Sofa beds

[Alexandra199]

 Hi Airbnb Community

Last year I bought my first holiday let in The Cotswolds. Its a two bed cottage and sleeps 4. This was the start of a new business for me and is going really well, as a result I have just bought another cottage and I am in the process of furnishing it. My big question is Sofa bed or no sofa bed? I have a roomy lounge area and I need to buy brand new sofas. Do I buy a good quality king size sofa bed and have a cottage that can sleep 6  (it has one bathroom) or in your experience do guests dismis the use of a sofa bed.

There are cost implication here as the sofa bed narrows my choice of suites and is also much more expensive than a basic sofa....your views and expaeriences please.

Alexandra

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Alexandra199

Depends on what you want to achieve. Larger groups and potentially more wear and tear, balanced against better income from rental. Once you move up to 6 it's a group, rather than two couples - and you also potentially run a higher risk of parties, etc... However, there are ways of managing that. 

With one bathroom - 6 adults seems a bit of a squeeze too..

(Personally, I have never slept on a comfortable sofa bed and wouldn't consider renting a place where that way my sleeping option)

[Alexandra199]

Hi Gerry and Rashid 

Thank you for your advice, I do agree with you about the lack of bathrooms  and I hadnt thought about the possibility of parties etc so thank you for raising that. I really appreciate you responding, I'm still interested in hearing from others who do have sofa beds...do they get utilised by guests?

alex 

[Rob-and-Carly0]

Hi Alexandra,

I had a quick look at your listing, it looks lovely. I don't think you would need to worry about parties with groups of 6 because as you say in you desciption, the living area is not massive so people would probably be going out. And to be honest, I would have thought the small living space might put off groups of 6. Having said that, we also have a 2 bedroom cottage with only one bathroom  and small living space and do get a few people that ask us if we have a sofa bed, usually from people who are going to weddings so just want a place to sleep and are out all weekend. 

We decided against it as we have a really tiny living room and priotised getting a small sofa that was also comfy to make the room seem bigger. The sofa beds were all bigger and would have taken up too much space in our lounge. But I would say that I probably would have gone for it, just so that there is the extra option.

I also rent a flat in London and we just got a sofabed from DFS (the Zapp) and out tennants say all their friends comment on how comfy it is. 

Not sure if that helps you much.

Carly

Carly

Hope that helps.

Carly

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Alexandra199 we have a sofa bed and it is used from time to time. It is good to have it.

Our listing https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13526118 

We can host up to 6 people in 2 bedrooms + living room

1 double bed + 2 single beds + sofa bed in a living room

sometimes we have 3 guests and one of them use sofa bed. Usually they are 3 friends or colleagues, they don't want to share a room and they want their privacy

Our sofa bed is not expensive one, it is just IKEA PS LÖVÅS, it is not very comfortable one but noone ever complained . They know that sofa is just a spare bed and it's their choice to use it. 

Ikea has nice selection of sofa beds, with washable covers and for every budget. My favourite is VALLENTUNA but it is to expensive for me.

[Sonny10]

The trick is getting as many people as possible to stay in your place without (1) wrecking it and (2) compromising on quality. The revenue outweights all other factors. This is a business. Your bank doesn't care how pretty your place is. Yes, people will give you 5-stars if they loved it, but highest on their list is comfort and flexibility, not aethestics. They're not coming to view your space. They're usually coming to view the town or see an attraction/concert/festival etc. 

Sofa-beds galore, I say. 

Also, I would get something that's easy to wipe, like vinyl, leather or faux leather, as experience has shown me that red wine is highly attracted to sofas for some reason. 

[Karen-and-Brian0]

Hi @Alexandra199 We have a sofa bed & it gets used from time to time. I'd say, go for it! You can adjust your rates to charge for additional people - we charge $50 for each person after 4, so an extra $100/night might make it worth it to you to invest in a sofa bed. As mentioned here, they don't tend to be the most comfortable beds unless you get the kind that have an inflatable mattress ($$$ but REALLY comfortable). Your other option is to get a feather bed topper for it - this can increase the comfort level quite a bit. Problems arise when you try to make the bed up with the topper & fold it away - it can cause the sofa seat to slope & cause damage later on. We got around this by finding a thinner version, but the other option is to leave it out & ask the guests to make the bed themselves (not optimal but maybe workable?) - Karen