Those of you of a certain age (i.e., my age) will remember those grandma’s living rooms with furniture encased in plastic. It seemed silly then (and sweaty), but after a couple of years of guest traffic, you may be tempted to see if they still make that stuff. Lucky for us, there are alternative ways to protect your furniture investment that will make your property come across as “well-appointed” rather than “owned by a crazy person.”
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Table of Contents
Here’s How To Protect Your Vacation Rental Furniture
Coasters
It sounds silly, but the best way to get guests to use coasters is to provide a lot of them. Buy many. Replenish often.
Idea: Why not get coasters printed with your logo? You’re not limited to the cardboard bar-type ones (although those are good) – you can choose bamboo, cork, slate, or marble. Like everything else, you can get them on Amazon. If you want to provide them as gifts, consider ordering in bulk from a company like Beach House Logos.
Let’s face it. These girls aren’t going to use coasters. Glass tops protect your furniture when your guests are having too much fun to be careful.
Photo by Michael Discenza on Unsplash
Glass tops
If you’ve got natural or painted wood furniture it’s just a matter of time before the tops are destroyed. Getting glass tops made to protect furniture is fairly painless, just look for a glass and mirror shop with good reviews. They will typically come out and measure, then deliver and install your tops. In addition to clear glass, you can also get black or white (ask for “back-painted” glass), which does wonders to conceal tops that have already been damaged. As a bonus, if you’ve got cards with instructions for your remote controls or similar you can slide them under (clear) glass, ensuring they stay where they’re supposed to. Don’t forget dressers and nightstands, they are particularly susceptible to water rings.
Fabric protection
Professional fabric protection is a worthwhile investment for upholstered furniture that will get a lot of use, and it usually does not change the color or texture of the fabrics. There are several franchises that offer this service, and as with any pro, it’s best to search your area and find one with good reviews. The benefits of the service over DIY are in the application, the products used, and the warranty. Since the product is applied with pressure, rather than a spray can, it penetrates more deeply into the fibers, and the pro will know which solution is best for the fabric you want to treat. But the warranty is one of the best reasons to invest in a pro service. As long as you keep your end of the bargain (scheduling touch-ups and re-application as advised), the services include stain removal service, should any occur, usually for five years after application. The service isn’t cheap, so you may want to reserve it for bigger and/or more susceptible furniture, like sofas and dining chairs, and use the DIY stuff for other furniture. A couple of well-respected franchises to look for are Fiber Seal and Ultra Guard.
Makeup Remover Cloths
Makeup stains are the bane of vacation rental housekeeping. For the first couple of years at my short-term rental, I provided dark washcloths and signs asking guests to use them, and housekeeping still ended up with plenty of white towels with a full face full of makeup ground into them. I finally added individually wrapped makeup remover cloths to our amenities trays along with the dark washcloths, and lo and behold the white towels were largely spared. I particularly like La Fresh brand wipes, as they are available in bulk on Amazon and have cute packaging.
Outdoor Furniture Covers
This one is kind of a duh, but since my rental is in a location that rarely rains, I was guilty of skipping these until I had to replace a full furniture suite decimated by the sun. Learn from my mistakes. Although they do create a little more work for whoever has to put them on and take them off, covers not only protect from the elements, they eliminate the hassle of having to clean furniture twice: at checkout and then again after birds have pooped on them for a few days.
If covers are available when you buy your furniture, get them, otherwise, you can find generic covers on Amazon or Wayfair. Just be sure to measure your furniture to get the right sizes.
Signs
There are ways of placing discrete signs throughout your property without coming off as a Bossypants. Keep the tone light and the signs short; your guests will appreciate the heads-up. You can make nice-looking signs in a free program like Canva or find pre-designed templates on Etsy. I like to print ours in color and laminate them.
Dog Beds and Blankets
If you allow dogs, be sure to give them a place to rest that isn’t your rental’s sofa or bed. Naturally, your pet agreement will say no dogs on the furniture, but adding an alternative place for pups to rest will help make that a reality. We buy them cheap at a store like Homegoods, and keep them in the owner’s closet until needed.
Photo by Matthew Hamilton on Unsplash
A Deposit
Finally, nothing promotes good behavior like having a little skin in the game. Airbnb won’t give you the option, but if you book on VRBO or your own website, it’s a good idea to take a deposit or require damage insurance. The thought of losing money may just encourage guests to keep a little more of an eye on the kids, or their drunk friends.
Are you doing any of these things already? Is there a particular type of damage we didn’t cover? Let me know in the comments.
