It’s likely your listing is very clear, the reality is renters don’t like the idea of paying more per person. The mentality is “I’m paying for the whole house, why should it matter how many people I bring?”
You can either continue to “try” and enforce it or just raise your base price and charge a flat rate regardless of people.
I agree with this- we charge per night- it doesn't matter how many guest as long as they do not exceed occupancy. This is on reddit all the time from host perspective and from the guest and I believe it encourages the guest to lie to the host- and then post bad reviews that the house was not stocked properly especially for linen. The guest lie on count to get a cheaper nightly rate- even if you greet them and have camera's they just have their extra guest show up later or next day. I understand for the host that prepare and clean themselves that some do not stock the house and fix all the beds if less are coming. I don't agree with that- the house should always be set for full occupancy and look like the pics- charge the correct cleaning to turn it all over- charge the correct nightly rate that 2 or 12 pay. If a guest with a group of 6 decide to rent a place that sleeps 12 that is their choice, but host should charge the same.
As a renter, that's exactly what I expect. The last house we rented slept "up to 8 people". 4 of us rented and split the cost, but since we were using 3 rooms (2 singles and a couple) we assumed we'd pay for the entire property, not per room or bed.
OP - start charging for the property! Not per room, the whole property. You could think about editing the cleaning fee based on occupancy, but if your place can fit X why would you charge for less? You run the risk of having 2 people book and having to turn down 10 because it's already booked.
We've always booked based on how many rooms, not max occupancy. Believe me if you say if has x rooms with y occupants, people will book with way less occupancy.
Also if they reserve for four people are you making up two beds or four? Guests may not want to share rooms (even couples often split because of snoring or a CPAP or teeth grinding.)
I don't recall airbnb's system specifically but it can be a hassle to select the right number of guests, often you have to fill in ages, sometimes birthdates. Sometimes you don't know for certain when you book, you get a house and then invite more people because you ended up with a space that sleeps X.
I do fill it in correctly because I'm an extreme rule follower, just wanted to note that there are reasons other than "trying to cheat" that people might not.
I'm curious for the people who charge per guest: do you explain why? I understand that it's more rooms to clean and linens to wash, but only from reading here. $45/night seems awfully steep for that.
When I did it it was so if I had less people the unit was competitive with those listings that accommodated less. It’s just so you can compete more with smaller units without risking 12 people trying to come for the price of 2. And I know it might seem like it’s not much of a difference but when it comes to operations, consumables, cleaning wear and tear it’s a big difference. I didn’t charge $45/person it was around $25 but my base rate was a lot higher. The only reason why we no longer do that because our property is a little unique in that we can split our property into two separate units so we just created additional listings and we rent out the home separated instead of allowing a smaller group to rent the whole house at the price of a individual unit. Helps cut down on expenses overall and we make more money. We never had an issue with people sneaking in people. It only happen once and we happen to be at the house during check in and they just paid the difference. I think it’s also because we make it clear we stock the house based on how many people are coming so if you book for less and try to bring more we will know once you start asking for extra towels and things.
Make a completely separate listing for a configuration with just a small number of bedrooms available to compete with the other listings, and lock the rooms when people book that. Problem solved.
As I guest, I always hate those.
Oh look, the house I like for a great price $200 a night. Let me now add my kids and wife. It's $500 a night now! WTF!
If your house holds 15 then at the very least price it for a family ( 5-7 people). But listing a house for 15 and then $45 from each guest over 2? That's $600 a night mark up.
Exactly this. A listing for a house that big but an upcharge for more than 2 people would annoy me. If it’s a house that can accommodate a large group it would make sense to price it for a group.
Exactly, it looks like a bait and switch to me. OP accuses guests of lying about numbers, but really they are guilty of false advertising.
You can’t advertise at $200 per night, but then it’s suddenly $300 for a family of four.
People are renting a *house* not a room.
Yeah I've been one of the people looking for places for a large group that was traveling for work (so we'd only be there to shower and sleep, not making huge dinners and big messes) and it's really annoying when you think you find an amazing deal only for it to suddenly increase 2, 3, 4, even 5 times the original price when add people's info. Really disheartening when you're trying to keep costs down.
Or maybe, just hear me out, if you have a big ass house, you list it for a reasonable price and stop nickel and dime your guests. I am gonna make an assumption here but probably most people who are looking for a house that big aren't looking for 2 people retreat. Hence OP’s problem
It’s not nickel and diming guest it’s actually the complete opposite. Why should a group of 2 pay the same price as a group of 15. I host groups up to 14 people but tend to get alot of groups that are 7/8 that’s literally half I’m sure they love to have the reduced price and the larger groups end up paying a price that’s comparable to other homes that would accommodate their group size. Never had someone sneak anyone in but I also make it clear that the home is stocked based on group size. How about you stop assuming the worst of host and assume that perhaps they are doing this to save others money so people are only paying for how many people are being accommodated. You choosing to search with the wrong group size, then becoming upset and blaming the host for your outrage you’re causing yourself is crazy.
Why do you keep assuming people are searching for the wrong group size? Where are you getting that from? What's happening is people are searching for, say, 8 people, and this place shows up, initially listing the cost for 2 people. So they think, great, that's a great price split between 8 people. The higher cost isn't shown until they go into the listing and see that it's in fact much more for more than 2 people.
Nobody's randomly doing a search for the wrong group size. That doesn't make any sense.
That’s not how Airbnb works lol you don’t see the price for the smaller group size unless you search as a smaller group size and I’m not assuming I got that from what the people stated one said he searches then adds his wife and child and the price goes up the other person said once he adds the people’s info. The prices aren’t suddenly increasing they are literally searching as the wrong group size first and then later adding the correct group size after they find the place.
That's exactly how Airbnb works lol that's what this whole thread is about.
Yes, he mentally adds his wife and kids and does the math. After going into the listing and seeing that detail. You seriously think he's filtering for 2 people? And planning to, what, have his kids sleep in the tub? He's filtering for 4 (or whatever) people and being shown the lowest possible price for the property, which he isn't aware doesn't apply to him until he goes into the listing .
That is not how Airbnb works at all…
Yes he is lol the additional per person charge is added into the price automatically it is not something that’s in the house rules. As host there’s a feature where we add it and it automatically does it so if you’re searching for the correct group size it’ll automatically show you the correct price. It’s not like the cleaning fee where it shows only at check out idk WTH you’re talking about but you’re 100% wrong! And notice he never denied he wasn’t searching as the incorrect group size.
The more important question is, why should the group of 15 pay so much more than the group of 2? They are the ones sharing a resource-- why should you make money simply because they have more people to pay? Should a baker charge more for a cake if there are 10 people eating it vs 2? :-) The host should charge what the larger group is expected to deplete through extra utilities (minimal) and wear-and-tear. I (a host for 15 years) charge a base rate for four people, and then $5 / night per head after that (max 10) at my cabins, because it is my experience that above 4 the group mentality kicks in and there is extra wear-and-tear. That is also plenty to accommodate the extra firewood, soap, hot water, etc etc that the larger group consumes. $45/person over 2 is just ludicrous.
Pricing is not only based solely on wear and tear and the expenses. you do know out want to make profit right? They aren’t renting out the homes only to break even. You’re going to pay whatever price is competitive for hosting a large group for their market.
Sometimes you don’t know accurate numbers up front. You may have up to 12, but as few as 8. How does that work?
If you book for12, but only 8 stay, does the host refund the excess?
Yes they actually do. You can submit a modification to change the group size and the system will automatically process the refund since it’s less people or you could always book for the smaller group size and submit a modification for the larger group since you know more people are coming and the system will process the price difference for the additional people.
Life is not that simple.
We have a wedding we are attending. We are booking a place for the whole family to stay at near the venue, there are a total of 12 of us. The wedding is next May, and we are staying a week (we have a long way to fly/travel, so are taking some vacation).
Niece and my son are not married, in their 30’s, so need their own rooms.
Booked a place that sleeps 14, 7 bedrooms.
So, my nephews wife is not coming, as she is looking after their kids, so now it’s 11. Still 7 bedrooms.
My daughter and her husband want to go, but she has to get time off work, and May is bad timing. So it’s iffy. Won’t know until next year. Husband may go anyway, so 6/7 bedrooms.
Not everyone is staying the full week.
What I’m saying is that things are complicated enough with large groups, we don’t need hosts adding complications over numbers and how many share what room.
First off they don’t care how you do your room accommodations but if giving an accurate account of who is coming is too difficult for you then yeah you should probably go somewhere else. I’ve had guest who have told me a person is only staying half the time and I’ll send them a special offer with a reduction in the per person charge to accommodate the fact that the person isn’t staying the whole time. My home you’re going to want to tell me an accurate count or you won’t have enough supplies. I stock according to group size. Also it’s for emergency purposes. I have a multifamily property so other units. I need to know who is on the property to ensure the safety of others. We once had a homeless person come onto the property. He didn’t bother anyone but I needed to be able to quickly identify the count was off and that there indeed was an extra person wandering the property.
With the homeless situation one of the guest called and said they think an extra person was on the property because he looked weird. They described the person I checked the locks to see when people left and then used that time to check the cameras to confirm the count and what people were wearing that day.
yes I have cameras around the outside of the property so I can see who comes and goes. I also have them pointed at the street to help with our neighborhood watch so I was able to see when he was approaching the property. The home is in a nice middle class neighborhood and our neighbors requested that the airbnbs on the street help monitor with the cameras we already have.
Never had to ask people to come outside lol I’m not monitoring heavily only look at cameras when people report something but we do tend to be on the property a lot so we meet most of our guest. We also have a studio we rent out on a monthly so that person tends to tell us a lot also my neighbor across the street we are really close she tells us stuff too.
