We listed our first room on Airbnb in 2012, back when most had never heard of short term rentals. The journey of the past 7 years has lead us to continually trying to source the best products for the home. We want to share our knowledge, so that you too can have a leg up in the development of your own short term rental property.
You can also check out our best kitchen products, best coffee options, and best shower-heads for your short term rental. Product recommendations will be coming every week!
For starters: bedding! Why bedding? We think that the bedding you choose is one of the most important choices in establishing your rental property. We tried a bunch of different brands, fabrics, and styles with always the same goal in mind : How to perfect the best bedding combo?
In this quest, we asked ourselves a lot of different questions. Who makes the best sheet set? What color makes sense and works with any decor? Which pillows hold up well and are most likely to please the highest proportion of travelers possible? How do you choose a quality mattress that will please most travelers? The list goes on.
While you want your beds to feel soft and your interior to look stylish, you never want to forget that a lot of different people will be using them.
Choosing bedding for your short term rental property is challenging in that it should please a variety of different people while also be very easy to clean. Maintenance and simplicity is key when you – or your cleaning team – have a few hours to get the house ready between guests.
The mattress, the pillows, the sheet set, and the duvet covers. Here are the items we recommend for your short term rental property:
1 set of white sheets (1 fitted, 1 flat, 2 pillow covers)
2 linen pillow covers
1 linen duvet cover
2 firm pillows
2 softer pillows
In striving to commit to comfort to our guests, we recommend Casper mattresses to all of our homeowners. Casper, in our opinion, has the best quality to price ratio. Casper offers a luxury mattress, that while not cheap, seem to hold up very well over the years. And there is no better feeling than when you get your first review that mentions just “HOW COMFORTABLE” the mattress was.
You will get your mattress delivered at your door within days, in a box. For those of us that are busy setting up our rental property, there really is no better choice that we have found than to go with a Casper mattress. Your guests will thank you!
Now that you’ve decided to invest in a nice mattress, we recommend choosing a mattress protector. The SafeRest is the one we buy for our homes. It’s made of bamboo and is insanely soft. It doesn’t have this plastic feels that some waterproof mattress protectors have.
The hunt for the ideal set of sheets was long and required tremendous research. We spent years searching for the right set.
Keep in mind that, as a good host, you will want replace it at the first sign of a stain. There really is no other solution. Therefore, price is a determining factor. We HIGHLY recommend this set of sheets from Clara Clark, in white.
The set is hypoallergenic, incredibly soft and breathable! It is actually fade, stain, shrink and wrinkle resistant. We use these sheets in our homes that cost upwards of $1000 a night, and consistently guests in these homes ask where we got our sheets! Well, the secret is out. Clara Clark is undeniably the best sheets we have ever found, at a very reasonable price.
The set comes with 2 pillow cases, 1 fitted and 1 flat. You can also buy the set of 6 that includes 4 pillow cases. We always buy it in white because it goes with every duvet covers and shams you will pair it with. It also allows you to bleach it which you can do time after time without altering the fabric. We also recommend buying two sets, so that for those quick turnovers, there is a clean set ready to go.
Sticking to one great company for sheets will allow you to toss the occasional stained sheet, and continue to purchase more and more sheets that are all matching. We learned the hard way that sticking to one sheet across our company really made our lives easier to always have matching sets.
When we are planning a vacation at a short term rental property, the first thing we see in a photo is the duvet. Did they choose a higher end duvet, or will we be sleeping on a low-end Polyester duvet? If the duvet looks lower end, I make the assumption that the home is filled with low end products throughout.
The duvet is not the place to save money. It is the item that makes a bedroom feel inviting and comfortable. Guests appreciate when you give them a nice duvet.
Shams and duvet covers are where you get to be creative and choose a color that will compliment the decor of the room. We recommend muted and neutral colors. Remember you are curating an experience that people from different backgrounds and tastes can all potentially enjoy. Capitalize on quality and tone down the aesthetic. Less is more!
We have a mild obsession with the Restoration Hardware Stonewashed Belgian Linen Duvets. They are definitely on the pricier side, but they hold up well and last for years. This linen is perfectly weighted and feels incredible on the body. It’s not wrinkly and is perfect for every season! We order 2 shams and 1 duvet cover to pair with the Clara Clark set. The best part about this linen is that it dries SO FAST! We tried a bunch of linen bedding over the years and the time they have to stay in the dryer is very important. Turning a house around between guests can be stressful and you never want drying sheets to drag out the process.
We realize a complete set from Restoration Hardware isn’t for every budget. The price of the set below is unbeatable! For $60 to $70 you get a duvet cover and 2 shams. The quality of this product is good and it comes in very similar colors than the Restoration Hardware line.
Purchase two sets per bed and keep one set in a labeled box in the bedroom’s closet. Capitalize on those last minute bookings!
For pillows, some people prefer firm and others prefer soft. Therefore, we recommend buying two firmer pillows, and two softer pillows, so that you avoid complaints. Four pillows make the bed look fluffy, inviting and photographs better, so we definitely recommend splurging your guests with four pillows. There are a lot of pillow options out there and it’s sometimes hard to get a good sense of what is worth it or not, but here are our favorite two.
The combination we have had success with is using two Casper pillows and two Utopia Bedding firm pillows. With these 2 pairs you will make everyone happy. And mixing higher end items like the Casper Pillows to more affordable ones like the Utopia Bedding is always a really good idea!
Goose Down or synthetic, that is the question! To be honest, we have had success and happy guests using both. It really depends on what you are going for, the climate of your short term rental, and your budget.
Our top choice would have to be the Cloud Comforter by Buffy. It comes in this very compact box in the mail and fluffs up after a couple minutes on the bed.
For a more classic feel that might be better suited for colder climates, Snowman makes a really great Goose Down comforter.
These are all the items we recommend to curate the perfect night of sleep for your guests. We stay true to our recommendations, and use these same products in our own home as well!
We would love to hear from you after you’ve given these products a shot in your own short term rental. We are constantly trying to improve all aspects of our service and make the best for our guests and our homeowners, so if you too have a good recommendation for bedding, we would love to hear about it! Click on the chat button on the far right, we would love to hear from you! And of course, we recommend these products for your own home just as much as we do for your guests! It’s our belief that our guests should have as good a night of sleep as we give ourselves!
For more products we use in our homes, visit our Shop.
Sleep tight,
The Open Air Homes team
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