making beds

[Neža3]

Hi guys,

This may be a stupid question, but still I have to ask. 🙂

I'm renting out a house. If I have 5 guests comming and there is room for 10, do I need to make all the beds or just enough to acommodate the number of guests?

[Ana1136]

@Neža3 I always make all the beds just because I don't like it when you can see the mattress. But you will need to wash them all if you make them, or you can just put sheets on the mattresses and fully make just the ones that will be used. 

[Alice595]

@Neža3I see your two listings. You rent them as entire house/apartment. Therefore, you will need to make all the beds. It is up to the guests who want to use and don't want to use them.

If you put restrictions on a listing of entire space, definitely some guests will question you about the accuracy of your listing.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Neža3 

Neither of your two places lists that they can accomodate 10, but you do have an adaptive pricing which after 6 people increases in cost up to an 8 maximum. What is your reasoning behind this? If they are booking a house then 6 people could actually use all your beds. The extra 2 would need to share with those others.

Potentially, you could be creating a problem in encouraging guests to book for 6 and then have 8 turning up in an attempt to avoid the extra charges. There would be no additional bed useage for those 2 extra as such. I would consider just having a whole house price set at a full occupancy charge, or stipulate how your rooms are allocated. (which could be an impossible decision).

If you did want to only provide beds for 5, how would you chose which beds you wanted your guests to use and how would you know that your idea of where they should sleep would be suitable for them?

I can see how it might be annoying providing 7 beds when say only 4 turn up, but thats the disadvantage of renting a whole house, the guest decides what they want to do.

Interested in how your idea of guests 7 and 8 incur higher house fees?

[Neža3]

I'm still new to hosting, so my Airbnb listings are still a little confusing and I wrote 10 in my original post  just as an example. The house can acommodate 12 people easily, I fixed it now, so thanks fot the warning.

I set the pricing like that, because there is a slight difference between acommodating and cleaning after 6 or 12 people. Also I wish to attract different groups, so I want it to be priced reasonable.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Neža3 

People, let's be reasonable and think about our planet, shall we? it is environmentally unfriendly and a total waste of water, detergents, your time and money to make more beds then guests. 

we rent 3 bedroom apartment with 1 double bed, 4 twin beds and pull out sofa for 2 guests. In total, we can host 8 guests at the time. We always ask our guests which beds and rooms they want to use and then make just those beds. All other beds we leave with a waterproof mattress cover and decorative cover on the top. 

We are super hosts for 3 years and nobody ever complained about unmade beds.

[Rowena29]

Hi @Neža3 ,  @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0, @Alice595 

Just my thoughts of course but I have to say I agree with @Branka-and-Silvia0 

My home can home can house up to 9 guests across 4 bedrooms.  I charge a flat rate for 2 people and the price increments about $25 pp after that.  It's not unusual for me to get a booking for just 2 people ( sometimes a couple wanting just one room, sometimes 2 separate people wanting 2 rooms). I have questions in my pre booking message asking how guests want the rooms set up so I know straight away how guests will want things

I state in my listing that if there are only a few guests some bedrooms may be locked to ensure guests don't get charged for extra cleaning fees.  No body has ever complained  ( not that I've had all THAT many bookings.)  If a couple books, I also leave one downstairs bedroom unlocked so that the downstairs deck can be accessed. so no one is missing out an any facilities or views.   I make up the bed in that room - to protect the mattress and for aesthetics, - but I fold the sheets a particular way so I can see it it's been slept in. 

Many hotels  and airbnb's i have stayed at either lock off extra rooms or, if they leave them open state there will be an excess cleaning fee if the beds are used

If I'm in any doubt, I just ask the guest directly.   (I also have an outside security camera, so any "sneak ins" would be immediately noticed)

Hope this helps

Cheers

[Neža3]

I agree. Thanks for the advice!

[Sarah977]

I agree with @Branka-and-Silvia0 . Why give 5 guests the opportunity to dirty bed linens on 10 beds? They've paid for 5 guests, which includes amenities for those 5 guests, not for 10. I certainly wouldn't leave a bare mattress, but a decorative cover over the extra beds should be fine. If a guest finds that one bed isn't comfortable for them, and wants to try out another, they can always use the beding they've already slept on and move it to another bed.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sarah977  There are not 10 beds. On the listing there are 7 beds of which one is a bunk bed and another a floor matress, that makes 4 remaining beds. Hopefully there will be at least one couple amongst the group as two will need to share if the bunk/matress room is removed. It's quite difficult sometimes with large groups allocating beds to people as even when we host our daughers' friends as they even have problems allocating beds to people they know.

Asking the guests as @Branka-and-Silvia0 suggests is good.

I do still struggle with the 2 guests in an 9 accommodation unit... @Rowena29  or @Neža3 The market availability of 2 guest units is fairly huge compared to those that can accomodate 8/9. I would see a booking for 2 as a penalty preventing a booking for 8/9, yet still all the common areas need an equally thourough cleaning whether used by 2 or 9. 

[Rowena29]

Yes I do hear you @Ian0 And Marie1 re the only getting 2 people sometimes, but you know, swings and roundabouts. The larger number bookings seem to only happen on weekends - so only for 2 days usually. Almost always younger guests in the larger groups and much more high maintanence in terms of cleaning in my experience. By contrast I've had several groups of 2 or 3 book for up to 14 days, which is much more lucrative and desirable for me. To date they have also been much lower maintanence.  I never expected to to get bookings for 2  because as you say, there are heaps on the market, but I keep getting them!  However - I do absolutley agree that at peak times - eg EAster Christmas,  ( when i increase the minimum stay to 4 days) I WOULD  feel penalised by only 2 guests.  I"ve therefore duplicated my listing, where I increase the price to 4 guests with extra pp charges thereafter and I'll block off the dates on my regular listing during those times   What I'd  REALLY like to be able to do is to charge by ROOM rather than by guest ( ie 2 guests in teh one room is cheaper than 2 guests in 2 rooms) but not an option that I can see how to do when the whole house comes as a single unit.  Unless anyone has any brilliant suggestions? Pretty content with 4, 5, or 6 guests.  would be quite happy with 8 if it was FAMILIES but as I said I'm tending to get groups of 8 young adults and more wear and tear with them. Never feel REALLY relaxed with those bookings and always breathe a sigh of relief when they're gone and everything has gone semi OK....

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Rowena29 

I totally understand you, bigger groups = more problems.

This week we had 2 groups of 5-6 young guys. Both groups left the apartment door wide open so my neighbor called me. I tried to contact my guests by phone but no avail, unreachable... so we had to go there twice just to close the door and warn them to be more responsible.

The apartment is on the mezzanine floor of the building in the city center of the Croatian capital, so it is not a little house on the prairie. And we live on the other side of town.

We show them the door and the lock, tell them 3x during the check-in to always close the door but no avail.... 90 kg of muscles but incapable to close the door behind his butt.

I will have to move out the sofa bed and allow max 4 people in the future. Everything above this number is pure chaos. (we can host up to 8 guests at the time in 2 joined apartments)