STR - pool heat costs billed to guests?

[Erik Applegate]

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? 

[Luke Carl]

Most people charge a per day fee in my markets. I don’t charge for it. Mostly because I just don’t want to deal with the extra fees. 

[Ken Boone]

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

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Erik Applegate:

$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.

[Kerry Baird]

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.  

[Bonnie Low]

Totally agree with @Nathan Gesner  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.

[Dan Shelhamer]

@Erik Applegate

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

[Paul Sandhu]

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.

[Sergey A. Petrov]

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

[Bruce Woodruff]

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.

[Erik Stenbakken]

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]

Quote from @Erik Stenbakken:

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. 

 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.  

[Erik Applegate]

Thank you all for the replies, much appreciated. I’ve heard gas can be 1000+ in the winter months, and quotes are coming in around 7k+ for either gas and electric, hence my lean towards electric right now. 

@Paul Sandhu what do I do when I have none of those skills? Maybe you should start offering up some traveling GC services and install those bad boys all over the country… bring the miller too! 

[Paul Sandhu]

Quote from @Erik Applegate:

@Paul Sandhu what do I do when I have none of those skills? Maybe you should start offering up some traveling GC services and install those bad boys all over the country… bring the miller too! 

 Mig welding not much different than using a caulk gun.  How fast do you move the tip?  How big is the opening on the tip?  How fast do you squeeze the trigger to put the material out.  Same principle, different material.  With caulk you can just clean up a mistake with a finger.  With welding you have to grind it out.  Still the same principle.

[JD Martin]

I had this same discussion with several property managers (including my own) and others who own homes in my market (Four Corners, FL). My preference is to just heat the pool and include the fee, but the feedback I got was universally that this was a bad idea for the following reasons:

1. Not everyone uses the pool and cares whether or not it's heated;

2. Electrical costs can run $600 or more extra even with a heat pump pool heater system running full time;

3. Heating the pool non-stop is more wear and tear on the equipment;

4. More guests prefer to have the option of having a lower per-night price especially if they are only staying the 3 night minimum;

5. Guests who have never had outdoor heated pools tend to have unrealistic expectations of how warm the water will be, even in Florida, and thus the entirety of the process needs some explanation to the guest;

6. Guests coming to Four Corners expect to pay a separate fee if they want the pool heated. 

So I actually started in the "let's just heat it and charge more" camp but was persuaded by the fact that a lot of people, who know more than me when it comes to that area and have more experience renting in that area, told me that on balance it was a bad idea. 

[Greg R.]

The way I see it, if the home has a pool it's your responsibility to keep it heated. It's an amenity that's listed when you advertise the home, right? I would be super annoyed as a guest to have a cheapskate host trying to nickel and dime me to heat the pool. 

If 82 is an adequate number then keep it there. If not, raise it to where it should be and build the heating costs into your rates - problem solved.