Published: May 18, 2026
Why a better outdoor space is your Airbnb’s smartest investment
The fastest, highest-return way to lift the nightly rate, occupancy and review score of a South African Airbnb is to upgrade the outdoor space.
Listings with a properly designed deck, pergola and braai area consistently outperform comparable properties on price, bookings and resale value. Best Deck composite wood decking is engineered for this exact use case, giving high-traffic short-term rentals a beautiful, low-maintenance outdoor room that keeps earning long after a traditional timber deck would be due for its next round of sanding and sealing.
Read the five-star reviews on the top-rated Airbnb listings in your area, not a quick scan, read them, and you will notice something. Guests seldom rave about thread counts or microwave sizes. What they consistently write about is the deck, the braai area, the pergola, the fire pit. They write about atmosphere. About experience. The five-star reviews say things like:
“We practically lived outside.”
“The entertainment area was stunning.”
“We didn’t want to leave.”
South African Airbnb hosts who take this seriously are the ones quietly charging more, booking out faster and leaving their competition wondering what they are doing differently.
The market has shifted. Has your listing?
Short-term rental guests are no longer booking accommodation. They are booking an experience to remember and, increasingly, that experience lives outdoors. South Africans understand this instinctively because we are an outdoor nation. The braai, the sundowner, the long summer evening on the stoep…these are not trends, they are the essence of our culture. The savvy host knows that catering to those habits is a competitive advantage, not a passing fad.
The AirDNA data backs it up:
- Listings with well-designed outdoor spaces consistently achieve higher nightly rates and stronger occupancy than comparable properties without them.
- A hot tub can push your average daily rate up by roughly 14%.
- A pool can lift your rate by as much as 30% depending on the season and climate.
- A properly lit, well-furnished patio measurably improves click-through rates and review scores.
Compounded across a full year of bookings, these are not small numbers. The properties sitting empty mid-week or slashing rates to compete are very often the ones where the outdoor space looks like an afterthought. A couple of plastic chairs. A rusty Weber. A patch of paving that nobody quite knows what to do with.
Photography by Nic Baleta for SA Homeowner Magazine ©
What “good” looks like in real life
There is a difference between having an outdoor space and having one that books your property. Here is where to focus your renovation budget.
A proper deck
The deck is the foundation, literally. A well-built composite wood deck extends the usable living area of the home, gives guests a defined space to relax and entertain and photographs beautifully. Whether it is a wraparound stoep in Durban, a rooftop platform in Cape Town or a garden-level entertainment space in Joburg, the deck sets the tone for everything else. It signals to prospective guests that the property has been thought through. That they are invited to slow down and enjoy themselves.
A pergola or lapa
South African weather is unpredictable. A Highveld thunderstorm arrives without warning. A Cape summer afternoon can be brutal without shade. A composite pergola or lapa allows guests to be outside in almost any conditions, which directly extends the usable hours of your outdoor space. Guests who can eat outside in light rain or sit in cool shade on a 35°C afternoon are guests who leave better reviews.
A lekker braai area
A built-in braai area is more than function. It is the centrepiece, the reason people gather, the place where the laughter happens. A well-designed braai area with durable composite cladding or privacy and shade screens, proper countertop space and decent seating will appear in more guest photos than any piece of furniture you own. That means free marketing every time a guest posts a picture from your property.
Outdoor lighting that earns its keep
Solar-powered or battery-backed deck and garden lighting keeps your outdoor space functional and inviting even during load-shedding. Good lighting extends the evening, makes the space feel safe and, just as importantly, creates the atmospheric dusk photos that drive bookings on the Airbnb algorithm. The shots that make a browser stop scrolling.
The material decision that truly matters: timber versus composite
If you are building or upgrading a deck for a rental property, an honest timber-versus-composite conversation is worth having.
Natural timber can be beautiful. It is warm, it has character and South Africans have been building with it for generations. The problem in a rental context is the maintenance cycle. Timber needs to be sanded, sealed and stained on a regular schedule. In a high-traffic Airbnb environment, it takes a beating. Not from you on a quiet Sunday but from dozens of guests, their suitcases, their wet swimming costumes and their summer parties. The cost of the upkeep, the downtime between bookings while finishes cure and the wear that comes with heavy guest use add up faster than most hosts expect.
High-quality composite decking solves most of those problems. It needs no sealing or staining. It resists rot and insects. It handles foot traffic without splintering or cracking and it cleans up with water. For a rental property specifically, the lower operational cost and the dramatically reduced changeover stress make composite wood the most sensible long-term asset. It is, quite simply, the business-minded decision.
That said, the right material and profile range depend on your specific property, climate and budget. A Best Deck specialist will assess your site before recommending anything.
You’re not renovating. You’re building an asset.
These upgrades do more than improve your booking rate. They improve your property’s underlying value.
International real estate data consistently shows that well-executed outdoor living upgrades, including professional decking, a permanent pergola and a built-in entertainment area, can add between 5% and 15% to a property’s resale value depending on scale and quality. Unlike interior furnishings that depreciate and go out of style, structural outdoor improvements are durable infrastructure. They sit on your balance sheet, working for you whether you are calculating rental yield or planning an eventual sale.
This is the difference between spending on your Airbnb and investing in it.
Where to start
If you are serious about improving your Airbnb without a full rebuild, start outside. It is the highest-leverage move you can make.
The fix does not have to be overwhelming. Start with one honest question: if a guest scrolled past a photo of my outdoor area right now, would they stop?
If the answer is no, that is where the work begins. A deck. A pergola. A built-in braai. A lighting upgrade. Any one of these can be the difference between a property that competes on price and one that quietly commands a premium.
Best Deck designs and supplies premium composite outdoor entertainment systems across South Africa, giving your guests space to breathe rather than just a bed for the night. If you are ready to make your listing work harder, get in touch with our team for a no-obligation consultation.
