How many beds do I make up?

[Catherine2614]

Hi everybody, hope you can help.

We have just refurbished a third bedroom so can now sleep 6 guests in total

King size bed

Double bed

Twin single beds 

If I get a booking for say 3 guests how many beds do I make up?  

Do I ask the guest in advance?  

Do I make them all up and hope two won’t be used?

If they want the King and double do I lock the room with the twin beds.

If they want the King and one single, do I make up the other single or just put a throw over the unmade bed and then lock the room with the double? 

Hubby says just make them all up regardless but he’s not the one doing the washing and ironing if bed linen.

I’m sure you experienced hosts will have the answer for me. 

Thank you 😊 

Catherine 

[Catherine2614]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

Thank you so much, that’s really helpful 😊

[Nanxing0]

If you have it listed the whole house, you need to allow the guest to access all bedrooms. However there are things you can do to possibly save some effort and resources. Write clearly in the listing detail and house rule that 2 beds are made by default, and the 3rd bed is made upon request. I have 2 listings with sofa beds and I write in the house rule that the sofa bed set is provided upon request, not by default. Also you should have this in the welcome message sent to guest so they are aware of this. 

[Catherine2614]

@Nanxing0 

That’s a good point, thank you 😊 

[Elaine701]

Ok, first, having a listing suitable for 6 and attracting smaller groups will inevitably end up having bookings for 2, and 6 showing up. Especially if you price it on a per pax per night basis. 

We have this same issue, but it's seasonal, rather than ongoing. This is how we've solved it:

In the summer, for us, it's a veritable guarantee that the entire Villa will be booked solid with 6-8 pax (our capacity is 8 pax). So, from April - October, it's flat rate pricing. One price for up to 8 pax, all bedrooms prepared and available, no matter how many pax booked. If we priced it per person, then we'd be booked all through the high season for 2 pax at 25% of the high season rate.  We'd surely lose 75% of our revenue. 

In the off season, the main market is for 2-4 pax. Pricing it flat rate for 8 pax, with all bedrooms available would price us out of the market. More people cost more. More laundry, more heat, more cleaning, the more people, the later they stay up, using more electricity, heating, etc... 

So, for the off season, we price it on a per person per night basis. Starting with a somewhat premium price for the first 2, and a relatively small extra per pax/night for each additional person above that. 

The base rate includes one bedroom per 2 persons. 3-4 persons get another bedroom, 5-6 get another, and 7-8 get another. We lock unbooked bedrooms. 

Now, if in the off season, we priced it at a flat rate attractive to say 2-4 pax, we'd inevitably get bookings with 8 showing up, because it would be just too cheap to resist. And we would bear the costs of that. 

The caveat, however, is that Airbnb has no facility to change the pricing structure on a seasonal basis, so we have to have 2 listings. One for high season, one for low season, block the low season on the high season listing, block the high season on the low season listing.

Ok, simple enough, until you try to sync another platform with these two listings, because the other platform will be eternally blocked. So, we have to manually block Airbnb bookings on other platforms, which requires extreme vigilance, or else you can easily end up with double bookings, and that's not good. It's just another layer of work. 

Nothing's easy 😳

[Catherine2614]

@Elaine701 

Thank you for your great explanation of how you have organised your two listings. Definitely given me food for thought for ours. Much appreciated 😊 

[Emilia42]

@Catherine2614 

Coincidentally, I was just a guest at an Airbnb which had the exact same bed set up. There were 3 of us (and a baby.) We used every bed. I specifically filtered and wanted to book a listing with 3+ beds so even though this house fit a group of 8, it worked perfectly for the three of us. As I paid for the entire space, I would expect to get everything the listing described. 

[Catherine2614]

@Emilia42 

Thank you for replying. Good to read snd understand from an alternative viewpoint. More food for thought! Much appreciated 😊

[Susan737]

Wow I wonder if I’m doing mine right. I send out home rules prior to confirming. I let my guest know they have to confirm reading. I let them know if they want the sofa bed made up it’s an extra charge. Laundry and extra work. I do not charge for cleaning fees so I think it fare. I state must pay on arrival. I have had no problems and guest are happy to pay for it. 🙂 

[Sarah977]

@Susan737  If you are having no problems with the way you do it, then you are doing it "right".

There's no one-size-fits-all for Airbnbs. Hosts come up with whatever works  best for them. As long as whatever the arrangement you have is made clear to guests and you don't have guests complaining about it or misunderstanding, it's all good. 

Sounds quite reasonable to me to charge extra if guests need the sofa bed made up. 

There seem like more issues can arise if a host advertises an entire 3 bedroom house, but locks off one of the bedrooms, or simply expects 4 guests to only use 2 of the bedrooms and leaves them all open, since you can't prevent guests from using whatever is available. Apparently lots of guests will "bed-hop". 

[Nina75]

@Susan737 You are doing it right... Some of these hosts tend to let people get away with things that they shouldnt.

If you are not in a baby crib, then you have to pay to stay there. No Extra beds. I Lock off areas that they wont need.

[Dimitar27]

My capacity is 2+2. One big bed (King, Queen, double...the name depends on your country and native language) and one sofa bed. The price is not per person.

I always make the big bed. But full set of pillows, sheets, cases, etc are always present for the sofa bed. They are washed, dried and stored in a vacuum bag - ready to be used, if the guest wants to use the sofa.

Nothing special. Cheap, saves place and gives me a big flexibility advantage. Works fine.

[Nina75]

@Dimitar27 Thats a small place, you cant compare a small place to a large place.

Large places you always charge per person.

[Dimitar27]

It's more about the number of people, then about the charge. The idea is to have less work to do, without compromising the quality of your service.

Of course, my 2+2 place can't be compared with a place for 8+ people.

[Susan737]

I think it’s all in the communication. All of us work hard staying on top of our Airbnb‘s. If we were wealthy we would not have an Airbnb. I don’t think asking the guest “ I see you won’t be needing all 3 bedroom so I’m gonna close up one of them. Is that OK with you? Most guests would probably say sure that’s not a problem.

One less room the clean. ❤️

[Nina75]

@Susan737 I agree 100% they understand and its really not that much more to charge them when you add the extra people.