Opening your home to paying guests, whether as part of Airbnb or a similar hosting website, has the potential to be a fulfilling endeavour, as well as one that benefits a home financially too. However, hosting isn’t always as simple as it might seem, especially when guests are paying for the experience.

Hosts must make a number of considerations before opening their doors. Spaces must be welcoming, guest-friendly, and stocked, too, with the right amenities. If they aren’t, a source of income can quickly become a source of stress. Thankfully, there are a number of experienced hosts who now share their insights and advice, helping those wanting to begin welcoming guests to find success more easily.

You Are Not A Hotel 

Designing a space room that is absent of style or personality is an inhibitor of experience. Guests seek homes to stay in, and not hotels, because they want to be a part of a community, gaining a more local understanding of the area. As such, hosts do well to make a guest’s space personable and well-designed.

Avoid excessive neutrality and certainly anything asset or aesthetic that feels sterile. Instead, make it a room that you would want to stay in, one that is full of unique and appealing designs.

Learn Your Division

Are you opening your entire home to guests or will you want to maintain privacy within your living space? This divide is an important consideration. There’s no need to begin sharing your kitchen and bathroom spaces with guests but, should you want to keep them separated, then you will need to design your home accordingly.

Outdoor and garden structures, such as log cabins, are ideal guest rooms, being not only beautiful experiences but also divided from a home’s living space. This means that guests have greater freedom to come and go as they please. While this has its advantages, often enabling hosts to welcome a greater number of guests, it tends also to require more utilities to be installed.

Bring Out The Basics

An empty space is not suitable for guests. Even those who arrive fully equipped with shampoo and soaps will still feel disappointed if these amenities are not absent from their stay. It is a basic courtesy for a homeowner to offer not only daily items, such as toothpaste, but also, more importantly, increasingly essential amenities like WiFi.

While many of these items will be chosen based on a host’s preference, one would do well to remember that guests might be more particular than the homeowner. As such, it is best to go the extra mile so as to ensure that guests are entirely comfortable with their stay.

All Welcome

Accessibility is something that a homeowner might not be inclined to consider but there are a number of guests who will require certain accommodations. This could be as simple as a dog-friendly space or wheelchair access, or as specific as remote working capabilities.

Of course, you may choose not to open your doors to those with pets or remote workers, but there are many guests who will seek out welcoming properties.