The BEST Linens for Your Airbnb Guests | Airbnb Host Plus Tips

Well, there is just a mind boggling amount of options when it comes to linens. What we should be putting in our short term rentals. Is it worth it? How do we care for them? All things linens. That's what I want to break down this week. My team and I have managed tens of thousands of guests and I personally have a passion for some good linens. So I want to talk about all the things that I've learned this week. Welcome to Short Term Rental Riches. We'll discuss investing in real estate, but with a specific focus on short term rentals. Quick actionable items to acquire, manage and scale your portfolio. I'm your host, Tim Hubbard.

Welcome back to the Short Term Rental Riches podcast. We're talking about linens this week, but not just linens. We're talking about comfort, which is super, super important for our short term rentals. Our guests come to our short term rentals for lots of reasons, but one of those reasons is to relax, right? If they're not having a good night's sleep, well, then they're not going to have a good stay and then we're going to get a bad review. So I want to talk about linens before I do though. This is one of those areas where we don't want to skimp, right? We, we want to make sure that we have some quality. If you caught last week's episode, we talked about a consumable item that you're very likely putting in your properties that you probably don't need. And I would argue that if you don't put it in there, no one's going to give you a one star review because you didn't have it in there. So go back and check out that episode if you missed it this week. Let's get into linens. I think when we think about linens, a lot of times we think about thread count, right? The higher the better, right? Well, not necessarily. The thread count technically is how many threads per square inch are on or in your linens or make up your linens. And I am not an expert on linens, but a lot of people are. Including a very good YouTube video that I want to share with you. It'll be in the show. Notes from an expert whose family has been making linens for over 20 years. It's a great, great video from Architectural Digest where he actually does a blind feel test and he's super, super knowledgeable. He knows everything about types of linens, thread counts, all that. So I'll give you a couple tips from there. But I highly Suggest you go out and check it out yourself. It's not a very long video. The first thing is that the thread count, according to him, a professional who's been making linens for decades, if you're buying linens that are 600 thread count or higher, well, you're probably getting scammed. In his words, he uses gimmick. Because the reality is once you get up to even 300, those are excellent, excellent sheets. Right. And a lot of times you might see there's excellent sheets out there. One set might be $300 and it's 300 thread count. But then you can go on Amazon and you can buy 800 thread count for 20 bucks. Yeah, it's a bit of a gimmick. And I've got to say, I'm passionate about sheets. I'm passionate about comfort. And our sheets are one of those things that we spend a lot of time in. Right. More time than we spend driving our car. Same go for our mattress. So we want to make sure that we get good ones. So the first thing is you don't need to be buying sheets that are 600 plus thread count. If you have a quality sheet that's 2 to 300 thread count, well, that's probably going to be a really good one. I'm going to get to the ones that we use in just a bit. So the higher we get with our thread count, and again, this is up to like that 3, 400 point, the sheets actually are going to feel a little cooler, but they're also better constructed. Right. Which means that they're going to last longer, which means you will be able to use them longer. So he goes into materials as well. I recommend cotton, and I think that'll work well for, for pretty much everyone. But if you want to explore other materials, well, we have synthetic and it basically goes. Synthetic is not a natural material. Right. So that's going to be our cheapest option. Cotton is going to be the next one up, and then all the way up to things like silk. And the natural materials are always going to cost more than the synthetic ones. And if we can make sure that we have sheets in that 250 to maybe tops 400 thread count, well, then they're actually going to feel better. Right. If you think about it, a square inch comprises the thread count. The more threads are there, the less gaps there are. So it's just more of a smooth sensation. So that's just a bit on sheets. We don't want to skimp on those. Again, I'm going to get to the ones that we're using and a resource for you to get the same ones if you want. But remember that you don't have to spend an arm and a leg, but you do want to match to your guest expectations. Actually, I would say you want to go slightly higher than your guest expectations. So if you're renting out some luxury villa that's $10,000 a night, your guests are probably going to have higher standards and you want to make sure that you have good sheets and good linens and that everything is top notch. Right. Versus maybe, you know, a lot of my apartments are mid level apartments that are charging average rates. And we have great sheets because we know how important they are, but they don't cost hundreds of dollars a set. So check out that video. I think you'll be surprised at the infio as it's really a fantastic video. Okay, so how do we care for these sheets and which sheets should we actually have? Well, we definitely always want to have a fitted sheet. We're always going to have a flat sheet. We use duvet covers. And so the duvet is the sheet that goes. Well, it's not really a sheet, it's a duvet, but it goes around the comforter, the fluffy part, which means that we can take it off and we can wash it easily. So you want to make sure that you have a good quality duvet as well, because that's something every guest is going to be feeling along with the sheet. A couple other things to go along with comfort. We want to make sure that we have good pillows too, right? And a good tip is just to have two pillows per guest. Now, ideally you can have multiple types of pillows too, right? Some people like more firm pillows, some people like softer pillows. That is up to you. I would say again, the more luxurious your property, the more options you should be providing. We get our pillows, most of them anyways, from Costco. And I just, I gotta say, they have really good options at Costco. That's for those of us here in the us We've actually got a lot of people listening outside of the US as well now in over 50 countries. But most of those are English speaking, of course, so Canadia, Australia shout out to you guys. And then, you know, we've got some random spots in Europe and stuff like that where people are tuning in. So thanks again for tuning in, by the way. And if you haven't yet left us a review on