Airbnb furnishing cost calculator
Published guides put the cost of furnishing a one-bedroom short-term rental anywhere between about 3,500 and 40,000, which is another way of saying nobody can answer the question for you. So this does not give you a range. It gives you a list. Tell it how many bedrooms and bathrooms you have and what standard you are aiming for, and it builds an itemised shopping list with quantities, a running total, a contingency and the number of booked nights it takes to earn back. Every price is editable, every line can go, and you can add your own.
Everything is worked out in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, saved or shared. Last updated 8 August 2026.
1. The property
These four answers build the list. Changing any of them rebuilds it, keeping any price or quantity you have edited yourself.
The prices are placeholders. Overwrite them.
A mattress, a sofa and a washing machine cost different amounts in Lisbon, Toronto and Auckland, and any list of real prices would be wrong for most readers and stale within a year. The numbers below exist so the list totals something on the way in. Replace them with what you would actually pay. The list itself, and the quantities, are the part worth keeping.
2. Contingency and earning it back
Optional. The contingency covers the things no list predicts. The rest works out how many booked nights the setup costs you.
How the furnishing list is built
Quantities from the property, prices from a finish level, everything editable afterwards.
Quantity = per property, or per bedroom, or per bathroom
Price = a placeholder price x the finish multiplier
Line = quantity x price
Setup cost = every line added up
+ contingency
Nights to earn it back = setup cost / (nightly rate x what you keep)Why quantities matter more than prices
Most furnishing budgets are wrong on count rather than on price. Three sets of bed linen per bed, not one. Four pillows per bed, not two. Two mattress protectors per bed, because one is always in the wash. A bin in every room. Smoke alarms in every bedroom and one more. None of those are expensive individually and all of them are missing from the estimate people carry in their head, which is why the total always lands high.
What the finish levels do
Budget, mid-range and premium multiply every placeholder price by 0.6, 1.0 and 1.9. That is a crude instrument and it is meant to be: it exists to show you the shape of the decision in one number before you start pricing individual items. On the default two-bedroom property the three levels come out at roughly 5,400, 8,960 and 17,000 including a 10% contingency. Once you start typing real prices in, the multiplier stops mattering.
What a contingency is for here
Not for things you forgot to list, which is what the list is for. For the second bin, the extension lead, the shelf that did not fit the alcove, the lamp that looked different in the room, and the delivery that turned out to need two people. Ten percent is a reasonable starting point on a list this detailed. Fifteen is fair if you have never furnished a whole property before.
Where to spend and where not to
A short-term rental is not a home you happen to let. Different things wear out and different things get photographed.
Buy new, and buy well
- Mattresses. The single most reviewed object in the property. A bad one costs you ratings for years, and there is no cheap way to fix it later.
- Pillows and duvets. Cheap, replaceable, and the second thing guests mention.
- Upholstered seating. Wear is brutal and secondhand upholstery may not meet the fire safety requirements that apply to let property where you are. Check before you buy anything soft.
- Blackout at the windows. Sleep is the product. Thin curtains generate more complaints than almost anything else on this list.
- The bed itself. A frame that squeaks is a review.
Buy secondhand without hesitation
- Dining tables and chairs. Solid wood bought used routinely outlasts new flat pack, at a fraction of the price.
- Wardrobes, chests, bedside tables. Storage is storage.
- Artwork, mirrors, lamps, plant pots. The character in the photographs usually comes from here, and almost never from new.
- Crockery and glassware. Buy plenty, in one pattern, and expect breakages.
- Rugs, if you can inspect them. New underlay, used rug.
The things that are not furniture and still cost money
Delivery and assembly on a whole property is not a rounding error. Neither is the deep clean before the first guest, the photography that the listing lives or dies on, or the first stock of consumables: toilet roll, bin bags, dishwasher tablets, salt, oil, coffee, batteries. They are all on the list above because they are all real, and because a budget that omits them is out by more than any single piece of furniture.
What this page does not cost
The property, the licence and the insurance. Registration and permit rules for short lets differ by city and are sometimes the largest number in the whole project, so look yours up locally. Insurance normally has to be a specific short-term let policy rather than an ordinary home one, and a host protection scheme offered by a platform is not a substitute for it.
The three sets rule, and other counts people get wrong
| Item | Quantity | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bed linen sets | 3 per bed | One on, one in the wash, one on the shelf. Two fails on the first same-day turnover. |
| Towel sets | 3 per bathroom | Same logic, and towels go missing more often than sheets. |
| Pillows | 4 per bed | Two firm, two soft. It is the cheapest way to suit everybody. |
| Mattress protectors | 2 per bed | Because the reason you need one is also the reason you cannot wait for it to dry. |
| Bath mats | 2 per bathroom | They are wet when the next guest arrives. |
| Smoke alarms | Bedrooms + 1 | One per bedroom and one for the hall or landing, as a minimum. Local rules may require more. |
| Bedside tables and lamps | 2 per bedroom | Two people sleep in a double bed and both of them want to put a phone down. |
| Spare linen and towels | 1 extra set per bedroom | Buy it at the same time. The exact shade is discontinued in eighteen months. |
What each input means
- Bedrooms and bathrooms
- They drive the quantities. Every per-bedroom and per-bathroom line multiplies up automatically, so a three-bedroom property is not a two-bedroom property with a bit added on. A studio is zero bedrooms plus a manual line for a sofa bed, or one bedroom if you would rather keep the bedroom list.
- Standard of finish
- A multiplier on every placeholder price: 0.6 for budget, 1.0 for mid-range, 1.9 for premium. Match it to what the property can charge a night rather than to your own taste. A premium finish only pays for itself if it lifts the nightly rate or the occupancy, and quite a lot of it does not.
