Brainstorm Designs an Airbnb

We started using Airbnb in 2014 staying with people all across the US while traveling for trade shows and craft shows. We LOVE meeting new people so these experiences really stuck with us and contributed to our shared dream of one day running our own. A few years after buying our multi-family house we finally had the opportunity to renovate one of the units in between tenants. This was our chance to launch a BNB. Ripping out carpets and wallpaper, painting walls and ceilings, laying down new flooring. We painted the cabinets instead of replacing them but demolished and rebuilt the bathroom. It was a labor intensive but we really needed a covid era distraction and we never shy away from hard labor. It worked out pretty well! 

Designing this space within the parameters of this old house was a fun challenge. Our many art and antiques finally had a place to be displayed (whatever didn't fit in our own apartment downstairs!) Stocking the apartment with all our own prints and puzzles was such a thrill. We hunted for deals at Crate & Barrel outlet, designed the quintessential Airbnb guidebook, took photos and built the listing online. It was ready to launch Jan 2022. We had no idea how it would do, but turns out people are REALLY visiting Dover and we were booked solid for 10 months. Perfect 5 stars. Then in October we switched gears, opened our Pop Up Shop downtown and needed to pull back. Cleaning and flipping the bnb every few days on top of working the shop was too much since we are very hands on. But the renovations were all worth it! 

 

 We finally had a great place to hang our Billy Name screenprints that we hand printed years ago. That's a long and epic story. 

We had the most fun designing and illustrating the Airbnb book. 

 

Cabinets are the originals, just painted and new hardware. Amazing what a couple of tweaks can do. Inexpensive but labor intensive!

We were sore for several months.