Painting for Airbnb and Holiday Lets in London: Photogenic Palettes and Hard-Wearing Finishes

Decorating a London Airbnb or holiday let

Short-term letting in London has its own set of decoration requirements that sit somewhere between a residential rental and a boutique hotel. Guests are paying a premium over a standard rental, often booking primarily on the basis of photographs, and their satisfaction — and therefore your reviews — depends partly on how the property looks and feels on arrival.

But guests also use properties hard. Suitcases scrape walls. Coffee gets knocked over. Cleaning happens more frequently, with more robust products, than in a long-term tenancy. The specification needs to be both attractive and genuinely durable.

Belgravia Painters works with Airbnb operators, serviced accommodation companies and private holiday let owners across London. Here is how we approach the brief.

Photographing well: what actually makes a difference

The most important thing to understand about decorating for photography is that camera lenses flatten and cool colour. What looks warm and inviting in a room lit by natural light at mid-morning can photograph flat and cold. Conversely, rich colours that feel dramatic in person can read beautifully through a wide-angle lens.

A few principles for photogenic decoration:

Avoid cold bright whites on walls. Pure brilliant white walls read as stark and clinical in photographs unless the light is very warm and the styling is excellent. Warm whites — Farrow & Ball James White, Little Greene Portland Stone, Mylands Ceiling White — photograph much better and feel more welcoming to guests.

Feature walls are back. The era of all-neutral interiors is passing in the short-let market. A single well-chosen deep colour — on a chimney breast, behind a bed, on a kitchen island — gives a property a distinctive visual identity and photographs extremely well. Farrow & Ball Hague Blue, Little Greene Obsidian Green, Mylands Pontoon are all popular choices that photograph strongly.

Joinery colour matters. Properties with characterful joinery — painted kitchen cabinets, coloured door frames, a bold front door — photograph better than all-neutral boxes. If the property has any original period features, these deserve to be highlighted rather than painted out.

Matt finishes are more photogenic. Vinyl silk and high-sheen eggshell pick up reflections and hotspots in photography. A flat or near-flat emulsion on walls gives better photographic results. This does create a tension with durability (see below), which we address with product choice rather than finish compromise.

Durable finishes that still look good

The durability challenge for a short-let property is real. Heavy cleaning with all-purpose cleaners will strip paint film faster than gentle habitual cleaning in a residential property. High-traffic areas — hallways, kitchen walls behind the hob, bathroom walls — need finishes that can withstand regular wiping.

Our recommendations for a short-let specification:

Walls: washable matt. Dulux Diamond Matt, Little Greene Intelligent Washable Matt, or Mylands Ultra Matt are all near-flat finishes with very good washability. These hold up to cleaning significantly better than standard emulsions and photograph well because the finish is flat. We use these throughout short-let properties as the standard wall finish.

Woodwork: water-based satinwood or hard eggshell. Satinwood has a slightly higher sheen than eggshell and a harder film, which makes it better suited to high-contact surfaces like door frames, banister rails and kitchen cabinet fronts. We use Dulux Trade Satinwood or Little Greene Oil Eggshell (water-based) on all woodwork in a short-let context.

Kitchens: specialist kitchen paint or satinwood. Kitchen walls behind work surfaces and the hob need a finish that will survive steam, splashes and regular wiping. Dulux Kitchen or Farrow & Ball's Modern Emulsion (designed with a slight sheen for exactly this purpose) are appropriate. We always fit the paint up to and including a tile or splashback edge rather than leaving an unprotected band.

Bathrooms: moisture-resistant. Farrow & Ball Modern Emulsion or Little Greene Intelligent Eggshell are both formulated for bathroom use and balance aesthetics with moisture resistance. We recommend painting bathrooms with two full coats over a mould-resistant primer in any property that runs regularly at high occupancy.

A guest-ready specification

Beyond paint, a guest-ready decoration includes a few elements that distinguish a well-run short-let from a basic rental:

Consistent colour palette throughout. Guests notice whether a property feels cohesive or assembled at random. A consistent palette — two or three complementary wall colours used throughout the property, with consistent woodwork colour — creates a sense of intent and quality. We work with clients to develop this palette before quoting.

Clean, sharp lines. Nothing communicates a low-quality finish faster than wavy cutting-in lines at ceiling junctions or paint bridging across the gap between skirting and floor. In a short-let property, sharp, clean execution matters more than in a standard residential job because guests are evaluating the property's quality against their booking cost.

Touch-up stock. We always leave clients with a small quantity of each paint used, clearly labelled with the room and surface. In a short-let context, where small marks and scuffs between lets need quick repair, having the exact paint to hand is invaluable. Spot-touching a marked wall in the correct colour and finish takes fifteen minutes; waiting for a decorator to match the colour and come back takes a week.

Programme and turnaround

Short-let operators need fast turnarounds. A full redecoration of a two-bedroom Airbnb flat can be completed in three to four working days when the property is void between bookings. We work with operators to schedule redecorations in booking gaps and can often accommodate short-notice requests during slower periods.

For operators managing multiple properties, we offer a retained service — scheduled annual refreshes, between-booking touch-ups as a priority callout, and an agreed colour palette that we hold on record so there is no delay in matching colours.

Contact us to discuss your specific property or portfolio. We will give you an honest assessment of what is needed, how long it will take and what it will cost.