Furnishing budget: is $8k enough or does the $18k version pay for itself?

Question

I'm working out a furnishing number for a three bedroom and the quotes I've collected are wildly far apart depending on who I ask.

The $8k version is warehouse store and marketplace. Solid beds, decent mattresses, a working kitchen, no design story. Everything functions, nothing photographs especially well. The argument for it is that furniture in a rental is a consumable, guests break things, and I'd rather replace a $400 sofa in year three than a $1,900 one.

The $18k version is real design. A photographer's version of the same house, accent wall, matching linens, actual art, a dining table that seats eight. People tell me this is what drives the click, the ADR, and the reviews, and that in a crowded market the listing that looks like a magazine shoot wins the booking at a higher price.

What I can't tell is whether that's true or whether it's what people say after they've spent the money. If $10k extra buys $15 more a night at 60% occupancy that's about $3,300 a year and it pays back in three years, which is fine. If it buys $4 a night it doesn't. I'd rather do the version that works than the version that looks good in a thread.

I'm also aware the mattresses are the one place everybody says don't cheap out, so assume decent mattresses in both.

karen_whitfield · Accepted Answer

Your payback math is the right frame and the input you're missing is what your competition looks like. In a market where the other twelve listings are all somebody's grandmother's furniture, $12k of care buys you the top of the page. In a market where every listing already had a stager, $18k buys you parity and no premium at all.

So go look at the top ten listings in your submarket, sort by what's actually booked, and see what they look like. The answer to your question is in their photos, not in a general rule.

monica_tran3 · Answer

The $18k versions cost more to turn and generate more damage claims. White linens, throw pillows, decorative bowls, all of it is labor and all of it walks out the door. My crews charge more for the designed houses because a turn takes 40 minutes longer to get the styling back to the photos.

So build the version you can reset in under three hours. That's a real constraint and it usually lands somewhere between your two numbers.

brandonlee36 · Answer

Middle, then reinvest. I furnished my first one lean and found out in four months that guests didn't care about the sofa and cared enormously about the shower pressure, the wifi, and having somewhere to put a suitcase. I spent $2,600 on those three after the fact and it moved reviews more than a nicer living room would have.

Thatch's turn-time point is the one I'd underline. Every decorative object is a thing someone has to put back.

kevin_lombard · Answer

Verity, when you say $8k for a three bedroom, does that include things like towels, cutlery, a vacuum, and the stuff in the kitchen drawers? I've read that the small items add up to a couple thousand on their own and people leave them out of the budget entirely. If the $8k has to cover all that, it's a leaner $8k than it sounds.

Furnishing budget: is $8k enough or does the $18k version pay for itself?

4 replies