- The list itself
- Every quantity and every price is an ordinary editable field, and every line has a remove button for the things you already own. Anything you have typed yourself survives a change of bedrooms, bathrooms or finish level; anything you have not is recalculated. Start over puts the defaults back.
- Contingency
- A percentage on top of the list for the things no list predicts. Ten percent is reasonable here, fifteen if this is your first property.
- Average nightly rate
- What you expect to charge before the platform fee and before any cleaning fee. Look at what comparable listings within a few streets of you actually charge on ordinary weeknights, not on their best weekend.
- What you keep of a night
- Your own figure, after the platform commission, cleaning, utilities, consumables and any management fee. Forty to fifty-five percent is a common band for a self-managed property, and lower once a management company is involved. If you have not worked it out, our break-even occupancy calculator does exactly that sum.
- Occupancy you expect
- Only used to turn a number of booked nights into a number of months. Be pessimistic for the first year: a new listing without reviews takes time to price properly and books below its eventual rate.
Questions hosts ask before the first booking
How much does it cost to furnish an Airbnb?
Published guides quote anything from about 3,500 to 40,000 for a one-bedroom, which tells you the question cannot be answered in the abstract. It depends on the number of rooms, the standard of finish, whether you buy new or secondhand, and where you are. The useful answer is a list. On the placeholder prices this page opens with, a two-bedroom, one-bathroom property at a mid-range finish comes to roughly 8,150 of items plus a 10% contingency, around 8,960 in total. Change the prices to what things cost where you are and that number becomes yours.
What do I actually need to furnish a short-term rental?
Beds, bedding, somewhere to hang clothes, blackout at the windows, a sofa and a television, a kitchen that can cook a real meal for the number of people you sleep, towels, a hairdryer, a washing machine, a vacuum cleaner, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, a way for guests to get in, and reliable Wi-Fi. Everything else is competitive advantage. The list on this page separates the two so you can see what you are spending on which.
How many sets of sheets and towels should I buy?
Three sets per bed and three sets of towels per bathroom is the usual working number: one on, one in the wash, one on the shelf. Two sets works only if you never have a same-day turnover and never have a spill, both of which will happen. Buy the same size, colour and style throughout so a single damaged sheet does not orphan a set, and buy the spares at the same time, because the exact shade is discontinued eighteen months later.
Should I buy new or secondhand for a rental?
Buy mattresses, pillows, duvets and upholstered seating new, because they take the hardest wear, guests notice them first, and secondhand upholstery may not meet local fire safety requirements for let property. Everything else is fair game secondhand: dining tables, chests of drawers, bedside tables, wardrobes, artwork, lamps. Solid wood bought used routinely outlasts new flat-pack, and it is where the biggest savings on this list are.
What do hosts most often forget to budget for?
Delivery and assembly, which quietly adds a few hundred on a full property. Spare linen. The consumables for the first guest: toilet roll, bin bags, dishwasher tablets, coffee. Photography. The deep clean before the first booking. And the small hardware nobody photographs, such as hangers, a bin for each room, a doorstop, a bottle opener and enough phone chargers. They are all on the list here, which is the only reason they are worth mentioning.
How long does it take to earn back the furnishing cost?
Divide the setup cost by what you keep from an average night after the platform fee, cleaning, bills and management. On the default figures, a setup cost of about 8,960 against a 95 nightly rate where you keep 45% works out at roughly 210 booked nights, which at 60% occupancy is a little under a year. That is a useful sanity check on the finish level: doubling the furnishing budget only pays for itself if it genuinely lifts the nightly rate or the occupancy, and a lot of it does not.
Where do the prices in this calculator come from?
They are placeholders, and they are deliberately labelled as such. A sofa, a mattress and a washing machine cost different amounts in Lisbon, Toronto and Auckland, and any list of real prices would be wrong for most readers and out of date within a year. The prices here exist so that the list totals something on the way in. Overwrite them with what you would actually pay and the structure of the list is what you are keeping.
Should I furnish to a budget, mid-range or premium standard?
Match it to the nightly rate the property can command and to the guests it will attract, which is a question about the location rather than about your taste. A budget finish in a city-centre one-bedroom competing on price is a sound decision. The same finish in a property being marketed on photographs at the top of its market is a false economy, because the photographs are the product. The three levels here move every price together so you can see the difference in one number.
Does this include the cost of the property or the licence?
No. This is the cost of filling a property you already have access to. Registration, licensing and permit requirements for short lets differ by city, and in some places they are the largest number in the whole project, so look them up locally and budget them separately. The same goes for insurance, which normally has to be a specific short-term let policy rather than an ordinary home one.
Is anything I type saved or uploaded?
No. Everything is worked out in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, stored or logged, and there is no account. Print the list or save it as a PDF before you close the tab, because closing it clears everything.
The list ends on the day the first guest arrives
This page prices the setup and then forgets it, which is the right shape for a calculator and it stays free. What it cannot do is follow the money afterwards. From the first booking onward the question changes to what each stay actually earned after the platform fee and the cleaner, which months lose money, and what any of this looks like at tax time. The Airbnb Host Income & Expense Tracker is the workbook for that: bookings with the platform fee and the payout on every row, expenses in categories you can rename, a Tax Summary you can hand to an accountant, and a Dashboard that works out occupancy, average nightly rate and monthly profit across up to ten properties. Six tabs, one .xlsx file, no macros, €8 once. The furnishing spend you have just listed goes in as expenses, so the setup cost and the earnings end up in the same place.
See the host tracker