itunes or Spotify or wherever you listen in, for those of you listening to the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you'd head over there and give us a review, give us a shout out. You can also head to Strom where you can request a topic. And I am open to discussing whatever it is that revolves around short term rentals. So if you're getting synthetic pillows from Costco, for example, they're really only going to last, you know, 18 to 24 months before you need to replace them. Luckily, they're not that expensive. So make sure that you don't have really old pillows in your place. It's an easy thing to change and it's something where our guests are spending a ton of time with it. There's also the question about down pillows, and I personally think they're fantastic, but there are some people that have allergies and they will ask you about that. So if, if you can have options. Well, of course, the more options we have for our guests, the better it's going to be. A couple other things. When we're talking about caring for our linens and our bedding and making sure it's comfortable, obviously everything's got to be clean, super clean, right. If you've got one little stain anywhere, get rid of it. Get rid of it. What does someone think about when they see a linen with a stain on it? They think about someone else and then they start thinking about what that stain could be. That is not a good thing. Image. Right? So just get that out. Hotels don't do that. We shouldn't be doing that either. But we want to use mattress protectors. We want to use pillow protectors as well. These are going to help prolong the life of our linens and our bedding. You're also going to want to include a blanket, right? I mean, the duvet can be nice. You don't have to, but we like to do this. And there are blankets that quick dry, so they're very light. But it's a nice touch to go on there. It's something we can wash every time and that dries quickly. So look into those if, especially if you're in a place that's cold to make sure you have a little more comfort for your guests. So where do we get our linens? Well, it depends. I've got some cities with just a few properties in those cities, and then I have another one in Tennessee, for example, where I have a lot of properties. And in that location I work with a hotel supplier and we buy their premium linens, their 250 thread count, but I've slept on them myself. And they are fantastic. And they also wash really well and they hold up well. So if you want that resource, you can grab it for free at our recommended resources@restmethods.com we've also got a bunch of other resources on there for you as well. That company does ship nationwide by the way, but I believe they have a minimum. So make sure you check with them. For the cities where I just have a few properties, well, we order off Amazon again. Remember there's 5,000 options on Amazon, so make sure you're getting one that's got good reviews. It's not going to be the cheapest option. Another good option is Costco. They have great linens as well. And so if you have someone there locally that can pick those up from you, those will be a good option. So me personally, I, I've been exploring this linen area for quite a while and I bought some linens from Brooklinen. It's a US company and I've discovered them after staying in a short term rental. I stayed in one in Rio de Janeiro. It was really nice and I laid in these sheets and it was just like, oh my gosh, I gotta have these. So I messaged the host and fortunately they weren't available there in Brazil. I guess they imported them or brought them in a suitcase or something. But I ended up getting a set and I've got them at my property now in Brazil, which I will be going back to soon. And I'm excited to be back. They're really excited to be back there. Been it's been several months. So those linens are fantastic and I did spend quite a bit more. Those are not linens that I'm using in all of my short term rentals. But again, my short term rentals are not super luxurious properties. The linens that we are using, we get great feedback on. So just make sure that whatever linens, whatever amenities, whatever you have in your property is slightly exceeding your guest expectations. Then you're always going to get good reviews. Okay, just a couple last bonus tips for you to make sure that you have a very warm, welcoming, cozy space. The first thing is make sure you're using all white linens. There's a reason why hotels use all white linens and we should be following suit, right? They've been doing this for a long, long time. But the main basic reason is we know that they're clean when we're sleeping in them and it's easier for us to wash them and we can bleach them. So make you're using all white linens, the mattress protectors, the fitted sheets, your flat sheets, your duvet cover, everything should be white. Your pillowcases, make sure you're using all white. The second thing I noted on is make sure you have at least two pillows per guest. If you can provide those options, that's even better. Use a duvet cover. This is our preferred method. It allows us to take the duvet off. We don't wash the comforter inside because the duvet is covering it on the outside. Of course, you always want to inspect the comforter after you take the duvet off to make sure there's nothing wrong with it. Make sure it doesn't need to be washed. But we use the duvet cover. It helps protect that. You can tuck your sheets like they do in at the hotels where it's real nice, where it's like you're just nice and snug in the mattress there after you jump in bed. Check out some YouTube videos if you're not doing that that way right now, or if your housekeepers aren't doing that way and send them a simple quick video. It's a little difference, but it goes a long way. The last quick tip here is just make sure you have some decorative throw pillows on your bed so when a guest enters the bedroom they see a real nice, elegant looking, crisp and clean bedroom with white linens and some decorative throw pillows. Make sure your decorative throw pillows don't ever have stains on them either. That's something that you're probably going to want to change out every once in a while. It's also something that can really change the look of your property, so it's nice to have quite a few on hand just to change those up. And then lastly, if you don't have a blanket on the bed as well, consider getting some of those quick dry blankets that you can wash easily and it'll provide your guests a little bit more warmth. Until next time. I hope that provided you some good insight. If you haven't explored sheets yet, I definitely would. They're super important for our short term rentals, but we don't have to go extreme. But if you want to splurge on your personal sheets, well, I did and I would say it was a fantastic decision. I hope you have a wonderful week and look forward to catching up with you next time.

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