I tested six coffee setups across my Airbnbs. Pods won, but barely.

I have received exactly one message from a guest about the temperature of my property. I have received exactly one message about the Wi-Fi password being wrong. I have received eleven messages about the coffee setup. Eleven. More than any other single item in any of my five short-term rentals. People care about coffee in a way that borders on religious and I did not take it seriously for my first full year of hosting.

After the third complaint (a gentleman from Stuttgart who described my Nescafe Gold Blend as "a personal insult") I started experimenting. Over the last two years I have tried six different coffee setups across my properties, and I have landed on one that I am mostly happy with, at a per-cup cost I can actually sustain.

The six setups I tested

1. Instant coffee (Nescafe Gold Blend)

This is what I started with. A jar of Gold Blend, a kettle, and a note saying "help yourself." Cost per cup: about 8p. Guest satisfaction: terrible. Three out of my first twenty reviews mentioned coffee negatively when I was using instant. One simply said "instant coffee in 2024, really?" I deserved that.

2. Filter coffee machine (Russell Hobbs, £28)

I tried this in the Canterbury flat. A basic drip filter machine with a pack of Lavazza ground coffee next to it. Cost per cup: about 12p. The machine itself was fine but guests kept leaving it on for hours, the hotplate scorched two carafes, and I was replacing the filter papers more often than I expected because guests would try to brew without one. Two people left coffee grounds in the machine for four days. The smell was impressive.

3. Cafetiere (Bodum, £15)

The Margate property got a cafetiere and a bag of Union Hand-Roasted ground coffee. Cost per cup: about 18p. This was actually the most well-received setup in reviews, with guests specifically praising the coffee. The problem was the cleanup. My cleaner found grounds in the sink, on the counter, and once on the ceiling (I did not ask). The cafetiere also broke twice in eight months. Glass and boiling water, left with strangers. In hindsight the risk was obvious.

4. Nespresso-compatible pod machine (£49 generic)

Not an actual Nespresso machine. A £49 compatible unit from Amazon that takes standard capsules. I paired it with L'Or Espresso Onyx capsules from Costco, 50 pods for £19.99 (40p per pod, which is 40p per cup). This is what most of my properties now run. No grounds to clean up, the pod goes in the bin, the machine gets a quick wipe. Guest feedback: overwhelmingly positive. The only downside is that some guests go through pods at a terrifying rate. I had one family use 22 pods in a four-night stay.

5. Dolce Gusto pod machine (£59)

I tried this in the barn property for four months. Dolce Gusto pods are bigger, more expensive (about 38p each for basic, 55p for the latte ones), and the machine takes up significantly more counter space. The pods themselves are harder to recycle and guests who are used to Nespresso-style machines got confused by the different pod format. I pulled it after four months. Not worth the extra cost or the counter real estate.

6. Bean-to-cup machine (De'Longhi Magnifica, £280)

The luxury option. Fresh beans, built-in grinder, proper espresso. Cost per cup: about 14p using Lavazza Crema e Aroma beans from Amazon (1kg for £13.50). Sounds great on paper. The problem: these machines need daily cleaning, weekly descaling reminders, and one guest managed to jam the grinder with what appeared to be a teaspoon. Repair cost: £85 plus a week without a working machine. I sold it after seven months and went back to pods.

What I actually use now

Four of my five properties have the £49 generic pod machine with L'Or Espresso capsules. I leave six pods in a ceramic dish on the counter per stay and restock at turnover. Guests who want more than six cups can use the backup: a jar of Kenco Millicano (the one that dissolves like instant but is actually freeze-dried microground, about 11p per cup). This covers the "I want ten coffees a day" guests without me paying 40p per cup for all of them.

The barn property gets a slightly nicer pod machine (Sage Nespresso Creatista, which I found refurbished for £130 on eBay) because the nightly rate supports it and the guests there expect a step up. Same pods though. L'Or from Costco.

Total coffee budget across all five properties: roughly £45 per month. That is about £9 per property per month or about 30p per guest night. I can live with 30p.

The per-cup maths

• Instant (Nescafe Gold Blend): 8p per cup
• Filter (Lavazza ground): 12p plus 2p for the filter paper
• Cafetiere (Union Hand-Roasted): 18p per cup
• Pod machine (L'Or Espresso): 40p per cup
• Dolce Gusto (basic black): 38p per cup
• Bean-to-cup (Lavazza Crema e Aroma): 14p per cup

The pod machine is the most expensive per cup by some distance but the only one where the total cost of ownership (including replacement parts, cleaning time, and guest complaints) actually works in my favour. The cafetiere was loved but broke. The bean machine was cheapest per cup but the maintenance ate the saving. The instant was cheapest of all and also the most expensive in one-star-review terms.

Frequently asked

How many pods do you leave per stay?

Six. I tried leaving a full bowl of 20 to 30 and guests treated it like a buffet. One family took an entire sleeve home with them. Six pods plus a jar of decent instant covers most stays comfortably. Three-night booking, two guests, six pods is two cups each per day which is generous enough.

What about decaf?

I leave two decaf pods out of the six. The L'Or decaf (gold capsule) is decent enough that nobody has complained about it. If I left no decaf option I suspect I would eventually get a pointed review from someone who needed it, and the incremental cost is about 4p per pod more than the regular ones. Worth it.

Should I buy an actual Nespresso machine or a generic?

The generics I use are functionally identical for standard espresso pods. The only advantage of a real Nespresso machine is the steam wand on the Lattissima models for frothed milk. I tried that route and guests left milk in the steam nozzle overnight. The smell alone was enough to convince me to stick with black-coffee-only machines and leave a small carton of milk in the fridge instead.

Do you track coffee pod inventory?

Each property has a coffee pods line in my inventory list with a reorder threshold of 20 pods. When the cleaner flags the count during turnover and it drops below 20, I get a restock alert and order the next Costco sleeve. It sounds like overkill for coffee but the one time I ran out mid-stay I got a message within two hours asking where the pods were.