What items / services would you charge extra for, and how much?

What items / services would you charge extra for, and how much?

Early check in? Late check out? Extra towels? Storage of luggage? Pick up at nearest station? Other?

None of the above…

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I’ve considered signing up for Lyft. At least half the time my guests order a ride I could have given the ride and it would be to their advantage and mine. With Lyft I’d have the insurance coverage I need. I have occasionally given a ride for free or a nominal amount to guests with whom I’ve established some degree of relationship on top of the mere booking of the room. For example chatting with a guest while they are visiting with the dogs and they mention they have an early flight. After discussing in person we agree I will give them a ride to the airport in the morning. I don’t list it as an amenity.

I don’t list any of the above as amenities or available but they are all available for free depending on the situation. Extra towels at a charge? I don’t get it. People do that?

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It’s important that you describe your area and listing type as many of these things are common in some areas/types but not in others.

I’m in the same category as @jaquo and wouldn’t charge for any of it assuming it was possible to provide it, but I have a suburban whole-home listing for 8 guests, not a downtown apartment.

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I charge $30 for two hours early check in or late check out.

Edited to add, this really helps with the guests who expect it for free, once they know its pay to stay they either pay or leave on time. Same with the can I check in at noon crowd, they get the message the night before that early check in available for a cash fee and they don’t ask unless willing to pay.

RR

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I don’t charge for any of these.
• Early check in I allow if the unit happens to be ready early. I use an outside cleaning service so I can never guarantee it.
• Late check out I rarely get asked for; but again I offer it for free if I can confirm that my cleaner is coming later than the requested time.
• Extra towels I would never even think of charging extra for. I provide my guests plenty of towels; most don’t use many.
• Storage of luggage. I don’t have a good way to store luggage but will occasionally allow it if the timing works out and have never charged for it.
• Pick up at nearest station. I don’t offer any type of rides as I’d be worried about liability. That being said, early on my husband did drive a couple of young gals to the light rail station downtown in a snowstorm when no Uber/Lyft drivers were out there, and one other time we picked a single woman up from the light rail station because we didn’t think she should be in that area alone late at night. Did not charge for either of these situations.

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The same hosts who would charge for “extra towels” would be indignant if a guest requested a refund on the basis that they didn’t use any towels.

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I tend to think (just my opinion before anyone leaps to pillory me :slight_smile: ) that charging extra for stuff is a bit sneaky. If guests have seen the price at so much per night, then they expect not to have all sorts of charges stuck on top. They’ve had enough of that with the fees.

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@jaquo In my opinion it depends on the item / service. This summer season we invested in 3 city bike cards. We let guests use them for $5 a day and lot’s of guests bought the city bike passes. I think it’s fair to charge extra for this as it’s a service “outside” our Airbnb, I guess nobody would expect city bikes to be included unless advertised that way.

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Great idea!! Definitely something you can/should charge for. They would buy on their own potentially; you are providing the convenience factor.

No and if you’d listed them in the OP I’d say it’s far to charge for that. But it’s also the kind of thing you can include at no charge if you are in an extremely competitive environment. I stayed in a Airbnb that had a metro card pass that had some time left on it and guests were expected to “refill” it. It was nice to not waste the paid for time on it and for all the guests to share the reduced costs.

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By the way that was in a home that rented out two bedrooms so guests got to know each other and the hosts. Harder to be a selfish dick that way.

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I’ve thought about providing one of those, but I fear it would just disappear being so small folks would forget to leave it. I guess I could add it to my check-out instructions/reminder.

I’ve also thought of the idea of letting guests buy umbrellas.
Our autumn / winter season can be quite wet, and we already have umbrellas in our apartments / rooms for our guests to borrow, but from our experience they tend to “disappear” very quickly. We’re thinking of putting a sign “Borrow an umbrella, or buy one for $3”. This way I guess at least the majority of honest guests will leave some money behind.

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As I added, this was in a home where the hosts lived. Easy for the host to remind me to leave it or even ask for it back the last night. And this was in DC and they lived a short walk from the Metro so virtually every guest was using the Metro. I had my vehicle and I used the Metro.

In your case I’d have a rule about guests being charged if they take it. Then you’d have to follow up with each guest: check to see that they left it, contact them if they hadn’t, dealing with guests who argue they could mail it back, etc. So where I thought it was an awesome amenity I can see where it wouldn’t be practical for some people.

Here in Andalucia (legally) we can’t advertise or charge for extra services with a basic tourist accomodation licence. To do it legally means registering for IVA (VAT), setting up a company and charging IVA on each individual service.

Other than the pick up, there is nothing you’ve mentioned that we would charge for. Screwing the last euro out of guests just isn’t our way of doing things.

But hey, maybe we should start flying under the radar on this and I’ll just put one toilet roll in each apartment and then charge €1 per toilet roll after that :wink:

We always leave a couple of large umbrellas on the patio, so far, both still there. If one does go, it’s €3/4 from Ikea!

JF

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We haven’t had an umbrella disappear in almost 3 years and I see guests using them. Ours are bright patterns so maybe harder to forget when out and about?

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Well here it’s really just a bus pass and people ask how to buy them all the time. The card itself is just a one time $5 and then we would load a little on it to get them started. It doesn’t really save them $ it’s just convenient. There’s an app to pay by but I’ve heard mixed things about it. I think I might go ahead and try it and see what happens. It’s taken me almost 3 years and this post to decide that, LOL. Most I’d be out is $5. It would be cheap for the guest to mail back anyway.

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I used the rail last time I was in the area, are you too far from that for it to be useful?

Why don’t you just sell them one for $10, with $5 credit? It’d be same price as buying it from a machine or wherever and if it was me, I’d be quite happy. I’ve done similar with parking vouchers before and was pleased the host actually went to the trouble of having them.

JF