Prices for extra bed

[Bronwen3]

My apartment has one double bed, and a sofa bed.  On the website you can only charge extra after 2 guests, but I am finding a lot of friends, family travelling together who request a second bed on booking for two people.  Airbnb seems to assume two guests will be a couple.  It would be really good to be able to charge for the second bed if hosting two guests.  Otherwise you have to mention that in the description and then request money through the resolution centre which is rather messy and confusing for guests as the headline price will not charge extra until three or more guests. 

I hope that makes sense!  But anyone feels the same please feedback to Airbnb about it.  Linen does cost to wash and iron!  It makes hosting 2 guests needing two beds less economic, especially if you have a number of them back to back as I have had recently .  

I'd be interested to know what others think. 

[Ana1136]

@Bronwen3 you can charge extra after one guest. 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1507/how-do-i-add-a-fee-for-additional-guests-to-my-listing

[Moira21]

@Bronwen3  Hi, My thoughts are, you clearly state what you offer in the listing so guests know what they're getting when they book. If you've only 2 guests and they don't want to share the double bed then they'll just have to flip a coin as to who gets the bed and who gets the sofabed!!

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

@Bronwen3 I can understand your dilemma.... sometimes we have couples book, but then they sleep in separate beds. So they've made a booking for 2 people, and we expect that only the Queen size bed will be used, but after they leave we find that someone has slept in the single bed. Double the washing!!! 

We charge extra for a third guest.... but have never been able to work out how to charge for the use of the linen on the single bed, when only 2 people stay. And, I don't want to leave the single bed unmade.... as it looks unprofessional.

We also considered mentioning an extra charge for linen used on the single bed, but it seems all to messy and problematic.... so we haven't bothered. 

I'll be interested to know if you find a solution that works for you!

best of luck,

Michelle 🙂

[Lynette57]

@Michelle-And-Michael0   If you a set price for one person and additional for each extra person then all is covered. 

SIMPLE problem solved

Cheers Lynette

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

Hi @Lynette57 maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see it as being quite so simple.

If a booking is made for 2 people..... the price will remain the same, regardless of whether they choose to use 1 or both beds. Which doesn't cover the cost for the extra linen laundering. 

[Lynette57]

If you go to edit your listing , then go to extra charges and then edit guest number to be only 1 and all aditional at your required price , then 1 will be charged different to 2 or a couple.) hence 1 person ( 1bed) according to your listing is 140 per night then (eg additional charge $15 ) PN then 2 would be 155 and 3 would be 170. so if it was a couple in 1 bed then 155 would be your price wether its 1 or 2 beds

[Lorraine506]

nope, imho this would turn off other bookings for couples ex. 2 persons who are using the same bed.
 They wouldn’t want to pay per person nor an extra fee, as most assume a booking includes both people. 

[Bronwen3]

Yes! That's it!

[Bronwen3]

No because I'm happy for base cost to cover 2 people sharing the same bed, it's only if its 2 people requiring 2 beds. 

[Jenny-and-Adrian0]

I totally get what you're saying here Bronwen and am reading this thread with interest. I'm frustrated so far that people don't understand your dilemma. My listing offers  a Queen bed and a sofa. A mother and daughter booked in recently and one wanted the bed and one wanted to use the sofa. I offered that she could bring her own linen for the sofa or she could hire extra linen for $30. I thought this was completely fair, however the guest didn't see it that way and argued my listing didn't say anything about extra charges and states I have two 'beds' available. It got messy and uncomfortable and I ended up having to throw in the extra linen at no charge just to keep the guest happy. As you say, it IS extra work to make up the sofa bed and launder and an 'additional' person charge doesn't cover this when 2 people book and one wants to sleep in the sofa bed. Airbnb should address this. Sure I can bump the price up on all listings, but I don't see why everyone should pay extra instead of just the 2 person bookings who want the sofa bed. 

[Billie75]

The Airbnb’s I clean pop a bright coloured fitted sheet only on the beds the guests have not paid to use, and we only make up the beds with proper linen that they are using. This saves the spare beds being used and linen dirtied if they haven’t paid for them. It also saves time for the cleaner not to make the beds that aren’t being used in which lowers the cleaning fee. Just a suggestion that I find works really well 😁

[Rebecca]

Hello @Billie75, 

Thank you so much for sharing this tip! I'm tagging @Michelle-And-Michael0 here for you so they receive a notification that you've replied to them specifically, and increase the chances of them seeing your message. 

Quick tip: To tag someone, tap "@" and select the host's username from the dropdown menu. 😊

Additionally, since this is an old post from 2019, I would recommend that you start a new conversation here 👈 if you have any more great hosting tips you'd like to share with our community of hosts. This way, they will be more visible and inspire even more people.

I hope this helps!

[Sarah977]

@Bronwen3   Why are you under the impression that you can only charge more after the 2nd guest? That's not true.

[Bronwen3]

I know, thats not the issue! It's the cumbersome nature of how to charge for an extra bed for two guests, not sharing the main bed!