So you have no kitchen in your short term Airbnb or VRBO rental space?
This shouldn’t stop you from getting bookings on your listing! Currently our basement Airbnb rental space is not equipped with a kitchen either, and we still make a substantial amount of additional income per month!
Our future plans are to upgrade one of our closet storage areas into a full kitchen but with that, comes a lot of renovation money and money for new appliances (Refrigerator, range, dishwasher, etc.) which we just don’t have at the moment.
But if you continue reading I will be going through the 4 best affordable appliances you can buy for your rental where you don’t have:
- A Full Kitchen Currently
- The Money To Provide A Full Kitchen
- The Physical Space To Provide A Full Kitchen
Appliance #1
The First, and I think the most IMPORTANT, appliance to have in your rental is a Refrigerator!
But in our cases… A MINI Refrigerator!
The refrigerator pretty much accommodates every single guest you could imagine your short term rental property will house. This could mean a full family with kids, a couple for a romantic getaway, friends coming together to hang out and party and even concert/event goers! It’s a resourceful tool you MUST include in your rentals to provide the best service to your customers as possible.
They will use this appliance more than you can image. Just think of how much you use your refrigerator’s at home. Now picture yourself traveling and not having one for a day or two. We feel a little weird or thrown off because of it, I know I have been when traveling.
Mindsets of your guests will vary but they might be thinking some of the following:
1. Someone can go out and rent a hotel room which would most likely not provide a fridge as well.
2. They spend the same amount of money or less (Unless you have done your competition marketing research) to stay in the hotel since you have this same missing amenity (NO FRIDGE!)
3. They don’t have to or want to deal with a potential Airbnb “horror story” that you can see are flooding the internet which may sway their decision as well.
The reason I suggest buying a mini refrigerator for your rental is just this:
If you include the fridge in your rental it may be the difference between your guests staying with you at YOUR price range vs. going to listings at the next price range up that have a fridge or staying at a hotel as described above.
Now for the Affordable Mini Refrigerator we use in our rental! Its actually not as “mini” as you would image. This option is about thigh high and sits right on the floor and provides quite a bit of space for drinks and food! [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through these links, at no additional cost to you.]
For even smaller areas or to set on a counter you could use the following version:
Appliance #2
The all powerful… MICROWAVE!
As stated above for the refrigerator, the microwave will accommodate every single guest you will have staying at your rental.
Some travelers like to bring microwavable food with them so that they don’t have to always leave and go out for a snack, YAY BUDGETING!!
You want to have the option for these frugal travelers plus you want to accommodate the travelers that WILL venture out and go out for a nice meal around your area. For these guests, they will be bringing back leftovers that they may want to have the next day.
The more options people have, the more they feel at home. You want to provide that homeyness for your guests.
Appliance #3
I know you all know this one is a necessity. In some homes, this is more important than the fridge or microwave…COFFEE! The blood fuel of America!
We provide our rental with a Keurig. No it doesn’t have to be the one that has more buttons than an airplane cockpit, the simple designed ones will do the trick.
Now I could go through all the features of all the Keurigs in the world but that would take hours to read through.
To keep it simple:
People love coffee, if you provide this in your rental, people will love you! Haha that’s really simply put for sure!
Just think though, it may be someone’s daily morning routine to make a cup of joe, sit outside and read the paper. Or get up early and sip on some coffee while they work before their family gets out of bed.
This little gift of a cup of coffee means much more to people traveling than you would expect.
Picture this…
You are traveling and you are having a horrible trip!
One delay after the other into “Insert Your Desired Location Here” and just want to get to your rental space and RELAX. You get to the place after traveling for HOURS and all you want is a cup of coffee and to relax.
You search and search but no coffee machine in site. So you google where the nearest coffee shop is, 15 mins away. Not bad, but really? Do you really want to drive 15 mins there and 15 mins back for a cup of coffee?
You bet! I need that coffee NOW!
I know it’s not OUR fault that our guest’s flights were delayed, or that they are having a horrible trip so far, or that the nearest coffee shop is 15 minutes away from our rental property.
But you know what?
In this situation you have the opportunity to turn that guest’s experience around for the better, which helps you in the long run.
Guest reviews and ratings are critical on Airbnb, VRBO, etc. And if you and/or your coffee machine are the reason for this guest’s whole trip experience to take a turn for the better, than I say AWESOME! More good advertising and marketing for us!
Providing this amenity eliminates one more step your guest would have to take before getting to your place or as they are leaving for the day’s activities. WHICH IS HUGE!
And better yet, now a days, you can get hot chocolate, apple cider, lemonade, tea and more in K-cups to create a huge variety for your guests (All within your budget that is).
We use the simple, sleek version shown below and have got no complaints! [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through these links, at no additional cost to you.]
BONUS COFFEE MAKER! We stayed in an Airbnb for a family wedding and the host had one of these bad boys for our use and it was the BEST! It can stay heated for an allotted time limit and then shut off automatically! And it has a push button dispenser, so no hot plate and coffee pot, just use your mug to press the release button and BOOM! GLORIOUS COFFEE!
Appliance #4
Last but certainly not least!
This appliance is becoming a little more popular these days with all the health kicks rolling around the internet. It is the Hot Water Kettle!
I know what you are probably thinking…
Why not just use the microwave or the Keurig (Without adding a K-cup) to get hot water for your tea?!
Well here is a fun fact! Some people don’t like using the microwave or an appliance that has plastic involved in producing boiling hot water.
In comes…The Glass Hot Water Kettle!
It may seem like over kill for…lets say, the killing of your water…but there are so many people in the world with so many different views in life.
AND GUESS WHAT
These are the people you are catering to! EVERYONE!
This appliance isn’t a must and you may not even knew it existed. As for myself (Randall), I don’t drink a lot of tea, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis!
OK! sorry, bad joke! Anyways, I don’t drink a lot of tea and I couldn’t careless if my hot water came from a microwave or plastic appliances.
On the other hand Abbey does care and she drinks about 40 oz of tea a day, no joke! This is the reason why we provide this to our future guests because we know someone, one day, will appreciate that we provide this as an option.
So take a look at the hot water kettle we bought for our rental and one for personal use as well! [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through this link, at no additional cost to you.]
To bring all of these items into perspective, we use all 4 of these items in our rental and they don’t take much space.
They actually all fit within the floor space of the mini fridge! That is just roughly a 24″ by 21″ space!
We actually just stacked the microwave on top of the fridge and the Keurig and kettle on that. This will provide you the powerhouse of appliances in a small amount of space so you don’t lose out on guests’ optimal usable space!
Great ideas and yes I am one of those people who NEED their coffee fix in the morning. Do you have a link here for your Airbnb property? It would be great to see photos of how you have set this up!
Great job!
Thanks Deb! Here is a link to our current listing, hope this gives you some more ideas!
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/25302131?s=51
-A&R