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Not me. Our apartments are small one-bedroom places and I charge the same for one person as two.
The apartments aren’t really suitable for more than two so I don’t often get the extra guest thing, but I don’t have an extra guest fee.
To me, if your listing shows that you have one bedroom with one queen bed, then by showing an extra guest fee you’re making the extra guest a legitimate one.
(Which might be against your license and insurance company’s policies anyway.)
So I don’t have an extra guest fee but if a guest wants to sneak in an extra person, I’m fine with that.
Because most of my stays are short, the extra guest doesn’t cost me any extra (an additional shower or two isn’t going to wreck the year’s profit margins) but I have another MAIN reason.
I just don’t want the bother. I don’t want to constantly spy to ensure there isn’t an extra guest. I don’t want to go through the hassle of claiming an extra guest fee. I don’t want to write endless rants on forums about extra guests sneaking in. I’m too busy for all that.
That’s why I decided against extra-person fees, too. And we don’t really want just one couple renting our home. I know that sounds odd, but we have people that work for and with us that I try to support, and they make the most money when we have more than two people staying. (For those that wonder about that - it’s our housekeeper that cooks for guests and the gentleman that has a large vehicle that drives guests around.)
I don’t know how it is in St. Lucia, but here in Mexico it’s not easy to find people to work who are reliable, responsible, and good at their job. When you do find some, you definitely want to treat them well and keep them employed.
My friend is staying at a place near me that has a maid and a gardener, husband and wife. The woman is a good cleaner, but my friend says her husband shows up to “garden”, stands in the same spot watering every time, when there is a huge property to attend to. He is supposed to work 4 hours a day twice a week, but he waters for 20 minutes, then sits in his car on his phone for half an hour and leaves. The property manager is conflict-averse, and it’s too tricky to fire the husband without losing the cleaner.
We have a 300 square foot studio without a full kitchen in a touristy place. Our target group are workers, family visitors and tourists. It’s a 2 people max accommodation and the competition puts us into a $50 to $60 a night bracket.
There are hosts like you here on this forum with a completely different hosting situation (location, size, target group etc.)
So we do have very different hosting profiles and this sometimes confuses me when I’m not aware what type of accommodation you or someone else has and has a different baseline of their experience.
I would love to ask for $500 a night, have a gardener or offer good wines etc as welcome gifts but it’s not our profile.
It would be great to have a profile icon that is added that could indicate the “class” of host they are - like small, medium and large? It would easily show the forum members what type of host they are.
I don’t think small, medium,or large would really give much valuable info. There are so many other factors that dictate the kind of amenities and services one provides, as well as the location of the rental and the demographic of guests they attract.
For instance, a homeshare host in the countryside somewhere in the US might find that providing breakfast for guests is appreciated. But for me, also in the countryside, but on the outskirts of a touristy beach town in Mexico, guests tend to get up early and go into town, where there are hundreds of cafes and restaurants to choose from before they hit the beach. Eating out part of what they enjoy doing here. Maybe a third of my guests actually buy food and cook for themselves, even though they are welcome to use my fully equipped kitchen, oil and condiments.
The most guests seem to avail themselves of in the morning, and then only some, is the coffee and tea I provide. If I stocked up on breakfast food for guests, it would just go to waste.
And hosts in developing countries tend to have more staff than those in developed countries, because labor in developing countries is relatively inexpensive and many locals depend on those kind of jobs.
Here’s some advice you didn’t ask for - make it REALLY CLEAR on your Vrbo listing that you don’t have a kitchen. I also recommend you review the Vrbo requirements. Vrbo specializes in true vacation rentals like mine - a whole home with bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens (although it can be an apartment or condo or tiny home), or a floor of a home with all the amenities like a home.
I understand we are different - that’s why I frequently mention our property type and location so others can decide whether my advice is useful in their situation.
Sorry that I didn’t clarify: We have two accommodations on site where we live. One studio without a kitchen but facilities to make a breakfast (coffee machine, kettle, toaster, microwave, refrigerator, dishes).
The second studio has a kitchen with all of the above plus stove top and oven. This one is on VRBO. Only that one.
That’s why I found it helpful if we could pick our accommodation size/type in our profiles to be shown as an icon next to our pfps. Then everyone would instantly be able to see what kind of hosts we are. No need to repeatedly explain to others and newbies why we respond the way we respond as every host’s experience may differ based on their accommodation and target group.
We have an extra guest fee of 50$ per night, per guest after the 1st two, up to five. In order to collect on 12 guests extra fees, the limit would have to be 12, no? Or at that point would Air side with you and realize that your 5 person limit total would not have to be fiddled with after the fact.
As I only host one guest at a time and only once had a guest show up with another (and dealt with it amicably without involving Airbnb) I really don’t know how Airbnb would handle over-capacity extra guest fees.
Like most things, it probably depends on the CS rep you’re dealing with.
