Bag drop/bag hold fees

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

We have been getting so many requests for bag drops and bag holds which are a huge inconvenience.  It requires me to be at the house multiple times to let the guest in and, frankly, it also means going to the bathroom, maybe changing clothes, or other things that, since we are often booked back to back, means the guest must use our personal bedroom and bath.  We want to be accommodating because there is not a bag-hold station anywhere in town (although I am considering creating a business!) and dragging  your cases around really does suck. As such, we're considering charging a fee for this service for the extra wear and tear and time.  We'd like some opinions from fellow hosts about this practice.  If you do charge a fee, how much?  If you don't allow bag drops or bag holds, why not?  If you allow them to leave bags behind, how do you handle drops and pick ups?  Looking for a solution to a problem that is getting me tied for hours to the house.   

[Linda108]

Out of curiosity I looked up luggage storage in Durham, NC and found a service under "stasher.com".  @Alice-and-Jeff0, are you familiar with that service?

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Linda108 - I have.  I think I've uncovered about 8 or 9 luggage-storage businesses. Stasher doesn't actually exist in Durham NC except in name only.  There are no stasherpoints in the area and I really don't want to be in the luggage-host business in my home.  Of all the services, not one of them is doing business in the area.  I posted in the local FB page for Airbnb and several seem interested in the option so maybe there's another business opportunity. 

[Helen3]

How do other hosts in your area handle it?

I bet if you offer people a left luggage service at a charge you will find demand drops massively @Alice-and-Jeff0 🙂 People are taking advantage because you offer it for free.

In your situation If you really want to do this (I wouldn't, particularly as it means guest accessing your private space), I would just put a storage box at the front of your house and put an electronic lock or padlock on and not let your guests have access to your private space (you can mention a nearby restaurant or cafe if they want to stop to use the bathroom/change).

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Almost all are doing it for free but many are as annoyed as I am about it.  The difference seems to be that (1) the market booking rate is 35% and we are booking at 90%, and (2) most don't see the issue of letting guests just come back into the home pre- and post-check out when they are not being covered by Airbnb's insurance. For me, if I have back to back reservations which is almost always, and I have bag drops and bag pick ups for 2 different sets of guests I'm getting stuck at the house all day long.  

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Alice-and-Jeff0 

look, hosting bags and suitcases is great, they are not picky and use a minimum utilities 🙂

Zagreb has lockers at the train station which is less than 10 min walk away from us, but sometimes our guests ask us to store their luggage. We agree to it for a few hours while we clean and we are already there. This is only if they don't have too much luggage because it would be on our way and we would trip over it while cleaning. We don't charge for it.

[Rachel0]

@Alice-and-Jeff0 I do allow baggage drop offs and baggage holds as long as it is convenient for me.  It makes a lot of sense as I am not that far from Heathrow airport and I tend to get quite a lot of guests for whom London is either their first port of call on a UK or European tour, or their last.  Many of them come in on long haul flights which arrive between 7am and 9am or leave on flights late in the evening.  However, my guest accommodation is the whole top floor of my home and I insist that the dropped baggage stays on the ground floor - I don't allow them early access to the rooms or let them go back up there when they come to collect the bags.  There are several local cafes where they can go to use the loo and there is no way that I would allow them into my personal bathroom.  I don't charge them for this service as I think it may make me look rather "grasping" and I am here anyway, but if I was not a live-in host I would probably make a small charge.

[David6]

We compromise and offer a bag drop but only after 11.30am once the previous guest have checked out. They can use the ‘dirty’ bathroom but not access the room. We explain the flat has not yet been cleaned. They can take the keys and return later after we have completed full cleaning.

We do not store bags post checkout after so many issues. Most guests understand. If they really question it, I just state: ‘ so sorry, but some guests who booked several months ago, are arriving on 6am flight and have paid to check in early .’ 

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

What kind of issues did you encounter?  

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Alice-and-Jeff0 

Just throwing out a few ideas.........do you have a place in your yard or porch for a large patio storage box? If it's placed where there is video surveillance and is equipped with a combination lock, you could tell guests that they can store bags there free of charge but at their own risk. Or if you have a garage, offer to store the bags in the garage, rather than in your home?

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

These are good ideas @Jessica-and-Henry0 , however, since we live in a historic district, no large porch boxes allowed out front and we don't have a garage or even a driveway.  We would even have a tough time putting up a garden shed if we wanted guests to go into the backyard.  In our house you start out in the front on the first floor and by the time you walk to the back, you are on the second floor since the ground slopes away. One day we'll put in stairs and a deck and will definitely consider a self-service box!    

[Valerie192]

@Alice-and-Jeff0 Maybe try out a nominal fee $5 or $10 and just see what happens? At least that will make it a little less annoying and could serve as a deterrent as guests may then work a little harder to have their plans such that they don't need to leave their bags. I had a similar issue with a lot of guests asking for early check-in/out and I was starting to feel taken advantage of. At the advice of hosts here, I implemented a fee and it definitely helped me feel better and I also get asked less. Good luck!

[Kelly149]

@Alice-and-Jeff0 like you, I've never had a guest "just drop off bags" that didn't involve the toilet and a change of clothes and a total interruption of the change over process. Your porch is so large, could you get a teak storage box that looked like a coffee table and put a padlock on it? or provide a bike cable/lock that they could loop thru their bags and the porch railing?

If guests are transferring  their inconvience to you then they also need to provide some compensation as well.

If their calculation is: abb = less than hotel, uber = less than rent car, then dragging bags around is just a part of that calculation.

I offer early arrivers to pay 50% of the nightly rate to have the space available to them starting at 8am rather than 4pm.

There is a pack & mail storage shop near me, I bet he would take ownership of bags for a few hours for a fee; can you think of a partnership like that near you? But again, if folks are choosing inconveniece over spending then they may just continue to schlep bags.

Putting a cost to the inconvenience may help even out the trouble for you