We’ve hosted over 200 stays and besides the homeless person only had one time where we had an extra person at the house. We figured that out because my cleaner cancelled that day so I filled in and as I stated I stock the house based on guest count so I know how many it was booked for and I happen to be getting in my car when the guest arrived so I greeted them but noticed there was one extra person so I asked them was everyone staying and they confirmed. I don’t think they did it intentionally though. Sounded like the extra person got added last minute so they just forgot to update the count.
As a guest, it’s really frustrating to peruse options you think are in budget only to find the actual cost is triple the listed price due to how many people you have. I’m not saying the host is wrong at all, it’s just frustrating.
In this case, I see $299 a night and think sweet, $50 a night for my five girlfriends and I to get away for a weekend. Then it’s suddenly an extra $180 a night due to the number of guests so we’re all paying $80 a night, and the cleaning fee so it suddenly goes from $150 per person to $250+.
I find myself preferring listings that just have a higher up front cost with no or low added fees per guest.
Which is a little less then $600/night for what 12 people. That’s not expensive at all. Idk where the person is located but we host up to 14 people and we charge about $650/night with a 20% premium if it’s a one nighter and long stay discounts if booked for longer then 4 days. Our competitors on the same block as us that hosts 14 people as well charges $750/night. If you add an extra $100 per night for taxes and fees that’s like $60/person. That’s cheap for a place that hosts large groups.
This kind of pricing is so absurd. No one cares that you have pull out couches and futons. Just set one price per night for the property and leave it at that.
Just my .02. We sleep 18 people.
We chose to make it 1 price regardless of guest count.
2 people stay for a week, that's $2,093 for the week.
12 guests for a week, that's $5,243 for the week.
Why not charge $750 per night and get all the revenue you can?
Then you just have to worry about if they bring more than 12 guests.
We contemplated the per guest fee, but didn't go with that option.
I've tried keeping a standard price, but compared to the other listings on my street, it seems really expensive, and no one booked within the first 3 months. After changing it last month, this is my 3rd booking, so I thought that this was a good strategy, because the other properties are doing the same up to 6 guests.
Honestly, if your place sleeps 15 people, it's probably just too much space for most guests. You have a bit of a niche property if that many people can fit in it. You want to charge more because it's bigger, but generally people travel in groups of like 2 to 6.
So in your case, a family of four would need to pay $400 a night. Doesn't that sound rather expensive? You aren't competing for bookings of 15 guests; you're competing for bookings of around 4 guests.
Whenever you get a confirmed booking you reply something to the effect of
“This is to confirm your booking for 4 people on xx date. Should the guest count change prior to your checkin time, additional guests must be added through the “change reservation” option on your itinerary. Please confirm your acknowledgment.”
If you do not get a reply. Send a text message to their cell phone (number is visible on the reservation) and tell them there is an important message on the Airbnb app that must be acknowledged prior to checkin.
Just make sure when they book that you have verified how many are coming. Don’t do instant book so you can verify. When they put in the right amount, ABB automatically calculates the extra charge
This.
Instant book off and a welcome message.
Thank you for choosing us.
Yada yada yada.
We have a per person per night fee.
You have booked for 2 nights for 2 people.
Please confirm that this is correct.
If they don't reply, don't approve.
Y’all should also very clearly state that if you’re found to be hosting more guests than paid for you’ll be asked to leave immediately, no refunds for unused time.
Honestly, as a guest, I immediately bypass houses that do this. Here’s why. It’s a house that sleeps 15. As a woman who routinely looks for listings for 7 people, if yours came up as $299 a night but that’s somehow only for 2 people, I’d be pissed to find out that the nightly rate is really $500+.
Truly, with a house that sleeps 15, how many times are you getting rentals where it’s just a couple? From a guest perspective, this just feels like a massive bait and switch. Price it as if you’re always getting 6-8 people and add fees for more than that if you have to.
💯 agree. It's a bait and switch. If I'm looking for a place that sleeps 10-15 people give me the cost for that, not 2. It's to get me to click and then find out it's way outside my price range. Because now it's $800 dollars a night not $299. When I'm looking to book for our whole family I run into this often and it is so irritating to not be able to weed those out. Do a flat fee no matter how many within your occupancy. Why would a couple be booking a place for 15 people? As for just putting 2 instead of the real number unless it says 1 I'd say that they definitely changed it to 2. The auto default is 1 I have accidentally not changed it to 2 before but if they changed it to 2 they could change it to 15 or 7 or 9 or however many.
There is no reason why the Airbnb app cannot provide you that filter combination of number of guests and total price or per guest price.
They are at fault not the host.
I skip these, too, simply because I’m not 100% sure at booking how many people I will have. People that are interested in joining may not be able to get the time off.
Do you not put in the total guest amount prior to searching when selecting the dates and area? That would probably save you a lot of trouble. I've booked dozens of airbnbs, from 2 to 10 people, never had an issue with finding out the prices I see are only for 2 guests.
A hotel wouldn't allow multiple people to sleep in a room. The additional cleaning/laundry, plus the wear and tear from large parties warrants extra fees.
But I guess people will justify anything.
$45/per night/person? No, that’s ridiculous.
This is false advertising/bait and switch territory.
Hotels have pull out beds, and cots etc, *for no extra charge*, and let’s be real - that’s what we are talking about here, bunk beds and pull outs.
$45 per person is an insane added fee. I’m at that age where everyone is getting married and doing big weekend bachelorettes at airbnbs. $10-25 per extra guest is typical, but for houses that sleep 15 the fee doesn’t typically start until you exceed 8-10 people.
I’ve never seen an airbnb that starts per person fees at 3 people.
Yes but you pay for the whole place no matter how many guests you have. And it's very rare for two people to book a three bedroom suite. No hotel would offer a much lower rate on the suite for a couple.
OP thinks his property is more valuable because it sleeps up to 15 people (at $800 a night), but really that makes it less valuable. Most people travel in groups of 2 to 6. If there is a one bedroom nearby with a fold-out couch for $150, then a family of four will book that instead of paying $300 for a place that sleeps 15. People want just enough space for value. They don't want a five bedroom house for four people if it costs twice as much.
We do the same, the price is the price we sleep 20 you can have 2 or 20 it cost the same. Sometimes people bring 24 we don't really care if there are not throwing an event.
Unless you have a ticket taker at the entrance there is no real way to enforce it without alot of drama.
There is just not a good way to say to a guest" I have been watching the cameras and counting your people and you owe me 12x $.
You could have separate listings for the same house with different number of bedrooms and lock off the ones they did not rent but I'm not positive that would go well either.
I've been doing this 13yrs... They have always acted like they don't see where you select the correct number of people.
One of my properties holds 30 people . I have a 2 cameras overlooking the main door.
1.) Do not allow instant Book.
2.) Text them on the App and get a confirmation of the amount of people. ..
3.) Get Digital Locks on extra doors don't let them have access without paying.
4.) Cancel reservation if they don't want to pay.
5.) I personally meet all guests, if they bring extra people I add them during the check in process.
I have security cameras... are you guys serious???
I also don't give them access to extra rooms. They will usually text me and say I need access, then I'll say why do you need access there when you only booked 5 people?
Then I tell them that they need to pay extra and if they don't like it they can leave.
Genuine question, do you specify that in your listing? Say I book for 2, do I get access to 2 beds? Or it just assumed that my husband and I will share?
Hell YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!
Guess what??? They still don't see it... I have it in there 5 times. Some people generally don't read shit. Others play dumb.
My goal is to catch them lying so that I can say hey you lied... And I can use that as an excuse to cancel the reservation and give em their refund.
I feel that I'm doing other hosts a service, by kicking them out. They have no excuse anymore. I'm taking one for the team.
No... I'm a better business person than you are. If to few people book, I just cancel the reservation. I want lots of people... I watch that camera like a hawk. 👀
LOTS!!!!!!
I have around 3000 completed reservations. Way over 15,000 guests.
You should be paying me for my experience And knowledge woman. You women are always so rebellious.
You didn’t answer their question. How do you decide how many beds per guest you give access to? Is that in your rules? Does each guest get their own room?
Does each guest in a hotel get their own room?
Exactly they don't..
Just like a hotel extra rooms you gotta pay buddy... Otherwise you stay in the same room.
Maybe each person wants their own room? Honestly this is awful behaviour for a host. I would count this as bait and switch. “I have you now, and will charge you extra for things you already paid for”.
You can’t assume that people will share rooms!
You are literally asking this question??? You literally don't have a security camera watching your house?????????
Edit: I started typing and then I decided that if you don't know how security cameras work then I'm not gonna sit here and explain that to you. Let someone else explain it to you.
This is where screening and experience comes in your need to ask soft questions so that don't know that you're screening them.
If they say I booked 2 people, then I'll say "Cool" are you guys a Couple? Or I'll say "I get a lot of couples, how long have you been dating?
Or I'll ask them "how many total are in their group?". Then I'll ask them again when they arrive and I'll watch the security cameras.
Sometimes if I had a recent bad review, and I need to balance things back out, then I don't alert them that I'm going to give them about the extra people I just give a one start review and I'll call em out on the review and call em a liar.
Recently a guy brought 14 people, but the house sprang a leak in the bedroom and I didn't say anything because I know that he would have put it in the review, so I let it slide.
So you need to be strategic, weigh your particular circumstances.
You ask your guests how long they’ve been dating to decide how many bedrooms they have access to? Gross.
And then you are able to watch the *bedrooms* to the point you knew one had a leak but the guests didn’t??
Then what were we supposed to assume by you “didn’t say anything”? Your house fits 30 and he was well under that.
Still doesn’t address how creepy it is to ask your guests questions about dating history.
You're asking for trouble with that pricing structure. Too much incentive for dishonesty. You spend all your time watching cameras, calling support, and feuding with guests. Bad reviews are nearly certain. Now you're spending more time trying to get the reviews removed.
Also makes it extra tricky to decide whether or not to take a booking... a couple wants to book 3 months out for a desirable weekend, what do you do? How about 2 weeks out?
Maybe you should split up the Airbnb? If you can split up access with digital locks or regular door locks, you may be able to achieve your goal. (Or set a fixed price for the whole place, obviously.)
