Best Bed Size To Use In Your Airbnb

Sure, any bed size will work in your Airbnb. For the most part, as long as your guests have somewhere to sleep each night they’ll be happy.

But once you buy your beds you’ll be stuck with them for a while, so it’s wise to put some thought into what size beds you will use. Kate and I have been running profitable Airbnbs for over three years now and I do believe that bed size matters.

I believe that as long as your bedrooms have the space, a King bed is the best choice for you Airbnb, but there are some arguments against this.

Bed Sizes To Choose From

First things first, I’m not going to get into all the unusual bed sizes. As far as I’m concerned, these are your choices:

• King
• Queen
• Full
• Twin

There are lots of reasons to stay within the standard bed sizes, but it will suffice to say simply that if you don’t buy one of these four sizes you’ll be spending more money and you’ll have a much harder time finding quality sheets.

1. Best For Your Guests’ Experience

First and foremost, your guests’ experience should always be your top priority when making decisions. Like I said before, most of your guests won’t put much thought into their beds as long as they can get a good night’s sleep.

But bed size can be a major factor in how well your guests sleep.

Kate and I slept together on a full bed until Kate got pregnant. As her belly grew we found sleeping on the full bed extremely uncomfortable, so we upgraded and got a King. After that we slept great.

But here’s the thing, now when we travel, if we don’t have a King bed we don’t sleep quite as well. We’re so used to the space on the King bed that sleeping on even a Queen mattress usually makes our sleep a little worse.

But back when we slept on a full mattress, we never had a problem sleeping on a King mattress while traveling.

And maybe twin beds too…

I believe King beds are the best size for your guests’ experience because everyone can sleep well on a King bed, but I think there’s an argument to be made for twin beds being almost as good.

Twin beds are intended for only one person, so at least in my experience, sleeping in one has never been an issue (based on size alone).

Except for one thing.

The big issue with twin beds though is their length. Twin beds are 5 inches shorter than King and Queen beds, but the same length as a full. Very tall guests may have issues sleeping on a twin bed.

It also bears mentioning that you can sleep 4 guests on two King beds, but that means two pairs of two. You might miss out on groups of three or four that all want their own bed.

We generally don’t think two hard about the total number of beds, but I do think two Kings and two twins is better than three Kings.

Size of your rooms

King beds don’t fit in every room. Your guests will want some breathing room in the bedrooms to fit luggage and have a bedside table. They also need to be able to walk around in the bedroom.

If your bedroom is big enough, I think King beds are the best size, but a Queen bed is great too if you have a smaller bedroom. And full beds are perfectly acceptable, we have full beds in two of our Airbnbs and they work out just fine.

2. Best For Your Bank Account

Yeah everybody wants to sleep in a King bed, but that doesn’t mean I want to pay more for a bed and pay more for sheets and pay more for bigger pillows and bigger comforters.

Full beds are the most bang for your buck.

You can sleep two guests on a full bed, and more guests typically means more money. But you’ll be paying less for a full bed than the Queen and King sizes.

Related: See what mattresses are our guests’ favorites.

3. Best For Your Washer and Dryer

When you host Airbnbs you quickly realize that there’s a LOT of laundry to do. One of our units has four beds (a King, a Queen and two twins), and when our guests use all four beds, plus towels, we may be looking at three loads of laundry.

King sheets take up a ton of space in the washer and dryer, and in my experience even the biggest washers cannot fit two complete sets of King sheets with four towels.

If your washer and dryer have a smaller capacity, a set of King sheets may be a little too much to ask of them.

Think about the capacity of your washer and dryer when you choose a bed size for your Airbnb.

4. Best For Your Profitability

There are many factors that affect the profitability of your Airbnb. The big ones are views to your listing, booking rate, reviews and nightly price.

A huge factor in getting more views to your listing is search filters. Currently, Airbnb doesn’t have a way to filter by bed size. You can’t search only for listings with a King bed for example. But you can search by number of beds. So bed size won’t directly affect the views to your listing.

Booking rate is affected mostly by your listing’s photos, description and reviews. Your bed size can affect booking rate. If potential guests see a large comfortable bed, they may be more likely to book.

And reviews can also have a huge impact on every part of your profitability. Good reviews improve your search ranking, which gets your more views. Good reviews also instill trust in your listing with potential guests, which makes them more likely to book.

And good reviews come from exceeding your guests’ expectations. A large comfortable bed (such as a King bed) can do just that and help lead to great reviews. Smaller beds (like a full bed) can result in poor sleep for your guests and can negatively affect your reviews.

My Opinion For Best Overall

In my personal opinion, this is the order I would put bed sizes in:

1. King bed
2. Twin bed (or 2 twin beds)
3. Queen bed
4. Full bed

For me, the King bed is best. It feels luxurious to guests and they will sleep better. Everyone sleeps fine in a King bed. Your washer and dryer will work harder, but in the end I believe Airbnbs with at least one King bed make more money than those without.

Related Reading: These are the mattresses our guests love

A twin bed (or two) is next on my list. One of our Airbnbs has two twin beds and we’ve been told several times by guests how much they liked the twin beds. They are comfortable to sleep on because guests get their own bed. And lots of guests need their own bed. You’ll be able to book more groups with twin beds than with a King, Queen or full.

Queen is next followed by full. They are just like the King bed, but since they are smaller your guest’s sleep can be negatively affected.

Some rules we tend to follow

Here are a few extra thoughts that didn’t fit elsewhere in the article:

• If possible, every Airbnb should have one King bed
• Three bedroom homes should have one bedroom with two twin beds and the other two bedrooms should have either a King, Queen or full
• Never use bunk beds (You won’t be able to get short term rental insurance)
• Always keep a pack n’ play in your Airbnb
• Don’t be afraid to put a bed in a large common area

Conclusion

We have all four of these bed sizes in our Airbnbs, and they can all be a part of a great and profitable short term rental. However, you can pretty much never go wrong with a King (as long as it fits).

Whatever bed size you choose, there is a lot more to profiting from Airbnb. You won’t make or break anything with your choice in bed size.

Happy investing.

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