30 Nov Airbnb interior designer is my secret weapon
Almost 4 years ago, when I started my Airbnb business, I did a smart thing by hiring a professional Airbnb interior designer. She was good but expensive! And I was happy to outsource all of the interior ‘design’ headaches to her. Some of those headaches were way out of my league, like how to pick the right pillowcase for your bed so it “POPS OUT” in a photo-shoot. Others were rudimentary like how to pick furniture that fits a design ‘theme.”
I didn’t have any interests to tackle those problems because I had hundreds of other things to worry about. Everything was planned accordingly. The sooner I could get the unit up and running (move-in date), the sooner I could make money from it.
Giving your Airbnb interior designer a budget
Those ‘design’ things were beyond me anyway. I didn’t know anything and I didn’t really care as long as it looked great! And when I hired my first Airbnb interior designer (ID) – I was happy to pay her a flat rate. We negotiated and settled on $500 for the designs of a 1-bedroom apartment. It was my first time hiring someone to work for me so I was beyond excited. But I was also scared because I gave her a budget for all the furniture that she needed to buy from either Amazon or Ikea (it’s been so long and I can’t really remember how much, it was probably somewhere around $3~4k).
She delivered her promise under a tight deadline, but we went overboard in her consulting fees as well as the total budget for the furniture. I think I went over about $1000, which was significant since it was my first unit. Every dollar counted and I was very careful monitoring every dollar spent.
[I talked more about my experience working with an Airbnb interior designer]
Creating a interior design template for all future Airbnbs
I learned a lot from that experience and subsequently, I hired a few more Airbnb interior designers to help. But this time, I was even smarter by keeping them under budget which was a big win and a big confidence=booster for me. After working with a few, an idea daunted me. And then one day when I was walking in a park, it hit me.
Why do I need to keep hiring someone and paying them when I can automate this process with a DESIGN TEMPLATE! That was the light bulb moment in my head. . I also saw the savings in dollar signs. Ever since then, which was about a year and a half ago, I stick to two of my favorite design templates: mid-century or industrial modern (two of the most popular designs).
Whenever I need to furnish a new unit, I’ll just go over to one of those templates and buy it online. This saves me a lot of time because there’s no more hiring, negotiating, and managing. This also saved me money because I only had to pay for it once.
I want you to look at your competitors and I can guarantee you that the most popular Airbnb (the most amount of 5-star reviews) will have a design “theme.” It’s definitely not thrown together from buying random pieces on Craigslist.
Sidenote: Facebook Marketplace has been a great place for second-hand appliances like coffee makers or microwaves. It’s the move if you’re on a tight budget.
There you have it. Now, you can do what I do! I hope this has been helpful.
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