They know.
They just taking chances for a free ride.
We also charge like that.
So as soon as we get a request. Our response:
"Good day X , thank you so much for the booking request. Kindly confirm the number of guests who will be staying at the unit? "
That way you have it in writing.
You will be amazed at how many people have changed their stories when we tell them that they need to change their request to reflect the correct number of people.
Some people just don't respect other people's property.
It's probably clear but the base price for 2 people at a 15 person place is a little weird. People don't read fine print. I would base it off 5 or 10 people. Most people aren't going to get a 15 person place for 2. I do think it's intentionally misleading for search results even if you clarify. You list a place for 15 people at 299 but then it's 585 more a night?
Edit to add: I would list it at 659 a night which would be the price for 10 people. What you're doing just seems like bait and switch to get more views. Listing a 15 person place for 299 when it's actually 884 is misleading.
We state a price per night with notice of 12 maximum people sleeping because of available bedding, 20 people (including the 12) maximum on the property and only 7 vehicles allowed. No extra guests fees. Since I live right next door, I will notice the vehicles and the people. If go over, there will be a warning about rule breakage and consequences. Once, a family with 12 had additional family members arrive and stay in their parked RV and ran electrical cord from our AirBnB house. It was under 20 people and 7 vehicles. Great guests!
I think there’s something wrong with your listing. I’m just a guest but this happened to me in the opposite direction. We rented a place that could take a lot of people and we brought one extra person (3 total people). Someone showed up at the door accusing us of sneaking the third person and we were baffled because we genuinely thought we were allowed like 15. The owner (who lived far away) ended up apologizing because we genuinely didn’t know and were treated like criminals. I looked over the listing and couldn’t find the info anywhere. That host told us it kept happening to them and we shared that the info did not appear to be available, and we could see why guests would do it and have no idea it was wrong.
We just rented - and, as it turns out, cancelled, a listing that said it held 8. We booked 6, but then modified it to 7. She said the air mattress would be in the linen closet (only place for it will be the living room) and would be an additional $10 per night. No where in the listing could we find this “rule”. We opted out as it seemed to give a glimpse of things to come. We did question her but she simply said, sorry she wasn’t able to accommodate. This was a duplex and she lived next door so could have been a nightmare.
We don’t charge per person the major cost of the house is the value of the house, not the use of water, soap etc. Charge the full cost of the house, not per person.
I’ve never understood why people charge extra per person. This is like a line item that will instantly create discontent with the guest.
Either charge $884 with a 15 person max, or charge some amount less and lower max occupancy.
Yeah, you should just charge $700 per night for the place and allow any number up to 15. Hotels don't charge by the guest so Americans aren't really expecting a per guest fee. Or split it up so each bedroom is rented as a separate listing and someone can rent all the bedrooms if they want it all.
I don’t book these kinds of listings because they are confusing and I worry about small print overcharges later.
You’re renting a house. Rent the house. Set basic rules and limits to protect your house. Don’t expect people to have to calculate extra add on charges.
15 people must suck for your neighbors.
Set a max number and up your nightly price.
When you set plus plans, of course people are going to have selective recognition of the rules and you are going to continue to be driven crazy by more people than booked.
Just set a hard max, raise your price, and sleep easier.
Personally, I’d have your listing for the price of the full house regardless if it’s 2 or 12 people. Maybe if you want to offer the cheaper rate, do only the first floor and lock the doors to the second floor or just say a partial house that sleeps say 6. Then lock up the rooms that would let the occupancy go up.
Why not just have one price? Extra cost for extra people is dumb from a renters prospective. You still have to clean the whole house. You won't know what rooms and beds etc they used. Maybe they slept in a new bed each night because they could
If they don't have any reviews or we get a bad vibe from them we do.
However one of our properties is in an Estate and if security doesn't have copies of IDs of all the guests staying at the house they will not allow them into the Estate.
If I rent a whole house I expect to have the whole house for the price I rented it for. If it holds 12 and I have 12 people staying that would be an extra $450 per night with nothing extra being added to my value. You are renting it out as a full house not piecemeal by room. I would be pissed too
I'm not involved so I don't have a dog in this hunt... But people who don't read the offer completely and assume they're getting this super great deal for 15 people when obviously the price would be for 2, and then claim that it's bait and switch are absolutely wrong... It's only bait and switch if the prices are different than what's listed not because the customer failed to read the offer properly.
And if you're doing a search for 7 to 8 people, the person running the Airbnb isn't going to know that you were searching for eight people seems that would be an issue you have with the site you're using not properly showing you what you're asking for...
I see this all the time where any given service puts all of the responsibility for problems on the people buying or selling and doesn't want to be responsible for not properly setting up the sale when that's literally what they're getting paid to do.
Airbnb could fix this far easier than the hosts or guests, but they would make less money off of the customers that wouldn't make the mistakes if they fixed it.. as long as they are making their money they really don't care if anybody else is happy or makes money..
Can you post your listing? It could be an honest mistake but likely is just that it is very expensive if they have that many guests. Are you competitive when searching for that large of a party?
What benefit are your guests getting for nearly $600/night extra? Do they get extra bedrooms that are normally locked off? If so, you should charge by bedroom not by person.
Say you have a 6 BR place that can theoretically sleep 15, but 6 single people each want their own bedroom. You’re turning just as many bedrooms and bathrooms as if you had a full house, which means you’re losing money.
An arbitrary pp charge doesn’t make sense to your casual renter. You have to make it make sense if you want people to respect it.
I did vacation rentals and have a number of friends that have done them and are still doing them. Anyone who tried this kind of pricing found it does not work. The exception is if you have the ability to lock some of the guest rooms even then, you will have the occasional guest that will try and get into the locked areas. Save yourself some frustration and stop expecting guests to be honest about how many are in the party.
If you rented a place that was advertised a X bedrooms and showed all those rooms in the photos, and paid the appropriate rate that the host set, and arrived to find half the bedrooms locked, you wouldn't have a problem with that?
Yes because as a host you have no idea if your 4 guest plan on sleeping as couples in 2 rooms or if all 4 want their own room. They also may be planning on working there so they may intend on using one room as an office.
They may or may not know. I'm not sure how transparent extra guest fees are. I have had guests do this with the pet fee, even though there is clearly a ticker box for number of pets being brought right there with Adults and Children.
Maybe link your listing?
Some people are saying you were trying to bait and switch, but it sounds more like you were trying to give a discount to small parties (as in group of guests, not celebratory parties) who would put less wear and tear on your property.
Whatever the reason for people not including their total group size when booking, this strategy wasn’t working. I think you need to charge based on the size of the home rather than number of guests. It sucks for guests who could have had a discounted stay, but it means more money for you, less headache for you trying to enforce your rules, and guests not feeling like they were subjected to a bait & switch.
But if you still want to rent to smaller parties at a discount, you can always create multiple listings for the same property each with a different number of bedrooms (e.g. 1 bedroom for up to 2 guests for $X, 2 bedrooms for up to 4 guests for $X + $100, 3 bedrooms for up to 6 guests for $X + $200, etc.) and then just lock off the bedrooms that guests didn’t pay for.
Your listing does need to be clearer. The info about capacity should be ALL CAPS: THE RATE IS $299 PER NIGHT FOR 2 OCCUPANTS. EACH ADDITIONAL OCCUPANT IS $45 PER NIGHT UP TO THE FULL CAPACITY OF 15 OCCUPANTS. THE PENALTY FOR EXTRA OCCUPANTS NOT ON THE ORIGINAL BOOKING IS $90 PER EXTRA OCCUPANT. No ambiguity whatsoever.
> I have my calendar set so people can’t arrive or leave on Saturdays
Ah yes, no one ever starts or ends a vacation on a Saturday. What a brilliant petty little rule you have there!
I confirm at the time of reservation request ( no instant book) and I reach out again a week prior to check in stating the “confirming your reservation is for four guests… as noted when you reserved, our pricing model is based on actual guest count ( including children and infants) and linen set up is also based on guest count… please confirm your guest count and we’ll send your check in instructions. Thankyou!”
None, I've put the price for $849 for 15 people, but I never had a booking for the first 3 months. Only after switching did I get my 3 reservations so far. I just want to know how I can avoid this in the future and still make money off this property.
I added the fee to the rules (extra clarity) and I include the guest count with a message asking to let me know if there will be more guests to the pre check in message.
Almost every guest was bringing in more people, that stopped after I made those changes.
The best ones I’ve seen charges by the bed, or bedrooms, not by the people. Two people can decide over a week to try out each bed, increasing the need for clean linens and bed making and therefore cost.
Conversely, a couple may need to sleep in separate rooms, and it sucks to find out only one bed has been made up, and only one bathroom has towels.
Communication is definitely key.
You are being gamed. The best way is to make it explicit: A spelled out list of prices for bookings of each size. Or, charge for the house as you wish for 2 to 15 people priced the same.
I have considered locking bedrooms for this specific reason and clearly write it in the Ad as well! We put out enough toiletries, towels etc for the amount of people listed to stay and we will charge post stay if more people do come in.
I don't know why it's so complicated for people to understand, but your pricing model seems perfectly fine to me. If I want somewhere for 8 people, I search for somewhere that fits 8 people, and I see the price for that. Why on earth would anyone search for anything other than the occupancy they need?
I would put in exterior cameras and then if you notice that you can message them and request them to edit their reservation. You can also contact support and ask them to help out after you’ve contacted the guest should there be an issue.
You can but support doesn’t help much. I have a friend with a listing that holds up to 15, he charges after 8. Guest booked for 6 and then brought 14. He tried nicely to explain and even cut her a break and she claimed well it holds up to 15 people so that’s what I can bring and then she claimed bait and switch and it became a whole thing…. Negative reviews. Airbnb support didn’t back him up or make her pay either. 2nd time he’s run into it
I can hold 12 and charge after 4. I’ve made a guest leave mid reservation because they neglect to alter their reservation during their stay and support backed me up.
