ADD A PET FEE ALREADY!!

[Bud-and-Beth0]

It has now been several years since the last discussion about this, even though Airbnb thought it lookEd like a great idea it has still not been implemented. There should be a way for guests to drop down and add pets the same way they add guests with an associated pet fee that goes with it. We are managers with over 20 properties. 80% Of our bookings want to bring pets. (We do have it in listing that pets are welcome for a fee ). This means they book, once confirmed they have to send a request to add the pet, we have to then manually adjust the reservation that came into our integrated system to add the pet, and then request the pet fee through the resolution center. If a booking hasn’t been paid in full yet, we have to WAIT to ask for the pet fee which means setting reminders to do so before the guest arrives.
Then there’s the hassle of payment: The payment is made separately through the resolution center, is not included in the regular reservation payout info, doing the accounting for all of it is a nightmare. Oh yeah, and what about sales tax? In our state Airbnb collect sales tax. Except for pet fees. So that means I have to do a whole separate massive accounting spreadsheet to collect and remit sales tax on just pet fees over four tax areas. This is literally hours a week and my part-time office employee spends most of their time managing pet fees!!!!  
The dumbest part about it is that Airbnb clearly could be collecting money on this too. 

[Ann72]

@Bud-and-Beth0  So annoying.  And while they're at it, a fee for weekly housekeeping!

[Anonymous]

@Bud-and-Beth0 Yes, this is one of the simplest and most useful improvements @Airbnb  could make. 

Hosts should be able to have a drop-down menu built into pricing for all optional add-ons that they offer (or perhaps two - one for per-night items and one for per-stay). This would also allow for meals, pickup services, parking, and premium amenities like pool access to be accounted for without the frequently buggy and unwieldy Resolutions process.

[Marilyn53]

Adding a pet fee option in a drop down menu is so simple and I don't understand why airbnb is so reluctant to do this.  We have been asking for this for years.  VRBO does it.  PLEASE stop making us do so much extra work for a simple solution.

[BenkaandKeith0]

We've reported, pleaded,... dozens of times during our 6.5 years of hosting. Nothing. Ignorance. And more work that we do not need in addition. Last time I asked Airbnb when they are planing on lowering their commission and giving us, the hosts that difference, since they are not helping to fix any of the problems so many thousands of us are facing.

[Bill1080]

@Bud-and-Beth0 I recently worked my way through the chat system trying to find out why this has not been done yet, despite the long history of hosts asking for it. I just wanted a simple answer for why it is not implemented yet. Is it a software problem? Is it some kind of a liability problem? Does management see it as not important? Or is it something else that I can't imagine? My first conversation online took 30 minutes to receive 3 generic, yet ungrammatical, sentences which told me nothing. Clearly I was one of many others who were chatting with one person, as there were long gaps between my question and an answer. I then asked for it to be kicked up to supervisor level. I received a very nice email from a supervisor who still did not give me the why, but at least explained that it was being considered to add the pet fee button, and that they were well aware that it would be helpful to many of us. Not only is it maddening to have to work so hard for a straight answer, it is also maddening to have to work so hard to make contact with someone with any authority at all.

Our properties are in a town in Florida which advertises itself widely as pet friendly, so a large percentage of our guests travel with their dogs. It would be so much simpler if AirBnB would listen to the needs of its hosts on this issue.

[Lorna170]

Pet fee PLEASE!  90% of my rentals are guests with pets....I would like to get paid for picking up the poo.

[Bud-and-Beth0]

Add insult to injury: instead of working on something that would help hosts like adding the option for a pet fee, Airbnb decides to implement this "off-platform policy" where I apparently now cannot use the custom app we created SPECIFICALLY SO GUESTS COULD ADD PET FEES! Again: instead of resolving the issue of adding pet fees, they spent their time creating a new policy that makes it more difficult to manage pet fees. 

[Matt11]

Let's stay active on this! With all the ipo money, this seems like an easy fix and I don't see any downside. Gusts disclose the pet in the booking, it calculates the new booking fee and it prevents the back and forth and extra fees after booking that hosts and guests hate. 

[Lorna170]

Most jurisdictions require vacation rentals and other transient properties to disclose all fees and service charges at the time of booking.  Other OTAs have taken note and provide an option for a Pet Fee.  What is AirBnB's problem?  It is total BS that they are "considering it".   They have been "considering it" for many years if you look at past posts.  Get with it Air, ADD THE PET FEE PLEASE.