Journal · 2026-09-08
How to furnish a holiday let: a room-by-room order of work
Furnish a holiday let in this order: first the things guests sleep on, wash in and cook with, then storage, then the pieces that give the place character. Buy quality where guests touch it every day and be plain everywhere else. Every choice has to survive weekly turnover and read well in a small listing photograph, which rules out most of what looks good in a showroom.
Start with the three things reviews are written about
Mattresses, bedding and the shower. Guests forgive a plain sofa and never forgive a bad night's sleep. Buy the best mattress your budget allows, plain white or muted linen you can bleach and replace as a set, and make sure the bathroom has real hooks, a shelf inside the shower and light you can actually see by.
Add the kitchen next: a sharp knife, pans that match the hob, enough plates for the maximum occupancy plus two. Nothing decorative until this list is done.
Then solve storage, before styling
Guests arrive with suitcases and leave with laundry. Give them a place for both: somewhere a large case opens flat, hooks by the door, a hanging rail with real hangers, and one locked cupboard for your own supplies and spares. A holiday let without storage looks untidy in every photo a guest ever posts.
This is also where you protect your investment. Beds with drawers and a bench with a lid buy you two extra square metres for nothing.
Choose materials for weekly turnover
Assume something gets spilled every week and nobody reads your house manual. Removable, washable covers. Hard-wearing upholstery instead of pale linen. Solid or lacquered wood instead of foil-wrapped board. Matte floors that hide sand and dust. Skip high-gloss white, delicate rugs by the entrance and anything that shows every fingerprint.
Buy two of every soft item you cannot replace quickly. Sets discontinue, and a mismatched bedroom photographs badly for years.
Now add the reason to book this one
On a booking platform your property sits beside dozens that look identical. You need one element guests remember and that sits inside the first photograph: a colour drawn from the landscape, a built-in bench in an awkward corner, a single striking light over the table, a collection that says something true about the place.
One strong element in a calm room reads as character. Five read as clutter, and clutter is what makes a listing look cheap.
Budget in three parts
Split the budget rather than spreading it evenly: roughly the largest share on beds, seating and the kitchen, a middle share on storage, lighting and window treatments, and a deliberately small share on the character layer. Then hold back a contingency, because in every project one or two items come in higher than planned and you want to move money on paper, not halfway through the install.
Order in the sequence deliveries arrive, not the sequence you decided things. Anything made to measure has the longest lead time and should be ordered first, even if it is the last thing to be installed.
Photograph it the day it is finished
The listing photographs are the product, not a record of it. Shoot on a day with even light, in the order the platform displays: main living space, best bedroom, outdoor area, kitchen, bathroom, then details that show quality. Consistent eye level, straight verticals, no extreme wide angle that distorts the rooms.
I design, furnish and photograph in one run, because the alternative is a stylist who leaves before the light is right or a photographer arriving in a house that is not finished yet.
Frequently asked questions
- How long does furnishing a holiday let take?
- Allow three to six months for a holiday rental, most of which is lead and delivery time rather than work on site. A photo shoot on its own takes one to two weeks.
- Can you manage this while I live in another country?
- Yes. I handle the site visit, coordinate painters and contractors locally, furnish and style on site and photograph at the end. You approve by video call and photo report.
- Do you carry out the building work?
- No. I brief and supervise painters and contractors, but I do not carry out construction work myself.
- Where do you work?
- Tuscany, including Lucca, Pisa, Florence, Versilia and the Garfagnana, and in Dutch and Belgian Limburg.