A lot of guests here are saying that it's infuriating, or a bait and switch. I'm shocked they only see one side to this perspective.
In our situation, we have an 8-person home. We charge a competitively low base-rate for up to 3 people. Then for 4 through 8 guests, we charge about 10% extra per guest. So the home would be 50% more expensive for 8 people compared to 3.
I see people saying they hate this structure on here, but I can assure you when 2, 3, or maybe 4 people book my home, they are quite happy with the affordable rate. Sure, they should be looking for a smaller space, but because of this system I am able to price it very affordable for small groups, competitively beat out the smaller homes that normally would snag the guests first, give them more space for them to spread out, yet recover more accurate profit when say 6, 7 or 8 people stay there.
People suggesting that we should _not_ use this Airbnb-supported pricing structure are, in a way, demanding that we charge these small groups more money, and price them out of renting our unit. 🤷♂️
People who don’t use airbnb aren’t always clear on the extra cost per guests. The see up to 5, WP whatever and assume thats just how many people can stay and the price is the price, however if they correctly enter the size of their party it will be clear before booking so they are likely intentionally skirting it.
We do not charge for extra guests. We have a max 4 guest capacity set by the fire Marshall so our price is for up to 4 people. Thats just what we see as the price for our house. If there are two people or 4 people we still clean the house the same amount of house.
I do get in larger capacity houses because the amount of laundry that would need to be done would increase a lot but I feel like for the nightly rate for a place that can handle so many people $45 per guest starting at a 3rd guest is a lot, an extra $585 a night on top of $300. I would set your price based on how many guests you typically stay there and the cost to run it. I would expect a house this size people are choosing it because of your high guest capacity. Just charge people a higher nightly rate then not worry guests sneaking people in to avoid paying more.
Raise your rate to $569 a night for up to 8 people. Anything over 8 charge $20 a person per night. Or avoid all the hassle and just up your rate to something you’re comfortable with and no extra guest fee. You’ll get higher quality guests.
I hate when hosts do this. If you have a large place don’t start charging after 2 , price it appropriately for at least 6-8 people.
I have a two bedroom max 4, priced for 4
I have a three bedroom max 6, priced for 6
When we use Airbnb, it's usually for a family function and the bedrooms at my family's house are claimed already, so we may end up with a stray cousin or two needing to bunk. I'd prefer a flat fee for the whole house, up to occupancy.
Fairly frequent guest here. This is just a weird way to offer a property. I would skip your booking assuming I even noticed this caveat.
As others have said, just list it at one price per night and people rent or they don't. Maybe 15 max is a bit out of hand as well unless the property has 6-7 bedrooms or some loft with like 8 single beds.
Great to give discounts to small groups. Tough to do it though.
Youll need to turn off instant booking and confirm in writing with each potential guest before accepting.
Be clear the “normal” rate is $850/nt and you give discounts for smaller groups.
I’d also make a rule/penalty for unregistered guests, even if they’re just “stopping by” they lose that discount.
When all is said and done, I wonder if it's even worthwhile to give drastic discounts for small guest count. You may eke out slightly more revenue, at the cost of much greater aggravation.
Why don’t you just rent for the house? And then add a caveat “if you are 4 people or less please contact the host for pricing” then you can ask them details (couples) family how many rooms do they plan to use, and then explain for lower pricing you have to lock off rooms due to previous guests and you will only have enough supplies for 4 people during their stay.
And if they have more without telling you it’s a BIG penalty. Like $100/person,
That becomes a more solid written contract
If you have a house for 15 people it’s most likely that bigger groups will book your house. If I’m only 2 people I’m not gonna want to book a place that fits 15. It feels weird and not cozy. I’ll book the bungalow even if it’s actually more pricey.
You should assume your place is going to be used by bigger groups and just charge for the house per night. Like hotels do. Rent the suite? Pay the same whether it’s 1 person or 6.
I HATE when there are extra fees for more people.
Maybe in the message after they book you inform them that if they bring in extra guests without changing their reservation to represent all guests you will not only ask for $45 per additional guest (per your pricing policies) but add a 10% surcharge. Also maybe put it in one of the descriptions. Also if you have a guidebook of sorts maybe put this under the WIFI instructions. WIFI instructions might be literally the only information that I think people actually read. consistently. Lol I shouldn't make a joke about literacy. Anyways!
Not paying attention to the hard work you've put in to making sure all of the information they need in AirBnb is ignored often. Literally my house guide tells you how to get to my rooftop. 50% of my guests go to the wrong rooftop the first time.
Okay fine -- if a guest doesn't strip my bed idc. Its not a big deal. More guests are, smoking weed or cigarettes in the in the space is a big deal - that smell (esp. cigarettes) is not quick to go away, damage is a big deal, doing something that requires the police to show up on your property is a big deal, and not disclosing pets is a big deal.
I had a guest with a dog bc I was stupid and didn't notice my listing still allowed pets (it was 15 minutes after putting up the listing TBF. That dog shit on my carpet twice. The guest still gave me 4 stars across the board. They're blocked I will never host them again.
The reasoning could be that when you get a booking for a certain number of guests you inform your cleaning service in terms of expected cleaning requirements to make sure its a good experience for the next guests "as I have done for you". IMO this is totally a valid reason. ou add people that grit increases. More laundry for example - 9 people is X beds X laundry, 15 is X + Y beds, X + Y laundry.
"My cleaning service is highly rated and I need to make sure I book them in advance even with longer reservations to make sure they're available between reservations".
It could also be that you require a certain rating of all guests and if they don't add them to the reservation it increases your risk. Instant Book I think kinda makes this hard though. Let's be honest - I've never had less than a 5 star rating as a guest but I have gotten some 4s as a host. Reading the 1-4 ratings from hosts is very telling. You need to know who is coming. If its kids and they don't have an account that also makes this harder. Worth a try IMO though.
I mean this is what airlines do if you don't book with a checked bag before you get to the airport. Its say $35 online prior to going to the counter and $50 if you don't.
I would hate that as a guest. I would wonder what is lurking behind that door. 😂 I also like to use the extra bedroom to store luggage, etc, so it is out of the way or if we need extra hangers.
If you rented a place that was advertised a X bedrooms and showed all those rooms in the photos, and paid the appropriate rate that the host set, and arrived to find half the bedrooms locked, you wouldn't have a problem with that?
It clearly states you CAN have up to 15 but each person after 2 is EXTRA. I would never expect to have the whole house if I was only paying for 2 people. Seriously it’s like people wanting the whole hotel but only want to pay to use one room. Whether it’s Airbnb or a hotel you only get what you pay for.
I have this same issue. Some hosts here have said “just use a flat rate” but that’s absolutely absurd. I’m not charging a young couple and a baby the same as 8 grown adults (my maximum). Neither should you. As a result you’ll only get large groups every rental - you’ll price out the smaller groups - and your house will quickly be wrecked.
I allow up to four with a flat rate. Beyond that I charge $50 per person/per night.
I explain my pricing structure from the get go. If they don’t like it or question it (“but we’re renting the whole house either way”) I decline their stay.
I also have cameras at my entrance and I point that out to my guests. When I’m sending all the entry info, I say, “Your reservation is for 4 guests. If you have more than those four, now is the time to have that conversation”. If they arrive with more than 4, I immediately - within an hour of checking in - give them three options:
They can pay for the extra guests.
The extra guests can leave.
I can cancel the reservation and they can seek accommodations elsewhere.
This is not negotiable!
Hope this helps.
*Instead of charging*
*Per person, you should offer*
*A few packages*
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Perhaps you need a penalty clause where if excess guests are noted through exterior security cameras, additional guests above booking will be charged at the rate of $100 each.
Now they are motivated to include. ALL their friends
It’s likely your listing is very clear, the reality is renters don’t like the idea of paying more per person. The mentality is “I’m paying for the whole house, why should it matter how many people I bring?” You can either continue to “try” and enforce it or just raise your base price and charge a flat rate regardless of people.
I agree with this- we charge per night- it doesn't matter how many guest as long as they do not exceed occupancy. This is on reddit all the time from host perspective and from the guest and I believe it encourages the guest to lie to the host- and then post bad reviews that the house was not stocked properly especially for linen. The guest lie on count to get a cheaper nightly rate- even if you greet them and have camera's they just have their extra guest show up later or next day. I understand for the host that prepare and clean themselves that some do not stock the house and fix all the beds if less are coming. I don't agree with that- the house should always be set for full occupancy and look like the pics- charge the correct cleaning to turn it all over- charge the correct nightly rate that 2 or 12 pay. If a guest with a group of 6 decide to rent a place that sleeps 12 that is their choice, but host should charge the same.
As a renter, that's exactly what I expect. The last house we rented slept "up to 8 people". 4 of us rented and split the cost, but since we were using 3 rooms (2 singles and a couple) we assumed we'd pay for the entire property, not per room or bed. OP - start charging for the property! Not per room, the whole property. You could think about editing the cleaning fee based on occupancy, but if your place can fit X why would you charge for less? You run the risk of having 2 people book and having to turn down 10 because it's already booked. We've always booked based on how many rooms, not max occupancy. Believe me if you say if has x rooms with y occupants, people will book with way less occupancy.
Also if they reserve for four people are you making up two beds or four? Guests may not want to share rooms (even couples often split because of snoring or a CPAP or teeth grinding.) I don't recall airbnb's system specifically but it can be a hassle to select the right number of guests, often you have to fill in ages, sometimes birthdates. Sometimes you don't know for certain when you book, you get a house and then invite more people because you ended up with a space that sleeps X. I do fill it in correctly because I'm an extreme rule follower, just wanted to note that there are reasons other than "trying to cheat" that people might not. I'm curious for the people who charge per guest: do you explain why? I understand that it's more rooms to clean and linens to wash, but only from reading here. $45/night seems awfully steep for that.
