Wedding bookings, photos, requests?

[Laura2592]

This is coming up more and more and I am wondering how other hosts handle it. 

We don't live onsite. We have a cute cottage in a picturesque location where we sometimes hold small weddings/events with a mini honeymoon package for stays in the days after. It is also rentable for photo shoots and we have had a number of photographers use it as a location for family portraits, maternity shoots, etc. None of this is booked through Airbnb. We have rate schedules for all of these activities. We have referred photographers for guests who popped the question at our cottage but they did their own contracting with the photographer.

We have had a few people contact us that want to do their getting ready and pre-wedding photos during their stay.  In one recent instance 6 bridesmaids, two moms and two large dogs were involved as well as two hairdressers, a makeup artist and photographer in a 1400 square foot cottage with two bathrooms. The guests then wanted to rotate who would be staying before and after the wedding. Though I declined that request, I am wondering how to address these requests in the future. We would prefer all the onsite wedding stuff goes through our own website, but are happy to host couples for stays after the big day (or guests who are visiting for someone else's wedding.) Any thoughts on how to manage this?

[Marg11]

Would it be worth setting up an Airbnb experience with all your regular support but booked through Airbnb Experiences?

[Laura2592]

That's an idea! I hadn't thought of that. I will look into it. 

[Inna22]

@Laura2592  what I have done is set up legal capacity for my listing. It is in my house rules. There cannot be more than X amount  of people at my property at any time. So when I get a full house reservation and they asked to bring 15 other people to get ready, do hair, nails etc, I simply tell him that it’s against the law for me to have more people and it’s overcrowding. Which is true. It’s not safe for that many people to be in your 1400 square-foot space.  Then  it is really not me personally telling them no, it is a safety issue.   You can also tell him that it’s an insurance issue. The goal here is to make it sound like you would’ve totally done it, but you simply can’t. 

[Laura2592]

That's a good idea and I agree that not that many people should be in my house. But we do offer weddings on the property which can accommodate about 40 people. These are outside and under a tent so there's not 40 people in the house at once. I need to look into this....

[Rizwan10]

How do you estimate the price as I have someone requested to have wedding in my backyard in july

[Ryan2352]

Did you host the wedding?  I have a request for one as well, trying to figure out what to charge.

[Poppy34]

Hi @Laura2592 @how did you go with this? We are having the same situation with our guest house. We have had a number of enquires for the bridal party to get ready at our house before the wedding and use on the wedding day. Also bookings for the wedding night. We allow instant booking so the bookings get booked on the standard rate. I feel though that even this type of booking should need to pay extra given the extra attention given to it plus the fact that extra people are likely to be visiting the property. Do you charge extra and if so how do you approach this?