Furnishing a self-catering holiday home in Ireland costs around €14,000 on average in 2026, ranging from roughly €6,000 for a compact one-bed cottage to €35,000 or more for a larger four-bed property with a full kit-out. That headline figure covers furniture and soft furnishings only — kitchen equipment, linens, artwork and the safety items every Fáilte Ireland Short-Term Letting Register application expects (fire blanket, carbon monoxide alarm, first aid kit) usually add another €1,500 to €3,000 on top.
TL;DR
- Cost to furnish self-catering holiday home in Ireland runs roughly €6,000 to €35,000+ in 2026, depending on size.
- Two-bed homes typically land between €9,000 and €16,000 for a full furnish.
- Kitchen kit, linens and safety compliance items add €1,500-€3,000 beyond furniture-only quotes.
- Sos Stays advises Boyne Valley, Louth, Meath and Mourne/Wexford landlords on furnishing standards during onboarding.
Why this matters
A lot of first-time landlords price a holiday let by the mortgage and the cleaning fee and forget the furnish is its own project. Get it wrong and you're either overspending on pieces guests never notice, or underspending and fielding complaints about a sagging sofa in month three.
Sos Stays works with landlords across the Boyne Valley, Louth, Meath and the Mourne and Wexford coast, and the furnish is one of the first things that comes up when a new self-catering holiday home is being set up for direct booking. The number that matters isn't the total spend — it's whether the spend matches what guests in that price bracket expect to walk into.
How much does it cost to furnish a self-catering holiday home?
The honest answer depends almost entirely on bedroom count and finish level, but here's a working breakdown for 2026.
| Property size | Furniture & soft furnishings | Kitchen & small appliances | Total estimated range | |---|---|---|---| | One-bed cottage | €4,500-€7,000 | €1,500-€2,000 | €6,000-€9,000 | | Two-bed home | €7,500-€13,000 | €1,800-€3,000 | €9,000-€16,000 | | Three-bed house | €11,500-€18,000 | €2,500-€4,000 | €14,000-€22,000 | | Four-bed+ property | €18,000-€30,000 | €4,000-€6,000+ | €22,000-€35,000+ |
These ranges assume a mix of new and good secondhand pieces, not a full showroom order. Buying every item new from a single retailer pushes you toward the top of each band, sometimes past it.
One-bed cottage: €6,000-€9,000
This is the entry point — a bed, a sofa or two armchairs, a small dining set, basic kitchen equipment and enough linen for two changeovers. Buy new for the bed and mattress, secondhand is fine for most of the rest. Verdict: realistic starting budget for a first let.
Two-bed home: €9,000-€16,000
Add a second bedroom's worth of furniture, a larger dining table, and duplicate kitchenware so a changeover doesn't mean scrambling for a second set of pans. This is the most common size booked for weekend breaks in Louth and Meath, so the finish needs to hold up. Verdict: the sweet spot for most self-catering hosts.
Three-bed house: €14,000-€22,000
Group bookings and multi-family stays expect more seating, more storage, and often a second bathroom's worth of towels and toiletry basics. Outdoor furniture starts mattering more at this size too, especially on coastal properties. Verdict: budget for extra seating and storage, not just extra beds.
Four-bed+ property: €22,000-€35,000+
Larger countryside and coastal homes competing for bigger group bookings need a furnish that photographs well across every room, since these listings live or die on their gallery. Verdict: only worth the top end if the booking volume supports it.
Why furnishing costs vary
- New vs secondhand — a fully new furnish from one supplier can run 30-40% higher than a mixed approach with quality secondhand pieces.
- Finish level — budget flat-pack vs solid wood and better fabrics is the single biggest swing factor in any of the ranges above.
- Outdoor furniture — a garden set, patio table or fire pit for a coastal or countryside property adds a line item most first-time hosts forget to budget for.
- Replacement reserve — high-turnover self-catering lets wear soft furnishings faster than a family home; most experienced hosts set aside an annual top-up rather than treating the initial furnish as a one-time cost.
- Delivery and assembly — rural properties in Louth, Meath or along the Mourne coast sometimes carry higher delivery charges than an urban address, and that's easy to miss when comparing quotes.
- Compliance items — the safety equipment expected under Fáilte Ireland's Short-Term Letting Register (fire blanket, smoke and CO alarms, first aid kit, fire door where required) is a small line item on paper but easy to skip when budgeting.
See how Sos Stays lists holiday homes
Browse live Boyne Valley, Louth, Meath and Mourne/Wexford properties for a sense of finish level.
Do self-catering hosts need to furnish for Fáilte Ireland registration specifically?
The Short-Term Letting Register doesn't set furniture standards, but it does expect basic safety equipment to be in place before you can register. Budget the €1,500-€3,000 compliance figure separately from your furniture spend so it doesn't get lost in the total.
Is it cheaper to furnish a holiday home yourself or hire a fit-out company?
Doing it yourself is almost always cheaper — often by 20-30% — but it costs time, and a professional fit-out gets the whole property done in weeks rather than months. For a first property, most landlords manage it themselves and bring in help for the trickier rooms only.
How much should I budget yearly to replace furniture in a holiday let?
Most experienced self-catering hosts set aside 8-12% of the original furnish cost per year for replacement — so on a €14,000 furnish, that's roughly €1,100-€1,700 annually for wear items like mattress toppers, cushions and kitchenware.
One last thing
The part hosts underestimate most isn't the sofa or the beds — it's linen. A two-bed self-catering property needs at least three full sets of bedding and towels in rotation to handle back-to-back changeovers without a laundry scramble, and that line item alone can run into hundreds of euro that never show up in a furniture quote. Price it separately, every time.
Sos Stays lists self-catering holiday homes across the Boyne Valley, Louth, Meath and the Mourne and Wexford coast, and works with landlords in those same regions on commission-based short-let management — furnishing standards are one of the first conversations that happens when a new property comes on board.