How to Charge Extra Fees for Services: A Community Help Guide

[Dave-and-Deb0]

There are often many people posting that they would like to charge extra fees for things which could include:

1. Pet fee
2. Bicycle rental
3. Tours
4. Airport pickup/dropoff
5. Extra cleaning
6. Tickets to events
7. Cooked meals
8. Anything else you can think of

Besides the cleaning fee and extra guest fees, Airbnb does not offer any additional charges that can be offered which will automatically apply to a reservation.  With that said, if you have an additional service in which you would like to charge for, you can include this in your listing.

You can advertise extra services on your listing by describing them in your listing description.  

If guests would like these additional services, you can charge for them in three ways.

1. Special Offer

When a guest makes an inquiry or request, you can add the additional services by making a special offer.  If it is an inquiry, you would need to add the cost of the additional services into the total price of the reservation including the cleaning fee and extra guests if you charge for these.  If it is a reservation request, you would need to decline the request and then make a special offer the same as the previous sentence.  Once the special offer is sent, Airbnb will add their guest service fee and applicable taxes if any.  Please note that the cost of the additional services will be included in calculation of the guest service fee.  For this reason, option 3 is more preferable for me.

2. Alteration Request

If you have a guest who has already booked, you can make an alteration request and add the addtional service charges into the total price.  Like a special offer, you need to ensure you enter the total amount including cleaning fee and extra guests in the amount box.  Here is a Help Guide for Alteration requests: https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Hosts/Change-Price-Number-of-Guests-Check-in-or-Check-out-Dates-A/m-...

3. Resolution Request

This is my preferred way of charging a guest for additional services because the guest and the host do not get charged a host or guest service fee (not yet).  If the guest guest makes a reservation and they would like any of these services, you can put the payment through using the resolution center at https://airbnb.com/resolutions and then choosing "Request payment for extra services".  This process can be used before, during or after the guests reservation.  If you are going this route, only include the cost of the additional services.  The other benefit of this is the charges are a separate transaction and easier to handle during tax time.  Here is a Help Guide on the resolution center: https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Hosts/The-Resolution-Center-A-Community-Help-Guide-Request-or-Offer/...

I hope this helps in understanding how to charge for additional services.

If this article has helped in any way, give it a thumbs up!

[Mirko2]

Hola, @Dave & Deb ! Do you perhaps know if any Airbnb charges or fees will be applied on the money we request to our guests for additional services? I mean... if items are not directly related to accommodation (such as bike rentals or special meals or shopping) will we still pay for Airbnb commisions, fees or any kind of charges?

[Kurt-and-Kim0]

We've always done #3 ask which is now called "send or request money".

However it should be noted that these fees are NOT broken out and displayed to you or your Guest anywhere, any longer. These requests used to show up in the message thread.

The fees are added to the reservation total and as there's no breakdown of nightly rates and these requests this leads to HUGE problems in trying to communication to your guests how totals are calculated. 

Cost is VERY important and we are hosts need to be able to see and demonstrate to our Guests how totals are arrived at. This is a HUGE problem currently on this platform that needs to be fixed. 

[Frank1455]

I didn't read all of the responses but this doesn't work for anyone that accepts Instant Bookings. I'm annoyed but I get it.

How would the client feel if they booked with you only to then get prompted "Oh pets costs extra". I find it annoying but the AirBnB product team intentionally left it out to ensure we don't nickel and dime guests and ruin the experience because, regardless of what we want, they are the marketplace and we can't always force what's easiest for us.

[Jacob635]

If I pay a host in advance for special services, but then the host were to cancel the reservation, is anybody able to confirm that I get refunded for the special services I paid them for? Can anybody confirm that the host will not receive the money until the stay starts?

[Meagan81]

When is the guest prompted to pay for an additional fee? 
I have a guest that hasn’t checked in yet. They chose to pay 50% up front and will pay the balance before they check in (Sept). I am sending her $140 request for additional fee, but she asked if she’d be required to pay that now or when the balance is due. Good question that I don’t know the answer to. Does anyone know?

[Derek500]

Do you know if extra services would be covered under Airbnb insurance?

[Jo140]

I've been chasing this answer through Airbnb resolution centre 

for over 6 weeks now

[Patricia2169]

Good afternoon,

I have a question. 

If I personally offer a "Package Deal" for guests staying 5-7 days, during the three month High Season, does AirBnB get a portion of the payment received from guests and is included in the reservation?

Thank you,

Superhost in Sarlat, France  🙂

[Jo140]

so late fees for guests keeping property mgr waiting 1.5 hours while they decide to  just stop for lunch or unnecessary callout fees for Prop mgr to just plug in the washing machine even after troubleshooting over ph or keeping cleaner's waiting so not ready for next booking can't be claimed back on Aircover even with proof and even if it states late fee charges on hosts listing? If not then there's no way to stop overstaying guests or guests abusing the prop mgr callouts unnecessarily and hosts copping the extra costs