So, I had this idea, a while ago, that they could add another aspect to housing.

They could make it so you could choose to make your house into one of various different types of venues.

For example:

1. A hotel/inn (beds, restaurant, seating areas and bar)
2. A bar/restaurant (the above, but with no beds)
3. A hostel (with more beds to rent out than a proper hotel/inn, but far cheaper to hire one).
4. A museum.
5. A store - whether just a small store, or even a department store (based on size of the venue).
6. A school/university.

You could then furnish it to be that thing, with there being minimum furnishing requirements, for each venue type, in order for it to qualify.

For example, you would obviously have to have beds for it to qualify as a inn/hotel, or a hostel.

The average quality/cost of furnishings used could affect the price you were then able to charge for the use of the venue, too.

So the use of quite a lot of purple furnishings, rather than green ones, would make a hotel a 5 star one, vs a 1 star one, or whatever.

Quite a lot of houses are probably, already, furnished in a way that could just automatically qualify as one of the options.

Once you had selected your type of venue, furnished it up to the required standards, employed (NPC) staff and opened it for business, you could then just let it run on its own, most of the time.

With the NPC staff walking about doing their jobs (taking money, cleaning, changing sheets, serving food/drink etc.) and NPC customers walking in to use the facilities, before paying and leaving.

You could then gradually make some gold back, to offset the amount of gold it takes to furnish these houses up to a high standard, in the first place and also, make them feel far more alive and worthwhile.

In order to continue to keep your venue open for business, you could be required to log in at least in once a week, to do a quest (or handful of quests) to receive your takings and pay your NPC staff and do any other managerial jobs that may be required.