Considering making my AirBnB pet friendly - best way to handle pet fee

[Jessica3441]

Hello!  I am fairly new with my AirBnB (8 months) and have a beachfront home in Costa Rica.   I started out in the high season and have done extremely well with bookings  (yay!).  Now that it's low season, there are less Americans traveling but it still is desirable for those in Costa Rica to head to the beach for a weekend to surf and hang out.  In the low season (Sept - Nov), where I don't yet have any bookings, I think I could increase bookings by being open to accepting 1-2 dogs.  From my understanding through AirBnB I would need to charge one flat fee and it's spread out as a nightly fee.  ideally I'd like to add the fee after they book so I can charge it as a per night fee (example $25/dog per night) after I share the pet agreement with them.  

1. What do you think is a reasonable per night pet fee?  Being on the beach I know there will be a mess of sand in the house + wear & tear + fur on furniture, stains, etc.  

2. Is your preference to add it through AirBnB fee upfront or as a reservation change based on # nights?  Can you explain why for each scenerio?  

Thanks!

[Rita266]

I don't feel my spot is safe for kids but I do allow pets. 

RitaAnn~

[Ea7]

I am very new to hosting, as we are currently on our 4th set of guests. We decided to go all in on making our home dog-friendly. Our housekeeper charges us $50.00 extra per cleaning, so we pass that fee on to our guests as an extra cleaning fee. Allowing dogs has helped us get quite a few bookings, but I can't tell you what the wear and tear is now. As others have pointed out, kids can be a lot harder on the home than dogs are 🙂

Cheers!

EA

[Jessica3441]

@Ea7 Thanks for sharing your experience, it's very helpful!

[Bhumika]

Hi @Jessica3441 , You've received many advice from Hosts @Ea7 @Loren3156 @Jennifer3604 and @Sandrine1111 . Have you picked up their tips and implemented them based on your requirements? 

I also wanted to share a few Airbnb articles, in case you're looking for some references : 👉What you need to know about hosting pets 👈

Do keep us posted how you're moving forward with pet fees!

[Rita266]

Thanks for this article. 

RitaAnn~