Blackout blinds for Airbnb: the Edinburgh complaint I ignored for three summers and what I finally installed

Edinburgh in June is light by 4:15am. Proper, bright, summer-in-Scotland light that comes straight through a single-glazed sash window into a bedroom at the back of a Georgian flat. I know this because three separate guests mentioned it in reviews — twice as a mild note, once as a genuinely frustrated comment that contributed to a four-star review from a guest who'd clearly not slept well and was making sure I knew about it.

I ignored the first two. Figured guests who were bothered by light would bring an eye mask, or close the curtains properly, or just not book Edinburgh in June. None of those assumptions were right. The third review made me fix it, and I wish I'd done it after the first.

Here's what I've installed, what it cost, and where I'm still struggling.

The problem with standard curtains in STRs

My Edinburgh Canongate flat had decent linen curtains when I took it on — grey, good quality, long enough. They looked fine in the listing photos. They blocked roughly 40% of the light. Which is fine in autumn and winter, and completely inadequate at 4am on a summer solstice.

The obvious solution is thermal blackout curtains. And yes, that works. But thermal blackout curtains in a property you're renting through Airbnb come with their own complications. Guests drag them across tracks too hard, the liner separates from the front fabric, the curtain pole pulls out of a Victorian plaster wall — I've had all three. At £120-£180 per window for a decent set of blackout curtains plus proper wall anchors, replacing them every eighteen months is not a good equation.

Blackout blinds are more durable in a guest context. The mechanism takes less force than dragging curtains, they're easier to install properly, and they don't require the same length of curtain track that a set of floor-length curtains does. That's where I ended up.

What I installed in Edinburgh

The two Edinburgh properties both got IKEA FYRTUR blackout roller blinds — the motorised version, which costs significantly more than the manual (around £150 per blind vs £50) but means guests can operate them with a remote or the IKEA app without wrenching at a cord. I've had two corded blinds snap in the time I've been running Airbnbs. Motorised removes that specific failure mode.

The FYRTUR is a Zigbee-based smart blind. I'm not using it as part of a smart home system — just setting it up with the IKEA remote, pairing once, and putting the remote in a bedside drawer labelled clearly. Guests like it. Two have mentioned it specifically in positive reviews. 'Lovely blackout blinds with a remote' is not the kind of compliment you'd expect to move the needle, but it went into a five-star review alongside the coffee and the welcome card, so I'll take it.

Installation took about forty minutes per window with appropriate wall anchors for the Victorian plaster. I did the first one myself and paid a handyman to do the remaining three. £40 per window for the installation, which felt steep at the time and seems completely reasonable now that I know how fiddly the ceiling-mounted brackets are in an irregular sash window reveal.

Brighton: different problem, same principle

My Brighton flat faces south. The bedroom doesn't get the 4am Edinburgh problem, but summer afternoons — when guests are trying to nap before an evening out, or working remotely and can't see their screen — the light is intense. Different cause, same fix.

There I went with IKEA HOPPVALS blackout cellular blinds — manual, around £55, good blackout performance, and easier to install than the roller version because the cellular structure holds its own shape without a tube mechanism. These are lighter to operate than a roller blind, which matters because the Brighton bedroom window is large (original 1930s casement, decent sized) and a heavy roller mechanism on that size would need heavier wall fixings.

Cost for Brighton: two windows at £55 each plus installation. £150 total including labour. It's worked fine for fourteen months with no guest feedback about light — which is the best outcome, because it means nobody's being disturbed enough to comment on it.

The one property where I haven't fixed it yet

My Lake District cottage has a bedroom in the eaves with a large roof Velux window. In summer, the sun hits it from about 5am and turns the room into something that resembles the inside of a greenhouse by 6. I've had three mentions of it in guest feedback — not in public reviews, thankfully, but in the private message that appears alongside a review. Which means guests are bothered enough to tell me but polite enough not to say it publicly. That patience will run out eventually.

The specific problem is that VELUX blackout blinds for roof windows are expensive. A VELUX DKL 306 blackout roller blind — the proper fit-out blind for a VELUX Centre Pivot roof window, which is what I have — is around £180-£240 depending on the window size. And it needs to be the official VELUX blind, not a third-party approximation, because the mounting guide system that makes it actually fit into a Velux frame is proprietary. I've known this for eighteen months and kept putting it off.

This winter I'm having it installed. The price of the blind plus a half-day of a local handyman's time is significantly less than the revenue risk of a four-star review from the next summer guest who didn't sleep properly.

What to buy, by window type

Standard window, budget-conscious: IKEA HOPPVALS cellular blackout blind, £45-£55. Manual. Decent blackout. No mechanism to fail. Suits straightforward windows with a flat wall surround.

Standard window, higher spec: IKEA FYRTUR motorised blackout roller, £140-£160. Zigbee-connected, remote operation, genuinely very good blackout. Worth the extra for a property where you're charging premium rates and guests expect premium finish.

Roof window (VELUX): only the official VELUX blinds properly fit into the guide channel system. Look up your window model number (it's on a sticker inside the frame), then order the corresponding VELUX DKL or DSL blackout blind from the VELUX website or a UK blind supplier — specifying your window size code gets you the right fit. Expect £180-£250. It's not a fun purchase. But nothing else actually fits properly, and a blind that doesn't fit the track will let light in around the edges, which defeats the purpose.

Awkward windows — bay windows, arched tops, very wide — are usually a job for a local blind supplier who can measure and cut bespoke. Get three quotes. The first one will be expensive.

The review signal to watch for

If a guest mentions 'bright' or 'light' or 'early morning' anywhere in their review — even positively, even if they say 'the room is very light and airy which we enjoyed' — that's your signal that the next guest who doesn't enjoy it might not say so politely. Edinburgh and west-facing properties especially: summer light is brutal. Don't wait for three reviews to fix it. I waited for three reviews. It cost me a four-star, and the blind installation cost me £150. The order of operations was wrong.