Share the ways you are coping with increased expenses

[Don_Michelle0]

We are right now dealing with the shock of our Airbnb hosting life! Our energy monthly costs have soared to more than double and approaching triple what they were just one year ago.  We are pre-booked with guests through this November.  I just closed all of February/March/April off our booking calendar until we can get this figured out.  We used to 'clear' as our net income approximately $900 a month (after paying for the guest house's related expenses) which was a big enough help to covering our own side of personal expenses to make full time hosting 'worth it'.  Right now we are approaching a break even net income and as I mentioned we are booked solid until November.

Here's what I've done for the moment:

1.  I've blocked our calendar for the highest energy consumption months of Jan/Feb/March  (we are in Bellingham Wa where winter is coldest and wettest during these months).

2. Question:  How would you handle a very expensive to operate hot tub? Our operating cost has jumped from roughly $6 day to keep it mid-way to temp up to $10 day when guest use it daily all the way up to now being $10 day to keep it mid way to temp and almost $30 day propane costs when guests are using it daily.   -- Any thoughts or ideas on how to reduce this or???

3. Our rates for our location and amenities appears to be maxed out -- we are $68 night Sun-Wed $70 night Thurs and $75 night Fri & Sat (we have a 3-night minimum)  - We removed the discount completely for week+ stays because they cost us more now   and we've reduced our monthly stay discount down from 28% to 23% and honestly I think I'm about to disallow any longer stays than 31 nights because we have seen guests become more and more difficult after this period of time (they start behaving differently it's a strange dynamic) and and of course losing over 20% of the income we would have made from shorter stays is hard to reason right now.

4. Question:  How many do not offer 'cable / local tv'? (it's a shared tv service we have so we'd only be saving the $15 box rental fee - but any saving at this point would be helpful)  We have wifi that solely belongs to the farmhouse/guesthouse so it's a totally separate bill that too has increased over 50% from just under $75 a month DSL to $112 (for the same level of service) but there's nothing we can do about that we're live in a rural area and only have one provider.  

5.  We're considering not allowing 'work from home' guests anymore.  They use the most energy obviously and as I right now look back over this year so far that has been the majority of our guests -- so... Question:  Disallow work from home guests? or Increase cost for work from home guests?

Well that's about the top of the list of questions I'd love to hear other hosts thoughts or experiences on...

Michelle & Don
Mace Meadows Inn

[Gillian166]

---

@Don_Michelle0 wrote:

 Question:  How would you handle a very expensive to operate hot tub? Our operating cost has jumped from roughly $6 day to keep it mid-way to temp up to $10 day when guest use it daily all the way up to now being $10 day to keep it mid way to temp and almost $30 day propane costs when guests are using it daily.   -- Any thoughts or ideas on how to reduce this or???

4. Question:  How many do not offer 'cable / local tv'? (it's a shared tv service we have so we'd only be saving the $15 box rental fee - but any saving at this point would be helpful)  We have wifi that solely belongs to the farmhouse/guesthouse so it's a totally separate bill that too has increased over 50% from just under $75 a month DSL to $112 (for the same level of service) but there's nothing we can do about that we're live in a rural area and only have one provider.  

5.  We're considering not allowing 'work from home' guests anymore.  They use the most energy obviously and as I right now look back over this year so far that has been the majority of our guests -- so... Question:  Disallow work from home guests? or Increase cost for work from home guests?

---

@Don_Michelle0  oh the timing of this! I just made the tough decision to shut down our pool heating for july/august (our cold winter months). I messaged all my future bookings and only 1 out of 20 said they were going to use the pool and they all understood. We just can't get the pool warm enough, despite running it 18hrs a day, (we have solar at least but still, it's too much), and only a handful were using the pool. We spent $15K this year buying a pool heater and blanket, still a good investment as our very large pool is freezing all year long, so now in summer i'll be able to get the pool to the perfect level of "cold".

