Airbnb Design Ideas That Will Massively Increase Your Income

If you’ve been hosting or traveling using Airbnb for any amount of time, it’s no secret that the key to a great listing is great Airbnb design. These Airbnb design ideas will help you turn guests into raving fans and massively increase your income.

I’ve always loved a well designed space, and prior to hosting on Airbnb, I had a long term rental. The bummer about long term rentals is there’s no real pay off for having the best light fixtures and higher end flooring.

When I found Airbnb, it was like a dream come true because those higher end design elements always translate into more profits (cha-ching!). I’ll dive into Airbnb design and Airbnb design system in this article.

This post is all about Airbnb design ideas.

The Airbnb Design System

Before I dive into Airbnb design, I wanted to quickly share about what contributed to Airbnb’s huge success as an online travel agency. The Airbnb design system of user experience and a design forward online platform created an entirely new experience for both hosts and travelers never seen before in the travel world.

In the beginning, Airbnb was trying to gain users so they focused on creating a great user experience for both hosts and guests. This made hosting approachable for new hosts because they educated their hosts and rewarded them for being excellent at their role through the Superhost program.

Now, Airbnb is focused on highlighting unique Airbnb ideas and stays through their category search function and pushing hosts to give a great user experience to the guests booking on their platform.

This means that they are prioritizing listings with professional photos, unique stays and great design features. Airbnb wants hosts to create an experience at their listing and for travelers to really see Airbnb as a full service experiential travel agency platform.

Best Airbnb Design Ideas

Now, if you’re looking for specific design inspiration, I have some great ideas around Airbnb themes you can check out! I also have an article that discusses Airbnb room design strategy and you should definitely read that one too. Now let’s dive into some other Airbnb interior design ideas along with some inspo pics from my personal properties.

1. Design for your target guest

A lot of this is determined by location, type of property and the size of the property. You need to have a target guest avatar. This is going to really help you build out the unique Airbnb ideas for your property.

The perfect example of this is my Modern Mid-century Retreat listing.

This was my personal home prior to putting it up on Airbnb. It’s 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with a gorgeous outdoor courtyard and was perfect for my little family of 4 while we lived there. So when I went to set it up for Airbnb, my guest avatar was me. A mom in her 30s with a husband and 2 kids looking for a well designed property where I could relax and enjoy my family while doing a coastal vacation.

I included things that would be ideal for my guest avatar like kids dishes, high chair, toys and a fun outdoor space!

Kids dinnerware | Kids tumbler cups

Modern Adirondack Chairs

Outdoor Swing

High Chair | Blocks | Pac n Play

2. If you’re doing any remodeling, have the design plan ready

Know your target guest from tip #1 and take into consideration any cool features of the house. Know the Airbnb theme you want to go with and build the design plan from there. It can be overwhelming but here are some tips that anyone can use to build out a great plan on a budget.

First, use a tool like Canva to visualize and organize the decor for each room. This is a free tool that will help you lay out the decor. It will also help you not over spend on any one design element. Here’s an example of a living room mood board for a Midcentury house (not mine, but maybe a future listing!).

Second, you can even find mood boards ALREADY DONE FOR YOU on Pinterest! See below. This is an even better hack for saving time and design work. With Google’s reverse image search feature, you can easily find links and dupes to all the furniture elements you need for a listing.

Third, you can have a theme in mind with colors and get a lot accomplished from there. Make sure you have a budget set as well. If you’re running this as an investment, you will want to make sure you’re not overspending and will see a good return on investment for any money spent.

Seriously, go check out my article on Airbnb themes. It’s going to really help you out here!

3. Design for the location

This may seem obvious but if you’re a cabin in the woods, make sure your guests feel like they’re at a mountain retreat. If your coastal, play up the beachy vibes. Guests are on vacation and want to experience something new!

This tip is also right in line with what Airbnb looks for in new listings. They want guest experiences to be unique Airbnb ideas that no other OTA will prioritize and highlight. If you create a product that every guest wants, Airbnb will reward you with a Superhost status and first page rankings for guests traveling to your area.

For tips on reaching Superhost status in 90 days, check out this article!

4. Understand the amenities you need

Amenities are SO important. Like so much so that Airbnb, as of 2024, has a filter option for guests searching for listings with certain features.

Get the details on Amenities in this article here!

Tools like Airdna and just utilizing the enemy method are going to help you understand what amenities you need to be competitive. It’s also going to help you understand what guests expect in your area! A classic example of this would be for mountain properties specifically in the Smoky Mountain National Park area, all large houses have to have a hot tub. You have to have a hot tub as an amenity in this area if you want to be booked.

Airdna’s tool gives you a list of top area amenities guests are searching for in the area you’re looking to list your property. This is only available in the paid version but it’s worth every penny as this could be the difference between a successful and unsuccessful listing!

5. Leverage companies like Minoan

Minoan Experience is a unique way to furnish a property if you’re an Airbnb host because they can get you great discounts on furnishings! I just signed up and plan on using it when we furnish the cabin project outside of Yosemite.

It’s free to use and can result in a lot of savings if used!

6. Use durable furniture

OOF this is a good one to always remember! I have a white couch, yes a white couch, in one of my listings. See said white couch pictured below.

It’s such a headache to clean and keep spotless so we will be removing this one soon and replacing with a darker color. Durable furniture in an appropriate color is worth it! Guests will not treat your property like their own home because they are on vacation! And honestly, a lot of people are just not that clean in their own spaces at home.

Make sure you are investing in good quality lasting furnishings because replacing those pieces a lot overtime will most likely just end up in the same costs anyway.

7. Consider hiring an interior designer

Now, if you get through this whole article and are still feeling overwhelmed by the process, consider hiring an interior designer. You just don’t want to miss anything when it comes to the style, theme and design of your vacation rental.

You will have already spent a lot of money on the purchase and furniture is a considerable investment so it’s money well spent if you still lack the confidence to pull it off yourself.

What did you do with your vacation rentals? Are you a good designer and did you pull it off yourself or did you hire someone? Let me know in the comments below and drop a link to your listing so we can check it out!

This post was all about Airbnb design.