The Top 3 Best Rugs In Our Airbnbs

Your ideal rug for an Airbnb is one that looks amazing, has a luxury feel, but holds up to the constant food traffic and vacuuming. For us, this usually means a sturdy low pile rug (long shag rugs are almost impossible to vacuum).

While rugs aren’t at the very top of the list for purchases that can make or break your Airbnb business, they can make a HUGE difference in the way your space looks and feels.

A well placed, beautiful rug can seriously enhance your Airbnb. It can turn a “meh” space into a “this is nice!” space.

So today I’ll be sharing a couple rug purchasing blunders we’ve made and also listing some of our successful purchases that have worked out.

A Large, Expensive Rug That Got Ruined

My wife Kate, who is the interior designer of our Airbnb business, loves a good natural look. She likes items that looks like they were hand-crafted out of natural materials.

And honestly, I love the designs she comes up with. It’s arguably the most important part of a successful Airbnb business, so she’s a huge reason we’ve done so well.

However…

There was this one rug that she bought for our luxury listing that didn’t end up working out so well.

Vacuum cleaners and braided rugs don’t mix

It’s no secret that in between every guest you must vacuum. Guests make messes. They eat chips and popcorn and they track in bits of dirt and sand. To keep your place clean you have to vacuum a lot.

So this particular rug was a braided rug. I’m not 100% sure what it was made out of, but I think it was like twine or something.

And this thing was huge, like 10 feet by 15 feet or something. Enormous.

It was in the middle of the living room and the couch/TV setup was right on top of it. So naturally we had to vacuum it every single time guests left the home.

On an average month, it probably got vacuumed 8-10 times.

And in less than a year, the braids started coming apart. As time went on it just got worse and worse. This rug was being torn to shreds by the vacuum cleaner.

This is an example of what NOT to buy. Looks great, but these rugs will get torn apart by your vacuum cleaner in a year or less.

We ended up having to replace it, and learned some valuable lessons:

When possible, buy rugs that are good to vacuum (that means no shag rugs and no braided rugs)
If you do have a braided rug, always vacuum with the grain (vacuuming across the braids tears them apart over time)

So even though some rugs will just be breathtaking in your space, they may not make practical sense for an Airbnb.

Rugs That Have Worked Great For Us (And Look Great)

We’ve had to replace a handful of rugs during our 5+ years of hosting, but we’ve also had some hold up for many years. Here are some of them:

SAFAVIEH Adirondack Collection Large Area Rug

Used in our luxury Airbnb for more than 2 years
Very durable, no issues with vacuuming
Large rug, great for a living room
Looks great, comes in several colors

View on Amazon

This is actually the rug we replaced the braided one with (the one that got torn up by the vacuum). Even though it doesn’t look quite as stunning as the old rug, it’s much cleaner overall and of course significantly more durable.

We’ve had it in the listing for over 2 years now and while there’s some normal wear and tear on the rug, there’s no indication that it needs to be replaced any time soon.

This is a very large rug (10 feet by 14 feet), which makes it a great candidate for a living room or other large space, but of course this means it’s not cheap.

Decent large rugs are expensive, so unless you luck out at a garage sale, estate sale or secondhand store, you’ll be paying up for a large area rug.

Overall, this is a great rug and while expensive, it’s about as affordable a price as you’ll find for one this size.

JONATHAN Y MOH101B-5 Moroccan Area Rug

Used in one of our Airbnbs for more than 4 years
Very durable, no issues with vacuuming
Very affordable
Comes in many sizes and colors

View on Amazon

This is a great rug for a low-mid tier Airbnb. It’s not quite as nice and so it doesn’t really have that luxury factor, but it is incredibly durable and it still looks great.

We’ve had this one underneath one of our full beds in our low end listing for over 4 years now. Except for a few small stains that we’ve failed to get out, this rug in as good of shape as the day we bought it. There’s no reason to think it can’t last for 10+ years.

We got the 5 x 8 foot rug, but there are several different sizes that you can get. It even comes in some oval and round shapes.

Overall, this is a great rug to put it non-prominent spots. It looks good and is incredibly durable, but it just doesn’t have that WOW factor/luxury feel of some other area rugs.

SAFAVIEH Vision Collection VSN606F Area Rug

Newly bought rug for one of our Airbnbs
Luxury look and feel
Still reasonably priced
4 x 6 foot rug that comes in many colors

View on Amazon

We recently bought this area rug for a new Airbnb. It’s underneath the coffee table in the living area. It’s a very soft material, sits low to the floor and just looks and feels like a very nice rug.

This is a smaller rug, so it’s not going to work as a centerpiece in your listing, but it will work great underneath a centerpiece like a coffee table or a dining table.

I can’t really say from experience how durable it is, since we’ve only had it in our listing for a couple months, but it’s certainly well made. And it’s very similarly built to other rugs we’ve had that have held up well over the years.

Overall, we’re very happy with the purchase. It’s reasonably priced, looks great and adds to that high end experience we try to create in all our listings.

Conclusion

All in all, I believe the best rug for your Airbnb is a simple, yet beautiful low pile rug. It’s the only style that has avoided all the issues (mostly durability related).

The three rugs listed are all great choices and I can say that based on the experiences we’ve had with them. All durable, all great-looking, and all good values.

Happy investing.