We offer a basic AirBnB experience - room in our house - shared bathroom - no catering but guests can use the kitchen. We’re on 70% occupancy with 97% of reviews being 5 star. We are thinking of putting a Nespresso machine in the kitchen but we would need to charge for the pods. Does anybody do this?
Why? We supply the pods but don’t charge.
Nespresso pods can be a bit more pricy than Keurig compatible discount pods. A couple of ideas:
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No additional charge; limit how many you put out each day
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No limit on daily pods, Have a “nespresso fund basket” with a colorful sign “Voluntary donations accepted if you are enjoying the Nespresso machine and specialty coffees”
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If you are in the USA use Bed Bath Beyond 20% discount coupons when you purchase your pods. It is the best way I know for getting the best price
To answer your question. I don’t charge for coffee pods. However I only supply a few. The goal is sothey can have one cup of coffee then scoot to the close by Starbucks. If they want to relax and drink coffee all morning they need to buy their own supply.
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If I stayed somewhere and they charged me for coffee like that, I would make sure it reflected in the review about how chincy the host was. Either don’t offer them or limit the number but charging? Gonna put a meter on the TP next?
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I bought my Nespresso from Gumtree 2nd hand. I buy the compatible pods from the supermarket when on special. I average out the pods at around 40 cents each…
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I too have a basic listing but with no use of the rest of my house. I think a combination of limiting the number you put out and just charging everyone a little more to pay for them would be the way to go. Raise your price a dollar a day and use the $20 a month to buy pods. Don’t forget to deduct them as an expense when you do your taxes.
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We offer the coffee pods at no extra charge. It’s simply a nice amenity to offer. So far, someone has abused it.
Nespresso Capsules ( NOT pods = Pods are Keurig ) are too expensive to supply. Only 5 star hotels supply nespresso capsules and they are on a commercial account and dont pay regular rates.
"Nespresso machine available upon request. Guest must provide their own Capsules. "
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Hey these look petty appealing price-wise and the variety pack has good reviews.
$41.99 less 20% coupon = $33.60. Guessing sales tax 8% = $36.29 FREE SHIPPING. $.36 per capsule. Increase your room rate $2 per night and the cost is covered.
(Comparison: my K-cup discount pods are $.20 each)
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I like @Annet3176’s #2 suggestion, @JohnnyAir. As guests, four of us stayed in a lovely inexpensive apartment in Brooklyn, NY, and the host had a basket like that. None of us minded paying for what we used. Seemed a brilliant solution to me. I have not done it as a host, but I have priced my place to cover amenities, and I am not in such a competitive and expensive place as Brooklyn. If you feel you should charge for the capsules, I recommend the fund basket.
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If giving guests $0.40 worth of coffee breaks your budget, then I suggest rethinking your rates.
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I AGREE WITH @Carl_P – I would down-Star anyone who charged for coffee or tea in whatever form. That’s just tacky and cheap. The “begging basket” seems a bit tacky too, but that’s just my opinion.
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I bought my nespresso on eBay for $50 and buy off brand on amazon for about $30 per 100 pods. However, I don’t use these in my listing.
My guests get a $10 mr. coffee and maxwell house or dollar store. If they’re lucky I get the good stuff my local market roasts if I’m in a rush. No one uses it anyway, a pound of coffee can last 6 months in my 95% occupied space.
Why? Because although we personally enjoy hosting our AirBnB guests, it is a business and, like any aspect of a business, all costs need to be taken into account when arriving at a sale price for a product or service.
So you will have:
- built the cost of your pod usage into your room rate. just like the shampoo and laundry detergent etc. or
- decided that it is a worthwhile goodwill/promotional/marketing expense
or - decided that the cost is so low it’s not worth worrying about.
Exactly. And as such, we don’t want to nickle-and-dime our clients surely? Provide great value for money and you’ll have a successful business.
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Successful businesses monitor their profit margins and then strike a rate for their product or service that offers value for money. We could halve our current rates, which would be ‘great value for money’, but we wouldn’t have a successful business.
Not at all. Our rentals are the most expensive in the immediate area but we don’t need to cut prices to make a good profit and delight our clients. I guess it depends a lot on a) the price range you’re aiming for and b) what your market will put up with …
In our case, we would be using the Nespresso pods at .95 cents each so it is a measurable cost and most of our business is European and of course they love their coffee.
We could say provide two pods per room per day (we rent out two rooms) then:
- As we don’t access or service the rooms daily we would need to personally issue the guests with their free pods. This would feel awkward.
- There would almost certainly be occasions when guests would offer to pay for more pods then everything would start to feel tacky. We are often in the kitchen together at times like this.
This is definitely a possible option and I might even think about printing out the responses to this question on the forum (without identifying the forum or contributors of course) using your delightful “Voluntary donations accepted if you are enjoying the Nespresso machine and specialty coffees” as the headline.
It is a tricky one though.
What is the TP Carl_P?
Do people travel with their own capsules?