Amenity Add-On Service

[Eric Gabbard]

Looking for advice and feedback on a business idea for short-term rental operators and guests.

To help differentiate your property, having a wide range of amenities is obviously important, but sometimes it's hard to justify the cost of those larger items. The idea is to rent amenities as add-ons for guests to book alongside their booking of your property. The first one I would build is a wood-fired sauna on wheels that could be dropped off at the beginning of the stay and then picked up at check out. Other amenities could include a hot tub, a large grill/smoker, a cold plunge, etc. (all built on a trailer frame so that we could deliver and pick up).

The guest would receive a message after booking with a link to my website to see options and availability and would book directly from me. All delivery, cleaning, and payment would be handled by my company so it would be no additional work for the host.

I have one STR property in GA and have gotten good feedback on the idea from my last few guests, but wanted to see if other hosts would find the service valuable enough to offer to their own guests.

Any feedback, positive or negative, would be super helpful.

[John Underwood]

Not sure about guest having to start a fire and keep putting wood into a hot tub to be able to use it.

As a host I would want to offer these through my site and get a cut or I would just buy the amenity and add it if I thought it was worth while.

I have referred people to boat rental places on occasion, just because I don't want to rent my boat.