Lay My Hat

Hi

We are just finishing the conversion of an old watermill into a two bedroom holiday let - planning to be up and running for the summer holidays. The two bedrooms will each have zip and link beds so can be doubles or twins. We are having a discussion about whether to put a sofa bed in the living room to give more flexibility, and potentially additional guests. What do people think about the pluses and minuses of this? If we have the potential for six people we have to have more dining chairs, more lounge chairs, etc. If you have this type of 4+2 arrangement how common is it that people use it?

Any advice gratefully received!

Thanks

Nick and Sally

Personally, I feel it is a bad idea to take bookings for six people, then expect two guests to camp down in the living room. That’s not really fair to them or indeed the other guests, who would be constrained by their presence. By all means get a sofa bed, but market your property for four people; you can mention the sofa bed if you wish in the text, which might attract extra people, or keep it in reserve for the on-demand situation which will inevitably arise.

Just my view of course, but to me it’s opening the door to a move downmarket.

Mols

I agree with Moliere on this.
Our holiday let is a 2 bedroomed bungalow (1 double and 1 single) and when we were starting out we debated whether to put a bunk bed in the single bedroom thus making it suitable for 4 people.
However we then realised that it would be difficult to accommodate 4 people comfortably in the lounge/dining room with having to put in extra chairs etc.
We came to the conclusion that for our property it is far better to sleep 3 people rather than 4. The guests have plenty of room to 'spread out' and relax.
Your guests are on holiday and decent holidaymakers want somewhere lovely and comfortable during their stay in your holiday cottage.
By putting in extra beds in your living room your cottage will have more people, which equates to more wear and tear and you run the risk of attracting the 'wrong type' of guests who may use it as a 'doss house'.

Also agree with Moliere.
We do have a sofa bed in the livingroom but have never advertised the fact, it has been called into use on two extending situations in 14 years.
But having had to replace it recently due to wear and tear, which took 3 men to remove and then replace it with another, would never recommend having one again. It is there now none the less and I hope to goodness it isn't needed as a bed though it is one of the finest but it makes the living room very cluttered when open and the likelihood of damage to television and other furnishing highly probable and looking like a doss house.

Hi - many thanks for your advice - this is really useful!
Cheers
Nick

I have a one bedroom in France.It is normal to have a sofa bed in the lounge. However, if I had a 2 bedroom, I probably wouldn't.

We have a two bedroom (upstairs) gite and a sofa bed on the ground floor in the lounge. It's an Ikea Ektorp 3-seater - big and comfortable and easy to disassemble if needs be. Over the years it's been used for three different circumstances. We have friends with a daughter who needs a wheelchair and they come every year because it's so easy for them. We had a family of five who wanted to book at the last minute - mother, father, son + girlfriend and teenage daughter. It meant we were able to give the teenage daughter her own space in the lounge (plus late night TV viewing!). In the other situation we had mother, father and two sons in their twenties who refused to share a room (!) so one of the sons had his own space in the lounge.
We don't advertise it but it's mentioned in the text and there's no doubt it's been useful over the years and offers flexible sleeping arrangements when otherwise we would not have got the business.

Good advice here...We used to have one for emergencies but didn't replace it when we changed the sofa as we just didn't use it enough. But it's a bigger house and we have a mezzanine we can use as well. There's something to be said for having it if needed.