Summer is the perfect time to travel and explore. Every year millions of people flock to premier destinations in hopes of a once-in-a-lifetime experience. This includes renting out entire homes on VRBO, AIRBnB, and similar services, to renting out rooms or just staying with relatives for a week while enjoying the surroundings. If you’re the one playing host, there are a lot of little details to pay attention to. Especially if you’re formally renting a space on a property you own. Making sure that all your guests have the space they want for their things and the privacy they need to enjoy their time is an important factor. If this sounds like you, then you might want to tap into some of the following tips for maximizing the space in your guest rooms.
Provide a Linen Storage Space
Some people sleep “Hot” and some people sleep “Cold.” Providing them with extra sheets and blankets as well as a place to keep unneeded sleeping items lets them set up the bed how they prefer. It also keeps the room from looking disheveled should unneeded blankets need to be moved away in the middle of the night.
A Dedicated Personal Hamper
Whether you have family and friends visiting, or you’re renting out a space in your home, no one wants to mix their dirty laundry in with everyone else’s. Providing each room and/or each person with their own laundry hamper lets them keep their own items separate, without forcing them to mingle their dirty clothes with the clean clothes.
Provide Ample Closet Space
Being able to hang their clothes up helps your guests feel more at home, than if they’re leaving everything folded in a suitcase. Of course, this also means clearing out your own storage items. All the winter clothes, spare boots, and tote bins full of holiday decorations need to be moved elsewhere. So, your guests aren’t just sharing space with your out-of-season items.
Provide a Safe
If you’re renting a room or portion of your home to someone providing them with a safe to store their own valuables is something they will definitely appreciate. It also keeps them from improvising where they store important items.
You can buy a safe that lets them input their own code and then reset it when they leave. Giving them the peace of mind that will probably add an extra star to your rental rating.
Decorate with Light Colors
The old saying goes that luxury is defined by light and space. While you usually can’t add space to a guest room, you can still make it feel bigger than it is by decorating it with light colors.
This starts with light shades of paint or wallpaper, as well as bright furniture items that make the most out of the room’s available lumens. Light-colored bedding and wall decorations also help keep things feeling fresh and open.
Add Mirrors
Mirrors aren’t just for letting someone see how they look before stepping out. They also tend to make a room feel larger than it is. This can come in handy if you have a traditionally small guest room, but you want to make a big first impression.
Black Out Curtains
As much as you want to let natural light into the guest room during the day, you also want to keep the light out at night. One of the biggest problems faced by many travelers is light pollution affecting sleep hygiene. When they get a poor night’s sleep night after night due to street lights and yard lights beaming in, they feel less at home in your home.
Though with some clever shopping, you might be able to find combination curtains that are light-colored to make the room seem brighter when closed. Yet they have a blackout layer to let the room plunge into inky darkness when your guests want to go to bed.
Offer a White Noise Machine
These days a lot of people sleep with a fan on or use a white noise machine. Yet many forget to bring it with them when they travel. Having one on at night isn’t just about practicing good, consistent sleep hygiene. It also helps drown out the other noises in the house that remind them they’re staying in a small guest room.
White noise machines with variable noises can also be a great way to help children fall asleep when visiting your home. They can go to bed early without being woken up by the unfamiliar noises that inevitably come with sleeping in a strange house.
Private Bathroom Access
If you’re renting out a portion of your home, or you want to offer a miniature “In Law Apartment” for visiting family and friends, it helps to give them their own private bathroom space. This might mean putting up a wall to create a private “suite” or adding a door to an adjacent guest bedroom.
Under-the-Bed Storage
Nobody feels like they are truly “Home away from home” when they’re constantly tripping over their own suitcase. Offering up large under-bed storage compartments gives your guests a place to stash their suitcases. Yet they can still leave a few personal items in them, to be easy to access at a moment’s notice.
Adjustable Drawer Dividers
Drawer dividers are a great way to optimize the space in any pull-out drawer or lower cabinet. Investing a little extra in adjustable dividers helps your guest to customize each drawer to meet their needs. Then you can easily change it back when someone else visits or rents the room later in the summer.
Adjustable Shelves
Adjustable shelves in closets and other storage areas let your summertime guests adjust the space to meet their needs. It’s great for letting them make the most out of every square inch so that they don’t feel like they’re forced to live out of their suitcase when they visit your home.
Behind the Door Storage Pouches
The space behind a door is seldom used in most guestrooms, yet it offers up an enormous amount of storage space for lightweight items. A simple pouch system can be used to hold shoes and boots, or perhaps even lighter personal items such as medication bottles. Since it’s behind the door, it also tends to be more discreet.
