Adding an extra charge to same party for use of extra rooms

[Judy-And-John1]

We are new to hosting.  We have advertised our home for 2 guests however indicated there are 2 bedrooms available.  (one up and one downstairs) We now have a request for a booking for 2 couples for 5 nights.  We also are offering the 20% discount for the first 3 bookings.  So 5 nights works out to about $120 per night for 4 people.  This is too inexpensive in my opinion.  

1. Can we change our listing to add a surcharge for 2nd room, additional $100 per night?

2.  Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks for your advisement

[Letti0]

@Judy-And-John1  You need three listings one for each bedroom and one for both. Link both to each one, so if the two bedrooms gets book you block the single ones from booking or if a single one gets booked it blocks the both from being booked. Set your prices accordingly. Also you have no Check Out time listed you need one for preparation/cleaning time for next guests. Change your cancellation policy to at least moderate or you will get a lot of last minute changes or cancellations. 

How do I link Airbnb calendars for multiple listings?

If you have multiple listings on Airbnb (for example, an entire home and a room inside that home), you can link their Airbnb calendars to prevent double-bookings.

To link Airbnb calendars for multiple listings:

1. Go to Listings on airbnb.com and click a listing whose calendar you'd like to link
2. Click Availability
3. Next to Linked Airbnb calendars, click Link
4. Click Create linked calendars, then select the listing for the entire home you’d like to link to other calendars
5. Click Next
6. Select the listings inside of the home, then click Save

Note: If you don’t indicate that the listings are connected, a reservation for one listing won’t automatically block those reservation dates on the other listing's calendar. For example, if the primary listing is booked for a certain date, then it will block that date on the calendars of any listings under it, and vice versa. However, if you block a date on a calendar of a listing under the primary listing, it won't block the calendars of other listings at that level, only the calendar of the primary listing it's linked to.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1864/how-do-i-link-airbnb-calendars-for-multiple-listings

[Richard-and-Isabel0]

Hi guys,

I took a peek at your listing. A few things to metion but I am confused as to what is being offered. We have to consider that listings are being read by new AirBnb users as well who may understand listing details/description differently than we write them. There are things we may think are obvious or understood because we as hosts know the place, but our readers don't know our places the way we do.

I am guessing this listing is for a home where you live in and would most likely be present? Though I had to read it a couple of times, it was a deduction I had to make, as opposed to having the listing expressed it clearly to me.

Since the space, for the rate you are listing, is the one bedroom, you need then to actually have 2 listings separately for each bedroom. I am hitting "send" on these before completion as sometimes I write a lot and it all gets deleted before successfully posting. That's just my clumpsy fingers on the keyboard...

[Richard-and-Isabel0]

So even when you may repeat some of your listing's details and some of your photos for the shared spaces, you need to have two listings: A listing for each bedroom. So that's, I guess No. 1...

No. 2 Clarify again that the listing does NOT represent the entire home to themselves, it is a shared home with specific private spaces to the guests. Specify which areas are shared all the time, which areas are shared or perhaps semi-private if scheduled perhaps (like hot tub usage, who can use it and when?), and if shared spaces, who will your gusts share those spaces with...ie. you? other guests? Some AirBnb travelers will only book places where they alone have access to the entire home, others will book places where they are sharing common areas with the live-in hosts and others will be ok if other than the live-in hosts are also sharing those common areas; but you must make this information clear to your prospect guests. The last thing you want is someone expecting only a live-in host in site and they arrive to find that there are other guests aside themselves utilizing the common spaces. 

No. 3 Clarify as well, if your home is open to other guests from your second listing for your second bedroom, will a live-in or resident host be present? Personally, if I(but that's me...) was going to stay at one of your bedrooms, I wouldn't want to share your home with people I don't know at all. Granted I don't know the host at all either, but at least I'd know you're the host. However, if you expressed that the host was also present at premises, the feel would be different, prospect guests may feel somewhat safer that way.

[Richard-and-Isabel0]

No 4 From your pictures (so nice! BTW, wish we could take as nice pictures for our listing), I can see that your 2 bedrooms offer either full size or queen size beds. So they can be occupied by two people. This means that you can set pricing for each of your listings (bedrooms) based on the number of guests! Each one of your rooms will have the base (standard) rate of your choice for 1 person, and each additional guest (set your max occupancy for EACH listing to 2) will incurr an added cost of whichever amount you find reasonable.  Yes. it IS that customizable! It's not to try to bleed people dry, it's to cover the extra supplies and labor it takes to maintain and clean the place. You will need this!

[Richard-and-Isabel0]

No. 5...OMG.... why the discount??? Ugh.... good Lord...  DO AWAY WITH THAT!!!! look what's around you, study your area, check their occupancies, takes time, but you can do this !!!! get rid of that!!!! don't give it away!!! Please, do away with any discount of any sort!!! Also do NOT do discounts for longer stays!!!

our Big and Juicy Grape is comfy at 2 min night and max 2 week stay (and we are actually considering lowering that length!) and we do not do discounts for longer stays. You have to consider this: the longer someone stays, the more wear and tear for the same nightly rate!! so NO! No discounted longer stays!!!

No. 6 And your cleaning fee is....??? WTH??? uh... that is SO LOW !!!  ok... that may be just me, perhaps becuase flipping Sonoma (where we host and live) are just a bunch of high rollers.... nope... NOPE!!! That is not it!!! $30some dollars cleaning fee is bupkis !!!!!

[Richard-and-Isabel0]

No. 7 I would also recommend using some form of Dynamic pricing. I blv AirBnb offers such still on our calendar settings. Why in the world is your price the same on a weekday and a weekend day or Holiday???

We started making a lot of mistakes ourselves. I wish someone had told us what I am able to type here today to you.

These things can be implemented, I do apologize for not giving you step by step how-tos, but I can tell you this. They are here, all in the site. You can also call AirBnb, spend some time on the PH with them, some of their CSRs are excellent at being willing to walk you though the system, some are not, but all may be able to point you to the right tutorials.

Since your a new host. While you are trying to figure how to tune your listingS <-- plural!!, do not accept nor do instant book for now. In fact, i'd pause your listingS for a wee bit while you're fine tuning things.

[Richard-and-Isabel0]

Ok, I am so lengthy...... No. 8....Cancellation flexible??? I don't think so.... This is YOUR home! Your (normally) biggest asset and investment! Cancellation strict it now.

No.9  Security deposit .... yes.... you need it.

Ok, I'm tired of typing and I'm sure you may be tired of reading this, so ...

Hope these tips help you guys.

I may have more, but we got to go clean our place.

Cheers,

Isabel

[Victoria567]

Sorry but You are a bit late in the day to be surcharging your existing guests, with an existing booking.

Perhaps now is the time to carefully revise your price structure , accommodation description, facilities and amenities included in the price plus the all important house rules to describe what is NOT acceptable guest behaviour.

This saves gnashing of teeth later on......

[Sarah977]

@Judy-And-John1    Make the changes that the other hosts have advised here for any future bookings.

But no, you can't add $ to the existing bookings. That's just not kosher and understandably, really upsets already booked guests, who will likely cancel if you request more than was originally stated.

Most hosts just consider this kind of thing a learning experience, correct the misconceptions guests would be under because of how you set up the listing, and move on.