Late check out fees, how to collect and how successful is it?

Like many, I haven’t been hosting during the pandemic. I had a med student (family friend)using the space while she completed a nearby residency. Anyway, I’m starting to think again about STR. Quick background, my space is mostly geared as a weekend couples retreat. The local chamber of commerce states that 75% of the tourists are driving up from the city, approximately 90 minutes. My STR is a loft apartment over a detached garage about 100 feet away from the main cabin.
I don’t anticipate a ton of weeklong bookings and am seriously considering blocking off Tuesday and Wednesday nights as my husband and I think we would appreciate some time with the space to ourselves. Plus many of the local restaurants and gift shop type places are closed those days, especially during the winter. Early check in is not an issue as most people come up on Thursdays or Fridays after work. However there are quite a few national holidays that are observed on Mondays. In which case guests like to spend that last day still in the mountains. If they leave the area after a day hiking, or staying in town and going out for dinner, they can still get home in the evening at a decent time. So for me, it is fine if they want to sleep in, cook a late brunch, and then have a nice last day and not get their stuff out of the space until dinner time or later. I can clean the next day. My nightly rate is going to be $99 per night to start and build up some reviews. I was thinking of charging around $40 for the late check out of 8pm or so. Does this seem reasonable? And if so, do I collect through the resolution center ahead of time? How successful are people at getting these extra fees? I’m also thinking it would be fun to offer extras like a selection of chocolate covered fruits, or a charcuterie board. Birthdays and Anniversaries are a common reason for the weekend bookings around here.

I use the resolution center for pet fees and have always gotten my money. You could also send special offers when the request to book.

What I would prefer is to price it in on 3 day weekends. I’d advertise it as “late check out” but not add a separate fee. In other words $99 a night on regular weekends, $129 on holiday weekends. Then not fool with extra fees and over time it evens out.

All in all your price seems low for a full apartment in the mountains.

3 Likes

Ditto. …

This.

Then raise your prices if you’re going to offer these items as part of the listing for everyone. If you offer to sell them, you have to deal with the board of health for your kitchen or if you’re buying local. If you’re thinking of charging for them as an add-on there are several threads about whether that’s a good or bad thing.

Your place sounds lovely. And inexpensive.

Is it ok to post a link to someone else’s listing on here? It is a lovely little space, very similar to mine but not quite as close to the tourist towns. Her rate is $91 per night from what I can gather. Not as much in the mountains as my place but as close to a comp as I could find.

No it is not ok…

RR

1 Like

I used to charge for early check ins and late checkouts and it was a PITA
The last straw was when it was mentioned in a review, seems kinda transactional… Well of course it is.

Now I do not allow either, sorry the housekeeper juggles childcare and late checkout is not available.

RR

@Primdawg Setting your listing up anticipating late check-outs with a fee doesn’t make much sense. If your guests generally would want to hang out all day on their last day, you should arrange your booking schedule to account for that.

I have always had a very flexible check-in time, 11 am-11pm, as the majority of my guests fly here internationally and their flights arrive at all different times of day.

My check-out time is 4pm, as outgoing flights tend to be from late morning to late afternoon.

I have one day prep time between bookings. So if a guest checks out at 4pm, I still have time to clean if there is a guest arriving the following day. Of course this means I don’t have same day changeovers, so every night isn’t booked, but it works well for the schedule of most of my guests and for me without hassles or scrambling to clean the room.

Got it. I like the idea of raising the rates on long weekends. Or maybe do the reverse and raise my nightly rate and offer a discount during low season. That’s what I did with my kennel. People always loved when I offered the lower rate if it was the off season. When I did it the other way they felt like it was price gouging. Is it possible to set minimum nights for different dates? My standard would be a 2 night minimum, but I would really want to book 3 nights for those holidays.
I’m glad I asked about posting the other listing. I’m having a hard time finding comps to my situation. Her place is more private than mine but mine has a full kitchen and hers has a kitchenette. I’m really more up in what they call “the adventure area” whereas she is about 15-20 miles closer to the city. If I add a hot tub I can raise my rates. But that is still undecided at this point.

Interestingly, I don’t agree. A listing is public and airbnb listings are regularly scraped and posted on other sites. What is disallowed is publicly shaming a host on this site. But @RiverRock will be along to set me straight.

Make sure you’re checking her rate on holiday weekends. Sometimes I’ll see a listing that I think is x dollars but when I enter dates it’s quite a bit more.

Also, comps are more than one variable. Maybe your place is really worth more. Another thing to consider if supply is limited is that once her place is gone, it’s gone. She may get booked earlier but you might make more money. I’m certainly not the cheapest in my city and I used to think I couldn’t raise my rates based on all the cheaper listings. But I raised my rates and found that I was still getting booked plenty but a lot of last minute, even same day bookings. That happens to work better with my life so it was a win, win.

While we wait for RR’s final ruling, if you’d like to PM me your listing and the competitor’s listing I’d be happy to give you my well considered opinion. :wink:

Also you need to actually input dates to see the total, if you haven’t done that. Otherwise you don’t know if a listing might have a high cleaning fee so it looks cheaper, but actually isn’t.

So I looked at her listing again, and it is totally booked or maybe blocked up until late July. One 2 night stay was available for mid week in late June. The nightly rate ended up being $124 per night without cleaning or service fee. The statement that she will book first but I will get more money hit home. You guys are right, it is a niche situation and not a lot of inventory.

2 Likes

I started out saying OK to early check ins and late check outs, but now I say there’s a $25 fee. I’ve collected it with no problem through the Resolution Center with no review repercussions on the rare occasions it’s utilized by a guest, usually due to flight schedules.
I did have one guest decline to pay for a late check out, but I allowed them to leave their car in the driveway and pick it up in the afternoon. I later discovered they had set the keypad lock to unlocked, and left the suite unlocked all day, I assume so they could pop in to freshen up. I now check.

A late check out or early check in fee is reasonable. But the OP’s situation is that she seems to anticipate the majority of her guests wanting to stay later, not a once in awhile thing. So it’s probably better for her to come up with a rental plan and pricing which accommodates that, rather than charging extra fees on most of her bookings.

1 Like

Now that we always have 1 night between bookings, we almost always offer 2 hours later checkout “if they have time”. I would say about 1/2 the guests do like it, the other 1/2 have other plans. Our prices reflect our specialness and then they get a little bonus! We are the cleaners…

The guests like the guest promo/ gifts too. They cost me 5$

Last night guests left us a 20$ tip also! I think that was because they only brought wine and cooked the pasta and sauce and had eggs and pancake breakfast ( 6$) that we always provide and hardly ever gets cooked by them/ eaten.

1 Like