Charging a separate price for one night stays.

[Julia1]

I would like to be able to charge a supplement for one night stays to make them worthwhile for hosts - I have mentioned this numerous times to Airbnb at meetings but they have failed to take it on board and their only suggestion has been to make a cleaning fee. 

Is this something others want? At present I give a discount for 2 or more nights to make up for lack of supplement but this means my search price looks higher than it will probably be.

[Marius187]

We definitely need an ability to change listing price for 1 night. Cleaning fee is not an option as quest leave more mess around and they do not like this phytologically. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Marius187 If you put a nightly price you desire (high for one night stays) and then put in a discount for any length of stay from 2 nights upwards you will achieve your aim.

[Marius187]

Thank you. Somehow it allows me to provide discounts for at least 1 week or more.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Marius187 Ah - yes - Sorry. You need to go to your account and switch on Pro Tools. Then you can add a ruleset to your calendar that allows discounts to be set as I suggested.

Good luck (but tag me in your response if you still need help)

[Rachel2393]

Thank you so much for this info! I finally can control my pricing!

[Marius187]

Wow, @Mike-And-Jane0 , thank you. It allows to edit discounts now.

[Clara630]

I charge a cleaning fee if 130 . That is what my cleaner charges me. I want the place to be spotless. 

[Anna9170]

@Julia1  I read in various topics that hosts are" psychologically " against the cleaning fee and do not understand what is wrong.🤔
You can make this fee minimal, but it is an ideal tool for regulating prices if you rent a house from 1 night...Why aren't you surprised by Amazon or supermarket prices when 1 item isn't proportional to 5 items, it's business and it's normal.

[Chris11429]

Yes I’d like to charge a fee for one night stays and not have to pretend that the need doesn’t exist. And I’d still charge a cleaning fee. That way I could be transparent about the costs to my business. At present I’m charging about a fifth of the cost of cleaning. 

[Suzanne176]

With the fees Airbnb charge, they really could do better in consulting with hosts about what is important and necessary in reality at the ground level. To be able to display a single night price rather than hosts messaging to explain what's been noted in the listing and changing prices affects guests' confidence in booking with us. 

[Rachel177]

@Julia1 I used to charge a small cleaning fee of $25 & had done so for 2.5 years. At the beginning of the year I decided to trial removing the cleaning fee to see if it impacted my bookings.

I've increased my base rate for the room (week day and weekends as I have alway had different rates for those)  and then added an increasing discount for 3 day, 5 day and 7 day stays (my max stay is 10 days). I've not had any decrease in bookings & I'm still listed pretty high on search rankings. And I've had ancedotal feedback from guests that they appreciate when they put booking dates into my listing that they don't have the surprise of a cleaning fee added to the total of the booking - it has turned them off other listings in my area that are listed at a lower fee but then whack on a $100+ cleaning fee.

[Ashley1200]

Hi @Rachel177 May I ask how you set different prices for weekdays, weekends and then special discounts for 3, 5, 7 day stays? Maybe I'm missing something - or maybe it's because I have smart pricing on?? I don't see the option.

[Rachel2393]

Your question isn't for me, but I had the same issue. Read what someone posted about switching to pro tools from your account. Then you can add whatever discount you want for whatever days.

[Julia1]

Thanks Rob, will see how it goes.

[Julia1]

I am reluctantly charging a cleaning fee - my main argument against is that this is my home and the cleanliness standard is one I am happy with an not something I want to put a price on, plus I feel it is a bit dishonest to have a cleaning fee as it makes the headline price appear lower but hey ho I am giving it a go.  I still want Airbnb to do the right thing and allow us to charge a supplement for one night stays that is just what it is called.   

[Robin4 · Accepted solution]

@Julia1 

Good on you Julia, I totally understand you, and my feeling was the same as yours, but the fact is that, Airbnb do not give you an 'easy' option to price for random one night stays. 

Obviously there is double the work in 2 one night stays than there is in 1 two night stay, and the only way that you can reflect this extra work is to recoup it with a cleaning fee.

And it is fair Julia because, as the length of the stay increases the impact on the nightly price becomes less because the cleaning fee stays the same....it is a one off charge, not a nightly charge!

There are many aspects relating to listing your property that pose a challenge and will be misintepreted by guests simply because Airbnb do not give an option to clarify!

Many hosts like me offer some cooking facilities but we don't offer a  full Kitchen.....we need an option to offer a 'kitchenette', but we can't...we either list a kitchen....or we don't! It's not dishonest Julia, we just are not given the option.

Many hosts like me offer a private bathroom with laundry and drying facilities, hair dryer, make-up area, sink, first aid cabinet, a shower and a toilet.......but I don't have a bath-tub. The only listing options I have are, 1 x bath, or .5 x bath. the 1 x bath infers it has a tub.....the .5 x bath infers that it is simply a powder room! Julia, once again we are just not given the option!

Don't think of a cleaning fee as dishonest....or a reflection on your cleanliness standards ....it isn't. It's just a way we can get an accurate  return for the efort we put in.

All the best Julia.

Cheers......Rob

[Janja5]

My feeling is that guests who pay extra cleaning fee, feel they can leave the place in a mess, simply because they are paying the cleaning. I would immediately remove extra cleaning fee if I could charge extra 30% for those staying 3 nights or less. Our usual is 7 nights.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Robin4 There is now the option to add a kitchenette - Or at least there is in the UK

@Julia1 There are other one-off fees you could add if you don't want to call out a cleaning fee. look in pricing under 'other standard fees'

[Kath9]

@Julia1, like the others have said, charge a cleaning fee. Why wouldn't you? I would remove your discount for 2 nights or more, drop your overall price, then add a cleaning fee. That way, one-nighters pay more than 2 or more nighters and it doesn't show up as the price in your search.

[Christine615]

Agreed. I hated charging a cleaning fee but it takes 4 hours to clean for a single night or multiple nights. So the cleaning fee spread over several days is actually a lower per day rate than a one night rate. Plus I charge because it’s the only way to be competitive with other hosts. 

Our cleaning sing fee is for help with the laundry. If I really charged what it costs us to clean the whole place I would have to charge $100. 

Your only other choice is pick a high rate for a single night and a discount for 2+ nights. But you’ll be lower in the rankings.

Not ideal, but its the only option right now.

Our place is big so we eliminated one nights altogether. Too little revenue for too much hassle.

one last note. You can go into your settings and change rules to “one night” for specific days of the week. Then go to your calendar and  manually override your price to a higher price for those days.

But that’s a hassle so the previous options we gave you are the best options (cleaning fee or multi-day discount)