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. 

[Roberta2]

Hi @Bronwen3 

I travel a lot with my mother, so I always look for places with 2 beds / 2 bedrooms / bed + sofabed.

I allways tell the host that I am traveling with my mum and, because of that, we need the 2 beds made up.

Same happened last year, when we traveled in 4 people (1 couple + 2 friends). we looked for places with 3 bedrooms, told that it would be 4 people, but we needed 3 beds made.

Not once we were charged. Maybe they assumed that it would be less people having showers / etc?

If you are renting a place with 2 beds, I would assume that it is because you need the 2 beds, otherwise, I would look for a place with only 1 bed, right?

[Shelley130]

Not if it’s a sofa bed.

[Paul154]

The easiest way to accomplish what you want is to create 2 listings.

One listing has one bed, the other listing has two beds.

LInk them together to prevent double bookings.

You don't even have to remove the extra bed, just don't provide linens.

[Lisa723]

@Bronwen3 @Paul154 @Roberta2 @Marie82 @Christine615 

What Paul said. That’s exactly what I do. My space has 4 listings, each with a unique configuration of available beds and maximum occupancy.

[Debra300]

I believe that the desire is to have the ability to charge extra based upon the number of guests (which we already have) AND the number of beds that will be used (which can vary depending upon guest sleeping prefernces).   This type of reservation is similar to what's seen for hotels.  Two guests may request one queen/king bed, or two double beds, and the room rates are charged according to the accommodation type.

[Shirley92]

Guests requiring 2 beds is very labor/cost intensive ESPECIALLY when this occurs with back to back one night reservations (which happens often during season). I would love to have the ability to charge for the extra bed. So far the best suggestion seems to be to charge extra for each "person" over 1 and provide a refund if only 1 bed is used.

[Charles224]

Hi @Bronwen3 ,

We have also had to deal with this issue,  but are fortunate that our beds are in separate rooms (which we can lock off).

As many guests really are 'single' travelers, I write; "You are the only booking: Please book for 3 Persons if you need both rooms". This mostly works, and I politely mention "the 2nd room will be locked" in our initial correspondence (which will alert a guest to the issue before check-in).

I agree with the statements that AirBnb should have a "Per-Bed" pricing option as an alternative to "Per-Person".

The work of making beds is greater than cleaning a couple of extra towels, and in my case, both rooms are ensuite..

[Bronwen3]

Unfortunately my set up is different so I cant block off one room.  But thanks for the insight its useful to hear how others manage

[Michelle53]

I have a per-guest additional fee after one person. That comes with its own issues, but I think I would find it intrusive to ask guests how many beds they plan to use. I've had couples be "intimate" in all the available beds, so ended up doing laundry for four instead of two. I've also had someone tell me they only booked for one person because they only plan to use one bed. 

Maybe there are neutral ways to ask the question of how many beds people plan to use. 

Since my costs aren't really in laundry - it's not that much more expensive to have two sets of sheets in the washer/dryer than one -  they are more related to water-usage for showers etc, and the large number of devices people want to plug in,  and I don't iron sheets, so sure, it takes more time to make two beds rather than one, but I feel my costs are recouped by the per-guest fee. 

[Bronwen3]

I do iron my sheets.  If the booking is say a father and daughter then I would always make up the two beds, or people say they are friends, or recently I had three women all related, and I just made up the bed.  The main problem is just when its two people as singles. 

[Michelle53]

@Bronwen3  I just have all the beds made up, for each reservation. One is a pull-out bed, so I only have that ready if I have four guests (my maximum). 

I had it happen, one time, that someone booked for one, which travelling in a group of four. I didn't find that out until day of check-in, where he said the other folks "weren't going to stay the night, but just shower and change" before catching their flight out. Which, to me, is using the amenities, and so I charged them the extra fee.

As it happened, their flight was cancelled due to weather, so they all spent the night, anyway, and I didn't have to rush in and make up extra beds. 

[Bronwen3]

Thats good it all worked out!

[Joel953]

This is how I handle the use of my roll away bed. Clearly stated as an upcharge and only available if the fee has been paid for upfront.