{"id":395,"date":"2019-07-11T03:33:48","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T03:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shortrentalpro.com\/blog?p=395"},"modified":"2022-09-15T07:45:03","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T07:45:03","slug":"how-to-refurbish-your-airbnb-property-cheaply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shortrentalpro.com\/blog\/how-to-refurbish-your-airbnb-property-cheaply\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Refurbish Your Airbnb Property Cheaply"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you know why refurbishing your Airbnb, booking.com or other short-term rentals cheaply is a good thing? Because obviously every pound or dollar you over-spend on renovations eats directly into your profits, and in a business where margins are tight. There is a fine line between massive success and massive failure.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post, we have tried to share with you our experience\nabout how you can refurbish your Airbnb property cheaply but still give the\ncustomer a great experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generally, when you are refurbishing your Airbnb apartment on a smaller budget, your focus should be on making small changes that have a more significant overall impact. Consider between alternatives to choose which one best fits the context. For example, consider a bare wall, and consider the impact, pf a simple, nicely framed piece of art on that wall. Or consider this: A shower room with dirty tile group, and chips in the shower-pan or the bath; or freshly cleaner shower grout, and sparkling tiles. What a difference that would make. Don\u2019t you think? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, we have over 30 ways of dramatically improving your apartment or rental, without breaking the bank.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(And we\u2019ve tried\nthem all, so trust me, they work!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recycle & Reused \u201cOld: Items<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For example, if you\u2019re changing a door, of course depending on\nthe style of your property, there are ample free resources on the internet.\nFreecycle.com is such a suite in the UK where people advertise their unwanted\nthings completely free. All you have to do is collect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However equally, if you renovating your door, for example, you might choose to buy a new door, but the door furniture (old doorknobs, hinges etc) might well be as good as new if you give them a little TLC. So why buy new if you don\u2019t have to? Every little helps. The same goes for furniture. You don\u2019t need to spend a fortune on a new sofa, for example, when if it happens to have washable covers, they can simply be washed. Or even if it doesn\u2019t have washable covers there may very well be a way of cleaning<\/a> items of furniture to make them look new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sell Things that You Don\u2019t Need<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This simply makes sense. We would not be business people if we did not try to maximize the amount of money<\/a> you have leftover after a refurbishment project is complete. There are various sites on the internet where you can list your unwanted items for sale <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember too that websites, previously quoted, like freecycle.com may offer the acquirer something for free, but how much would it have cost you to take it to the rubbish dump. I recently gave away a 20-year-old fridge for $0, but the fact is that it would have cost me $60 to have it taken away. Total win-win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professionally Clean the Carpet <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One thing that made a huge difference to our apartments was in opting for medium to high-quality carpet. This only makes sense as you will have such a high \u201cfoot-fall\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, our second great investment was on quite a high-end carpet cleaner. Ours has a warm-water tank, a solution tank and a wastewater tank (so it\u2019s quite good), and honestly, this has made a huge difference. I could not believe the amount of dirt it improved in one area of one room, and we had this working for hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the whole apartment had been cleaned (and yes it did take\n3-4 hours), and the carpet had dried, the visible difference and the smell well\namazing. If was just like having new carpets again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a price<\/a> per machine\/external carpet cleaner comparison, the machine costs about $140, whereas the call-out and service for a carpet cleaning company would have been $100. So it made its money back after it\u2019s first 1.5 uses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resurface the Bathroom rather\nthan Reconstructing it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The reason that taking care of the bathroom is important is it\u2019s\nanother \u201cyuck\u201d area, or more specifically, it\u2019s another area where people will\nclean, use the toilet and wash, and it just has to be clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did an experiment a couple of years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have over 6 bathrooms, so we did the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Apartment A, we cleaned and re-grouted the tiles, painted the walls, ensured the basin and toilet were (very deep cleaned), bought a new toilet seat, and added a fresh covering to the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Apartment B, we stripped everything out, added a modern\ntoilet and hand basin, added a new shower and of course re-tiled everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As before on satisfiedsleepers.com we ran a survey, where we called all guests<\/a> post-stay after for the month following the renovations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strange thing was, although\nthe results of the survey were roughly even, people made comments about\nApartment A\u2019s bathroom like:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow nice to see you keeping your property in good shape\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to see original features, well looked after\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave you had the shower-room re-tiled\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, it\u2019s true they also liked Apartment B, but it was more of a\n\u201cMeeh\u201d response. In other words, sure it was nice, but nothing really special\n(even though it was of the same standard as Apartment A. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or yes sure it was lovely and new. (but that was it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, what I am concluding from the comments of these guests (we survey 50) is that although generally, their scores were equal for both apartments, when asked, their responses were more positive for the refurbished bathroom rather than the new bathroom. So, I asked some of our regular guests: \u201cLook more people responded more favorably to a refurbished bathroom than a completely new one\u201d<\/em>; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the reply: \u201cSure we understand that you\u2019ve refurbished your bathroom [in Apartment B] but what we like even more in Apartment A is that you take such good care of it. We know it\u2019s not new, but it does look knew, and to be honest we like that even more than your job on Apartment B. It shows you care<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was quite astounded by this\nreply, but on giving it some reflection after a few hours, maybe less astounded:\nYou see what guests what is to show that you care about your property. That\nit\u2019s your pride and joy. It isn\u2019t about the $ value you spend on doing up your\nbathroom, it\u2019s how it looks when it\u2019s done.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Summary on Bathrooms:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n