Why Hanging Local Art in Your Airbnb Is the Right Thing to Do

I paint for a living, and I’ve spent a good portion of my life staring at objects people hang on their walls. I also host for a living, so I've spent nearly as many hours thinking about what a guest wants from the room they've paid to sleep in. The two occupations have converged on the same conclusion more often than I expected.

A guest choses an Airbnb over a hotel because they want an experience. They want to feel different. But a guest who has stayed in a dozen Airbnbs has often seen the same painting of a flat, specific landscape, or its cousins, a dozen times without registering it as the same painting, because it was chosen to be forgotten. Big-box store “art” is designed to be the option that requires no further thought— it is benign and unspecific enough to appeal to the masses. When a guest books an Airbnb, they want An Experience. If they walk into a space and find Hobby Lobby on the walls, the cognitive dissonance is real, and the disappointment has an effect. It trickles into the experience, and bad art keeps some guests from ever booking your place at all.

Original art helps your listing photos pop, and makes your listing one guests remember. Visually unique listings book more often, and at a higher price-point.

Mass-produced art is cheap for a reason. It costs nothing to create, requires no skill to select, and adds zero character to your space.

Local art conveys what a mass-produced print can't— it tells the guest something true about where they've landed: a specific way of seeing the world, a palette that belongs to this stretch of coast or these mountain rather than to the general idea of “vacation”. Guests register this more precisely than they can name it, which is why it surfaces in reviews as "unique decor" — the closest phrase available to a response that is really about specificity.

Buying art might be new for you, as a host. Living with art, real, original art, is often new for my guests, and it’s often life-transforming.

My guest who eats breakfast in front of the same painting for three consecutive mornings develops an attachment a gallery visitor never gets the chance to form. I've watched this happen in my guest cottage and in homes I co-host. Guests ask who painted the painting. They ask what else the artist has made. Someone who has never bought original art in their life asks, on the third morning, how one goes about it — a question that would have struck them as absurd in January and strikes them, by then, as overdue.

A modern canvas in a historic property makes the listing pop, and brings warmth and color to a windowless wall.

Very often, a guest buys art for the first time from my Airbnb listing. They live with art, and realize how darn good it makes you feel.

In all my houses, we now include information about the local artists showcased. At the very leasts, guests learn that art can be purchased. And very often, a guest buys art for the first time from my Airbnb listing. They live with art, and they realize how darn good it makes you feel.

None of this requires a gallerist's eye. Incorporating art into your Airbnb listing is simple. Galleries hold openings for exactly this reason. Art schools graduate talented, underpriced, faintly desperate students whose work will be worth more in five years than it is now, which is the inverse of what happens to a canvas print from T. J. Maxx. Studio tours and art markets exist in most towns of any size— Go! Shop! Decorate! Buy what you love, and create a unique, one-of-a-kind listing that will rise to the top of the search algorithm like thick cream.

This painting hung on my cottage wall for about 4 days before I sold it to a regular guest.

As a painter, I let guests buy paintings directly from my walls and pottery mugs from my cabinents— artists have to hustle. But for non-professional artists-hosts (say that fast 3x) a small tag with the artist's name and a way to get in touch, and can be a way for you to hang local art and sell it for a local artist. This works, though it means occasionally losing a piece to a buyer mid-season and having to replace it. Suddenly, you’ve gone from just an “Airbnb Host” to an “Arts Patron” — that has to feel good!

A few practical constraints, since conviction alone won't furnish a room. Nudity, politics, and religious imagery will probably cost more bookings than they're worth; a rental has to welcome a stranger it has never met, and alienating a third of one's guests over a wall hanging is a poor trade. Keep the Maplethorpe in your private collection. Scale matters more than hosts expect — a small, precious piece photographs as an afterthought, while one large piece photographs as a decision. Buy art that pops in your listing photographs— size matters. (But keep buying small pieces for your space— they create so much narrative texture).

Buying art asks that you develop an aesthetic point of view rather than defaulting to what's available at the nearest big-box store— but it’s not a test.

Local art does cost more upfront and requires effort to find and select. Buying art asks that you develop an aesthetic point of view rather than defaulting to what's available at the nearest big-box store— but it’s not a test. You won’t get it wrong— and once you dip your toe in, you’ll want to start swimming, I promise!

Local art transforms your property from a place people stay into a place people remember. It supports the creative economy in your community. It gives emerging artists exposure and income. It provides guests with authentic experiences and potential purchases they'll treasure.

Caring about things—really caring, with specificity and commitment—is its own reward. Supporting local artists by hanging their work in your rental is one of those rare situations where doing the right thing also happens to be the smart business move.

Start looking at your walls differently. Those blank spaces aren't problems to solve with whatever's cheap and available. They're opportunities to showcase work that matters, support artists who need visibility, and create a space your guests will want to return to.