@Laura_RinNewWestminster, Canada and others who care and wonder...
I see the passion and possibility in your itemization ideas, applaud your entrepreneurial spirit, and share your passion for excellent hospitality, but do know that if airbnb were to be involved in these suggestions (and bear the cost of the record keeping and money handling, and customer service involved) beyond what they already control, they would expect a cut from guest and hosts based on their internal formulas (with you being responsible for the implementation and liability), which renders many of these thoughtful add-ons not cost effective for you by doing it this way.
Airbnb already offers "experiences" and "plus" properties for which they take a percentage of from both providers and consumers and also make the provider carry all liability, and it's profitable, or they would not be doing it. Read the feedback on the plus properties and experiences from hosts in other areas of this community forum to see how that's working in reality for hosts. Many "plus" hosts are still waiting for Airbnb to list the property after paying extra for the photography, upgrades, and inspections.
Meanwhile airbnb has is listed as part of their "elite" database, making their inventory look amazing on paper (see comments on the impending IPO below and other elsewhere within the hosting community).
Our listings are OUR business. We have to evaluate the costs of doing business into our fees/rates for physical plant, materials, labor, time, maintenance, improvements, damage, theft, loan payments, taxes, insurance, marketing, etc., plus any extra amenities) plus enough profit margin to make it worth it, or we exhaust ourselves and go broke.
If we want to add on extra services, that's also OUR business and liability, just like if someone wanted a massage, they'd book that separately with that provider. Would you charge by item, mileage, hourly rate, what form of payment and when would you collect it...?
If you're looking for extra ways to create profit from your lodging business, Yay! Think about what's possible for you, study what's working for others, do the math with all contingencies, comps, and costs included, and see if it works for you. If you're worried about existing expenditures, do the same and add what you need to be earning beyond that to make it worthwhile for the time and effort with a "living wage" for yourself built in. Look at the local competition and see what's working for them, and modify to meet your needs/hosting style/to stay competitive, and add changes to your listing support what makes you special for the lodging part and make sound choices that fit your budget and hosting style.
Airbnb is all about booking fees: securing and marketing listings and money handling. They've created strategic marketing plans and fees to both hosts and guests to address their profit/growth goals. They're looking out for their best interests.
It's up to us to build the cost of their service into our rates and run our businesses in ways that work for our best interests.
Airbnb may have built their name upon independent single-property hosts, but that focus has changed quite a bit because they profit more based on volume of listings and constant geographic expansion for a global market. This is why I refuse to do "autopricing" and many other "tips" constantly being "suggested" to us by ABB to lower our prices to APPEAR to be in line with all the rest which include multiproperty listers (see below about that area of ABB's expansion). The math of their continual "lower your price/auto-pricing" doesn't pay off for individual property owners working under their contractual restrictions particularly in my locale and demographic. If I lower my prices to the 'No-tel Motel' on the strip like they want me to, I'll go broke, and they won't even notice when I shut down because they're focused on volume and have given multiproperty listers bonuses and contractual perks we don't get and would get booted for.
Airbnb shares strategy with Uber and Lyft and other "start-up" global techno-success "work when you want to...opportunities" and they've been having a good run profiting @ multiple tax-free billions from the property of others with none of the responsibility.
Property owners bear the cost of the creation of the physical plant, improvements, supplies, upkeep, insurance, taxes, and risk, while the marketers make clean profits for offering and processing booking volume, whereas we can only do one booking per listing per space per day. While we're "going the extra mile" they're strategically creating expansion "incentives" for pennies on every profit dollar and increasing their fees across the board, even more so on the guest side. This is the reason for many of the concerns shared amidst this community of airbnb consistently allowing guests to do as they with impunity. If they don't side with the guest their profit strategy fails. They say they back us up ($1million host protection and encourage us to create clear house rules), then avoid enforcement and liability, in addition to the myriad long term costs to the local economy and culture from dwindling affordable long term housing that's been converted to short term airbnb/vacay rentals...which more and more communities are addressing by imposing limitations, more taxes (borne by hosts), and outright bans.
This current state of affairs is very different from the original "home-shares" that this company created such a loyal following from, and which airbnb is still touting.
