The Perfect Airbnb Coffee (and Tea) Bar

Kate and I host three Airbnbs and we have a coffee bar in every single one. Coffee is one of those things that some guests consider a must, and it’s not very expensive to stock.

What You Need

I consider a coffee and tea bar to be an essential amenity for any Airbnb. So many people drink coffee that you’ll be missing out on a lot of potential bookings if you don’t have one.

And a coffee bar can be one of those thoughtful touches that wow your Airbnb guests.

Here is a list of everything that absolutely MUST be in your coffee bar.

Coffee maker
Coffee (regular and decaf)
Creamer
Sugar and sweetener
Coffee mugs
To-go cups

You can also stock some tea bags. The tea won’t get used up as often, but for those who don’t drink coffee, it’s nice to have an option to drink with everyone else.

Airbnb bar vs. home bar

Your Airbnb coffee bar probably shouldn’t look like the coffee bar you have at home.

Here’s why.

We learned pretty early on that making coffee requires some skill or knowledge and not every guest has that knowledge. If someone uses a drip coffee machine at home and they show up at your Airbnb that only has a french press, you could end up with a real mess on your hands.

In fact, one of our worst messes came from a group that dropped about a cup of coffee grounds into our electric water kettle. The kettle boiled over and the coffee grounds got EVERYWHERE in the kitchen. We were still finding bits of coffee weeks after those guests left.

So the first rule of an Airbnb coffee bar is to assume that…

Your guests don’t know how to use your coffee machine

That’s right. You need to assume that your guests have no idea how to use your machine. Because some of them won’t.

We have a Keurig coffee maker and a French press in each of our listings and we have instructions for both in the coffee bar.

French press with instructions — Make sure you have instructions for using your coffee makers

Once we put out the instructions, our number of incidents decreased significantly. It’s not a perfect solution, though. Some guests will still make a mess of your coffee bar, and that’s just part of running an Airbnb.

Great Airbnb Coffee Makers

The perfect coffee maker for an Airbnb is one that every guests intuitively knows how to use, but that doesn’t exist. So the next best thing is the simplest possible coffee maker that has simple, easy to follow instructions.

I don’t think you need to get super fancy, even with a more expensive listing.

Like I said, we have a Keurig and a French press in each of our houses, but I’ve listed another coffee maker that other hosts have had good luck with.

Keurig K-Mini (What we use)

We use the Keurig K-Mini. It’s well-priced and it’s small so it fits well into small kitchens. Our oldest one has been working well for about two years now, but it’s not going to hurt if we ever have to replace it.

We like the Keurig because it’s very easy to use, making the instructions is simple, it makes a single cup of coffee, and it’s relatively cheap to stocks lots of different flavors.

We used to order our coffee pods on Amazon, but now we use Sam’s Club. We just pick up boxes of 100 pods in maybe five or six flavors, and that lasts all three of our listings for a few months.

Our guests can choose between dark roast, french vanilla, salted caramel and who knows what else, and we don’t have to keep six different bags of coffee in the coffee bar.

The big argument against the Keurig is that you can’t make several cups at once and every cup creates a piece of trash (the pod). That’s part of why we also have a french press.

Mr. Coffee coffee maker

Most people know how to use a traditional drip coffee machine, and they’re also cheaper than other coffee machines.

Guests can make larger batches of coffee and should create less waste as well.

The argument against the drip machine is that guests can make bigger messes and it’s more difficult to store a wide range of flavors. Regardless, plenty of hosts have had good luck using a cheap drip coffee machine like the Mr. Coffee 12 cup coffee maker.

Bialetti French press

We keep an 8 cup French press in our coffee bars as well. This gives our guests the option to make a larger batch of coffee if they want, but we also only keep one bag of grounds for the French press.

We use a Bialetti French press. It’s cheap, sturdy, and it makes a delicious eight cups of coffee.

As long as your coffee grounds are ready to got, then it’s easy to use, and write instructions for, a French press. That’s what you want in an Airbnb coffee maker.

Add Tea For Non-Coffee Drinkers

We try to think through what our guests might experience. Some guests don’t drink coffee, but they may be traveling with coffee drinkers.

When the coffee drinkers all sit down with their morning beverage, you might feel left out if your don’t drink. So we put tea bags in our coffee bar to present that option.

Plus, some people just prefer tea.

The tea won’t get used up very fast, but tea bags are good for at least 1 year, so it won’t be much of an expense to stock tea.

If you choose to stock tea, you’ll also need something that can boil water. We have an electric kettle like this one.

How We Stock Our Bar

One of our coffee and tea bars — The coffee and tea bar at one of our Airbnbs

A coffee and tea bar is about more than just your coffee maker. We stock some other necessities to make sure our guests have everything they need.

First, we stock to-go cups. Our check out time is 11am, which leaves enough time to drink your coffee before leaving, but some guests need to leave early in the day. We make sure those guests can travel with their morning beverage.

Kate also designed some sleeves for the to-go cups with our Airbnb brand logo on them. A nice little touch.

Second, we have sugar, sweetener and creamer available. Pretty obvious, but you want to make sure your bar has everything the average coffee/tea drinker adds to their drink.

Third, we have napkins. You hope most of your guests never need a napkin, but sometimes messes happen and it’s important to have the supplies needed to clean up.

Conclusion

Of the minor amenities you can offer at your Airbnb, I think a coffee and tea bar ranks among the top (only Netflix/Cable or King bed are possibly more important).

You can put a bar together for under $100 and keep it stocked for less than $20 per month. But I believe the coffee bar is worth several hundred in bookings each month, so it’s a must-have for us.

Happy investing.