Charging a separate price for one night stays.

[Viktoria56]

Currently I am on price tips because it's the off season where we are.

I currently have a 2 night minimum because it's just not worth it with the costs of washing towels and sheets for one night stays BUT I was thinking I could charge a little more for one night stays to offset this cost but I don't see how to do that.

Can someone tell me how to do that?

[Elena87 · Accepted solution]

@Viktoria56 

Alas, you can't just bump up the price of a single night stay by adding a special supplement. There are some possible solutions but a bit nit-picky though.

What you could do is raise your base price to a high enough level that would make it worth your while to host single nights, taking into consideration a cleaning fee.

If your core business is multiple nights, but the price is now too high with the higher base price, you may add percentage discounts for two, three etc night bookings using 'length of stay' discounts. This would give a differential to single nights against multiple night bookings.

You can also consider a second listing; only opening up orphan days in your calendar but always using a higher base price.

[Viktoria56]

 Yes, nit-picky is a good word. I call it complicated and host-unfriendly... kind of like the star system. Seems that ABNB should open this up more to this possibility. I like the price tips for the off season... Seems counter productive to even appear to charge more and then take off 20% just to try to break even on a single night. Price tips this time of year can be extremely low, while ok for a 2 night stay , is totally counter productive on a one night stay. Thank-you for your suggestions. I chatted with an agent yesterday and basically they told me the same thing. What is an orphan day?

[Alexandra316]

@Viktoria56 You can use the cleaning fee to effectively charge more for a single night. That's the way I use it.

[Faruk38]

How do you charge cleaning fee for 1 night stay and not for 2, 3 or week stays?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Faruk38 I think it is more likely the poster meant that by having a cleaning fee of say $50 then it adds $50 per night to a 1 night stay but only $5 to a 10 night stay.

[Viktoria56]

Hi Alexandra, Yes but even with a fair cleaning fee the single nights on some price tips nights still wouldn't be worth it. I would still have to keep my 2 night minimum. Thank-you very much for your suggestion. I will mull it over more 😉

[Alexandra316]

@Viktoria56 Yes, it's a bit awkward. Letting us charge more for a single night would probably stop a lot of hosts from charging a cleaning fee at all: I use is as a single-night tax myself, and I know a lot of other hosts do the same.

[Viktoria56]

Hi Alexandra, Yes! Exactly. I just went in and raised all of my prices and then gave discounts for 2-5 nights but kept the cleaning fee to offset a little. Do you only charge the cleaning fee for the one night stays? Or for all of them?  ALSO, Do you know how to change the preview listing price in the lower left corner? Mine says 25,000cl  because that's what I raised all of the nights to but with the discounts it's more like 20,000. I don't know how it gets to that number or how I can change that. Thank-you for all of your help. While ABnB agents are for the most part patient and professional some of them are a bit robotic and get on my nerves a little 😉

[Alexandra316]

@Viktoria56 That's a good idea.

I charge the cleaning fee for all stays, but on longer stays it averages out to not much per night so it's not a disincentive. I only charge $25 Canadian.

You can't change the preview price, unfortunately. It gives the price of your cheapest night without taking any discounts into consideration. One thing that you can do to fool it is set a cheaper night way out in the future, then the system will use that as your cheapest price. It's kind of cheating the system a little bit, but if it's accurate for you, I think it's fine. It drives me crazy when I find a place that says it's $75 a night, but then when you set your dates it's actually $400; that wouldn't be the case for you though.

[Viktoria56]

Thanks Alexandra, Good idea! No, 25,000 chilean pesos is only about 35USD.  The reality is that most of my nights with all of the discounts are closer to 20,000 pesos per nite, not 25. Here people are always looking for the cheapest thing. I offer a decent breakfast and we have an ocean view so I don't like to rumble around in the cheapness gutter. I'm pretty new, since end of December 2018 but I had non-stop guests since I started. Now it's the off season so I'm experimenting a bit 😉 Thank-you again!

[Bruce286]

Hey ABnB!!!  This is an easy fix!  Insert code for single night bookings or give discounts for multiple night bookings.

I have this issue too!  

[Suzanne534]

I agree that it would be really helpful to have a one night booking option. I have a Shepherds Hut in a very rural location and I am sure that there is a requirement for this. Please Airbnb make this a simple option.

[Robyn216]

The cost of one night stays is becoming exceedingly expensive. They are very popular for my airbnb but the linen and cleaning cost is a killer. come on Air BNB what about giving us the option with a specific code for one night stays please.

[Robyn216]

I have just written to AirBNB re  the cost of one night stays and the need for a separate pricing. Below is what I wrote...maybe we should all send a message to Airbnb so they can see the need as only one or two comments are not effective enough. Happy for people to copy and adapt my message.

"The cost of one night stays is becoming exceedingly expensive. They are very popular for my airbnb area but the linen and cleaning cost is a killer. I visited the community help area and conversation re exactly this point. It seems people from around the world are having the same problem. Surely it would be worthwhile for AirBNB and hosts to provide an option (e.g. a specific code allowing a more feasible price) for one night stays. There was plenty of conversation about other ways of doing this but none of them actually solve the problem and most seem to create more. I know I cannot continue offering one night stays in 2020 unless I am able to charge a higher fee for the linen etc and cleaning. Can you please look into this and assist. I look forward to your reply and assistance."