The formula for these internet-based intermediary money handling services is: Build it, keep overhead low by deferring inventory costs to service providers, profit as much as possible as quickly as possible, then sell out for a huge profit. It's NOT sustainable in any sense. Governments are now seeing the long term ramifications as they/we bear the cost of no tax contributions to funnel back into the community to address more homelessness...of many whom work in the lodging/tourism industry and cannot afford to live close enough to make it work anymore.
So, the boomerang is coming around to it's source to limit or ban Short Term Rentals and sewing up those mega-corporation tax-free loopholes... and it's time to sell out. Airbnb is in the last stages of growing as quickly as possible I preparation for an IPO that long with that of Uber has been talked about in the press for over a year. The shadow side of this "cowboy capitalism" is total lack of regard for the negative side effects of unrestricted profiteering without responsibility for damages (to communities they profit from) is showing it's face in this arena and many others. The party's almost over, and the better they look on paper (the more hosts, guests, and profits they can show), the more they earn with the IPO/buyout with the leadership walking away free, pockets overflowing with billions in tax-free profit before the government hammer comes down leaving us...wherever, possibly without this platform if it goes the way of Myspace and Lycos in years past.
Airbnb is also pricing itself at the top of the market to increase revenue before that IPO. I did comps on several single properties listed on multiple platforms as a potential guest. Airbnb's fees were the highest, plus the guest still has to pay additional fees of the multiproperty listers (see below).
The wholesalers/property managers/"boutique" hotels and chains airbnb has... invited in to expand their inventory (directly competing with indies like us) are simply listing their properties on airbnb and every other platform at their normal costs (plus the additional listing platform fees) in return for volume discounts and multiple policy concessions while they continue with business as usual at a lower listing cost.
We are forced to lower our prices to stay competitive with volume listers, and the cost of the expansion is passed on to the consumer.
IN ADDITION TO THE DISCOUNTS FOR VOLUME LISTING AND FEES FOR EACH BOOKING, AIRBNB ALSO ALLOWS THE VOLUME LISTERS (competing with us) TO OPERATE THIER BUSINESSES AS USUAL WITH THEIR CUSTOMARY LEASE AGREEMENTS, VERIFIED ID'S often for every adult occupant, WITH MATCHING FORMS OF PAYMENT (for the primary/responsible party) with additional credit card preapproval for SECURITY DEPOSITS, and OUTSIDE BILLINGS FOR ADD ONS (hot tub, pet, extra guest, parking, non-itemized owner fees (which many owners are unaware of), ALL OUTSIDE OF THE AIRBNB PLATFORM WITH AIRBNB'S FULL KNOWLEDGE AND AGREEMENT, whereas independent property/homestay hosts get punished/banned for the same thing.
In addition, wholesalers do not get penalized or banned for less than 5 star reviews (of which there are many). We get shut down.
And, IF YOUR BREAK THE RULES OF A WHOLESALER OR HOTEL YOU GET EVICTED, YOUR CREDIT CARD GETS CHARGED FOR THE TOTAL COST OF THE STAY, PLUS DAMAGE/LOSS, POLICE REPORTS GET FILED, etc. Some wholesale/management companies also charge and keep various add-on fees (usually less than $100) that do not apply to guests because they've set up their systems to auto charge them and know it's not worth the cost to file for small claims ($200+) to get it back...and are making bank on an additional stream of income because the wronged guests can't find each other and there will be 10 more bookings to make up for the loss of your business....because they market on every platform, many of which do not have reviews and even if they do, most guests aren't going to do the in depth research to find them across the various platforms.
So, DO look out for your best interests because you're the best one to do so. No one can run a marathon every day while being constantly stressed out and live very long. In creating your rates, would you rather run yourself ragged for a couple of extra bucks, or set your rates so you get paid at least a living wage for maybe 10% less bookings and enjoy what you're doing? It depends on your circumstance. Are you a multiproperty vendor who barely interacts with your guests or a "vintage style airbnb home-stay" provider with personalized service and amenities?
Whenever I hear a slick sales pitch aimed at making me feel like I'm getting a "deal," regardless of the demographic I follow the money trail and explore every possibility, because it's usually in favor of the one offering it, and is always enlightening...
...and never put all your eggs in a single basket.
