Separate Charge for Second Spare Room

[Erin205]

Hi, up until now we have had a flat rate to stay in one or both of our spare rooms, mainly for convenience. Whether you wanted 1 room or both it was the same cost. We are learning having a second spare room is a hot commodity, and are leaning towards charging extra for the second room. To do this would I need to basically turn Instant Book off, and after each request give the guest a customized charge? The details of the charges would be outlined in my description, so no surprises on the charges. 

I am not interested in listing each room separately. If we have people staying with us, we want them all in the same party, whether in one room or both. I am just curious how other people do this. Thanks so much.

[Matthew285]

@Erin205 you are not the only person with the same issue.

A "per-guest" charge only sort-of works... sometimes 2 guests take up 1 room, sometimes 2 guests take up 2 rooms.

I have yet to read of a solution that does not involve a fair amount of manual work on the part of the host: messaging, explaining, adjust charges, and such.

The closest would be to set up a per-guest charge that starts after 2 guests. 1 or 2 guests is a certain amount, adding a 3rd guest increases the price.

Perhaps you can explain in the description that 2 guests only get one room, and if they want 2 rooms they should put in 3 guests (but not 4).

(BTW, your place looks quite nice.)

Someday in the future, you might consider making the rooms separate listing, though. You are right: you have a hot commodity.

[Erin205]

Thanks, Matthew. Yeah, we want this to be pretty easy on our end, with minimal fuss. People also change their minds on who is in their party, so that would require additional adjusting, etc. 

I may have to play around with this. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

[Roberta2]

Hi @Erin205

As a guest, if I see your listing, I would expect both rooms ready for me when I arrive.

I oftem travel with my mother, and I would look for a listing just like yours - so I could have my private space, but share the rest of the house with my mum.

I would not expect to pay extra for the extra room, as you have both in 1 listing (so I am renting 2 rooms 🙂 )

Otherwise, I woiuld suggest you separate the rooms in 2 listings - and create a 3rd with both rooms, in case you have 3 people or 2 couples. But that requires organization 🙂

[Erin205]

Interesting thought, Roberta. Thanks.

[Linda108]

@Erin205  You might be interested in my listing, Private One or Two Bedroom Suite, La Quinta,  as I have done what you seem to want to do.  I have Instant Book and have been providing a seconday room for about a year and a half.  When I first started with a listing for a single private room I only hosted singles and couples.  Now that I have the second room option, I can host singles, couples, traveling companions, 3 or 4 guests, parents and teens.  Much more interesting for me and much more lucrative.  I compared one year of the single room with one year of the two rooms and found that I had 10% fewer booked nights but 40% higher income!  Works for me!

If the guest party is more than 2 guests the extra guest fee is handled by the automated Air BNB system.  If there are 2 guests using both rooms, I charge for the second room.  I do not have any complaints about that and guests appreciate the option.  I use the request money option on the reservation and the guest agrees.  Let me know if you have any questions.

[Erin205]

Thanks, Linda. That sounds like what we may want to do in the future. But it does answer my question in regards to being some extra work on our end, and having to be on top of how many rooms people want. Thanks so much!

[Jamie213]

Hi Erin,

I am running into the same experience as you.. I have two bedrooms with private bath but only want to book with one party.  I listed it on airbnb as extra after 2 guests but am not seeing the request money option when 2 people come an want 2 rooms.  Could you send me a screen shot of the page you are talking about?

Thanks,

Jamie

[Erin205]

Hi Jamie, 

When people book they tell me how many rooms they plan on using. Both rooms are always available though. I have one set rate, whether guests book 1 room or 2, it is the same price. I also have a note in my description that if a guest just uses one room the second will not be booked out to anyone else during their stay. 

I am debating charging one flat rate for one room, and then charging a little extra for 2 rooms. My thinking is, "Why should someone booking 1 room pay the same as someone booking 2 rooms?" From what it sounds like, there is a lot of manual work for the host to charge extra for a second room, and all that. I just want easy. I think for now we will just stick to what we have for now. Maybe AirBnB will add some feature for something like this. Though it seems to be rare to find a house with 2 extra rooms.