STR - pool heat costs billed to guests?

Question

Hey everyone, looking for some advice on charges back to guests in Scottsdale, specifically around heating a pool for them. About to install an electric heater, I want to minimize interactions though and avoid requesting $ everyday. Think I’ll say it’ll be heated to 82 automatically, if they want it higher it’ll be $100 for the weekend, $150 per week.

Thoughts, and any other charge backs y’all are doing for guest services?

Nathan Gesner · Answer

$150 per week? Does it really cost $600 a month to heat the pool?

Increase the nightly rate a nominal amount to cover the costs. If it's $200 a month to heat and clean the pool, divide that by 30 days to get a daily rate, increase that by 25% for your profit margin, and increase the nightly rate by that amount. $10 seems sufficient to me.

Bonnie Low · Answer

Totally agree with @Nathan G.  If you offer a home with a pool, you should expect to heat it during colder months. Bake that cost into the nightly rate. Guests hate to be nickel and dimed and up charged for everything and this is one of those things that make hosts look greedy. LOTS of people are complaining about the appearance of bait & switch on OTA platforms where the nightly rate first listed is not inclusive of cleaning, admin, resort fees etc etc so when they actually go to book it it can be double what the nightly rate is. Adding fees just makes that problem worse. If you need to recoup it, bake it into your nightly rate.

Kerry Baird · Answer

I set the temperature to 85 in the winter, and do not request any additional money for the service.  We pay for A/C in the hot summer and for pool heating in the winter.  It is just the cost of operating these properties.

Paul Sandhu · Answer

Fabricate a wood fired heat exchanger for your pool.  I made one for my outdoor hot tub.  It's easy.  You just need welding, pipefitting and boilermaker skills along with a welder and other ironworking equipment.  My tenants work on stuff like this.  Except it's about the size of 40 school buses stacked on top of each other in a 4x10 matrix.

Ken Boone · Answer

Absolutely correct, anyone can run their business how they see fit.  The key is to follow your market and what is acceptable practice in your market.

Sergey A. Petrov · Answer

What is the local market like? If everyone is charging extra for pool (heating or otherwise), add that fee to your guesta as an option. If it is an expected amenity that comes with the place, you’ll get plenty of negative reviews on the extras. Pretend you are going to the area for a weekend, look at what is available, and whether or not “pool” is extra. That’s what all guests will do when looking for a place to stay

Erik Stenbakken · Answer

Yes. We charge the guests, but heat cost is in a pool maintenance fee. One fee per stay. Just like cleaning.

It costs us about $450/ month for the pool heat -- and that's been in the SUMMER. We do not have one of the bathtub sized "pools" but an actual pool (even though it's 5' deep at max).

There's "don't charge the guests anything extra for the stay, don't make them do anything on checkout" camp, and the "charge for everything" mode. You have to decide where you go. If the guests have option to opt OUT of paying, I can see a reason for making it a line item they can not pay and thus save. But if your lodging is $1000/night and you're doing $50 per night for heat… that may not fly.

As others have said, check your LOCAL market for how that runs. If nobody else is doing that, then... may not be for you. I have a family member who has an STR in a market where it's common for guests to bring their own towels. That sounds NUTS to me, but in her market, very common, so it works there.

But yeah, pools DO cost money to heat, so gotta cover that somewhere. It's not a profit center for us. Just a passthrough.

Ken Boone · Answer

In my market, in addition to the regular cleaning fee, we also charge a pool cleaning fee to the guests.

Dan Shelhamer · Answer

@Erik Applegate

We do $75/day or $350/week.

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

I would just add it in rather than charge extra. I hate when there are a bunch of extras added to the nightly cost.

And why electric? Gas is usually going to be cheaper.

STR - pool heat costs billed to guests?

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