 Our energy costs are increasing too, and the cost of firewood seems to increase every year. so far i've already spent $2k on firewood and we still have 2 solid winter months to get through, plus sept-nov can still be chilly here. They used to do free delivery but now they add $20 on for delivery, and with fuel prices going up, can't blame them, it's tough all round. I worked out that one log of redgum costs me @ 50c , and to reduce costs of a fire we now light the fire for our guests, so we do it properly without letting guests waste precious firewood. Lately the #1 comment in our reviews is how much guests love coming in to see a lit fire, and snuggling on the sofa in front of the fire with a glass of wine, so it's a worthwhile investment. looking at your listing it seems that the hot tub is a big hit, and your reviews are 5* perfect so you're doing everything right!

I have just nudged my prices up 5-$10, this is enough I think to cover the daily energy bills (i'm waiting on the next bill to truly know). I would echo others that you're clearly too cheap if you're booked out that far ahead. my weekends are all fully booked up to August, which is why I knew i could nudge those prices up a smidge. You have plenty of wiggle room to increase your pricing, it seems way too cheap to me.  You have some orphan days in August, push the price up and test it out. if you pushed it up $10 then you'd not need to charge for the hot tub. 

I am very seriously considering next year we will close for the worst winter month. (and I might just take myself off to a tropical spot too), i guess we'll see how energy costs are by then.  

PS i'm just around the corner from @Robin4  so you'll have to check us out too! haha. stay with him first and enjoy the very generous food basket, haha. 

[Don_Michelle0]

@Gillian166 

I'm so glad this conversation came a good time for you as well!! Sounds like our difficulties are definitely similar. I have to assume that so many other hosts are dealing with a similar dilemma so I suspect many-many hosts will have to make increases and testing prices. How lovely to have the pool but yes -- now what a time to have to manage those costs.

I've begun making the changes price increases and discount removals - as I mention in a reply above I did 'the math' last night and was dishearten by all that we could have made over the past six months that would have better offset these increases and that likely would not have made much a difference on the guests who chose to book. So, we should be in a much better position after these increases take affect beyond all the prebooked guests and who knows -- maybe for the first time I'll be hoping for a few cancellations so that spots could get rebooked at the new rates 🙂

Okay you got it!! We'll come see you after Robin!! 🙂 🙂  Take care -- and feel free to stay in touch with us on our social which can be located by the hashtag macemeadowsinn

[Gillian166]

@Don_Michelle0  found you on insta, with _  _  i don't bother with facebook, too much of a time suck.

[Don_Michelle0]

I'm just in that lagging group that has focused more the fb and I forget quiet often to make sure I'm mirroring posts on the other(s) Lol... I let it all drop a bit over the pandemic as so many of our local activities weren't happening ... it so wonderful to see everything coming back!!

[Ted307]

@Gillian166 

I am with you on closing during the worst weather. We have rare snow here, but when it falls you run the heat! Ours is propane. OUCH! Shoveling the snow for the guests to drive in and out is also a problem. So, if we see snow in the forecast, we close.

[Don_Michelle0]

@Ted307,  we're propane also up here in Bellingham, Wa for the heat and hot tub and I don't know what the prices are like down in AZ but you'd be probaly shocked to see what they've jumped to up here where it used to be the more affordable option 🙂  Hope you're having a wonderful time in the southwest.  Were you two 'snow-birds' before you decided to relocate from Seattle?

[Ted307]

@Don_Michelle0 

Hi! We were Seattle-ites before retirement. We had family in So. Cal, so we went there first. HOT! HOT! HOT! We did reverse snowbird, back to the Pac. NW in the summer. Then we stayed one summer in Prescott and decided our snowbird days were over. It is sunny here, with a cooler summer than the lower elevations.

