Traveling Hosts Question: Daily Price or Total Price Hunter?

We’ve discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly of rolling cleaning fees into the daily price, or not. Not my focus on this question.

I’m not objective so I search and look at the total price. But do you all?

The way Air markets, the focus is on price per day (wished they catch on to how VRBO does it - lets you specify total cost OR daily price min/max)

You can put in a max budget when you search on Airbnb @aelilya

When we started in 2019 I had a low basic price and put the minimum it actually costs in wages, never mind cleaning products, to turn the house around - it has 7 bedrooms and a loft space so can accommodate up to 25 people, we occasionally had groups as big as that. One of our first sets of guests only had one complaint, which was that the cleaning fee was so high, so I then decided it to bury it in the overall cost and I only have a symbolic cleaning fee. The overall cost is now higher, but we are still very competitive on price, a group of say 12+ would pay more to stay in the local youth hostel. Also, I suspect that if you put in the true cleaning cost, which may be quite high, some guests then wouldn’t clean up after themselves very well as they think they have already paid over the odds for you to do it

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If I’m looking for a place to stay, my search would almost always start with the map, which I think just reflects the daily rate.

TBH I don’t pay that much attention to what the price says. I think I filter for the dates and the number of people I’m traveling with, and then just start clicking on the dots closest to my desired location, to find a good fit.

Good fit is partly price, partly amenities, partly location.

My budget is pretty flexible. I don’t like to overpay, but when I find a place that suits our needs I will generally pay whatever the rate is.

I greatly prefer a place where I can walk out and get something to eat, and it is imperative that I have control of my morning coffee— I don’t want to be dependent on the host for access to the coffee pot if I wake up early or late.

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I’ll keep looking/Google “how to”. I’m generally on the app when I search and I can’t find a place for a budget (yet)

Click on filters in the upper right corner, the 3 slide bar icon. Scroll down to price range.

I also find the map view to be very important. I use the filter for price, I always turn on Superhost and Instant Book filters. If traveling alone I’ll consider shared room and those prices are always on the low side. But I generally have good luck finding very affordable places that don’t share space.

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Thank you, @KKC. Is that shot from the app? Here’s my view in the same (I believe) section after clicking on the 3 slidebar icon. Strange they are different.

Also, that is the average nightly rate and I was looking for the max budget @Helsi referenced (i.e. I want to spend no more than $3k all fees/taxes included kind of thing).

No, you have to remember that it’s Airbnb’s tech we’re talking about here, nothing ever surprises me there. The only difference I’d expect is minor differences, between an Android version and an Apple version, but they should be cosmetic as opposed to functional variations.

Incidentally, I just checked and I’m the same as you, no pricing filter on the app.

JF

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BTW, I’m on android. I do have the pricing filter.

:woman_facepalming:t4: I should have known. Duh. Yes, I’m on IOS.

As am I, and I don’t.

JF

Maybe I need to update my app. :crazy_face:

I think that most people do. As @mica555 says, price, amenities and location are all part of the decision process.

It varies too from guest to guest. For example, I once had an occasion when the people next door were having a very loud party. My other half was amazed because I didn’t storm round there and tell them to be quiet, which is my usual procedure when wanting to maintain peace and quiet for guests. I was so cool about it though because my guests were at the party. They had chosen our rental so that they could easily stagger home, I guess. :slight_smile:

I always look at the total price. I think most people have bought or booked something in their lives which have had a resort fee, admin fee, dealer fees etc. etc. added at the end of the process.

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I look at the total price. I don’t see any use in looking at the nightly price.

But I don’t even look at the total price when scrolling down if the place isn’t cute/interesting/unique/fun or doesn’t have a decent average (which is 4.5+ for me). So I scroll looking for places that interest me and only then look at their total price. And before Covid I didn’t even choose “entire place” because there are just as many cool private rooms as there are entire places.

I’m a huge hotel fan (a ho-ho), well, really a boutique hotel fan (a bo-ho-ho) :grin: So I want an Airbnb to have some personality or offer something different or I will just stay in a hotel. It sounds picky but really there are a lot of great Airbnbs but there are also a lot that look exactly the same and have nothing special to offer and also come with a diatribe of rules. I guess I’m picky in my own way so I only look at total price but not at on all of the listings.

You can’t put in a max budget, you can only put in a nightly price range. And with cleaning fees and everything else a nightly price is irrelevant.

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You can in the UK when you search you see both the daily rate and the total price - different countries work differently. Our pricing includes cleaning, Airbnb fees etc. It’s part of our consumer law.

What you can do in the UK is irrelevant. @aelilya, who you responded to, is not in the UK. Since she is not in the UK, she cannot filter by max total price. She can only filter by max nightly price.

Once again, our prices in the US also include the cleaning fees, the airbnb fees, etc. I’m not sure why you keep mentioning it. It is the same here.

Are you being condescending in addition to giving irrelevant information or do you have a sincere special love for me?

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I’ve not yet travelled as a guest, but I would filter for price range first, because I don’t have an unlimited budget, so no sense looking at places I couldn’t afford.

Then, like JJD, I would be interested in something unique- I wouldn’t have any attraction to some cookie cutter place, some typical suburban home.

I’d also look at the location on those, and depending on whether I had a car or would be relying on public transport, that would determine my short list.

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Yeah, I agree. I have STR-envy of many listings I see that are super unique. I purposely did just a little updating to our place because all the ABB flips around me look the same. I wish I were artistic so I could incorporate “myself” into it. I’m simple, ADD-style clean, and uncluttered & so my STR is me, but if I were a house LOL!

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Well, I don’t think a place has to be “super unique”, there are all kinds of things that make a place unique. Could be the location, the fact that the decor is eclectic, rather than looking like generic stuff you could buy at any furniture outlet store. I just wouldn’t be attracted to some suburban tract house furnished really boringly.

But I’d ignore all that if I were going somewhere a host I knew and could happily relate to from the forums had a place to rent. In other words, I’d book with you even though you aren’t artistic :wink:

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:blush: :blush: :blush: