How many of you set a base price and then add an extra guest fee on top?

[Dean-And-Stacey0]

Our home is a 3 bedroom 2 bath rental.  We have groups ranging from 2 people, up to 6 people.  In an effort to keep our rental booked most of the time, we set a base price and then charge an extra guest fee.   We do this so that we stay affordable for smaller groups, and the price goes up the more people that there are.  It's worked really well for us for the past year and a half.  We do get a lot of bookings.

My question is.... are others doing this?  Most people are fine with it, but it does cause some confusion.... and then some guests lie, etc.

I'm mulling over keeping it as is, or getting rid of the extra guest fee but raising our base price.  I just don't want to lose out on smaller groups booking our rental.

Thanks for any input or suggestions.

[Alexandra316]

@Dean-And-Stacey0I use this feature: I charge a base fee for 2 guests, which is the majority of the groups who book my property, then charge $10 per night for each additional guest. I also host up to 6 people. I've been doing it for 3 years, and it has worked okay. I've had the occasional liar about numbers, but it doesn't happen often. I haven't encountered much confusion with it. I have to correct/update the odd reservation, but not many. 

Overall, it's working well for me, and I have no plans to change it. I do prefer to host the smaller groups, so it's an incentive for couples and single people to book. 

The one use I don't like from a guest perspective is people who have a setup that's meant for two and charge after the first guest. It's a pet peeve of mine. Unless you get a lot of single business people or students, I don't think it makes a lot of sense and personally leaves me feeling nickel and dimed. 

[Dean-And-Stacey0]

@Alexandra316  Thank you for your response!  I agree with everything you said.  We do like to host smaller groups as well.  Right now we have it set up as a base fee for just one guest and then $5 per night each additional guest (we had $10 per night before Covid).  My husband and I were just discussing last night to make the base fee for 2 guests, so I like your input.

[Huma0]

@Alexandra316 

 I suspect you feel nickel and dimed because you normally travel with at least one other person?

As someone who has travelled solo many times, it makes total sense to me to charge one price for one person and a slightly higher price for two. When it's split between them, the two-person price is really very good value, but this also allows me to keep it more affordable for people travelling alone. There are many, many solo travellers, not just business people and students, and yet they seem to be ignored most of the time and they certainly have to pay a premium for accommodation if they don't want to stay in a dorm.

Anyway, two people use more utilities and create more laundry/cleaning than one, so I don't see anything unreasonable about charging a small amount more to account for this.

So, @Dean-And-Stacey0 , yes, I have a base price which is for one person, with an additional fee for a second person, because I rent private rooms in a shared house. I mostly host long-term guests these days, so that is always just one person, although often they may have a partner/friend/family member join them for part of their stay and they have always been happy to pay an extra fee for those nights. When I was hosting short-term guests as well, I had just as many solo travellers as couples and pairs.

This worked fine for me. I would sometimes have someone wanting to book for two having only put one person in the reservation, but I would just remind them that it was a different price for two and to change the booking details. Very few guests had a problem with it. As long as you are transparent about it, it's fine.

[Dean-And-Stacey0]

@Huma0Thanks for your response.  Very few guests have had a problem with it on my end as well, although I do get questioned about it on probably 25% of our bookings? 

As for us setting our base price for one person, since we are a 3 bed 2 bath house, it makes more sense to do the base price for 2 people.  We've really only had 1 person book the house, and I realized afterwards that I think it was for something shady (drug deal? not sure?).  If someone is going to book our home it is usually at least 2 people, so it does make sense for us to use that as our base rate, and then charge extra above that.

[Huma0]

@Dean-And-Stacey0 

Yes, of course, the number of guests you start your base price at will depend on the type of listing it is, but you mentioned in your original post that it is your home, so does that mean you live there as well or is it a separate property?

[Dean-And-Stacey0]

@Huma0Sorry for the confusion.  It's a separate property.  It is a whole home rental.  We live 25 minutes away.

[Huma0]

@Dean-And-Stacey0 

Thanks for the clarification. In that case, I can understand why as many as 25% of your guests question the extra person fees as charging a fixed price for a whole home property would be the norm and what most people would expect. Some guests are going to get confused about a staggered pricing system as they don't take into account that the costs (utilities, cleaning, laundry) do go up the more people there are.

