The best use of the living room in the basement for STRs

[Leon Lee]

Hi, Fellow STR investors

We have a 1960 brick ranch that is ~1100 sq ft with a full basement. It has three relatively small bedrooms upstairs and one bedroom downstairs. The basement is fully renovated, but with low ceiling. We will have four bedrooms with 4 king beds in the house. What is the best way to use the living room in the basement? I am thinking about to change it into a game room with a ping pong table, but there are some support beams in the middle and the ceiling is low too. Any idea on the best use of the lower-level living room? We already had two TVs (one in the living room upstairs and one in the master bedroom upstairs) and we do not want to have another TVs. It is an economical stay with approximately $150/night with 80% occupancy rate. 

Any ideas will be appreciated!

Lee

[Collin Chan]

It depends on the customer base.  Do they have kids usually and would a game room help in this case?  Small theater especially in a dark basement could be good to cater to families looking for a space for kids to have fun while the adults are upstairs.  Projectors and screens can be done for a relatively low budget and buy a used PS4 with some old games and either a Roku or other dongle for streaming.

Also, think about beds in common areas.  Futons could help with adding additional beds and potentially increasing your $150/night to $200/night.

Collin