Making Money with Airbnb: 9 Additional Services to Sell to Your Guests

On Airbnb, renting your property is the job, but not only the way of making money with Airbnb. In fact, you could also tack on additional services to your listing that could increase the profits that you make from every booking. Here is how you sell additional services to make more money with Airbnb.

What additional services I can sell to make money on Airbnb?

Many of additional service ideas actually aren’t difficult to set up. In fact, some don’t require you to do any extra work at all. To help you get started, here are 9 ideas for additional services that you can offer.

Guided tours

Most tourists will likely end up paying for local guided tours once they arrive in your area so why not offer your Airbnb guests tickets for a tour? By including a guided tour in their stay, you can help them achieve something that was probably on their list of things to do already and make money with Airbnb in the process.

Bicycle/Motorcycle rental

Make it easier for your guests to get around by providing bicycle or motorcycle rental as an additional service. The guests will likely need to rent some type of vehicle for the duration of their stay at your property. Bike or motorcycle rental is a popular option to make money on Airbnb for many hosts and it can significantly increase your earnings.

Airport pickup/dropoff

Business and leisure travelers alike will appreciate the fact that you are making it convenient for them to get to and from their flights. The best part is that you don’t have to drive them yourself and you can simply charge them for the convenience. Use a local transportation service to arrange rides for your guests and just collect a fee for the convenience to make more money on Airbnb. Make sure that it is reasonably priced, otherwise, guests will prefer to call Uber or another car service.

Extra cleaning

If your guests are staying for a longer duration than one night, just cleaning before they come won’t be enough for them. If you want to make more money on Airbnb, offer extra cleaning as an additional service. You can offer to have a cleaning service come every day to clean up after guests leave the property in the mornings or let your guests choose how often they want cleaning services.

Tickets to events

Choose cool events that out of town guests probably won’t know about or something big that is going on in your area. By using tickets to events as a perk for booking a reservation, you can help guests to choose your place over the competition. You’ll also probably get a shoutout on social media for being the cool Airbnb host that made it all happen.

Cooked meals (breakfasts, lunch, dinners)

Many Airbnb guests appreciate cooked meals, as well as, a stocked refrigerator when traveling with Airbnb. Offering food service as an additional option is perfect for guests who are willing to pay for convenience. If you are going to be preparing the meals as well, you’ll make even more money on Airbnb by including the time you’ll spend cooking and shopping for food as a part of the additional service cost.

Laundry and dry cleaning services

Offering laundry and dry cleaning services is a major bonus for business travelers. When you offer additional services that make your Airbnb listing comparable those offered by a hotel, business travelers are more likely to want to book a reservation for your place.

Decorate for a special occasion

Many people are using Airbnb to travel to celebrate a special occasion. Whether it is an anniversary, birthday, family reunion or other get together for your guests, you can help them celebrate the moment and make more money on Airbnb in the process. You can charge your Airbnb guests for the decorations and labor to put them up so that they don’t have to worry about doing it themselves once they arrive.

How to “sell” the additional services to guests

If you want your guests to take you up on the additional service you’re offering to make money on Airbnb, explain how it will save them time or money. You can also express to them how it might increase enjoyment of their trip to your area. Add the information about the additional services to your listing in write about them in a catchy way to attract your guests’ attention.

For example, tourists to Venice might love the fact that you include an opportunity for them to take a gondola ride as a part of the stay. If you live in a rural area, offering bicycle or motorcycle rental would make it easier for them to get around and allow them to take short scenic trips.

Keep in mind that you need to be honest about how much your additional services are worth. Just like you wouldn’t oversell your property to pretend that it offers something that it doesn’t, don’t overdo it on pitching your additional services to your guests. If you want to make money on Airbnb, remember to always think about long-term profits ahead of short-term gains.

How to charge for extra services

If you’re wondering how you can charge guests for any additional services that you want to offer, there are several ways to do this:

1. Special Offer

When a guest makes an inquiry or request for your listing, you can then add on the additional service that you want to offer by making a special offer. If the guest has only made an inquiry, you would then need to add the cost of the additional services onto the total price of the reservation.

If the guest has made a reservation request for your property, in order to add on the additional service, you would have to decline the request and then make a special offer as described above. Once the special offer is sent to your guest, Airbnb will apply their guest service fee and applicable taxes to the cost. The cost of the additional services will then be included in the calculation of the guest service fee. But you should be careful about this option not to scare your guest away with too many add-ons. It is advisable to do this only after you confirmed extra services with a guest.

2. Alteration Request

Sometimes guests will have already gone ahead and booked your property before you have a chance to discuss any additional services with them. If you need to make an alteration request, Airbnb provides a Community Help Guide here.

3. Resolution Request

A resolution request is probably the easiest way to charge guests for additional services because it ensures that the guest and the host both do not get charged the guest service fee immediately. Use the resolution center option to “Request payment for extra services.” This is an option is available to you before, during or after the guest’s reservation.

If you use this option, you only need to include the cost of the additional services. The other major benefit of this approach is that the charges for the additional service will be treated as a separate transaction so that your guests will know exactly what they paid for.

Overall, making money on Airbnb offering extra services can both increase your profits and add up to guests’ impressions.

Source: 

https://www.airgms.com/property-management-software/making-money-with-airbnb/