Should we charge for extras?

Charging for extra services in your holiday home may prove to have a negative effect on the total annual bookings. It may well be more beneficial to be seen to be adding extras for free. These days most people are asking for 24 hr free internet connection during their stay. It has become the norm and the annual cost to you as the home owner is coming down all the time. For example I discovered that this offer is available: Online Exclusive - Plusnet Fixed Price Unlimited Broadband & line rental £19.99
You may feel that you would like to ask a small fee for this, but perhaps it is better to include it in your overall rental fee, or absorb it. The same could be true of adding Netflix or Sky. This way your guests will see immediately what the holiday will cost instead of having to add all the extras to find out what the actual final cost would be.
You could argue that by not advertising your hidden extras allows you to display lower prices... personally I do not like the 'starting from' prices, which are there to entice you further.

Try also adding "what's included in your stay" to illustrate the extras you are not charging for such as free towel and linen service, free cleaning service, free logs for the fire, free baby high chair, welcome goodies and soaps.

The one extra that we decided to add to the overall price was a flat rate refundable damage deposit. Since guests have no intention of damaging your property they will happily pay this as they know they will get it back at the end of their stay. You can read more about why we decided to have a damage deposit in a previous article: Are there bad holiday guests?