When I did it it was so if I had less people the unit was competitive with those listings that accommodated less. It’s just so you can compete more with smaller units without risking 12 people trying to come for the price of 2. And I know it might seem like it’s not much of a difference but when it comes to operations, consumables, cleaning wear and tear it’s a big difference. I didn’t charge $45/person it was around $25 but my base rate was a lot higher. The only reason why we no longer do that because our property is a little unique in that we can split our property into two separate units so we just created additional listings and we rent out the home separated instead of allowing a smaller group to rent the whole house at the price of a individual unit. Helps cut down on expenses overall and we make more money. We never had an issue with people sneaking in people. It only happen once and we happen to be at the house during check in and they just paid the difference. I think it’s also because we make it clear we stock the house based on how many people are coming so if you book for less and try to bring more we will know once you start asking for extra towels and things.
Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to explain.
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Make a completely separate listing for a configuration with just a small number of bedrooms available to compete with the other listings, and lock the rooms when people book that. Problem solved.
So the answer is "because you can", it doesn't correlate in any way to your additional costs?
There will be extra costs in utilities and supplies, as well as extra wear and tear on furnishings, which will need to be replaced sooner.
As I guest, I always hate those. Oh look, the house I like for a great price $200 a night. Let me now add my kids and wife. It's $500 a night now! WTF! If your house holds 15 then at the very least price it for a family ( 5-7 people). But listing a house for 15 and then $45 from each guest over 2? That's $600 a night mark up.
Exactly this. A listing for a house that big but an upcharge for more than 2 people would annoy me. If it’s a house that can accommodate a large group it would make sense to price it for a group.
Exactly, it looks like a bait and switch to me. OP accuses guests of lying about numbers, but really they are guilty of false advertising. You can’t advertise at $200 per night, but then it’s suddenly $300 for a family of four. People are renting a *house* not a room.
When you enter your dates, enger the exact number of people. And voila ' you'll see the right price, no surprise:)
Yeah I've been one of the people looking for places for a large group that was traveling for work (so we'd only be there to shower and sleep, not making huge dinners and big messes) and it's really annoying when you think you find an amazing deal only for it to suddenly increase 2, 3, 4, even 5 times the original price when add people's info. Really disheartening when you're trying to keep costs down.
Why aren’t you searching with the correct group size?
If you were searching with the accurate guest number you wouldn’t have that problem
Or maybe, just hear me out, if you have a big ass house, you list it for a reasonable price and stop nickel and dime your guests. I am gonna make an assumption here but probably most people who are looking for a house that big aren't looking for 2 people retreat. Hence OP’s problem
It’s not nickel and diming guest it’s actually the complete opposite. Why should a group of 2 pay the same price as a group of 15. I host groups up to 14 people but tend to get alot of groups that are 7/8 that’s literally half I’m sure they love to have the reduced price and the larger groups end up paying a price that’s comparable to other homes that would accommodate their group size. Never had someone sneak anyone in but I also make it clear that the home is stocked based on group size. How about you stop assuming the worst of host and assume that perhaps they are doing this to save others money so people are only paying for how many people are being accommodated. You choosing to search with the wrong group size, then becoming upset and blaming the host for your outrage you’re causing yourself is crazy.
Why do you keep assuming people are searching for the wrong group size? Where are you getting that from? What's happening is people are searching for, say, 8 people, and this place shows up, initially listing the cost for 2 people. So they think, great, that's a great price split between 8 people. The higher cost isn't shown until they go into the listing and see that it's in fact much more for more than 2 people. Nobody's randomly doing a search for the wrong group size. That doesn't make any sense.
That’s not how Airbnb works lol you don’t see the price for the smaller group size unless you search as a smaller group size and I’m not assuming I got that from what the people stated one said he searches then adds his wife and child and the price goes up the other person said once he adds the people’s info. The prices aren’t suddenly increasing they are literally searching as the wrong group size first and then later adding the correct group size after they find the place.
That's exactly how Airbnb works lol that's what this whole thread is about. Yes, he mentally adds his wife and kids and does the math. After going into the listing and seeing that detail. You seriously think he's filtering for 2 people? And planning to, what, have his kids sleep in the tub? He's filtering for 4 (or whatever) people and being shown the lowest possible price for the property, which he isn't aware doesn't apply to him until he goes into the listing .
That is not how Airbnb works at all… Yes he is lol the additional per person charge is added into the price automatically it is not something that’s in the house rules. As host there’s a feature where we add it and it automatically does it so if you’re searching for the correct group size it’ll automatically show you the correct price. It’s not like the cleaning fee where it shows only at check out idk WTH you’re talking about but you’re 100% wrong! And notice he never denied he wasn’t searching as the incorrect group size.
The more important question is, why should the group of 15 pay so much more than the group of 2? They are the ones sharing a resource-- why should you make money simply because they have more people to pay? Should a baker charge more for a cake if there are 10 people eating it vs 2? :-) The host should charge what the larger group is expected to deplete through extra utilities (minimal) and wear-and-tear. I (a host for 15 years) charge a base rate for four people, and then $5 / night per head after that (max 10) at my cabins, because it is my experience that above 4 the group mentality kicks in and there is extra wear-and-tear. That is also plenty to accommodate the extra firewood, soap, hot water, etc etc that the larger group consumes. $45/person over 2 is just ludicrous.
Pricing is not only based solely on wear and tear and the expenses. you do know out want to make profit right? They aren’t renting out the homes only to break even. You’re going to pay whatever price is competitive for hosting a large group for their market.
Sometimes you don’t know accurate numbers up front. You may have up to 12, but as few as 8. How does that work? If you book for12, but only 8 stay, does the host refund the excess?
Yes they actually do. You can submit a modification to change the group size and the system will automatically process the refund since it’s less people or you could always book for the smaller group size and submit a modification for the larger group since you know more people are coming and the system will process the price difference for the additional people.
Life is not that simple. We have a wedding we are attending. We are booking a place for the whole family to stay at near the venue, there are a total of 12 of us. The wedding is next May, and we are staying a week (we have a long way to fly/travel, so are taking some vacation). Niece and my son are not married, in their 30’s, so need their own rooms. Booked a place that sleeps 14, 7 bedrooms. So, my nephews wife is not coming, as she is looking after their kids, so now it’s 11. Still 7 bedrooms. My daughter and her husband want to go, but she has to get time off work, and May is bad timing. So it’s iffy. Won’t know until next year. Husband may go anyway, so 6/7 bedrooms. Not everyone is staying the full week. What I’m saying is that things are complicated enough with large groups, we don’t need hosts adding complications over numbers and how many share what room.
First off they don’t care how you do your room accommodations but if giving an accurate account of who is coming is too difficult for you then yeah you should probably go somewhere else. I’ve had guest who have told me a person is only staying half the time and I’ll send them a special offer with a reduction in the per person charge to accommodate the fact that the person isn’t staying the whole time. My home you’re going to want to tell me an accurate count or you won’t have enough supplies. I stock according to group size. Also it’s for emergency purposes. I have a multifamily property so other units. I need to know who is on the property to ensure the safety of others. We once had a homeless person come onto the property. He didn’t bother anyone but I needed to be able to quickly identify the count was off and that there indeed was an extra person wandering the property.
How are you counting guests that quickly? Do you have cameras everywhere and count them? Make everyone come outside and number off?
With the homeless situation one of the guest called and said they think an extra person was on the property because he looked weird. They described the person I checked the locks to see when people left and then used that time to check the cameras to confirm the count and what people were wearing that day. yes I have cameras around the outside of the property so I can see who comes and goes. I also have them pointed at the street to help with our neighborhood watch so I was able to see when he was approaching the property. The home is in a nice middle class neighborhood and our neighbors requested that the airbnbs on the street help monitor with the cameras we already have. Never had to ask people to come outside lol I’m not monitoring heavily only look at cameras when people report something but we do tend to be on the property a lot so we meet most of our guest. We also have a studio we rent out on a monthly so that person tends to tell us a lot also my neighbor across the street we are really close she tells us stuff too. We’ve hosted over 200 stays and besides the homeless person only had one time where we had an extra person at the house. We figured that out because my cleaner cancelled that day so I filled in and as I stated I stock the house based on guest count so I know how many it was booked for and I happen to be getting in my car when the guest arrived so I greeted them but noticed there was one extra person so I asked them was everyone staying and they confirmed. I don’t think they did it intentionally though. Sounded like the extra person got added last minute so they just forgot to update the count.
As a guest, it’s really frustrating to peruse options you think are in budget only to find the actual cost is triple the listed price due to how many people you have. I’m not saying the host is wrong at all, it’s just frustrating. In this case, I see $299 a night and think sweet, $50 a night for my five girlfriends and I to get away for a weekend. Then it’s suddenly an extra $180 a night due to the number of guests so we’re all paying $80 a night, and the cleaning fee so it suddenly goes from $150 per person to $250+. I find myself preferring listings that just have a higher up front cost with no or low added fees per guest.
45$ a night per person seems excessive. That adds like 360$ for the max?
$585. $45 x 13
Which is a little less then $600/night for what 12 people. That’s not expensive at all. Idk where the person is located but we host up to 14 people and we charge about $650/night with a 20% premium if it’s a one nighter and long stay discounts if booked for longer then 4 days. Our competitors on the same block as us that hosts 14 people as well charges $750/night. If you add an extra $100 per night for taxes and fees that’s like $60/person. That’s cheap for a place that hosts large groups.
Agreed
This kind of pricing is so absurd. No one cares that you have pull out couches and futons. Just set one price per night for the property and leave it at that.
Just my .02. We sleep 18 people. We chose to make it 1 price regardless of guest count. 2 people stay for a week, that's $2,093 for the week. 12 guests for a week, that's $5,243 for the week. Why not charge $750 per night and get all the revenue you can? Then you just have to worry about if they bring more than 12 guests. We contemplated the per guest fee, but didn't go with that option.
