Short Term Rentals - A Stager's Journey
My first real estate love is staging – give me a room to reimagine and I will joyfully select colors, lighting, furniture placement, and accessories to show off every room in every home at its best. Bonus, I meet the best people (home sellers) and partner with some of the best agents to market homes to lucky buyers who will make that house their new home.
But I have a few other loves in real estate and my newest journey, into short term rentals, has been an adventure. As they say, “everyone’s doing it” and I’m here to tell you that it ain’t for the faint of heart. It’s land-lording on steroids with a twist because it’s hospitality too.
Landlords
My husband, Chris, and I have been landlords for years, even going back to 1995 when we couldn’t sell our first home in Philadelphia after we moved to NC, so we rented it. We were so grateful when we finally sold it to our tenants a few years later. If we knew then what we know now … We got back into real estate investing about 10 years later with long term rentals, slowing getting more involved in the day-to-day management of our properties and interacting with our tenants.
Short Term Rentals (AKA Airbnb)
In 2021, we started researching short term rentals (everyone was doing it) and considering our options to invest in a new property or convert one of our long term rental properties. The motivation was initially financial, but the chance to stage a home, top-to-bottom, got me really excited! When some tenants reached out in September to let us know that they needed to break their lease and move closer to family (COVID), we decided that it was our opportunity to give it a try.
Short Term Rental Staging
While our tenants packed and made plans to move, I went to work designing the space and scouting out furniture, art, accessories and ALL THE THINGS that go into a home – pots and pans, sheets and towels, cleaning supplies, paper products – it goes on and on.
We had to tell our friends they couldn’t come to our house because our latest project had vomited all over the dining room. My tennis elbow flared up from all the furniture assembly. I became a Facebook Marketplace addict looking for nearly new, stylish furniture and accessories. Our tenants moved out and we moved in making repairs, cleaning, and styling the space. Two weeks later, Curtis was taking his beautiful photos and we went live on Airbnb! The first guests arrived the next week!
Our Rental Launch
Our first short term rental, Lakeside at Holiday Acres, is a 2 bed, 2 bath end unit ranch townhome on a small, relatively unknown private lake in the middle of Cary, NC. It was built in the 80s, so we’ve worked hard and invested to update the home from the condition it was in when we purchased it, but it has paid off with incredible charm, wonderful views and it is now a bright, updated and spacious home. The Airbnb reviews tell the story!
The 5-Star Reviews
This was such an amazing place to stay. So peaceful and relaxing. Great views. Absolutely loved it and looking forward to visiting again. Scott & Jessica
This is a fantastic place to stay! The area is quiet and having a lake to stroll around in the evening was wonderful. Chris and Ellie have a beautiful place and it is very well maintained. There is a lot of room, the decor is very tasteful. The kitchen is beautiful and well stocked. Everything about this place makes it a must stay for me when I travel here again for business! Stephanie
Beautiful immaculate townhouse in a quiet private community by a picturesque lake. We enjoyed the comfortable bed and the great kitchen, as well as daily walks around the lake. Very clean and the hosts were super responsive and easy to get hold of. Elvira
Our Second Unit
We opened our second short term rental property about 6 weeks later at the end of another tenant’s lease. The Cloverleaf (the Town of Cary logo) is slightly larger and is not located on a lake, but is still a great location near downtown Cary, greenways and shopping and has easy access to highways, the airport and all things Raleigh or Durham. This time we had our first guests less than 2 weeks from when the tenants moved out, just in time for Christmas and New Year’s!
The Hard Stuff
There is certainly more to tell. Our first guests left a MESS to clean up with juice, dirt and dog hair everywhere! I thought about giving up before I got started after mopping the floors over and over. We mistakenly purchased some inexpensive cookware to start and had to replace it fairly quickly with a higher quality set. Laundry is quite a chore, so we replaced the comforters with lightweight quilts that are easier to wash in between guests – yes, we wash it ALL. (I’m quite good at folding a fitted sheet if you need tips!) I’m a stickler for cleanliness, so cleaning is a task that is hard to share with hired help.
The Good Stuff
But, it’s been a wonderful journey meeting some new friends and learning along the way how to be a great host – not a landlord – to our guests – not tenants. It’s a hospitality business more than a real estate business, and after diving deep into the online short term rental community, it seems like that is a challenge that many people who are jumping on the STR bandwagon struggle with.
Now that we’ve worked out the kinks and have our systems in place, we are enjoying a little extra profit which we’ve used to upgrade and repair our properties. Granite counters, tile backsplashes, fresh décor and a new HVAC and water heater! The pretty stuff is WAY more fun to invest in, but now that we pay for utilities, we appreciate the efficiency of our new HVAC system!
This is about Staging!
I am writing a stager’s blog here, so let’s talk about staging a short term rental just a bit! There are two goals when staging a short term rental home. The first goal is to get bookings and the second is to get great reviews; great reviews are needed in order to get more bookings! The home must be appealing in photographs because the customer is always making the decision to buy based solely on the online photographs. The home must also be clean, comfortable, well-appointed and exactly as described online with all the furniture and supplies a guest will need during their stay.
Just like staging a home for sale, it is important for the home to feel spacious and uncluttered. The furniture should fit to scale, not too much but not too little either. The furniture layout is key in the photos and in person for guests to enjoy the space. The décor should appeal to the target audience, draw attention to the features of the home and should not get in the way. Theme homes aside – that is another type of staging and decorating!
Once the guests arrive, the furniture must be comfortable with beds and seating for everyone in their party. In renting a home over a hotel room, guests should expect to find all the comforts of home – cookware and kitchen supplies, towels and linens, soaps and cleaning supplies, paper products, TV and games, pillows and blankets on the sofas, coasters and magazines on the tables, nightstands and lamps, storage for clothing, outdoor space with seating, a desk to work, and wifi with high speed internet access. Once you have gathered all those things, make it pretty, easily accessible and organized. It isn’t simple but a well staged home should FEEL simple because the guest is coming into an unfamiliar place and wants to settle in and enjoy themselves right away!
Clean. Clean. Clean.
Lastly, a well-staged home, for sale or for rent, is CLEAN!! I don’t like my own dirt very much, but I live with it longer than I should sometimes. No one likes anyone else’s dirt and a good host will provide a clean space above all. I’ve learned some great cleaning systems and solutions along the way as well…perhaps I’ll share my favorites in a future blog!
Along the lines of clean, the home should also be free of smells! Of course you don’t want your short term rental to smell of smoke or pets, but there are A LOT of people who are sensitive to artificial smells. Don’t do it. The house should smell like nothing, just clean and fresh. No plug-ins, sprays, candles, diffusers or scents. One of our supply items is now an ozone machine – we had a guest leave after a week and it smelled like fried chicken! I love some fried chicken, but not the smell a few days later. Clean. Check out my blog post about odors HERE.
A business of hospitality
Short term rental hosting is a business, like any other, but unlike anything that I’ve done before. We’ve combined our love of real estate and property management with a deeper love of staging and hospitality. Taking care of others can be a lot of work, but the payoff comes with every 5-Star Review. and with new friends along the way - we’ve met some wonderful people!
Short Term Rental Consultations
UpStaging Designs is available for short term rental consultations in person or via video chat wherever you are! While there are TONS of resources to learn about short term rental hosting online, I see so many mistakes made in the staging, which results in a frustrated host with fewer reservations than expected. In a consultation appointment, we’ll work with what you already have and I will make suggestions on furniture placement, decor, what to add or subtract, and how to create the best photographs to attract guests and 5-Star reviews.