Ah, a good night’s sleep. That is the very basic foundation of vacation rental homes and hotels. Providing a guest with the perfect place to lay their head is what hosting is centered around. As a short-term rental host, you need to provide your guest with a quality sleeping experience. This blog post will recommend the right bedding to pamper your guest and secure a glorious review, as well as tips for aesthetically styling your Airbnb bed like a superhost.

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Airbnb Bed & Bedroom Checklist

Let’s start with the basics, and get you familiar with all the tools you need to build a comfortable bed for your guests.

Mattress: This mattress from amazon is inexpensive and feels great. As a bonus amazon will deliver it to your door and even take away the old one for free (if you schedule it). We did this with a property we manage remotely. We just made sure to schedule it for when we had cleaning, asked our cleaner to be there, and they brought in the new one and hauled the old one away. Depending on the size of the space, we generally recommend purchasing a queen-size mattress to ensure two guests can comfortably sleep on one bed. 

Tip: Be sure to air out or turn the mattress regularly to keep it from becoming musty.

Mattress pad: A mattress pad is a touch of extra comfort. They become particularly useful after the mattress undergoes some wear and tear. 

Bed frame: You don’t want your guests sleeping on the floor. Find a stylish modern (no box spring needed) bed frame that matches the size of the mattress and the rest of your bedroom furniture to ensure a guest’s comfort and enhance the ascetic of the room. Selecting a bed frame that has storage space underneath is a great option for utilizing a small space. You can find affordable bed frame options on Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, or thrift stores for used but quality options. 

Consider purchasing adhesive padding to put over any sharp corners on the bed frame. This will protect your guests from any painful stubbed toes!

Headboard: Purchase a headboard to enhance the vibe of the space. Consider purchasing a headboard that can be mounted to the wall rather than the bed frame. This makes cleaning under the bed much easier since the bed frame will weigh significantly less.

Fitted sheet: A fitted sheet is a layer that will cover the mattress pad or the mattress directly.

Sheets: 2-3 sets of white sheets per bed. These are our favorite microfiber sheets. Learn more about selecting the right sheets for your property here.

Top layer: Choose blankets or a duvet as the primary warmth provider of the bed.

Pillows: We recommend providing four sleeping pillows. Two pillows that are large and soft and two that are more firm so guests can have options. From there, we add a decorative pillow or two for style. 

Mattress and pillow protectors: Accidents happen! Whether a spilled glass of wine or a child with bad dreams – you’ll want to protect your mattress and pillows with a protector. Protectors also make the cleaning turnover faster.

Nightstand: It’s good practice to include a nightstand on either side of your guest bed. As couples tend not to fall asleep at the same time, consider a lamp on both nightstands, as well as a place for guests to charge their electronics.  

Blackout curtains: Blackout curtains are always a generous touch, but especially useful if you’re catering your property to professionals with untraditional sleep schedules (like travel nurses). 

Earplugs: Earplugs are a thoughtful addition for those light sleepers, and if your property is in a metropolis.

Comfortable pillow on bed decoration in hotel bedroom interior

Making and Styling an Airbnb Bed

Making a guest’s bed is a bit more complicated than what most of us do in our own homes. It’s important to implement the same quality of bed making as hotels. Guests have come to expect this level of service, and it promotes your property as a professional business. Whether it’s you or your cleaning crew making the bed, let’s go over these helpful steps:

Step 1: Place the mattress pad on the mattress first. This is the base layer.

Step 2: Cover the mattress (and pad if using) with your mattress protector. 

Step 3: Place the fitted sheet over the mattress pad. If you are not using a mattress pad, place the sheet directly over the mattress.

Step 4: Place the top sheet over the fitted sheet and create “hospital corners”. Hospital corners are the crisp style that hospitals, the military, and many hotels use when making beds. This is the most difficult part of the bed-making process but the most vital. 

How to make hospital corners:

• Stand at the foot of the bed and spread the top sheet over the fitted sheet. The end of the sheet with the large hem goes at the head of the bed. Leave a small space between the top of the sheet and the head of the bed.

• At the foot of the bed, tuck the end of the sheet between the mattress and the bed frame. Ensure the sheet lays smoothly between the two.

• Make a hospital corner on one side of the mattress at the foot of the bed. To do this, grab and lift the draping sheet from the side about 16 inches from the foot of the bed.

• Tuck the sheet in a triangle-shaped lower drape between the mattress and the bed frame.

• Hold the corner in place with your free hand and fold the top drape over. You want the fold on the top drape to form a 45-degree angle. Repeat on the opposite corner of the mattress.

Step 4: Add the top layer blanket or duvet, and create hospital corners. 

Step 5: If you are using a top sheet over the blanket or duvet, place it on top of this layer and create hospital corners. If you are using a quilt, fold it into thirds so that guests will see the whole design when pulling it back to sleep.

Step 6: Fluff sleeping pillows and stage them on the bed.

Step 7: Add any decorative throw pillows.

And you’ve done it! 

When promoting your Airbnb bedroom, be sure to take photographs that accurately capture the sleep experience. You want to make your Airbnb look great, and also manage guest expectations.  

As you can see, creating a comfortable and welcoming bed for your guest is an art. When you invest in the right furniture and spend the time to properly make a bed guests will notice and leave reviews that elevate you to a superhost status. Consider purchasing this mattress, bedframe, blankets/duvet, soft and firm pillows, sheets, and mattress/pillow protectors to ensure a great guest experience; and follow the above steps to making the perfect bed!

Host Tools provides an automated, unified calendar for short-term rental hosts, allowing you to seamlessly list on all major channels. Start your free trial today!