Pricing for longer stays?

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Figurehead

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I read an earlier post about advertising for longer stays but my question is: do you price differently and how do you determine for stays up to a week? I have my first call about a 5-7 day stay and hadn't considered this yet.
 
We do 7 days and more and we give them the last night free. Might reduce it slightly depending on who it is and the time of year, but only if they stay the whole time. We had one who tried it to get a multi days discount and then they left early and wanted us to refund them the days they weren't there.
 
We do 1/7th for stays of 7 days (ie 1 day free) and we do 10% for booking online with a minimum 2 day stay. I get 10% extra if they stay just one night.
 
I generally try to stay away from discounting because we've had people want to leave early or cancel rooms and still want the discount.
We do give away admission tix to a variety of places that save the guest a bundle but don't cost us that much.
 
Morticia said:
I generally try to stay away from discounting because we've had people want to leave early or cancel rooms and still want the discount.
We do give away admission tix to a variety of places that save the guest a bundle but don't cost us that much..
Click to expand...
Haven't had a single person try that, yet. But if they did, I would point out that we can simply cancel the reservation and they can rebook at the new prevailing price, whatever that may be. (And put it up before they can rebook.)
 
7+ nights 20% discount
31+ nights 40% discount
They get a visit from housekeeping once/week.
Many caution to only rent in 1 week increments to avoid them becoming residents who aren't easy to evict. Longer stays are not a problem in Arkansas which has strong pro-landlord laws, but could be a problem in all other states.
 
Thank you. I will be calling her back tomorrow and appreciate your input. We are doing well and am enjoying a good start to this business. Love meeting so many wonderful people!
 
Stay 7 days, get a weekly rate (which is the daily rate for 6 days.)
We had a 'winter rental' for two months this past winter. We will not do it again.
 
Arks said:
7+ nights 20% discount
31+ nights 40% discount
They get a visit from housekeeping once/week.
Many caution to only rent in 1 week increments to avoid them becoming residents who aren't easy to evict. Longer stays are not a problem in Arkansas which has strong pro-landlord laws, but could be a problem in all other states..
Click to expand...
This is close to what I came up with and now we'll see if it will work. I was thinking of a continental breakfast for a few days and full breakfast on the weekend depending on the total days staying with housecleaning once but bathroom tidy-up daily.
 
Figurehead said:
Arks said:
7+ nights 20% discount
31+ nights 40% discount
They get a visit from housekeeping once/week.
Many caution to only rent in 1 week increments to avoid them becoming residents who aren't easy to evict. Longer stays are not a problem in Arkansas which has strong pro-landlord laws, but could be a problem in all other states..
Click to expand...
This is close to what I came up with and now we'll see if it will work. I was thinking of a continental breakfast for a few days and full breakfast on the weekend depending on the total days staying with housecleaning once but bathroom tidy-up daily.
.
Click to expand...
My two cents is don't do that to yourself. If you have other guests what do you say to the 7 night guest when everyone else is having hot breakfast and they are having continental?
Ditto, what do the other guests think? Do they eat the continental and then get hot food, too? How do you explain?
It's too much work.
It would be better to just knock off $10/night and do everything the same.
 
We do not refund for early departures, regardless of the length of stay. But we do offer a weekly rate for our cottage only, in an effort to promote stays or 7 nights. The discount amounts to about 9%. Stays of longer than 7 nights are rare and really not desirable from our point of view.
Guest staying 7 nights get all the same services as those staying fewer nights...daily light housekeeping, linens refreshed as needed, trash removal etc.
 
You did not ay how many rooms you had. I have done a weekly rate when we had people working in the area. That rate did not include breakfast - but I am small enough to police that plus they were gone to work before the "real" guests came down for breakfast so no conflict (3 rooms is easier to deal with) an I serve full breakfasts.
Stick with whatever you choose to do but make it for ALL guests or you will go nuts.
 
Morticia said:
Figurehead said:
Arks said:
7+ nights 20% discount
31+ nights 40% discount
They get a visit from housekeeping once/week.
Many caution to only rent in 1 week increments to avoid them becoming residents who aren't easy to evict. Longer stays are not a problem in Arkansas which has strong pro-landlord laws, but could be a problem in all other states..
Click to expand...
This is close to what I came up with and now we'll see if it will work. I was thinking of a continental breakfast for a few days and full breakfast on the weekend depending on the total days staying with housecleaning once but bathroom tidy-up daily.
.
Click to expand...
My two cents is don't do that to yourself. If you have other guests what do you say to the 7 night guest when everyone else is having hot breakfast and they are having continental?
Ditto, what do the other guests think? Do they eat the continental and then get hot food, too? How do you explain?
It's too much work.
It would be better to just knock off $10/night and do everything the same.
.
Click to expand...
Good thoughts, thank you. We just have two rooms and she is coming during the week and will be the only one here.
 
gillumhouse said:
You did not ay how many rooms you had. I have done a weekly rate when we had people working in the area. That rate did not include breakfast - but I am small enough to police that plus they were gone to work before the "real" guests came down for breakfast so no conflict (3 rooms is easier to deal with) an I serve full breakfasts.
Stick with whatever you choose to do but make it for ALL guests or you will go nuts..
Click to expand...
Just two rooms and no one else will be here during that time. I don't like change-ups especially if more guests are in house. We worked out a time when she would be the only guest and because we are just opening, we have some open spots.
 
