look through the reviews carefully, and note down any comments about how comfortable or uncomfortable the beds are.
Additionally, you can bring along your own pillows, pillowcases, or whatever else you need to get comfortable enough to have a good night’s sleep.
Suggestions for Airbnb hosts:
Having a king-sized bed is always a plus, but having a comfortable king-sized bed will be what gets you great reviews!
Mattresses come in a dazzling array of firmness options and prices, so finding a mattress that will work well for the widest audience while staying under budget can be tricky.
Mattresses in a box from well-known brands like Nectar or Casper are great choices if you want a bed with a good cost-to-comfort ratio.
3. Basic Supplies
Soap, towels, linens, and more are required by Airbnb to be available for guests, but the official list leaves a lot of other items up to the discretion of the host. I’m here to say that just because Airbnb doesn’t tell you that you have to have an item in your stay doesn’t mean that guests won’t be expecting them.
Even though my family travels with our own toiletries, travel-size bottles of shampoo and conditioner like you’d find in a hotel is still a welcome sight. As a guest, it makes me feel like my host has put a lot of work into the small touches that transform Airbnbs into awesome places to stay. Extra towels, a toothbrush holder, or even a first aid kit all make great additions, too.
In the kitchen, it’s much the same. I do not expect you to leave cooking ingredients out for me, beyond some salt, pepper, and cooking oil. But what I do expect from the kitchen are the utensils and tools I need to cook my food.
An Airbnb kitchen should absolutely have enough place settings and silverware needed to eat three separate meals for however many people are set as the maximum for the stay. Ideally, I would only have to run the dishwasher once a day and still be able to provide a great dining experience for my family. If the Airbnb can fit 7 or 8 people, that probably feels excessive, but I doubt I’m alone in not wanting to do the dishes multiple times a day while on vacation.
There should also be enough pots and pans available to make a wide variety of meals. One way you can check to see if your kitchen is well-stocked enough is to spend a week or two cooking only with the equipment available in that kitchen. Anytime you run into a need for something that isn’t there, get that piece of equipment for the kitchen. Hopefully, by the end of the two weeks, the kitchen should be stocked with everything needed for making whatever amazing dishes you can come up with!
And if you want to get even farther on my good side, make sure there’s a kettle. Electric or stovetop doesn’t matter, but having a way to heat water for my French Press that isn’t a saucepan really, really elevates my experience.
Suggestions for Airbnb renters:
I’m a stickler for my kitchen goods, so I end up carrying a few of my “must-have” items with me. For me, that means my French Press, a chef’s knife, and a cutting board.
As a bonus, the cutting board gets stored next to my portable computer monitor where it can act as a shield to keep it from getting damaged. Win-win.
Suggestions for Airbnb hosts:
I get that you’re trying to stock a house on a budget, and especially when you’re just getting started there’s only so much you can do.
Working up to a well-stocked kitchen takes time, and it’s probably going to be most noticed by long-stay guests a lot more than guests who are only staying for a few days.
Start by getting the bathroom set before moving on to the kitchen. Every guest is going to make use of the bathrooms, and small touches like shampoo and conditioner are a lot more impactful than having a nice pan.
That said, I personally would be a lot happier to have the pan than the shampoo.
4. Storage Spaces
I am amazed at how little storage space is available in some of the Airbnbs that we visit! It has gotten to the point that we travel with a small collapsible shelf that we use as a side table and for homeschool materials storage.
Storage space isn’t something that you can filter for on the Airbnb site, since it isn’t something that everyone is going to need. After all, if you’re only staying a few days, it’s easy enough to live out of a bag.
But as a constant traveler and someone who stays in Airbnbs for a month at a time, I love it when there are clear spaces where we can keep our things so we can get out of our bags and into the house!
It doesn’t have to be much. We are only bringing what we can fit in our bags, after all. But having a couple of empty bookshelves in the common area and a side table or two in the bedrooms makes all the difference.
Suggestions for Airbnb renters:
Living out of a bag isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
While I love getting to move from place to place, I’m not a huge fan of unpacking and repacking my gear. Traveling with a collapsible shelf is one of the ways that I deal with that. It allows me to know ahead of time exactly where some of my things are going to go, so I don’t have to think about it at the end of a long day of travel.
Fabric bins and packing cubes also help a lot with keeping things organized. Having a place for everything makes the whole process of leaving a ton smoother.
Suggestions for Airbnb hosts:
Wide-open, minimal spaces are undeniably a good look. It makes things look clean and spacious, and they’re easier to actually keep clean.
I still recommend having some open shelves around for your guests. Shelves without doors or drawers are best, since putting things out of sight leads to them getting left behind.
5. A Welcome Book
One of the first things I do when I walk in the door at a new Airbnb is open the welcome book to see what my host recommends for my time there. After all, this is their area, and they are the expert on it. So, it is incredibly disorienting when I walk into an Airbnb that doesn’t have one!
A good welcome book should have everything from the WiFi password to the trash pickup schedule listed inside, as well as any relevant information about the house or its appliances.
Restaurant recommendations are also a good call. Make sure to clearly mark any restaurants that deliver to your area. The first night in an Airbnb, I’ve often not had time to go grocery shopping, so being able to easily find a place to get food is a huge relief.
Finally, if you have any favorite attractions in the area, this is the place to list them. There have been several times that I’ve found an amazing place to visit in the welcome book that I wouldn’t otherwise have found.
Suggestions for Airbnb renters:
The welcome book is your friend. But, occasionally, it just isn’t there.
If that’s the case, remember that you can contact your host at any time through the app to ask for things like restaurant suggestions or spare light bulbs.
And, if you need it, UberEats is often there to save the day.
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Suggestions for Airbnb hosts:
The welcome book is your friend. It definitely needs to be there.
But it doesn’t need to be that long. If there’s not a ton of things to do in your area, that’s fine. Your guest probably already has plans, or else they wouldn’t be there, to begin with.
What that means is that you don’t have to stuff useless experiences into your book, and I suggest that you don’t. Only put things that are genuinely great experiences in as recommendations, and your guests will thank you.
A stay in even a basic Airbnb has a lot going for it that hotels just can’t compete with. They’re quieter, more spacious, and more private than hotels tend to be, and at least on longer stays they are significantly cheaper.
But with a little effort, and some attention to detail, a host can elevate the experience to transform their Airbnb into a home away from home.
