Charging for Firestarters?

Cinco2
Level 1
Boerne, TX

Charging for Firestarters?

I have a pretty particular question about how I could get reimbursed specifically for allowing my guests to use the firestarters for the wood burning stove in our cabin. I provide smaller starter bricks that burn for about 30 minutes and then bigger starter logs that burn for up to 4 hours. On a barge the starter bricks cost me $2 and the logs cost me $6 so they are not cheap. People could use 3 of the bigger logs in a day no problem. I also provide plenty firewood free of charge. I’m not sure the best way to go about collecting payment for people who use the fire starters though. Can I just put a piece of paper next to the logs requesting they Venmo me the appropriate amount as they use it or has anyone had any experience with this?

6 Replies 6
Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Cinco2  I just raise my nightly price to cover things like this, but if you don't want to do that, your solution, the honor system, would probably work most of the time.

 

Alternatively you could leave only the number they're allowed to use and tell them where they can buy more.

Lorna170
Level 10
Swannanoa, NC

@Cinco2   I recommend that you figure the cost of the fire starter and the wood and add it into your nightly rate.  How many of your guests use the fire pit, on average?  What has been your cost of providing fire starters and wood over the course of a year?  

 

We provide wood for our firepits. We have to bundle the wood at each location, leaving enough for a nice  fire for each night of a guest visit.  (We used to have a cord of wood delivered and stacked at each property, until we had guests who burned an entire cord during a week visit.)  As we consider the fire pit an amenity with a cost, just like the electricity, water and chemicals for the hot tub, it is factored into our nightly rate.   

 

Lawrene0
Level 10
Florence, Canada

The woodstove in my listing is my guests' only source of heat, so I don't charge them for matches, starters, or wood, @Cinco2 , in the same way that I wouldn't install a coin-operated meter for the utilities in the house.  Tempting, though, isn't it, for some stays!

As the rest here advise, I factor the costs into my nightly rate. I leave ample for a stay, and guests have the option of asking me for more. Some do, but I think having to ask maybe makes them think twice about burning through the pile? 

 I do wish I could reward the frugal wood-users at the cost of the pyrophiles, but there is no easy way. I guess the easy way is that everyone pays one rate.  

@Lawrene0 Like car, home, or health insurance, it's the people who never have to make a claim that subsidize those who do 🙂

You can send Guests offers of Premium Amenities such as wood for a fireplace using BnbAmenity, it a cool little app that sends Premium Amenity Offers to Guests so you can offer things that some Guests might want but some might not - without increasing your base Listing price - we use if for wood for the fireplace, we have central heat so we view the firewood as a costly amenity that some people use and some don't. When we did not leave wood some people complained, when we did some people used it and others did not. We found b offering it for a price, those guests who valued having a fire would pay for the wood and those who were indifferent did not. We also use it to offer the stock the refrigerator with basic provisions upon arrival as the nearest store is a  decent drive. We found a surprising number of guests valued that convenience. We use BnbAmenity instead of Venmo or PayPal for a couple of  main reasons: (1) the fees on PayPal/Venmo are really high if they don't send the money as a friend, which they never do and getting the money off that platform is also really costly; (2) it looks way more professional to have the Guest receive a message saying "your Host has offered you several Amenities: - Seasoned Firewood - Welcome Basket of Basic Food Provisions - Meals Kits - click the link below to accept the offer" than to get the Venmo request for money which might even upset the Guest as they may not bother to check why your are requesting money. (iii) BbnAmenity also has a calendar of my accepted offers so I don't have to keep track of them on my own so I never forget to put something out the guest paid for; (iv) the offers expire 24 hours before the stay so I don't ever get last minute or during stay requests as I used to when I would send offers over PayPal/Venmo.

Brian2036
Level 10
Arkansas, United States

@Cinco2 

We also have wood heat and have found that, no matter how many fire-starters and kindling wood we leave for guests, they use all of it. Every time.

 

Apparently the attitude is “I paid for it so I will either waste it or take it home.”

 

One guest even loaded up about $40 worth of seasoned oak and took it with them.

 

A box of fire cubes costs $25 and we have learned to leave no more than 2 cubes a day.

 

 I also start the fire before guests arrive and advise them to keep it burning.

 

A good, inexpensive fire starter can be made by dipping a cotton makeup-remover pad in Vaseline and I believe I will supply that this winter.

 

Unfortunately you cannot overestimate a guest’s ignorance. We have had some who could not understand the function of the stove damper even after I demonstrated it.

 

Others refused to believe that the fire would keep burning with the stove door closed.

 

 I try to warn off the terminally stupid before they book but it doesn’t always work.