November 13, 2017
Should You Put Bunk Beds In Your Rooms?
Bunk beds aren’t just for backpackers’ ultra-cheap accommodation, the weekend bach or summer camps in the woods anymore. They’re positively upscale.
In December 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that partly as a measure for combating Airbnb, upscale hotels such as the South Congress Hotel in Austin, Texas were putting queen-sized bunk beds in some rooms.
Hotels find them cost-efficient ways to accommodate groups who want to stay together - think hen party or sports fans in town for the weekend - and who might otherwise select an Airbnb option: Having bunk beds means groups don’t have to book as many rooms, lowering the cost to where the hotel is reasonably competitive with Airbnb prices.
The option, still a bit of a novelty, is proved popular. At the South Congress, Jesse Herman, a partner for the hotel’s owner, New Waterloo, says they didn’t have to reconfigure rooms but what’s really surprising is that “people now love that option.”
The double-bunk suites, “are among the most occupied since the hotel opened in September,” according to Herman in the WSJ’s words.
Bunk beds work well for properties that host not only weekender groups but reunions, music festivals or other places where there’s a high volume of tourist groups who many not want to split up at the end of the night.
They’re good for families as well, and avoid all the hassle with the rollaway bed.