Figurehead said:
gillumhouse said:
You did not ay how many rooms you had. I have done a weekly rate when we had people working in the area. That rate did not include breakfast - but I am small enough to police that plus they were gone to work before the "real" guests came down for breakfast so no conflict (3 rooms is easier to deal with) an I serve full breakfasts.
Stick with whatever you choose to do but make it for ALL guests or you will go nuts..
Click to expand...
Just two rooms and no one else will be here during that time. I don't like change-ups especially if more guests are in house. We worked out a time when she would be the only guest and because we are just opening, we have some open spots.
.
Click to expand...
Figurehead said:
Just two rooms and no one else will be here during that time. I don't like change-ups especially if more guests are in house. We worked out a time when she would be the only guest and because we are just opening, we have some open spots.
Click to expand...
In that case, do what you feel comfortable with.
Our comments are to try to help - most have more rooms than I do - I have 3 and I could not keep track if they would be coming at the same time. My weekly rate-no breakfast were told if I had other guests, they were welcome to join them for breakfast but I was not getting up to make nor serving them breakfast at a time other than requested by guests with breakfast.
 
Interesting! I said 7 night stay, 8th night free. Same breakfast for everyone.
This worked very well for me ... usually the guest did not want to stay that additional night but chose to leave late in the afternoon of their planned check out so had the use of their room all day ... and I gave them a snack pack when they left. If they really enjoyed the chocolate chip cookies, that was in their snack pack. If I noticed that they especially liked the whoopie pies, I packed a couple of those. Something to make them feel special. I certainly appreciated the long stays.
 
Figurehead said:
gillumhouse said:
You did not ay how many rooms you had. I have done a weekly rate when we had people working in the area. That rate did not include breakfast - but I am small enough to police that plus they were gone to work before the "real" guests came down for breakfast so no conflict (3 rooms is easier to deal with) an I serve full breakfasts.
Stick with whatever you choose to do but make it for ALL guests or you will go nuts..
Click to expand...
Just two rooms and no one else will be here during that time. I don't like change-ups especially if more guests are in house. We worked out a time when she would be the only guest and because we are just opening, we have some open spots.
.
Click to expand...
Figurehead said:
Just two rooms and no one else will be here during that time. I don't like change-ups especially if more guests are in house. We worked out a time when she would be the only guest and because we are just opening, we have some open spots.
Click to expand...
I'm anyways thinking big! We have 7 rooms and I could not keep track of who had what breakfast offering.
We've tried 'planning' no other guests and then all of a sudden we have calls for every room.
This weekend I was planning to do spring cleaning. We just got 2 more reservations. Best laid plans and all that!
 
Morticia said:
Figurehead said:
gillumhouse said:
You did not ay how many rooms you had. I have done a weekly rate when we had people working in the area. That rate did not include breakfast - but I am small enough to police that plus they were gone to work before the "real" guests came down for breakfast so no conflict (3 rooms is easier to deal with) an I serve full breakfasts.
Stick with whatever you choose to do but make it for ALL guests or you will go nuts..
Click to expand...
Just two rooms and no one else will be here during that time. I don't like change-ups especially if more guests are in house. We worked out a time when she would be the only guest and because we are just opening, we have some open spots.
.
Click to expand...
Figurehead said:
Just two rooms and no one else will be here during that time. I don't like change-ups especially if more guests are in house. We worked out a time when she would be the only guest and because we are just opening, we have some open spots.
Click to expand...
I'm anyways thinking big! We have 7 rooms and I could not keep track of who had what breakfast offering.
We've tried 'planning' no other guests and then all of a sudden we have calls for every room.
This weekend I was planning to do spring cleaning. We just got 2 more reservations. Best laid plans and all that!
.
Click to expand...
You are right about planning for down time or projects. A funeral brought us three days of guests in the middle of the week, which was perfect because the weekends were full, but my well-laid plans waited until the following week. Flexibility is a key word I'm discovering in this business.
 
seashanty said:
Interesting! I said 7 night stay, 8th night free. Same breakfast for everyone.
This worked very well for me ... usually the guest did not want to stay that additional night but chose to leave late in the afternoon of their planned check out so had the use of their room all day ... and I gave them a snack pack when they left. If they really enjoyed the chocolate chip cookies, that was in their snack pack. If I noticed that they especially liked the whoopie pies, I packed a couple of those. Something to make them feel special. I certainly appreciated the long stays..
Click to expand...
She decided on 5 nights and that is good with me and I like sending cookies or muffins for the road. If they are here visiting their child at the college, I send along a package of cookies for them!
 
Figurehead said:
Morticia said:
Figurehead said:
gillumhouse said:
You did not ay how many rooms you had. I have done a weekly rate when we had people working in the area. That rate did not include breakfast - but I am small enough to police that plus they were gone to work before the "real" guests came down for breakfast so no conflict (3 rooms is easier to deal with) an I serve full breakfasts.
Stick with whatever you choose to do but make it for ALL guests or you will go nuts..
Click to expand...
Just two rooms and no one else will be here during that time. I don't like change-ups especially if more guests are in house. We worked out a time when she would be the only guest and because we are just opening, we have some open spots.
.
Click to expand...
Figurehead said:
Just two rooms and no one else will be here during that time. I don't like change-ups especially if more guests are in house. We worked out a time when she would be the only guest and because we are just opening, we have some open spots.
Click to expand...
I'm anyways thinking big! We have 7 rooms and I could not keep track of who had what breakfast offering.
We've tried 'planning' no other guests and then all of a sudden we have calls for every room.
This weekend I was planning to do spring cleaning. We just got 2 more reservations. Best laid plans and all that!
.
Click to expand...
You are right about planning for down time or projects. A funeral brought us three days of guests in the middle of the week, which was perfect because the weekends were full, but my well-laid plans waited until the following week. Flexibility is a key word I'm discovering in this business.
.
Click to expand...
Last week we were going to go visit friends and I was going to take more pix for my blog. We went from no rooms to 4-5 rooms every day. Nice bump for the check book!
 
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