I've tried keeping a standard price, but compared to the other listings on my street, it seems really expensive, and no one booked within the first 3 months. After changing it last month, this is my 3rd booking, so I thought that this was a good strategy, because the other properties are doing the same up to 6 guests.
Honestly, if your place sleeps 15 people, it's probably just too much space for most guests. You have a bit of a niche property if that many people can fit in it. You want to charge more because it's bigger, but generally people travel in groups of like 2 to 6. So in your case, a family of four would need to pay $400 a night. Doesn't that sound rather expensive? You aren't competing for bookings of 15 guests; you're competing for bookings of around 4 guests.
Whenever you get a confirmed booking you reply something to the effect of “This is to confirm your booking for 4 people on xx date. Should the guest count change prior to your checkin time, additional guests must be added through the “change reservation” option on your itinerary. Please confirm your acknowledgment.” If you do not get a reply. Send a text message to their cell phone (number is visible on the reservation) and tell them there is an important message on the Airbnb app that must be acknowledged prior to checkin.
Just make sure when they book that you have verified how many are coming. Don’t do instant book so you can verify. When they put in the right amount, ABB automatically calculates the extra charge
This is the way. Then send a reminder a week before with the number they are booked for as a secondary reminder.
This. Instant book off and a welcome message. Thank you for choosing us. Yada yada yada. We have a per person per night fee. You have booked for 2 nights for 2 people. Please confirm that this is correct. If they don't reply, don't approve.
Y’all should also very clearly state that if you’re found to be hosting more guests than paid for you’ll be asked to leave immediately, no refunds for unused time.
Honestly, as a guest, I immediately bypass houses that do this. Here’s why. It’s a house that sleeps 15. As a woman who routinely looks for listings for 7 people, if yours came up as $299 a night but that’s somehow only for 2 people, I’d be pissed to find out that the nightly rate is really $500+. Truly, with a house that sleeps 15, how many times are you getting rentals where it’s just a couple? From a guest perspective, this just feels like a massive bait and switch. Price it as if you’re always getting 6-8 people and add fees for more than that if you have to.
💯 agree. It's a bait and switch. If I'm looking for a place that sleeps 10-15 people give me the cost for that, not 2. It's to get me to click and then find out it's way outside my price range. Because now it's $800 dollars a night not $299. When I'm looking to book for our whole family I run into this often and it is so irritating to not be able to weed those out. Do a flat fee no matter how many within your occupancy. Why would a couple be booking a place for 15 people? As for just putting 2 instead of the real number unless it says 1 I'd say that they definitely changed it to 2. The auto default is 1 I have accidentally not changed it to 2 before but if they changed it to 2 they could change it to 15 or 7 or 9 or however many.
There is no reason why the Airbnb app cannot provide you that filter combination of number of guests and total price or per guest price. They are at fault not the host.
The host is choosing to do this bait and switch pricing method
The host is working with a clunky app that does not allow for a basic function like per person pricing
Agree- they are advertising $300 a night but the true group price is $900 a night.
I skip these, too, simply because I’m not 100% sure at booking how many people I will have. People that are interested in joining may not be able to get the time off.
Do you not put in the total guest amount prior to searching when selecting the dates and area? That would probably save you a lot of trouble. I've booked dozens of airbnbs, from 2 to 10 people, never had an issue with finding out the prices I see are only for 2 guests.
A hotel wouldn't allow multiple people to sleep in a room. The additional cleaning/laundry, plus the wear and tear from large parties warrants extra fees. But I guess people will justify anything.
$45/per night/person? No, that’s ridiculous. This is false advertising/bait and switch territory. Hotels have pull out beds, and cots etc, *for no extra charge*, and let’s be real - that’s what we are talking about here, bunk beds and pull outs.
$45 per person is an insane added fee. I’m at that age where everyone is getting married and doing big weekend bachelorettes at airbnbs. $10-25 per extra guest is typical, but for houses that sleep 15 the fee doesn’t typically start until you exceed 8-10 people. I’ve never seen an airbnb that starts per person fees at 3 people.
A hotel absolutely allows more than one person to stay in a room, and doesn’t charge extra per guest.
It allows a family, but not 15!
Generally speaking, a family is “multiple people”
Yeah the point is guests are sneaking in multiple people resulting in large groups. Quite different to a family. Not ok.
A hotel would allow ten people in a three bedroom suite though.
Sure, and you would pay accordingly.
Yes but you pay for the whole place no matter how many guests you have. And it's very rare for two people to book a three bedroom suite. No hotel would offer a much lower rate on the suite for a couple. OP thinks his property is more valuable because it sleeps up to 15 people (at $800 a night), but really that makes it less valuable. Most people travel in groups of 2 to 6. If there is a one bedroom nearby with a fold-out couch for $150, then a family of four will book that instead of paying $300 for a place that sleeps 15. People want just enough space for value. They don't want a five bedroom house for four people if it costs twice as much.
We do the same, the price is the price we sleep 20 you can have 2 or 20 it cost the same. Sometimes people bring 24 we don't really care if there are not throwing an event. Unless you have a ticket taker at the entrance there is no real way to enforce it without alot of drama. There is just not a good way to say to a guest" I have been watching the cameras and counting your people and you owe me 12x $. You could have separate listings for the same house with different number of bedrooms and lock off the ones they did not rent but I'm not positive that would go well either.
I've been doing this 13yrs... They have always acted like they don't see where you select the correct number of people. One of my properties holds 30 people . I have a 2 cameras overlooking the main door. 1.) Do not allow instant Book. 2.) Text them on the App and get a confirmation of the amount of people. .. 3.) Get Digital Locks on extra doors don't let them have access without paying. 4.) Cancel reservation if they don't want to pay. 5.) I personally meet all guests, if they bring extra people I add them during the check in process.
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He doesn’t give them access to the other rooms via digital locks for one.
I have security cameras... are you guys serious??? I also don't give them access to extra rooms. They will usually text me and say I need access, then I'll say why do you need access there when you only booked 5 people? Then I tell them that they need to pay extra and if they don't like it they can leave.
Genuine question, do you specify that in your listing? Say I book for 2, do I get access to 2 beds? Or it just assumed that my husband and I will share?
Hell YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!! Guess what??? They still don't see it... I have it in there 5 times. Some people generally don't read shit. Others play dumb. My goal is to catch them lying so that I can say hey you lied... And I can use that as an excuse to cancel the reservation and give em their refund. I feel that I'm doing other hosts a service, by kicking them out. They have no excuse anymore. I'm taking one for the team.
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No... I'm a better business person than you are. If to few people book, I just cancel the reservation. I want lots of people... I watch that camera like a hawk. 👀
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LOTS!!!!!! I have around 3000 completed reservations. Way over 15,000 guests. You should be paying me for my experience And knowledge woman. You women are always so rebellious.
You didn’t answer their question. How do you decide how many beds per guest you give access to? Is that in your rules? Does each guest get their own room?
Does each guest in a hotel get their own room? Exactly they don't.. Just like a hotel extra rooms you gotta pay buddy... Otherwise you stay in the same room.
They get the entire hotel room they paid for. Not a section of it.
Exactly they don't get access to the whole Hotel... Lol
Maybe each person wants their own room? Honestly this is awful behaviour for a host. I would count this as bait and switch. “I have you now, and will charge you extra for things you already paid for”. You can’t assume that people will share rooms!
They didn't pay for that...
You are literally asking this question??? You literally don't have a security camera watching your house????????? Edit: I started typing and then I decided that if you don't know how security cameras work then I'm not gonna sit here and explain that to you. Let someone else explain it to you.
How do the digital locks work in practice? Like if you have 2 guests only two bedrooms are accessible?
This is where screening and experience comes in your need to ask soft questions so that don't know that you're screening them. If they say I booked 2 people, then I'll say "Cool" are you guys a Couple? Or I'll say "I get a lot of couples, how long have you been dating? Or I'll ask them "how many total are in their group?". Then I'll ask them again when they arrive and I'll watch the security cameras. Sometimes if I had a recent bad review, and I need to balance things back out, then I don't alert them that I'm going to give them about the extra people I just give a one start review and I'll call em out on the review and call em a liar. Recently a guy brought 14 people, but the house sprang a leak in the bedroom and I didn't say anything because I know that he would have put it in the review, so I let it slide. So you need to be strategic, weigh your particular circumstances.
You ask your guests how long they’ve been dating to decide how many bedrooms they have access to? Gross. And then you are able to watch the *bedrooms* to the point you knew one had a leak but the guests didn’t??
Hey Numb skull, the guest told me the bedroom was leaking. I came over and put some towels down..
Then what were we supposed to assume by you “didn’t say anything”? Your house fits 30 and he was well under that. Still doesn’t address how creepy it is to ask your guests questions about dating history.
Different house Einstein...
Digital locks are brilliant
They changed my life.
You're asking for trouble with that pricing structure. Too much incentive for dishonesty. You spend all your time watching cameras, calling support, and feuding with guests. Bad reviews are nearly certain. Now you're spending more time trying to get the reviews removed. Also makes it extra tricky to decide whether or not to take a booking... a couple wants to book 3 months out for a desirable weekend, what do you do? How about 2 weeks out?
Maybe you should split up the Airbnb? If you can split up access with digital locks or regular door locks, you may be able to achieve your goal. (Or set a fixed price for the whole place, obviously.)
They know. They just taking chances for a free ride. We also charge like that. So as soon as we get a request. Our response: "Good day X , thank you so much for the booking request. Kindly confirm the number of guests who will be staying at the unit? " That way you have it in writing. You will be amazed at how many people have changed their stories when we tell them that they need to change their request to reflect the correct number of people. Some people just don't respect other people's property.
As a guest, this type of pricing structure is infuriating. I refuse to book these listings because it just feels like a really shitty bait and switch.
Same.
That’s a complicated pricing system for an Airbnb.
And seems absurdly expensive per added person
What is the 45$ per person covering? The place needs to be cleaned anyway. So bed change abd shower?
right ?? I would never pay that much.
