Airbnb Interior Design: Designing a Guest Favourite with Belonging

How to Make Your AirBnb Stand Out in 2026

Rustic Dean Village Bathroom - Designed by Braw House

It's mid-July in the Scottish Highlands. You've taken a delicious dip in a deep, cold loch. The sun is shining (for once) and you stroll back to your Airbnb to dry off by the wood-burning stove. You start doing the math: How much is property here? What would it take to live here? There's something about this place that makes you never want to leave. This is the feeling every Airbnb host should be chasing. It's a sense of belonging that comes with a space that’s been designed with genuine intention. 

In 2026, the majority of short-term rentals are investment properties made up with flat-pack furniture and questionable colour palettes. Of course, it wasn't always like this. When Airbnb first took off, most listings were people's actual homes, filled with furniture, artwork and dishes accumulated over years of daily life. A rug dragged back from a holiday. Shelves stacked with pre-read books. Not all lived-in homes are magazine-worthy, but they do, unintentionally or intentionally, contain genuine artifacts of the people living there and their surroundings. 

When designing a short-term rental, it’s easy to skip over important details that make your space a guest favourite. Most Airbnb hosts default to the path of least resistance: A grey sofa, a rug that’s too small for the room, wall decals, and, of course, signage declaring one to live, laugh, love. My stomach hurts just thinking about it. While some may take the time to curate an interior that looks deliberate, more often than not, it falls flat.

This is what nightmares are made of.

That’s when your friendly interior designers come in. At Braw House, we've spent over a decade making rental properties stand out, and we know all about what quietly kills them. The key to designing a guest favourite on Airbnb is in how you think about design. You don’t need a major budget or months of runway, just Braw House’s Principles of Airbnb Design. Let’s dig deeper into the idea of belonging.

How To Design A Vacation Rental That Guests Love 

1. Creating a sense of belonging 

Long before a guest charges their credit card, they’ve developed a romanticized ideal of the place they are traveling to. A long weekend in the south of France, eating heirloom tomatoes on a sun-soaked terrace. Time away in the Lake District with a good book and trails to explore. A week lounging poolside in Palm Springs sipping Pina Coladas. Scrolling through Airbnb, they are looking for the one. The listing that has everything they need, and looks just right. For every average-looking place, there is a just right spot racking up glowing reviews and generating far more revenue. These spaces look and feel like they belong in their surroundings, and importantly, they mirror guests’ imaginations of what it might look and feel like to live in Paris, or Hong Kong, or a picturesque town in the English countryside.

Tune into the vibe.

Designing with belonging in mind translates to interior choices that do more than fill up a room. Learn more about how we can help or book a free 30-minute consultation. In the meantime, start here:

2. Take a hike 

And by hike, we mean a walk, unless your property is sticking out of a mountain, then by all means, grab your hiking boots! Whether you’ve lived in the area all your life or are new in town, take a stroll around and soak in the surroundings with fresh eyes. Take note of the natural colours: What kind of flowers are blooming? What do the bones of surrounding buildings or houses look like? The goal isn’t to mimic what you see, but to ground your inspiration in a solid foundation. This task will also help you weed out what you definitely don’t want to create. If your rental property is located in the midst of a city’s financial district, you might come to the conclusion that no one in their right mind would want to stay in a glass box in the sky unless it was a warm, cozy respite that reflects a comfortable, modern feel. 

3. Look at what’s obvious, and PIVOT!

We’re not talking about falling into the trap of interior tropes. A calm, neutral home by the beach doesn’t require a headboard made of rope and an anchor nailed to the wall, just like an apartment in Paris doesn’t demand Eiffel Tower patterned bed sheets. Look past the postcard version in your mind and don’t worry about replicating everything exactly as you see it on Pinterest. Instead, pay attention to the feeling you want to create and apply that lens to all the layers of an interior including colour, fabric and texture, shapes, heights and weights. 

4. Plan around intentional elements

Hunt for a strong anchor piece: A lounge chair with character, a dining table with history, artwork that sets a tone. Let that piece lead. A space built around one genuinely interesting object will always feel more cohesive and alive than a room furnished by a one-stop-shop.

How We Can Help: Braw House Airbnb Care Package 

Let’s take your property from underperforming to fully booked! Get started with a chat.

1. Proper assessment: Let’s examine your market, target guests, and realistic nightly rate to craft a strategic direction. 

2. Complete design plan: We deliver the concept, moodboard, product suggestions and 3D-visuals that map out the space.

3. Procurement and install: We’ll secure the products and execute on the entire vision. 

4. Brand your listing (optional add-on).

   1. Our in-house copy team will write your listing and coordinate cross-platform setup. Professional photography included. 

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By the way, you wouldn't happen to be getting ready to rent out a tenement flat in Edinburgh, would you? If so, check out our tailored guide for renovation. Braw House works worldwide, but we're based in Edinburgh. So, let's just say, we know EXACTLY what we're talking about.