The Great Outdoors

Having an outdoor entertaining space is crucial to renting out your whole home, or just a room.

Why?

• Most listings will have their heaviest traffic in the summer and everyone loves getting fresh air.

• When renting a room, having a outdoor space is especially important. That way when you need to have privacy away from your guests, or they need privacy from you, one of you can escape there.

I’ve had many guests go outside on a nice day and catch up on a book, or their email. Other’s have sat up and watched the stars. It’s nice to have a place for a couple guests to sit out on your deck. I have a room that fits two people, but I have a set of 4 chairs around a table so my guests can have people over and enjoy socializing out on the deck (instead of in my house). Guests will often be in the area to see friends and they like the option to come back to the house they are staying in. I also bought an umbrella, and a base because your table and umbrella get ruined without one (trust me, I found out the hard way). And of course cushions to make my chairs comfortable.

I had one guest who rented from me for three months and spent a half an hour every day in my reclining chair sunbathing.

A lot of our guests have enjoyed using our BBQ. Which is nice when sharing a kitchen with your guests because it gets them out of your kitchen. We like this one. It’s not too expensive so if anyone brakes it, it isn’t a huge loss. Plus it works really well and doesn’t take up a lot of space which is ideal if you live in an apartment.

I personally have this grill and I bought the stand that it goes on. You can save some money and put it on top of an outdoor table.

Having a nice outdoor space really adds to your guests enjoyment of your listing. Remember that your curb appeal is the first thing your guests see and you don’t want them to have a bad first impression.