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

[Don_Michelle0]

@Robin4 This a beautiful spotlight host moment! Your writing is lovely as well - brings us right there. An you're so right -- we forget to stop and focus on all the magical moments! We had more of them the first year into the second year of hosting. What a lovely setting area also!!!! Don will love to hear this story I'll share it with him! We have similar experiences, guest come to stay because of the horses and critters and so many have arrived with a fear of them but our boys are so people and dog friendly and Don always encourages them to trust the horse and interact with them and they are so grateful to leave with a different emotion about horses!!! That is indeed and wonderful feeling as a host!

[Helen744]

@Robin4 what a lovely story Robin and a magical one to boot.Charming hosts with magical ways is not often seen in a review but it should be. Hats off to you  H

[Laurelle3]

@Robin4 love your treasure trove in your garden, your personal touch with communication with your guests. My husband is involved with Mens Shed in NSW and they would have said that you "Talked Shoulder to Shoulder" with your male guest from Shanghai and allowed him to experience another way of life.

From what I have read in the past from your writings that you love to "Share" you experience in life and your love of Ade by being her Carer. Take care, keep up the spirit of Airbnbing for your guests and your community. Hopefully we will meet one day when we get back to SA.

[Gillian166]

@Robin4   oh my, Rob, goosebumps! what a great experience for your guests, and for you too.  

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi Robin,

Thank you so much for sharing this touching story and it honestly just warms my heart so much. I appreciate our Hosting community, and especially Hosts like you who create special, catered experiences for guests.

Many thanks for all you do,
Catherine

@Robin4 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Don_Michelle0  This is a very good question and I am sure most hosts wonder how and at what price we will host next winter. It is not only the question of price but we may face the restrictions on gas and electricity as well.

I already raised my prices for 25% and doubled the cleaning fee and it should save me through the summer.  I decided to close my calendar from October onwards because nobody can predict the cost of gas and electricity.

I am sorry that Airbnb doesn't have the option to charge the utility extra, by consumption. It would help, especially when hosting 1+ stays and digital nomads.

[John5097]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

What a bind! Russia has cut gas exports though the Nord 1 by additional 50% or so for supporting Ukraine. 

I just upgraded my listing with a mini spit heat pump and it was such a big deal. And now when I see the images of the apartment buildings in Ukraine after a bomb, they have all these mini split heat pumps dangling off the outside of of the building which is now heap of rubble. But at one time they all had their hopes and dreams and upgraded their apartments with the mini splits, and now don't have anywhere to live if they even survived.  

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@John5097  I had to google to find out what mini split heat pump is 🙂 That's a common A/C system in EU, it cools, dries, or heats. But  even strong models are not enough for heating in cold winter.

[John5097]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

Maybe they are just called ductless. Yes once it gets below freezing they become far less capable, although can be configured with an auxiliary back up heat source thats only activated below a set temp. I"m strating to google all kinds of stuff like hydrogen. The US is experiencing rolling blackouts so the grid as well as many other things have lagged behind. But hey gotta have those heated pools and hot tubs for the Arctic stays. For the heat and hot water category can just zoom out and rout them over to Moscow. 🙂 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@John5097  rout them over to Moscow

😄 😄 😄 😄  good one LOL

[Gillian166]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

I really dislike split systems for heating purposes. when you turn them off the heat is gone so quickly, and as you say, in a very cold climate they aren't enough.  We stuck with fireplaces when we did our reno, upgraded them all to the newest ovens and even though it's a bit of work, and i'm always fearful of the guests who would rather press a button to get instant heat, they have the advantage of not being effected by power outages, and it seems like many of us are going to be facing these challenges this year. 

[Don_Michelle0]

Branka & Silvia,

Thank you so much for your reply! It's very helpful to hear so much international feedback, it's easy for us to get tunnel vision and think this is just a USA problem but of course it's not. Your spaces look amazing and I'm actually sending your listing link over to my Niece who travels to Croatia occasionally!!!

Sounds like you've got a good plan for the summer and I hope that you are able to reopen your calendar - review the response from Robin above - you might get some helpful information from his reply as well that could help.   I hadn't considered the restrictions that some places face that certainly could affect your potential guests - I can't imagine what trying to allow for that would be like!

Be well and take care and thank you so much again for your reply!!!

Michelle & Don

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Don_Michelle0  thank you for sharing my listing 🙂

[Debra300]

@Don_Michelle0,

To better ensure that the person you're responding to is aware of the message, tag their profile ID (type @ and a drop down of recent contributors to the thread will appear, 

or continue to type the ID until the one you want appears.

These are the steps we've taken:

1. We state in our listing details the amount of kilowatts that are included in the nightly rate, and collect a refundable deposit.  Guests who use more than the total allotment for their stay would have an amount that is equal to the per kw electricity rate deducted from the deposit.  Presently, in St. Lucia the rate is about $0.45 USD p/kw.  The allotted amount is quite generous and is enough to run the AC for 16 hours and normal usage all of the appliances.  In the Caribbean & LAM, air conditioners are usually installed only in the bedrooms, and are not running all day like the central AC units that are often installed in North American homes. We have a keyed power switch on the AC's electrical cable.  The key is on a small lock with the keys to the guesthouse and guest suite.  Guests must turn off the AC when they leave their suite.  Thus far, we've not had to keep any part of a deposit.
2. We were early cord-cutters, and have not had cable TV since 2008.  At our guesthouse we provide Disney+, Netflix and Prime Video, and guests seem to be very satisfied with these services.  At our Atlanta apartment, the TVs have aerial antennas for local channels and Roku sticks that guests may log onto their own streaming services.  Again, no complaints.
3. We offer LP gas bar-b-que grills, and charge guests for the gas if they don't purchase it from the local hardware store or U-haul location.  
4. I removed the weekly discount last year, because I figure that we offer a great value for money, and if a guest can't afford to stay at our place without an additional $6-8 USD per night discount then it probably isn't a good fit for them.  It's been my experience that guests who are stretching their budget to stay at a place often have unwarranted expectations that are based upon their imaginations and not what is in the listing description.

[Don_Michelle0]

@Debra300

Thank you so much for your input! Based on all this great information we've had the confidence to go ahead with several immediate changes including price increases and dicount removals. You're absolutely correct - for the guest the discount is 'slight' but for us once all added up - it's a significant loss and as I look back over the past six months during which all discounts were given that was all income that would have certainly helped offset the increased expenses. So now we just have to get through the next five months of pre-change bookings 🙂  

We've learned a lot over this process and thanks to wonderful hosts like yourselves sharing!