Our Top 2 Bed Frames In Our Airbnbs

Your beds are one of the most important parts of your Airbnb. After all, your guests are going to be spending at least one night in your space, and if they aren’t able to sleep it could result in poor reviews.

So it’s important to think through your sleeping quarters, from the bed size, to the mattress you choose, to the pillows your guests sleep on, to the sheets you use.

Considering the bed frame supports all those things, it’s important to get it right (or at least not get it wrong).

It’s true, not everything has to be perfect, and you don’t have to use the best, most luxurious products. The most important thing if for your guests not to notice anything wrong. They should be able to sleep comfortably without the distraction of a squeaky bed frame or a falling slat.

Our Bed Frame Problems

Speaking of problems that can arise with you bed frames, we’ve had a few experiences with that. Three types of problems to be exact.

First, and by far the most frustrating, was a troublesome pull out couch. Strictly speaking, this doesn’t really qualify as a bed frame, so I’ll be brief. Basically, guests had a hard time getting the bed out of the couch (and back in) and ended up breaking it. Trying to use that pull out couch after it broke was a serious headache for months.

Lesson #1: Be very cautious with your choice in pull out couch

Second, we had a bed frame with wooden slats that weren’t connected to the frame itself. Every few guests, one of the slats would fall out and we’d get a message or a call. Eventually, we actually had a guest fall through the bed frame when several slats gave way! Needless to say, we’ve since donated and replaced that bed frame.

Lesson #2: Only use slats that connect to the bed frame

Third, we’ve had a couple bed frames that were squeaky. This is a problem that usually starts very quiet and slowly gets louder and louder until guests start complaining about it. The only solution we’ve found to solve this problem once and for all is to get a new bed frame. All our squeaky bed frames were old/used/preowned.

Lesson #3: Avoid old bed frames. Just buy them new for your Airbnb.

So with these lessons in mind, let’s take a quick look at what has worked well for us.

Our Best Airbnb Bed Frames

Yes, we’ve had some bad bed frames in our 5 plus years of hosting, but our blunders can be avoided. The bed frames we use today all share some characteristics:

We bought them new
Mattress sits on top of the bed frame (we don’t use box springs)
Lots of slats that are either part of the bed frame, connected by screws or connected by velcro
The corners can be tightened

One thing that is worth mentioning is that we have a headboard on every bed, but we don’t always buy the headboard with the bed frame.

So that’s basically it. We have more metal bed frames than anything else, but for our master bedroom (King bed always) we usually get something that looks more impressive than a metal bed frame.

My List

All these bed frames are either being used in one (or more) of our Airbnbs today, or they are bed frames that we would absolutely use if we bought a new house to list.

ZINUS Van 16 Inch Metal Platform Bed Frame

We have several of these in our Airbnbs
No need for a box spring
Metal slats that are attached with screws
Very durable
Does not come with a headboard

View on Amazon

This is the bed frame we’ve bought and used the most. While writing this article we have, I believe, 5 of these bed frames across our 4 Airbnbs.

There are a lot of positives with this bed frame. First, it’s just super affordable. It’s also made entirely of metal, which of course makes it very durable. It also has a clean and simple look which aesthetically has fit well in a variety of rooms for us.

It comes just as a bunch of metal bars that you have to connect with screws that use an allen wrench to tighten. It’s pretty easy to put together, and it usually takes me about 20-30 minutes to put together.

Really the only negatives we’ve had with this bed frame are that mattresses can slide around a bit since the top is flat, and over time the corners of the bed will loosen and we have to retighten the screws. Guests have never complained about either of these issues, so as far as I’m concerned the bed frame is exactly what we need.

And we keep buying more of this bed frame, so if that’s not a stamp of approval then I don’t know what is!

ZINUS Lottie Upholstered Platform Bed Frame

First bed frame we ever put in an Airbnb
No need for a box spring
Wooden slats that connect to the frame
Comes with a headboard
5 year limited warranty

View on Amazon

This was the first bed frame we bought for our first Airbnb more than five years ago. We got the King size frame and put it in the master bedroom. We wanted to have a really luxurious master bedroom, and it worked! The bed frame looks great, was reasonably quick to put together and we’ve had no maintenance with it at all.

If I remember correctly the wooden slats in this bed frame were screwed in, but we have done some bed frames with wooden slats that just attached with velcro. I can’t recall which of the two this one was. I do remember this bed frame taking a little longer to put together, maybe an hour.

Regardless, we’ve been 100% satisfied with this frame. It looks great, it came with a headboard and in 5 years we’ve never had to tighten a single bolt or fix a single thing.

Mellow 12″ Wood Platform Bed Frame

We don’t own this bed frame
No need for a box spring
Wooden slats connected to frame
Headboard not included

View on Amazon

I picked this bed frame out because it is made of solid wood. Right now all our bed frames are made of metal or are metal with cloth on the outside. Sometimes the decor in a room just calls for wooden furnishings.

This bed frame has everything we look for when buying a new one. I would absolutely buy it if I thought it would fit a room’s decor.

The one thing that is less than ideal is that it doesn’t come with a headboard, but we buy frames without headboards all the time. And every time we do it’s a puzzle to figure out how to connect a stand alone headboard to the bed frame.

Conclusion

Considering your sleeping setup is one of the most important things about your Airbnb, a bed frame is a reasonably important decision.

We found one bed frame that has worked great for us (The ZINUS metal platform bed frame), so we keep buying more. The traits that make it a great bed frame are not unique. There are dozens of bed frames that will work for a short term rental.

As long as you can find something that will allow your guests to get good sleep without creating any annoyances (e.g. squeaking), then you’ll be set.

Happy investing.