Extra guest charge

[Angela2638]

Good Morning,

I have a large house that sleeps 14.  Over the winter i seem to be booked for the weekends but empty in the week.  I want to encourage guests to stay in the week.   I was thinking of offering the property at a reduced price if the minimum guests were lower ie 6 and then adding £50 per guest.

I am unsure how to do this?  I have changed the setting to 6 and £50 extra.  However it has changed the pricing for the summer months which is at a fixed rate, which i don't want.   I also want the larger bookings in the busy time and weekends. ( don't want only 6 people booking in August at the significantly lower rate)

Is there a way of saying for example. 

In the week 6 people at £300 with extra guests £50 per person.   

Weekend standard rate of £550 but caters for 14 guests.   

Thank you for your time.

Angela

[Emiel1]

@Angela2638 

unfortenately the "extra guest fee" is a basic setting for the whole listing and can not be set or changed for specific time periods. So your only option that way is making a second listing for the weekdays in winter.

Or use discounts  for the specific weekdays period, by applying a ruleset to them which has a % decrease on the normal price.

[Laura2592]

@Angela2638 I would rethink this "sleeps 14" strategy. Good heavens. I see that you have put extra beds in many of the bedrooms. If it were me. I would only do one bed per room and have a max of 10 guests. 

"Sleeps 14" is treading dangerously close to the ABB party ban and you will likely not encounter the highest quality of guest. The best strategy, particularly when starting out, is to keep stays short and numbers limited with a per guest/per night price that will scare away influencers looking for a place to hold a party for their Insta story.  

If you don't already have a minimum stay, try doing 2 or 3 nights. You can also advertise as a work from home space, writer's or artist's retreat to encourage more midweek stays. 

[Brian2036]

If it were feasible to divide the house into two separate units with separate entrances you could probably increase your profits.

14 guests seems like a lot of trouble, a lot of cleaning, and a lot of repairs.

 You have what looks like a very desirable location and I would imagine that one 2BR plus 1 3BR would generate more income. Of course someone could always rent both units if they wanted more space.

[Elena87]

@Angela2638 

There isn't a way of pricing up a listing to the way you suggest.

I'd think you have to be realistic with a large house.

There aren't many large groups travelling together during low season weekdays.

Perhaps to be satisfied with peak season and weekenders. Avoiding contractors for example.

I'd agree, 14 occupancy in even a 5 bedroom house is beyond reasonable optimism.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Angela2638 You could create a second, cheaper listing(s) for 2 or 3 bedrooms and then lock the remaining bedroom doors. Just make sure the calendars are linked to your other listing(s).

[Elaine701]

@Angela2638 

We have a similar situation, where in summer, we can price the whole house at one premium rate, an we'll be guaranteed to be fully booked at full rate. 

But in the winter, it's rare that we'll have a full house. Usually, it's couples, two couples maybe a family of 5. If we price it at a full house rate, then it will be priced out of the market, and receive few bookings, if any.

But if we reduce the winter price to be palatable for say, 4, then we can be guaranteed to be hosting 8, because it's so cheap per person, that they see it as a "must take", and we end up getting pennies per person, which is untenable for us 

Conversely, if we had a per person rate in summer, it would consistently be booked for 2, 3, 4, 5.... And, we'd lose the premium guaranteed revenue. 

On Airbnb, you can't change the pricing structure on a seasonal basis. It's either a whole house flat rate or on a per person basis. 

So we have two listings, one for summer, with a flat rate for the entire house, and a winter listing, with a per person rate. The more people, the higher the price. We block the winter on the summer listing, and block the summer on the winter listing. 

The only problems are:

A) it's impossible to sync both calendars with another booking platform because both Airbnb calendars will block the entire year in the other platforms, unless you do the same 2 listing system on the other platforms, which in some cases, makes no sense, because other platforms have seasonally adjustable pricing models. So, two listings on the others, or do it all manually. 

B) Some guests like to book the 2 person price, and bring 6, expecting to use the other bedrooms for free. We have 2 mechanisms to help prevent this. First, we simply vet the guests extensively, and make sure they understand that a 2 person booking means 2 persons and ONE bedroom. If they want more persons/bedrooms, there's an additional price. Second we lock the unused bedrooms. So, even if the guest assumes they can get away with it, they can't. Surprise! Oh, how many people now? That's an additional xxx. 

🙃