Should you add a SAUNA to your Airbnb?? (And Other Amenities)

The Airbnb filter sauna feature is one of the most underused tools in a short-term rental host's playbook.

When guests search Airbnb and filter specifically for a sauna — or a hot tub, pool, or EV charger — only listings with those amenities toggled on in the host dashboard appear in results. That means the right amenity isn't just a comfort upgrade. It's a visibility upgrade.

Watch the full video above or keep reading for the complete breakdown.

Why Amenities Matter Beyond Comfort

Most hosts think about amenities from a guest satisfaction angle. Will guests enjoy having this? That's a reasonable starting point — but it's only half the picture.

The other half is platform performance. On Airbnb, certain amenities are toggleable in the host dashboard. When you mark that your property has a sauna, a hot tub, or a dedicated workspace, Airbnb's algorithm knows your listing has that feature. Then two things happen:

• Your listing appears when guests use the Airbnb filter sauna (or hot tub, or pool) to narrow their search.
• Airbnb's algorithm proactively surfaces your listing to guests whose search history suggests they want that amenity.

This creates a compounding effect. More visibility leads to more clicks. More clicks lead to more bookings. More bookings lead to better ranking. The amenity pays for itself not just in nightly rate premiums, but in organic search traffic that would otherwise go to a competitor.

For a deeper look at how Airbnb's algorithm works in your favor, check out this guide on ranking on the first page of Airbnb with SEO tricks — many of the same principles apply to amenity optimization.

Start With the Airbnb Hosting Dashboard

The best first step for any host evaluating amenities is straightforward: open the Airbnb hosting dashboard and scroll through the full amenities list.

This list is the same for every host on the platform — a condo in Miami sees the same options as a cabin in Vermont. That's actually useful. It gives you a standardized menu of every amenity Airbnb recognizes and can surface to guests in search results.

Use it as inspiration, not instruction. Not every amenity on the list makes sense for every property. But scanning the full list helps you think beyond the obvious. You might notice that your property is close to a ski resort and could benefit from a ski-in/ski-out tag, or that your urban studio could qualify as a dedicated workspace listing.

Low-Cost Amenities Worth Adding Immediately

Some amenities are easy decisions. A quality coffee maker, a board game set, a better shower head — these cost $50–$200 and meaningfully improve guest experience and reviews. You don't need a spreadsheet to justify these.

• High-speed internet — Non-negotiable for every listing. Business travelers rank this as the top amenity, and even leisure travelers expect it.
• Dedicated workspace — A desk and good lighting qualify. This unlocks Airbnb's "work trip" filter and attracts longer-staying remote workers.
• Coffee setup — A French press or Nespresso machine is a cheap way to score positive review mentions.
• Streaming services — Netflix or Apple TV login costs under $20/month and guests consistently mention it.

These smaller additions set the baseline. The harder decisions come with the big-ticket items.

Match Amenities to Your Ideal Guest

Before spending a dollar on any amenity, you need a clear picture of who is actually booking your property — and why.

This single question — who is my ideal guest? — should drive every amenity decision you make. Different guest profiles have completely different priorities, and the wrong amenity for your audience is wasted capital.

Business Travelers

Guests booking for work trips care about efficiency and productivity. The amenities that move the needle for them:

• Dedicated workspace with ergonomic chair and monitor
• Gigabit or near-gigabit Wi-Fi (speed matters — list the Mbps in your listing)
• Easy transit access or on-site parking
• Coffee and a kitchen for quick meal prep
• Local restaurant guide or digital welcome book

A sauna or hot tub? These probably won't swing the decision for a solo business traveler staying three nights. A fast, clean, quiet place to work and sleep will.

Leisure Groups and Families

A large group of friends renting a lakehouse for a weekend has completely different priorities. They're paying a premium to share an experience. The amenities that drive bookings and premium rates for this segment:

• Hot tub — Consistently one of the highest-ROI amenities for group leisure properties
• Sauna — Rapidly growing in demand, especially in colder climates and wellness-oriented markets
• Projector or home theater setup with a soundbar
• Yard games (cornhole, bocce, horseshoes)
• Hammocks, fire pits, and outdoor entertaining areas
• Pool table, ping pong, or arcade games

If you're thinking about adding a hot tub to your Airbnb for a leisure-focused property, you're likely on the right track — but you still need to validate it with data before committing the capital. More on that below.

For a broader look at which property types attract these guest segments, see the best type of property for Airbnb investing — the property type and guest profile are deeply connected.

How to Evaluate High-Ticket Amenities: Sauna, Hot Tub, Pool

Here's where most hosts make a costly mistake. They see that a competitor has a hot tub or sauna, assume it's a good idea, and spend $10,000–$30,000 based on intuition.

