Travel cots and high chairs for Airbnb: what families expect, what I added, and whether it shows up in reviews

I resisted the family-friendly thing for longer than made sense. My properties are mostly in city centres — Brighton seafront, Edinburgh Old Town, one out in Leith — and I'd convinced myself that the guest profile was couples and solo travellers, not young families. Then I started tracking actual bookings and found that about 22% of my Brighton flat bookings were either a family with a young child or a couple who asked specifically whether a cot was available. Most of whom I was turning away because I had nothing.

That's not a demographic you want to be turning away. Young families book longer stays, they're typically quieter than hen parties, and they leave reviews about how 'well thought out' the property is for children, which is the kind of five-star language that lifts your listing in search. I added a travel cot and a high chair to two properties in March of last year. Here's what I bought, what it cost, and what happened to bookings and reviews.

What families actually need (vs what they expect to need)

Before I bought anything, I spent a couple of weeks reading Airbnb reviews for family-friendly properties in my areas. What guests actually mention in positive reviews: cot with a proper mattress (not a bare frame), high chair that's clean and has a tray, and a clear instruction from the host about where everything is. That's the baseline.

What I expected them to need: baby bath, stair gates, socket covers, edge protectors, a full baby-proofed setup. Almost none of this appears in reviews. The guests who want full baby-proofing rent specific family lets or bring their own gear. The guest profile that converts for Airbnb is: parents with a child under two, travelling for a weekend or short break, who need somewhere to put the baby to sleep and somewhere to feed them. The cot and high chair are the job. Everything else is optional.

The travel cot I bought

I bought a Joie Kubbie Travel Cot for each of the two properties — about £60 each from Amazon, available from Mothercare stockists and John Lewis too. The Kubbie folds down into a carry bag (useful for storage between guests who don't need it), sets up in about ninety seconds without tools, and has a removable, washable mattress pad. That last point matters enormously in an Airbnb context: a cot mattress that you can wash between guests is not optional. It's basic hygiene, and it's what a family guest will check.

The Joie Kubbie meets the UK and EU safety requirements for children's folding cots, which is the relevant safety certification to look for. I checked this specifically before buying because I wanted to be able to tell guests, if asked, that the equipment met recognised safety standards. If you're buying a travel cot for your STR, check that whatever you buy carries a recognised UK or EU safety certification — it should be stated on the box or the product listing. Don't buy an unbranded travel cot from a marketplace because it was £25.

A separate observation: I bought a mesh-sided version specifically so guests can see the baby from the other side of the room without having to lean over the cot sides. Guests have mentioned this in two reviews — 'thoughtful touch, the mesh sides meant we could see our daughter from our bed'. I genuinely hadn't thought of it as a feature when I bought it. It came up as a selling point anyway.

The high chair I bought

IKEA Antilop. £22. Universal suggestion across every Airbnb host community I've ever read. If you've spent any time in the family-friendly STR world, you already know this recommendation is coming, because the Antilop is close to indestructible, wipes clean in thirty seconds, has a removable tray, has no fabric anywhere that can absorb food and smell terrible, and folds flat for storage. It is the only piece of baby furniture where there genuinely isn't a better choice for an Airbnb context.

One note: the Antilop comes without a safety harness in some regions. In the UK version it should come with one, but check the listing. If it doesn't include a harness, buy one separately — about £5 — because a high chair without a harness is a liability risk and guests with small children will notice immediately.

Storage and setup between stays

The travel cot lives folded in its carry bag in the bedroom wardrobe of each property. The high chair lives in the utility cupboard when not in use. My cleaner sets both up when a booking includes a 'cot requested' or 'high chair requested' note — I put this in the booking confirmation message, so families know to mention it when they book or message before arrival.

I added a laminated setup guide for both pieces of equipment to the supply cupboard, because my Edinburgh cleaner was not familiar with the Joie Kubbie mechanism the first time and spent twenty minutes with the YouTube video before getting it right. That's not a criticism — it's a slightly fiddly fold-out — but I could have avoided it with a one-page instruction sheet. Now every cleaner has one.

What I listed and how I worded it

On the Airbnb listing, I added 'travel cot available on request' and 'high chair available' to the amenities section. I did not add a specific 'cot included' checkbox in the amenity filter, because that implies it's always out and available without requesting it — and I didn't want guests arriving to find the cot not set up because they'd forgotten to mention they needed it, and then I'm fielding a message at 7pm.

The 'on request' model — guest mentions it at booking, cleaner sets it up for that turnover — has worked well. No missed setups in fifteen months of running it.

What actually changed after adding family equipment

In the nine months after adding the cot and high chair to my Brighton flat: three bookings that explicitly mentioned the cot availability in their booking message, two five-star reviews from families that mentioned the equipment specifically, one four-star review from a family whose issue was entirely unrelated to the cot (the boiler was noisy — that's a different story). The listing search ranking for terms like 'Brighton flat family' improved, though I can't isolate that from other changes I made around the same time.

My Edinburgh Canongate flat: similar pattern, smaller sample. Two family bookings in nine months. Both five-star.

The high chair, interestingly, gets more review mentions than the cot. 'The IKEA high chair was perfect' appears in two reviews. I think this is because the high chair is visible immediately in the kitchen when a family arrives, and the cot is only encountered at bedtime. Visibility at arrival = review mention.

What I haven't done yet

Stair gates. I've been asked twice and both times told guests I didn't have one. My Edinburgh flat has one internal stair — half a flight between the living area and the bathroom level — and I know I should have a gate. I keep not buying one because I'm not sure of the right fixings for the Victorian plaster walls and I don't want to put it up wrong. This is avoidance, not a principled decision, and I'll sort it before the next summer season.

Socket covers are the other obvious one. £3 from Amazon, fifteen minutes to fit across a property. I've added them to my Edinburgh properties but not yet to Brighton. No excuse there. It's on the list.

The total cost

Two Joie Kubbie travel cots: £120. Two IKEA Antilop high chairs with harnesses: £50. Two sets of spare cot sheets (one for the cot, one in the wash): £28. Laminated setup guides: £5 to print. Total across two properties: about £200. Amortised across fifteen months of occasional family bookings: negligible per booking. The review impact alone is worth more than that.

If you're running any property that could attract family guests — and if it has a double bedroom, it can — add a cot and a high chair. The IKEA Antilop is non-negotiable. The Joie Kubbie or equivalent certified travel cot is the right call for the cot. Do it in an afternoon. It'll come up in reviews within three months.