My pricing is $116 CAD night
I am the cheapest in the area. Hotel rooms in the area are 200$ 300$ per night, a recent guest just informed me that the rooms are $600 for two nights, but then gave me 4/5 on value when she stayed with me. I helped her find another airbnb as we were not available for her entire time in our area. The airbnb we found was a shared house, more expensive than us but then gave us 4/5 on value. Should I care that we get 5/5 on every other category but 4/5 on value? Not sure if I should bring the price down a few bucks, would a few dollars even make a differnce? Electricity is crazy expensive, therefore aircon costs in the summer is a bit pricey, well everything is a bit pricey.
Show price breakdown. We donât add a cleaning fee to our price.
$116 CAD
Airbnb service fee
$19 CAD
Taxes
$15 CAD
Total
$150 CAD
I donât think thereâs any reason to lower your nightly rate if you are the least expensive in the area for what you offer, just because some guest gave you 4 for value. People are weird, donât worry about it.
Under the circumstances, no.
However â if you do care, think of some little thing you could do to add the perception of âvalue received.â For example â if you are the cheapest in the area, you have room to add $5 0r $10 to your daily rate and use the extra money to finance a high-quality welcome treat. Weâve found that guests LOVE fresh squeezed orange juice, fresh fruit and a real-bakery baguette or a round of locally-produced brie or artisan crackers.
You can adjust the scope of the treat to the number of nights â the guest knows you are the cheapest, and are STILL welcoming them with a generous and thoughtful treat.
Also look around and ask yourself is there anything in your accommodations that looks like you are skimping? Do you have a nice down duvet? Extra pillows on the bed? Wine glasses as well as tumblers? Nice $10 coffee mugs instead of dollar store mugs that craze after a couple of uses.
(I just bought new drinking glasses for $2-3 each from the dollar store, but invested in $10 mugs from Amazon specifically because they say âI wanted to do something special for you youâ to the guest â I want them to open the cupboard and think âI love these mugs.â)
We try to stand out. We offer complimentary baking with every guest, we give them a few choices. This week choices are rhubarb short bread slice, molasses crackles or peanut butter cookies, they can choose. We have fresh cream in the fridge and bottled water. Most think it is a nice touch, some donât care. We use 100% cotton sheets, feather duvets, choices of pillows, down ones as well as polyfill/memory foam combo. Bathroom⌠there is a selection of shampoo, cream rinse, compressed packaged facial cloths, condoms, light day pads. Lead crystal glasses (garage estate sale for cheap). I feel we try our bestâŚeven if we give moreâŚpeople seem to just want lots, but want to pay less. Feeling a bit frustrated here. Thanks Muddy for the encouragement.
⌠and those mugs donât mysteriously âwalk awayâ after a few stays or often âbreakâ???
Never had anything âwalk.â
Previous mugs broke twice â both times the guest came forward and offered to pay.
I am continually surprised during my years in this forum at the bad things that happen to other hosts or that other hosts seem to worry about (or joke about) happening. Itâs almost like Iâm not serving the same market â the same pool of guests â as the other hosts in this forum.
If youâre doing all that and still getting a 4 for value, then you simply had a cheapskate, ungrateful guest⌠You are doing all the right things.
I totally agree with @Spark - if your customers are saying that your place isnât top for value, add value.
This article has cheap or no cost ideas.
I wouldnât choose any of them. (By the way, is your local authority okay with you doing that? Here, Iâd need a commercial kitchen).
Then think of all the people who need gluten-free foods, or who are weight-watching, or (like me) simply donât like that sort of thing and you can see why they might not be popular with everyone. Try fruit. I do, and itâs almost always appreciated. Plus, it gets around the catering laws - itâs in its own âpackagingâ.
Unless you routinely get 4 stars for value, then Iâm with @Spark - just a cheapskate guest. Donât worry about it.
I offer the baking in a private message when I accept their booking. They are usually very happy to get free baking and I have never had a problem with the local authority about offering free baking. In Canada you donât need a commercial kitchen to sell food stuffs (my friends sell and have a regular clean kitchen). Tons of people sell baking on facebook in my home town, as well as local markets ect and they do not have commercial kitchens. I am not worried about the health inspector showing up. They always say the place was lovely and the baking was such a nice extraâŚect ect. I have had one guest say no it is ok, but I had forgotten to say it was free, when I told him it was free he made his choice and was pleased and made a nice comment. I donât think the added extras are a turn off, as most people make a choice with what I offer. I donât want to offer fruit, I have put out oranges and bananas in the past and they were never touched. I am baffled with the very high price of hotels in the area that they find the value less than awesome. I guess I will watch to see if this is a continuing trend. We mostly get one nighters as we are just off the highway (0.8kms) and often one day ahead or same day bookings. Perhaps the clientele that we see are looking for only the very low cost accommodation? Thanks for reading my post
The reason I asked was because I toyed with the idea of making custom mugs, displaying local sites and even add our address and logo on them. I suppose that would make them walk real fast even though I just want to give them a more personal touch.
I think thatâs a brilliant idea, but my 10 years experience with our guests would never lead me to think âthat would make them walkâŚâ The thought would never even enter my mind, because nothing my guests have ever done would lead to that line of thinking. However, I might be thinking of making up a few extra mugs and offer them for sale form those who wanted souvenirs.
I may be daft, probably, but I donât follow the âthat would make them walk.â I donât understand what that means or what it is referring to.
Confused.
Would the mugs go home with the guest - like towels, pillows and random items of decor
Some people will never put a five out of five for value because they always want it cheaper or they donât want people to raise their prices in general. Just the way it is.
You may try raising your prices to be closer to or slightly higher than other similar Airbnbâs. I found that being a little more expensive gets you a better quality guest and better reviews even though what you were offering is the same. It tends to attract people who are not the bargain shoppers just looking for a cheap deal.
My lovely expensive pillows swapped out for flat, tired, yellow ones. Towels that have disappeared. One of a pair of silk cushions, a chefs knifeâŚ. I could go onâŚâŚ
Who are you renting to that Iâm not renting to⌠thatâs what Iâm trying to figure out
Mainly families, some tradesmen groups
Are the tradesmen and the families equally likely to steal?
Are they generally Australian nationals, or a mix from all over the planet