However, the important thing is to stick to what works for you. If you mostly get groups of two booking, then it makes sense to continue with your current pricing structure. 

[Alexandra316]

@Huma0I usually travel alone also, actually. As I mentioned, it's more hosts who have a setup that's meant for two and charge after the first guest. Unless you get a lot of single business people or students, I don't think it makes a lot of sense. With my place, which is a whole apartment, I have to do the same amount of cleaning for two as for one. There is very little difference to me, and the amount of difference in utilities is negligible. 

I'll give you a specific example of what annoys me. I recently booked a place to stay for four nights. It's a whole home listing - a cottage, specifically. I forgot to change the number of people from one to two: it was an honest mistake, but yeah, my fault. I went back to change it when I noticed, and found that the difference between one and two guests is $100 per night. 

[Huma0]

@Alexandra316 

I think there IS a difference in time/cost between hosting one person and two. Two people will take double the amount of showers, for example. So, they will not only use more hot water, but create more cleaning (in general, not just in the bathrooms), use more toilet paper and toiletries and there will be more towels to wash. So, just because my rooms are doubles, that doesn't mean it costs me the same when two people stay rather than one. Over the course of a year, this can add up.

However, it is not a BIG expense, so I charge an additional £15 a night on what is already a very reasonable room rate. My nightly rate is based on one person. If it was based on two people, it would be higher. Sure, I could get rid of that extra person charge and put the nightly rate up to include two guests, but then the solo traveller is forced to pay more and, as these days I mostly host solo travellers, it wouldn't make sense for me.

I do agree though that $100 per night for a second person seems very steep.

[Tony-And-Una0]

We use this feature successfully. We charge £5 for each extra guest. 

Juts a word of caution. There seems to be a bug in Airbnb systems. Not sure if effects everyone. Anytime we adjust our fees, it resets our weekend prices to our base weekend price. We then have to  manually amend them again to seasonal prices. Took us ages to work out what was causing it.

[Dean-And-Stacey0]

@Tony-And-Una0  Thank you for your input.  I do feel that it works successfully most of the time for us as well.  I have been wanting to keep the feature, so I'm glad that you agree.

By the way, I think that you just answered a dilemma that we had last week.  Somehow someone was able to book a way cheaper weekend rate than normal.  I couldn't figure out why.  I called Airbnb, they said that it was because smart pricing was on.  But it wasn't on for those dates.  That group got a good deal for summertime in Asheville.  Frustrating, but now I think I know what happened.  I'll keep an eye on that.  Thanks!

[Debra300]

@Dean-And-Stacey0,

I use this feature also, and have not really had any issues.  I believe this is due to my rental spaces being connected to my home, and the guests know that I'm onsite.

The only time that I had an issue was not an Airbnb booking, but through my own site.  A guest rented our two bed/two bath apartment for two adults and three children (five is the maximum occupancy), but brought four kids (all school age).  When I addressed her about this, she tried to imply that it was just one more child and I shouldn't charge her the additional guest fee, because they could "make due" with the space.  I asked her did the airline allow them to use five seats when they flew down to the island, or was everyone required to have their own ticket and seat?  She looked gobsmacked, and paid the additional fee.

I also lock off rooms when a smaller group of people are going to stay in our apartments.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Dean-And-Stacey0 One thing to look out for is that if 3 guests book a 3 bedroom place they may well expect all 3 bedrooms to be available.

We don't charge extra for guests as we figure that its costs us the same to run the place if 1 stays or 6 stay.  

We were advised that allowing a lower price for renting part of the place just meant we would lose out on the higher price for renting the whole place. No idea if we win or lose with this approach.

[Dean-And-Stacey0]

@Mike-And-Jane0  Thanks for your input.  I hear what you're saying, but I think if we set the price high, we would be losing out on the smaller groups.  Our goal is to keep it booked (and it has been working really well).  I think the tiered pricing makes it more accessible to all groups.  And I think the wear and tear on the house is much less with smaller groups, so we actually like to host them.

If 3 guests book our rental, all 3 bedrooms are available to them.  We don't block off rooms.