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Yes, but that’s a different scenario than having more than one listing because the place has more than one bedroom, so the host can lock off bedrooms which won’t be used and therefore don’t need to be cleaned or have bedding washed and changed. Your guests have use of the living room with the day bed even if there are only 2 guests. You don’t need more than one listing, because there is only one space configuration, the entire studio. Your extra guest fee covers extra utilities, more bedding and towels to wash, but doesn’t get them an extra bedroom.
And what houseplants wants to find a way to accomplish doesn’t even have to do with locking off rooms, because she normally charges the same price regardless of whether there is one guest or 4.
I don’t see how having separate listings with separate rules would accomplish what you are wanting to do. Separate listings work if you lock off bedrooms that aren’t going to be used, and charge by the number of requested bedrooms. But guests who want to add more guests after the initial booking don’t know they’ll be four guests instead of the two they originally booked for when they first book.
The only way 2 listings could accomplish what you want is if the difference between the listings was that one listing had extra fees if more guests get added to the booking after the initial booking and the other said no changes were allowed at all. Like the difference between buying an airline ticket where you can change or cancel a booking with or without a fee or a ticket where no changes or cancellations are allowed.
I think that PitonView has the only viable suggestion if you really want to institute this extra charge.
But it seems to me that the hassles that will result in this and possible bad reviews wouldn’t be worth extra money you could charge. What were you thinking of charging for adding guests after the initial booking, anyway?
Yes, of course it does. But since you charge a set price for the entire house whether there is one guest or 4, it doesn’t create any more work for you or more wear and tear whether they book for 4 at the outset, or add 2 more guests to a 2 person booking a few days before check-in. There’s still 4 guests, with the equivalent amount of utilities and wear and tear. If you want to be compensated for extra guests, you do that by always having an extra guest fee.
One option is to have two listings - one for up to 2 people, and the other for your maximum. Set the prices on the two-person listing lower than the other listing. Link them. Bury somewhere in your two-person listing that you have a listing for larger groups.
Then set a HIGH penalty in the house rules for going over the 2-person maximum - higher than the price difference between the two listings. If they add people later, they won’t be able to see the price difference between your listings as of the booking time. [Edited to add - the price difference I set is actually the price difference between the listings]
I do this but the first line of the listing is that this is our “couples’ special” and you’ll get a better price for larger groups if you book our other listing. I only do this in low season when couples are about the only groups travelling to our area.
Your idea is just weird and unintuitive. But if you want to be weird. Go for it.
You stated your listing is last to book and goes empty most of the time… To maximize revenue you can put a low base price midweek(or whenever slow) which includes 1 guest. Set an extra guest fee of $20 or whatever. So you will be attractive to single travelers at very low price (lower or equal than nearest motel works well).
But if you get a group of 4, you get a fair rate. This makes your listing appealing to a larger customer base and you should get booked on nights that would go empty. I think you will make far more with this strategy than your weird after the fact different pricing for extra guests.
To maximise revenue you simply find the market price that keeps you occupied as much as possible.
I charge an extra £15 per night per person over 5 people. My house sleeps 7. Air bnb simply adds on the extra if they book for more than 5. I have had no problem with that. Christine
I do not recommend charging a fee for extra guests. You will end up getting more bookings if you can be flexible. Just state your maximim occupancy. Funny when I went to Venice I booked a three bedroom Airbnb for my husband and me. My daughter decided to come at the last minute and the host refused to give her bedsheets without an extra person per night charge. I know in Venice it is hard to launder linens, but this is ridiculous to charge extra per person in the US.
Why? My booking price is for the first 2 guests and then $25 a head a night up to 7 guests, if I priced it at the 7 guest price….no one would book and in my minuscule market, I would look ridiculously expensive
??? An extra person doesn’t use more soap, toilet paper, water, hot water, electricity, towels, coffee, etc., etc.? And it doesn’t cost anything to do an extra load of laundry in the US?
I can understand charging the same for1 person as a couple in a place with a max guest count of 2, but charging the same for 7 guests as for 2 in a larger place certainly seems like it would cut down on bookings for less people. Maybe you can afford to pay for a 3 bedrooom house when you are only 2 people using one bedroom, but I doubt that is the case for most guests.