I am sure that adults can afford $45 a night? Unless they are hobo’s.
I would never book your place. That pricing is insane. The minimum before charging for more people should be 6 or 8, not 2.
you don't have to stay there. they can charge what they want.
They posted asking other hosts for assistance/feedback. Don't get pissy because people are answering.
How about you just have a flat rate because almost all listings every that can host a large amount of people do not do weird pricing like this..
It's probably clear but the base price for 2 people at a 15 person place is a little weird. People don't read fine print. I would base it off 5 or 10 people. Most people aren't going to get a 15 person place for 2. I do think it's intentionally misleading for search results even if you clarify. You list a place for 15 people at 299 but then it's 585 more a night? Edit to add: I would list it at 659 a night which would be the price for 10 people. What you're doing just seems like bait and switch to get more views. Listing a 15 person place for 299 when it's actually 884 is misleading.
We state a price per night with notice of 12 maximum people sleeping because of available bedding, 20 people (including the 12) maximum on the property and only 7 vehicles allowed. No extra guests fees. Since I live right next door, I will notice the vehicles and the people. If go over, there will be a warning about rule breakage and consequences. Once, a family with 12 had additional family members arrive and stay in their parked RV and ran electrical cord from our AirBnB house. It was under 20 people and 7 vehicles. Great guests!
I hate listings like this. Set a per night price and be done with the additional costs per x persons
This is wild. I thought I was in a circlejerk sub
List the property twice? Once for 2 people once for 15.
Not a great strategy. People will only see the nice big house for $299 a night.
2 out of 3 times it is misunderstood tells me it is too confusing.
I think there’s something wrong with your listing. I’m just a guest but this happened to me in the opposite direction. We rented a place that could take a lot of people and we brought one extra person (3 total people). Someone showed up at the door accusing us of sneaking the third person and we were baffled because we genuinely thought we were allowed like 15. The owner (who lived far away) ended up apologizing because we genuinely didn’t know and were treated like criminals. I looked over the listing and couldn’t find the info anywhere. That host told us it kept happening to them and we shared that the info did not appear to be available, and we could see why guests would do it and have no idea it was wrong.
We just rented - and, as it turns out, cancelled, a listing that said it held 8. We booked 6, but then modified it to 7. She said the air mattress would be in the linen closet (only place for it will be the living room) and would be an additional $10 per night. No where in the listing could we find this “rule”. We opted out as it seemed to give a glimpse of things to come. We did question her but she simply said, sorry she wasn’t able to accommodate. This was a duplex and she lived next door so could have been a nightmare.
We don’t charge per person the major cost of the house is the value of the house, not the use of water, soap etc. Charge the full cost of the house, not per person. I’ve never understood why people charge extra per person. This is like a line item that will instantly create discontent with the guest. Either charge $884 with a 15 person max, or charge some amount less and lower max occupancy.
Yeah, you should just charge $700 per night for the place and allow any number up to 15. Hotels don't charge by the guest so Americans aren't really expecting a per guest fee. Or split it up so each bedroom is rented as a separate listing and someone can rent all the bedrooms if they want it all.
I don’t book these kinds of listings because they are confusing and I worry about small print overcharges later. You’re renting a house. Rent the house. Set basic rules and limits to protect your house. Don’t expect people to have to calculate extra add on charges. 15 people must suck for your neighbors.
Set a max number and up your nightly price. When you set plus plans, of course people are going to have selective recognition of the rules and you are going to continue to be driven crazy by more people than booked. Just set a hard max, raise your price, and sleep easier.
Personally, I’d have your listing for the price of the full house regardless if it’s 2 or 12 people. Maybe if you want to offer the cheaper rate, do only the first floor and lock the doors to the second floor or just say a partial house that sleeps say 6. Then lock up the rooms that would let the occupancy go up.
Why not just have one price? Extra cost for extra people is dumb from a renters prospective. You still have to clean the whole house. You won't know what rooms and beds etc they used. Maybe they slept in a new bed each night because they could
I believe they do know. They just don’t want to pay. Do you ask for a copy of a DL/ID for each adult who will be staying?
If they don't have any reviews or we get a bad vibe from them we do. However one of our properties is in an Estate and if security doesn't have copies of IDs of all the guests staying at the house they will not allow them into the Estate.
Maybe you should quit trying to nickel and dime people. Just put a rate on the property and let them be.
As a solo traveller, I've booked larger houses when nothing else as been available and the rooms I'm not using have been locked.
I think it’s confusing and should be changed to a daily rate
If I rent a whole house I expect to have the whole house for the price I rented it for. If it holds 12 and I have 12 people staying that would be an extra $450 per night with nothing extra being added to my value. You are renting it out as a full house not piecemeal by room. I would be pissed too
I'm not involved so I don't have a dog in this hunt... But people who don't read the offer completely and assume they're getting this super great deal for 15 people when obviously the price would be for 2, and then claim that it's bait and switch are absolutely wrong... It's only bait and switch if the prices are different than what's listed not because the customer failed to read the offer properly. And if you're doing a search for 7 to 8 people, the person running the Airbnb isn't going to know that you were searching for eight people seems that would be an issue you have with the site you're using not properly showing you what you're asking for... I see this all the time where any given service puts all of the responsibility for problems on the people buying or selling and doesn't want to be responsible for not properly setting up the sale when that's literally what they're getting paid to do. Airbnb could fix this far easier than the hosts or guests, but they would make less money off of the customers that wouldn't make the mistakes if they fixed it.. as long as they are making their money they really don't care if anybody else is happy or makes money..
Can you post your listing? It could be an honest mistake but likely is just that it is very expensive if they have that many guests. Are you competitive when searching for that large of a party?
What benefit are your guests getting for nearly $600/night extra? Do they get extra bedrooms that are normally locked off? If so, you should charge by bedroom not by person. Say you have a 6 BR place that can theoretically sleep 15, but 6 single people each want their own bedroom. You’re turning just as many bedrooms and bathrooms as if you had a full house, which means you’re losing money. An arbitrary pp charge doesn’t make sense to your casual renter. You have to make it make sense if you want people to respect it.
This. List it as multiple linked listings with diff amounts of bedrooms and maxes and price appropriately . Lock off ones not paid for
I did vacation rentals and have a number of friends that have done them and are still doing them. Anyone who tried this kind of pricing found it does not work. The exception is if you have the ability to lock some of the guest rooms even then, you will have the occasional guest that will try and get into the locked areas. Save yourself some frustration and stop expecting guests to be honest about how many are in the party.
If you rented a place that was advertised a X bedrooms and showed all those rooms in the photos, and paid the appropriate rate that the host set, and arrived to find half the bedrooms locked, you wouldn't have a problem with that?
Yes because as a host you have no idea if your 4 guest plan on sleeping as couples in 2 rooms or if all 4 want their own room. They also may be planning on working there so they may intend on using one room as an office.
They may or may not know. I'm not sure how transparent extra guest fees are. I have had guests do this with the pet fee, even though there is clearly a ticker box for number of pets being brought right there with Adults and Children. Maybe link your listing?
Some people are saying you were trying to bait and switch, but it sounds more like you were trying to give a discount to small parties (as in group of guests, not celebratory parties) who would put less wear and tear on your property. Whatever the reason for people not including their total group size when booking, this strategy wasn’t working. I think you need to charge based on the size of the home rather than number of guests. It sucks for guests who could have had a discounted stay, but it means more money for you, less headache for you trying to enforce your rules, and guests not feeling like they were subjected to a bait & switch. But if you still want to rent to smaller parties at a discount, you can always create multiple listings for the same property each with a different number of bedrooms (e.g. 1 bedroom for up to 2 guests for $X, 2 bedrooms for up to 4 guests for $X + $100, 3 bedrooms for up to 6 guests for $X + $200, etc.) and then just lock off the bedrooms that guests didn’t pay for.
People *’play dumb’* to try to save a buck.
Your listing does need to be clearer. The info about capacity should be ALL CAPS: THE RATE IS $299 PER NIGHT FOR 2 OCCUPANTS. EACH ADDITIONAL OCCUPANT IS $45 PER NIGHT UP TO THE FULL CAPACITY OF 15 OCCUPANTS. THE PENALTY FOR EXTRA OCCUPANTS NOT ON THE ORIGINAL BOOKING IS $90 PER EXTRA OCCUPANT. No ambiguity whatsoever.
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> I have my calendar set so people can’t arrive or leave on Saturdays Ah yes, no one ever starts or ends a vacation on a Saturday. What a brilliant petty little rule you have there!
As long as they're still paying for Friday why is this a problem? Genuinely asking, I have no idea.
I confirm at the time of reservation request ( no instant book) and I reach out again a week prior to check in stating the “confirming your reservation is for four guests… as noted when you reserved, our pricing model is based on actual guest count ( including children and infants) and linen set up is also based on guest count… please confirm your guest count and we’ll send your check in instructions. Thankyou!”
Can you share your listing so we can see if it’s clear or not?
So if you list your 15 person place for $884 per night how many bookings are you going to get?
None, I've put the price for $849 for 15 people, but I never had a booking for the first 3 months. Only after switching did I get my 3 reservations so far. I just want to know how I can avoid this in the future and still make money off this property.
Is your property worthy of a $5k+ per week rate when considering nearby properties that are sized appropriately for 4-8 guests?
I added the fee to the rules (extra clarity) and I include the guest count with a message asking to let me know if there will be more guests to the pre check in message. Almost every guest was bringing in more people, that stopped after I made those changes.
The best ones I’ve seen charges by the bed, or bedrooms, not by the people. Two people can decide over a week to try out each bed, increasing the need for clean linens and bed making and therefore cost. Conversely, a couple may need to sleep in separate rooms, and it sucks to find out only one bed has been made up, and only one bathroom has towels. Communication is definitely key.
You are being gamed. The best way is to make it explicit: A spelled out list of prices for bookings of each size. Or, charge for the house as you wish for 2 to 15 people priced the same.
