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I tried to deduct the cleaning fee of a reservation I just got and now AB doesn’t allow you to do so anymore. Yes, I know I could simply deduct it from the total but the cleaning fee was larger than the total amount and needed to go.
Why they would do that? We loose more control every time and getting into their tiny box of doing only what they want us to.
In the past, let’s say a reservation would be $200 which is $100 and $100 for the day and I wanted for whatever reason to give a huge discount lets say of $150 I could do it within the $200 amount. Do as I wish.
NOW - I can only deduct/discount out of the DAY pay, not the full amount paid me including the cleaning fee.
This makes a lot of sense. the cleaning fee is a fixed fee on top of your rate, and only the rate is adjustable. The correct way to give a special offer is… a special offer…
I don’t understand why you have such a high cleaning fee if you do short stays where it would be prohibitive and this lose interest by guests you clearly want as you are seeking to waive the fee for them.
Easy solution. Lower your cleaning fee to an amount you are happy to charge EVERYONE and adjust your rate slightly higher to make up for lost revenue. You’ll actually make more from guests booking over x nights and it would be worth you doing some statistical analysis to work this out if you are so inclined. Eg look at the no of bookings you had in last 12 months x $100. Then work it out x $25 (new cleaning fee). Divide the difference by how many nights you had booked last year and increase your rate by this amount per day. Given costs go up each year, I would increase it by 5% so you stay on top of CPI.