Intuition is a starting point. Data is the decision-maker.

High-ticket amenities — EV chargers, hot tubs, saunas, pools, outdoor kitchens — represent serious capital investment. The analysis you'd apply to buying a stock or evaluating a business should apply here. You're not spending money. You're investing it. And investments need a projected return.

The range for these amenities varies widely:

• EV charger installation: $1,500–$5,000 depending on electrical panel capacity
• Hot tub: $5,000–$15,000 installed, plus ongoing maintenance
• Sauna: $3,000–$20,000 depending on indoor vs. outdoor barrel sauna
• Pool: $25,000–$80,000+, with significant ongoing costs

Each of these can absolutely generate a strong return — in the right market. The question is whether your specific market supports that investment. And that question has a data-driven answer.

Hosts building out premium leisure properties should also look at must-have amenities that drive guest bookings for a ranked breakdown of what moves the needle most.

Using PriceLabs to Validate Amenity ROI

PriceLabs is best known as a dynamic pricing tool — and it's excellent for that. But its Market Dashboard feature is arguably more valuable for amenity decisions.

Here's how to use it. Set your property location and draw a radius around it — typically 5–15 miles depending on how dense your market is. Then pull up the amenity comparison data.

Understanding the Two-Bar System

PriceLabs shows two bars for each amenity. This is the key insight:

1. Supply bar: What percentage of listings in your market have this amenity? If 100 properties exist in the radius and 20 have hot tubs, that's 20% supply.
2. Demand bar: What percentage of actual bookings are going to listings with this amenity? If 40 out of 50 recent bookings went to those 20 hot-tub properties, that's 80% demand share.

That gap — 20% of supply capturing 80% of bookings — is the signal you're looking for. It tells you that hot-tub properties are punching well above their weight in that market. That's the 80/20 rule playing out in real STR data.

Contrast that with a market where 70% of listings have hot tubs and 75% of bookings go to them. In that case, a hot tub isn't a differentiator — it's the baseline expectation. You need it just to be competitive, not to stand out.

Pro tip: Run this same analysis for saunas separately. In 2026, sauna demand has grown significantly in markets where wellness travel is popular.

In some ski resort markets and Pacific Northwest cabins, the Airbnb filter sauna is being used by a growing segment of guests specifically searching for that experience — and the supply of sauna-equipped listings hasn't caught up yet. That gap is an opportunity.

Hosts who want structured support analyzing these data points alongside a community of experienced STR operators can connect with others inside the BNB Tribe community — a good place to ask market-specific questions and share findings.

Using AirDNA to Compare Comparable Properties

PriceLabs gives you market-level insight. AirDNA lets you zoom in to the property level — which is useful for stress-testing your investment thesis.

The approach is simple. Find five comparable listings in your market without the amenity you're considering. Then find five comparable listings that have it. Compare their:

• Average nightly rate
• Occupancy rate
li>Annual revenue
• RevPAR (revenue per available room)

This comparison isolates (as much as possible) the revenue impact of the amenity itself. If the five hot-tub properties are averaging $3,800/month and the five without are averaging $2,600/month, that's roughly $1,200/month in additional revenue attributable to the hot tub.

At that rate, a $10,000 hot tub installation pays for itself in under nine months. That's an excellent ROI by any investing standard.

Of course, correlation isn't causation. Higher-performing properties might have other advantages — better photos, more reviews, better location. Try to control for those variables by selecting truly comparable comps. But even an imperfect comp analysis is vastly better than guessing.

For context on how to run a full investment analysis on a short-term rental property before adding amenities to the equation, this breakdown of how to analyze a short-term rental property on a cash-on-cash basis is a solid starting point.

AirDNA also recently added tools specifically for finding and evaluating STR properties — covered in depth in this post on AirDNA's new feature for finding Airbnb properties for sale.

The Full Decision Framework at a Glance

Conclusion: Make Amenity Decisions Like an Investor

The Airbnb filter sauna and similar amenity filters exist because guests are actively searching for specific experiences — not just a place to sleep.

Hosts who understand this have a structural advantage: add the right amenity, toggle it on in the dashboard, and your listing gets in front of a targeted, high-intent audience that competitors without the amenity simply can't reach.

The process isn't complicated, but it does require discipline. Start with Airbnb's amenity list for inspiration. Filter by your ideal guest profile to narrow the options. Then — for anything over a few hundred dollars — run the PriceLabs supply-vs-demand check and validate with AirDNA comps before pulling the trigger.

In 2026, with STR competition higher than ever in most markets, the hosts who treat amenity decisions like investment decisions will consistently outperform those who go with their gut. Every dollar you put into the right amenity compounds. Every dollar you put into the wrong one just sits there, costing you maintenance fees and not moving the needle.