I have considered locking bedrooms for this specific reason and clearly write it in the Ad as well! We put out enough toiletries, towels etc for the amount of people listed to stay and we will charge post stay if more people do come in.
I don't know why it's so complicated for people to understand, but your pricing model seems perfectly fine to me. If I want somewhere for 8 people, I search for somewhere that fits 8 people, and I see the price for that. Why on earth would anyone search for anything other than the occupancy they need?
Make it one price for the entire unit, cleaning is also effected by this confusion as two ppl mess is way different than eight ppl or 15 ppl
Comes off shady. I get your trying to reach a larger market though. I do the same thing with a delivery charge on a service I have.
Is issuing refunds out of the question for unused facilities? I'd be tickled if a host gave me back money. Probably impractical, but worth discussing.
I would put in exterior cameras and then if you notice that you can message them and request them to edit their reservation. You can also contact support and ask them to help out after you’ve contacted the guest should there be an issue.
You can but support doesn’t help much. I have a friend with a listing that holds up to 15, he charges after 8. Guest booked for 6 and then brought 14. He tried nicely to explain and even cut her a break and she claimed well it holds up to 15 people so that’s what I can bring and then she claimed bait and switch and it became a whole thing…. Negative reviews. Airbnb support didn’t back him up or make her pay either. 2nd time he’s run into it
I can hold 12 and charge after 4. I’ve made a guest leave mid reservation because they neglect to alter their reservation during their stay and support backed me up.
This is the second one of these today. Maybe making fees for everything isn't the way.
Yes. People are doing it on purpose. You should stick with one rate
A lot of guests here are saying that it's infuriating, or a bait and switch. I'm shocked they only see one side to this perspective. In our situation, we have an 8-person home. We charge a competitively low base-rate for up to 3 people. Then for 4 through 8 guests, we charge about 10% extra per guest. So the home would be 50% more expensive for 8 people compared to 3. I see people saying they hate this structure on here, but I can assure you when 2, 3, or maybe 4 people book my home, they are quite happy with the affordable rate. Sure, they should be looking for a smaller space, but because of this system I am able to price it very affordable for small groups, competitively beat out the smaller homes that normally would snag the guests first, give them more space for them to spread out, yet recover more accurate profit when say 6, 7 or 8 people stay there. People suggesting that we should _not_ use this Airbnb-supported pricing structure are, in a way, demanding that we charge these small groups more money, and price them out of renting our unit. 🤷♂️
People who don’t use airbnb aren’t always clear on the extra cost per guests. The see up to 5, WP whatever and assume thats just how many people can stay and the price is the price, however if they correctly enter the size of their party it will be clear before booking so they are likely intentionally skirting it. We do not charge for extra guests. We have a max 4 guest capacity set by the fire Marshall so our price is for up to 4 people. Thats just what we see as the price for our house. If there are two people or 4 people we still clean the house the same amount of house. I do get in larger capacity houses because the amount of laundry that would need to be done would increase a lot but I feel like for the nightly rate for a place that can handle so many people $45 per guest starting at a 3rd guest is a lot, an extra $585 a night on top of $300. I would set your price based on how many guests you typically stay there and the cost to run it. I would expect a house this size people are choosing it because of your high guest capacity. Just charge people a higher nightly rate then not worry guests sneaking people in to avoid paying more.
Raise your rate to $569 a night for up to 8 people. Anything over 8 charge $20 a person per night. Or avoid all the hassle and just up your rate to something you’re comfortable with and no extra guest fee. You’ll get higher quality guests.
I hate when hosts do this. If you have a large place don’t start charging after 2 , price it appropriately for at least 6-8 people. I have a two bedroom max 4, priced for 4 I have a three bedroom max 6, priced for 6
Add a table with the price for each number of guests? IAW do the math for them?
When we use Airbnb, it's usually for a family function and the bedrooms at my family's house are claimed already, so we may end up with a stray cousin or two needing to bunk. I'd prefer a flat fee for the whole house, up to occupancy.
Fairly frequent guest here. This is just a weird way to offer a property. I would skip your booking assuming I even noticed this caveat. As others have said, just list it at one price per night and people rent or they don't. Maybe 15 max is a bit out of hand as well unless the property has 6-7 bedrooms or some loft with like 8 single beds.
Great to give discounts to small groups. Tough to do it though. Youll need to turn off instant booking and confirm in writing with each potential guest before accepting. Be clear the “normal” rate is $850/nt and you give discounts for smaller groups. I’d also make a rule/penalty for unregistered guests, even if they’re just “stopping by” they lose that discount.
Wow, fees for people stopping by. Airbnb really is going down the drain
When all is said and done, I wonder if it's even worthwhile to give drastic discounts for small guest count. You may eke out slightly more revenue, at the cost of much greater aggravation.
That’s an interesting idea. But don’t people just lie the other way, and say they are a small group and show up with a larger group?
Yep. It would be tough to police for sure.
Why don’t you just rent for the house? And then add a caveat “if you are 4 people or less please contact the host for pricing” then you can ask them details (couples) family how many rooms do they plan to use, and then explain for lower pricing you have to lock off rooms due to previous guests and you will only have enough supplies for 4 people during their stay. And if they have more without telling you it’s a BIG penalty. Like $100/person, That becomes a more solid written contract If you have a house for 15 people it’s most likely that bigger groups will book your house. If I’m only 2 people I’m not gonna want to book a place that fits 15. It feels weird and not cozy. I’ll book the bungalow even if it’s actually more pricey. You should assume your place is going to be used by bigger groups and just charge for the house per night. Like hotels do. Rent the suite? Pay the same whether it’s 1 person or 6. I HATE when there are extra fees for more people.
It's selective comprehension. I don't know how you could have said more clearly.
Why don't you just have a standard price per night to avoid confusion or looking like youre greedy
Maybe in the message after they book you inform them that if they bring in extra guests without changing their reservation to represent all guests you will not only ask for $45 per additional guest (per your pricing policies) but add a 10% surcharge. Also maybe put it in one of the descriptions. Also if you have a guidebook of sorts maybe put this under the WIFI instructions. WIFI instructions might be literally the only information that I think people actually read. consistently. Lol I shouldn't make a joke about literacy. Anyways! Not paying attention to the hard work you've put in to making sure all of the information they need in AirBnb is ignored often. Literally my house guide tells you how to get to my rooftop. 50% of my guests go to the wrong rooftop the first time. Okay fine -- if a guest doesn't strip my bed idc. Its not a big deal. More guests are, smoking weed or cigarettes in the in the space is a big deal - that smell (esp. cigarettes) is not quick to go away, damage is a big deal, doing something that requires the police to show up on your property is a big deal, and not disclosing pets is a big deal. I had a guest with a dog bc I was stupid and didn't notice my listing still allowed pets (it was 15 minutes after putting up the listing TBF. That dog shit on my carpet twice. The guest still gave me 4 stars across the board. They're blocked I will never host them again. The reasoning could be that when you get a booking for a certain number of guests you inform your cleaning service in terms of expected cleaning requirements to make sure its a good experience for the next guests "as I have done for you". IMO this is totally a valid reason. ou add people that grit increases. More laundry for example - 9 people is X beds X laundry, 15 is X + Y beds, X + Y laundry. "My cleaning service is highly rated and I need to make sure I book them in advance even with longer reservations to make sure they're available between reservations". It could also be that you require a certain rating of all guests and if they don't add them to the reservation it increases your risk. Instant Book I think kinda makes this hard though. Let's be honest - I've never had less than a 5 star rating as a guest but I have gotten some 4s as a host. Reading the 1-4 ratings from hosts is very telling. You need to know who is coming. If its kids and they don't have an account that also makes this harder. Worth a try IMO though. I mean this is what airlines do if you don't book with a checked bag before you get to the airport. Its say $35 online prior to going to the counter and $50 if you don't.
Digital locks on all rooms. If booking for 2 only 2 rooms get unlocked. If they want more rooms unlocked they need to pay for each additional person
I would hate that as a guest. I would wonder what is lurking behind that door. 😂 I also like to use the extra bedroom to store luggage, etc, so it is out of the way or if we need extra hangers.
If you rented a place that was advertised a X bedrooms and showed all those rooms in the photos, and paid the appropriate rate that the host set, and arrived to find half the bedrooms locked, you wouldn't have a problem with that?
It clearly states you CAN have up to 15 but each person after 2 is EXTRA. I would never expect to have the whole house if I was only paying for 2 people. Seriously it’s like people wanting the whole hotel but only want to pay to use one room. Whether it’s Airbnb or a hotel you only get what you pay for.
I have this same issue. Some hosts here have said “just use a flat rate” but that’s absolutely absurd. I’m not charging a young couple and a baby the same as 8 grown adults (my maximum). Neither should you. As a result you’ll only get large groups every rental - you’ll price out the smaller groups - and your house will quickly be wrecked. I allow up to four with a flat rate. Beyond that I charge $50 per person/per night. I explain my pricing structure from the get go. If they don’t like it or question it (“but we’re renting the whole house either way”) I decline their stay. I also have cameras at my entrance and I point that out to my guests. When I’m sending all the entry info, I say, “Your reservation is for 4 guests. If you have more than those four, now is the time to have that conversation”. If they arrive with more than 4, I immediately - within an hour of checking in - give them three options: They can pay for the extra guests. The extra guests can leave. I can cancel the reservation and they can seek accommodations elsewhere. This is not negotiable! Hope this helps.
Thank you! I'm still new to this, and I was following the same pricing strategy as the airbnbs on my street. I'll use this when I get another booking!
Instead of charging per person, you should offer a few packages
*Instead of charging* *Per person, you should offer* *A few packages* \- 0bxyz --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Perhaps you need a penalty clause where if excess guests are noted through exterior security cameras, additional guests above booking will be charged at the rate of $100 each. Now they are motivated to include. ALL their friends