Depending on the location of your short-term rental, a well-outfitted space can be the key to attracting and booking guests.

Amenities are a top priority for travellers and thoughtfully outfitting your space with amenity offerings catered for your ideal guest will make your listing stand out above your competition.

Here are a few ideas on how to personalize the amenities in your rental to showcase its unique features and attract guests:

If your rental is located in a city that attracts a lot of people who travel for work, you will want to advertise that your space is equipped with high-speed internet and a dedicated work space. Showcase the work space by ensuring there is a lot of natural light in the photo, and spend extra time designing a workspace that is laptop friendly and an ideal working environment.

If you want to attract guests during the cooler months and your space has a great outdoor living space, consider building an outdoor firepit with firewood or purchasing a propane firetable. Elevate the experience more by providing ingredients to make s’mores! Have comfortable outdoor furniture, cozy outdoor blankets and insulated mugs for hot chocolate!

If your home has beach access, you could provide inexpensive sandcastle making tools, an insulated bag to carry cool drinks, and a collapsible wagon to transport their beach gear. 

Standing out above your competition doesn’t have to break the bank. By researching the demographic of travellers who are attracted to the location of your rental, you can provide and highlight amenities that will make your rental more attractive to perspective travellers, and provide those guests with a memorable stay that exceeded their expectations and will make them want to return!

Tips on what NOT to provide for your guests

Although we want to provide great amenities to attract bookings, there are certain items that can end up just being a hassle for the host! Even worse it can attract the wrong type of guests:

Unless you want to attract parties, don’t provide items that are appealing to the fraternity spring break groups! A tiki bar, pool table and surround sound speaker system could be more trouble than they are worth. 

Family board games and puzzles. There is nothing more frustrating than getting all the family members to agree to play a game or work on a puzzle only to find key pieces missing! Games with small pieces or puzzles can be a hassle.  Consider providing inexpensive newly packaged decks of cards and/or books.

It may seem like a thoughtful idea to provide quality Tupperware for your guests. However, guests will commonly forget leftovers in the fridge. Either you are your cleaner will have to deal with the leftover food and spend time washing the dishes, or they will end up being thrown out. Consider providing disposable ziplock containers and bags instead.

Beach towels. Unless you are prepared to have them go missing, stick with just providing the bathroom towels for your property. Guests will know to pack their own beach towels if they are travelling to a beach destination, and this will eliminate those colourful beach towels being thrown in the washing machine with your bright white linens!

The idea behind providing extra amenities that your guests will love is that it’s about providing your guests with the comforts of home plus the extras to delight them and provide an enjoyable and memorable stay. Little thoughtful items can boost your guests reviews and in turn your future bookings and revenue!