Interesting. I allow pets but have never found out where to add an extra charge for them. Smelly, hairy dogs add a lot to the cleaning. As do incontinent cats (but that only happened once). Is there somewhere in the price structure to put the extra charge?
Perhaps it’s different in the US?
unless you’re feeding the dog, walking it, playing with it and offering it a secure comfy bed to sleep in, you aren’t “boarding” the animal per se. Surely the owners do all those things, you aren’t doing anything except taking the risk that the animal will damage something.
I’m late to this thread, but damn. This really is a slap in the face. They treat my house like a free kennel as it is. My last guest (who had his own dog) agreed to pet sit his sister’s dog for a night during his stay and was irritated when I said the dog you are pet-sitting cannot be left alone. I’m not a kennel FFS!
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I am not sure what your point is. This is what I charge for a dog in my rental and I am sharing information. By all means if you prefer free or less than that is your choice. I feel entitled to charge for the privilege of including Fido.
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Details of the charges should be In your listing and then invoice guest through the reconciliation system
Thank you. That sounds a bit complicated.
Is there no way to add it like one would add charges for extra guests? Almost all my guests bring dogs.
Yes there is. This is a new addition with the “winter release.” However, it may not be available yet in your area or perhaps you have to use a computer rather than the app.
Go to pricing settings. Scroll down to additional charges and it’s there. I may change my $15 per trip to a higher number if I get guests abusing the system as so many here fear they will.
Does this mean you have not been charging extra for dogs? Or that you have been charging via a different means than through Airbnb?
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If only they would add the fee per night, per dog, I think most pet friendly hosts would be happy.
Hosts who only have 1-3 night bookings may accept it as is, (fee per stay) but any host that has longer bookings needs to have a per night fee option, in other words all pet friendlies.
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Hopefully they will change it. Meantime I’d still allow pets and wait and see how many people take unreasonable advantage. When the person with 5 dogs think they are going to come for a week and pay $50 I’d message them and say sorry, I can’t control the settings but here is my policy. If they didn’t pay the extra dog fees I’d cancel their booking. After that happened a couple of times then I’d consider my next options. I never understand the over the top worrying about what might happen.
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I just got off the phone with customer service about the pet fee–I too charge per night and if I don’t fill in an amount it says “PETS STAY FOR FREE”
Airbnb doesn’t seem to understand that if I just use my pet rules, as I have been for 3 years, the customer is likely to push back on my usual invoice by pointing out that my listing says it’s free. Conversely, if I add a fee, it actually specifies “20 FOR THE ENTIRE TRIP” which is really just as bad.
This hurts my business instead of helping it. Airbnb is not a hospitality company, it’s a website company and as such it should not interfere with or make problems for the hosts, whom they piggyback on for their success. WTF. Customer service only sends “my concerns” to a big pile of feedback which never gets addressed.
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I charge 20 x dog x night, capped at 100. One dog allowed, but I’ve made exceptions. This “helpful” pet fee option is likely to make me move all my business to VRBO since it’s not good for me to deal with people saying that it says on my listing that pets stay for free (if you don’t fill in an amount, and just do your invoicing as usual, it actually says PETS STAY FOR FREE… instead of “not set”
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That seems like a workable option…or at least move all the dog business to VRBO.
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I ignore that whole infant thing and invoice the pet separately. I normally ask for the dog’s name, age and breed, so when I send my invoice (under request money) I put Fluffy $20 x 2 nights, and in my house rules I specify that the fee must be paid prior to check in. If Fluffy comes with Fido, then it’s 40 x night. Infants and anyone under 21 are not allowed. Nobody has ever had a problem paying the pet fee.
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and if you don’t comply with airbnb’s new pet feature, it will tell the public that pets stay for free! That’s a problem the minute I send my usual invoice and they say, wait a minute it says here that they stay for free
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Where does Airbnb do this? Have you seen that statement on your listing or another host’s listing? Or are you thinking because that’s what shows on your settings that it then says that on your listing?
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I am trying to upload the screen shot, and it won’t let me, but if you go to your additional charges, where you would see cleaning fee, etc, if you don’t fill in an amount, your listing will not say “not set” like it does for things like “linen fees”- instead it will say PETS STAY FOR FREE.
I see this as blackmail frankly.
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Reading through all this grief makes me even happier that the only animals we allow are two legged with a pulse and a credit card.
JF
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I know that but guests don’t see that. I don’t have a linen fee but Airbnb doesn’t tell guests “No linen fee!” If I want to point that out to guests I have to put it in my listing. I’m not trying to defend Airbnb I’m just trying to ascertain the facts of what is going to change and what hosts are going to be “forced” to do.
Right now I don’t even see the “pets allowed” filter in search so a guest can search for pets allowed listings. I’m more concerned that guests traveling with pets can find me than I am about Airbnb messing with my fee collection.
ok ok, well I am glad to hear that. I am beyond angry at the way they did it, and I hope I don’t have to discredit Airbnb with guests if this ever comes up as a problem. I have worked very hard to carve out my business and the least airbnb can do is to not make things more difficult for me–and btw, I get the pet fee through airbnb resolution, when I could just ask for cash and be done with it.
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It seems that they removed the Pets allowed filter. I guess everyone is supposed to allow pets now as far as Airbnb is concerned.
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