I can't imagine heating a hot tub with propane! We use a small Mr. Buddy heater in our old time bunkhouse. It uses 2 20 lb. tanks for a weekend in the Winter. Last winter, it was ~$7.00 to fill a gas bottle, so we figured $15.00 per weekend. If we needed to pay more than that, we would have to raise our prices. That would only work for holidays -- Christmas and New Year's Eve are very popular for the Phoenix guests. And just a light dusting of snow is very pretty up here! Prescott makes a big show of lighting up for Christmas.

Propane is our only option for heating and the stove in the bunkhouse. We do not have enough electric service to run an electric stove or furnace. We were able to get a circuit to run the hot water heater, the only way to have a vacation rental in the USA. No hot shower, no visitors, not even our children . . . 😉

This place used to be heated with wood! No natural gas to the bunkhouse, and the gas company will not even come and give us a bid on it. Once it was available, but it was cut, and now we can not seem to get it again. The propane stove only uses a bottle every 6 months or so. When we fill our gas bottles in the fall, we will have to make a decision on our winter prices.

Chris

[Helen744]

@Don_Michelle0 the only thing I can suggest is the wifi be user pays. we keep ours topped up and pay as we go . This appears more expensive if we are topping up $30 per guest per time over two days but some guests barely use it while others drain it . It actually works out cheaper than having continouous . If we have just filled it and it runs out then we have no qualms in asking the guest to pay to top it up. I think your prices are way too low if you are supplying a hot tub in the winter. That is a luxury and people need to pay for their luxuries. So a 'pool fee'  would appear appropriate . The fact that you have a hot tub does not necessarily mean it will be functioning in cold weather. Simply explain to guests for the reasons above that a fee applies for every hot tub use and they can buy a book of say ten or five or two and use them during their stay and give them times , like before dinner or early morning . Have a time when it shuts . It should be making you money , not draining it . H

[Gillian166]

you can set in your listing that the pool is seasonal, and list the months you have it open. I hope you can do the same for hot tubs?

[Polly14]

Dear Don and Michelle, Thank you So much for the original post. The responses were so heartfelt 💕and reminded me why I choose to host through Airbnb vs other companies! Good luck 🍀 to you lovely people. 

[James413]

Dear Don,  I have had the same problems and Airbnb always want me to reduce my rates.  I go to hotels.com and find out how much it would cost me to stay in a hotel room.  Since my property and rooms are as good as most 5 star hotels I feel I should get at least what a local Marriot charges.  I figure the total price including what Airbnb adds on for the guest and make the rate according to what they pay at a hotel.  In this area most weekends and holidays are higher.  I still give a small discount for monthly stays.  I charge a daily charge

in addition if they want to use the kitchen.  I suggest you advertise the use of the hot tub

is optional and if the guests want the use of it charge in advance a daily charge for every day they stay.  If they don't want the hot tub I would secure it so it can't be used.  I  always remember that Airbnb is in business to make money.  They want us to pay fare wages

but don't want us to charge enough to cover the costs.  You have think of your goal.

Working for nothing is just not worth it.  My guests tell me for the service they get I don't charge enough.  I never have complaints about the cost.  I work hard to treat each guest

like I would want to be treated.  I get many repeat guests and thank Airbnb for having

a platform for hosting.

[Inna22]

@Don_Michelle0 

Instead of blocking those days, raise the price to where all the expenses are covered ++. If no one books – you were going to block it anyway. But what if people do? This can also be a trial run on how high your prices can go.

we offer local stations only and people do mention that they want more. I am slowly converting TVs to Roku or Google TVs

you have to think about the demographic of your guests. Mine are large groups and they’re not going to be booking three weeks in advance. 12 friends don’t usually decide they’re going to travel in a couple weeks. It’s usually planned far out. I like to be booked three months in advance. Most people according to all studies book about a month in advance. Unless you are catering to a very specific traveler type that might have other habits, most likely you are safe having an open calendar up to three weeks out. One thing I do is start lowering my rates as it gets closer to the time. Keep raising your rates until you’re booked about a month out and start lowering the rates for the open dates every couple of days up until the date itself. I often get last minute bookers. I don’t allow same day bookings though.