What happened? I missed it. It’s many years since I’ve been to Italy. Is it water restrictions?
If an additional guest is going to charge more for an extra person, it must be commensurate with the additional services required. If those extra products or services are supplied, then they should be charged for unless it’s a negligible amount for those extras.
In my own case, I usually have 3 - 4 day stays and I don’t normally charge an extra guest fee.
Whilst I appreciate what @Muddy wrote above an extra person, requiring no additional bedding / toiletries / towels etc, probably costs me very little - a couple of extra showers, a bit more loo paper … that’s negligible. Particularly as it happens so infrequently.
My occupancy is two people. Putting an extra guest fee is telling potential guests that I’m happy to break my own rules.
That’s actually what I meant. If your occupancy max is 2, it makes more sense to have a nightly price which covers what is used and provided for two people, rather than screw around with extra guest fees.
But if a place has a max occupancy of 6, and their nightly price is based on hosting 6 people, that is going to mean they will likely not be attractive, price-wise, to a couple. If the host would like to be attractive to groups of varying sizes, it seems to make more sense to have a base rate for 2, or 4, and then extra guest fees for any more, up to the stated max.
I am in Delaware and own three beach houses that I rent out, each with an occupancy limit of 26 people. My houses are used for family reunions. Beach houses in the USA just charge by the house rather than per person. I also do not charge for pets. This keeps it simple. I provide amenities for my renters to last them for a week, such as toilet paper and detergents. I charge for this, of course. Renters at the beach seem able to pay for this. Our rental market is very different from a small apartment in town.
@Nancie You are definitely in a niche market, and I can see why you would just charge for the whole house.
I have a friend whose family gets together once every few years, at various places around the world, as they are all spread out across the US and Canada, Europe and Russia. They never really know how many people will show up- it could be 18 or 30. Some plan to come and can’t make it, others say they can’t make it for some reason but surprise everyone by showing up.
They rent places like yours and it would be a mess to pay extra guest fees, as they have no idea how many they’ll end up being and people arrive and leave at various times throughout the week.
I haven’t had a chance to read through all the comments yet but my initial thought here is: why in the world would you want to base your business model off the airlines?? I don’t know about you but every time I book a flight, it leaves me feeling frustrated and angry with all the extra charges. Not the way I want my guests to feel.
I also understand about the bottom-line and maximizing revenue but in my limited experience, trying to make your listing stand out in positive ways is a better strategy than nickel and dime-ing your guest.
After they checked in, my last guest messaged me to say her adult son would like to stay at our house, even though he wasn’t factored in to her original reservation. She offered to pay more - which I thought was kind - but I replied that it wasn’t necessary and thanked her for being honest. The group was still under our maximum number of guests anyway, so to me, it would’ve felt icky to charge her.
I charge a little extra for guests over 5. Its a lot more work to do 7 as the sofa bed needs setting up and there is always more cleaning. I havnt noticed less bookings.
I charge extra person fees for all guests over 1. This, as several mentioned in above comments, allows for more attractively priced options for various markets of guest numbers.
Another AMAZING reason when dealing with Airbnb is that when the guest is given a refund (by Airbnb out of host funds) for something like a missing amenity (HVAC goes down, WiFi goes down, power goes out, hot tub not opened, etc.) the 30% refund is based in the base rate and NOT on the extra person fees (and also NOT on the cleaning and/or pet fees…which is another reason I like to consider everything a la carte).
Something that I realized though is that when we lose $127.50 as 30% of a base rate of $425 really means we lost the 3% host fee ($3.825) here as well because Airbnb does NOT refund that to you. Even worse is that they often do NOT refund the guest the Airbnb Service fee ($17.85) or the taxes ($14.025). You know they are not going to pay those taxes on money that was returned. So Airbnb makes out well whenever we refund a guest…In my case $35.70 (28% of the refund).
After a few months of listing, we did the math and realized that the vast majority of our bookings were for two guest. (we have a maximum 5 guest limit) Rather than charging based on our 5 guest maximum, and in our opinion, overcharging any bookings with less than that, we added an extra guest fee of $10 per guest past the first two guests. For the most part, it isn’t a problem and allows us to keep our rate as competitive as possible.
