Choose your own Guest Service Fee ... or ... "Why you may (or may not) want to book directly with us."
* You can have a significant influence on the level of our GUEST SERVICE FEE, since it's tied to the payment method you select ... That's a good thing, right?
- The AirBnB Guest Service Fee is a cost that we not only observe as Hosts by viewing what a Guest is charged but also experience from our own bookings as AirBnB Guests (the average we paid for our last 6 trips was 13.92%). You may, of course, do your own review of your past trips and/or research the topic at the AirBnB Help Center (www.airbnb.com/help/article/1857), but about 14% seems to be pretty standard (perhaps a bit lower for high-cost bookings). Our AirBnB HOST Service Fee, on the other hand, is "just" 3% -- which we imagine is at least in part for payment processing, although their cost is likely much less.
- Our goal is to reduce your Guest Service Fee to max 1-4% (depending on the payment method you choose), and to reduce our Host costs from 3% to max 1%. We do the former simply by charging you less, and the latter by asking you to cover (by means of our Guest Service Fee) the equivalent of the payment processing fee charged to us by this website's hosting platform plus a portion of our upfront and monthly recurring costs for content-management/hosting, as well as the upfront and monthly recurring costs for another website that passes the State/Local Tax we collect from you on to the appropriate authorities.
- Following are your payment method / Guest Fee level options:
(1) If you choose to pay by Credit Card (including Apple/Google Pay) the transaction fee charged to us (and covered by you) will be 2.80% of the total + $0.30 per transaction. Keep in mind that the amount you pay at booking includes not only the cost of your stay (Nightly Rent + End-Cleaning Fee + Guest Service Fee + 13% State/Local Tax on those costs) as on AirBnB, but also the Nontaxed/Refundable Damage/Excessive-Cleaning Security Deposit. This is the MORE EXPENSIVE OPTION in terms of the payment processing fee, but (if selected) we can/will still keep your Guest Service Fee at max 4% compared to what you would have paid by booking through AirBnB -- even with the increase in the payment processing fee triggered by inclusion of the Security Deposit in the total paid.
(2) If you choose to pay by ACH transfer (directly from your bank account to ours) the transaction fee charged to us (and covered by you) will be @ 0.80% of the total paid up to a maximum transaction charge of $10 for the same items listed in (1), above. (So, if the total paid is $500This is the LESS EXPENSIVE OPTION in terms of the payment processing fee, and (if selected) we can/will keep your Guest Service Fee at max 1%.
** As detailed above, we also include in our offer/invoice a fixed Nontaxed/Refundable Damage/Excessive-Cleaning SECURITY DEPOSIT, which is in the amount equal to the cleaning fee for the booked listing (Suite = $150, House = $250, House & Suite = $400). This makes it easy for us and our Guests to resolve minor issues you may report during, or we may discover after your stay. We'll return all or part of the deposit (as appropriate) by sending you a paper check directly from our bank to a postal address that you designate. Such checks typically take 7-10 days to arrive. For instances where the damage and/or excessive cleaning turns out to cost us more than the amount of the Security Deposit to remediate, we trust that we and our Guests (whose stay will have been at least the second with us) will be able to work through those challenges in a manner that will cause both of us to want to start planning for the Guest's next stay <smile>. To hedge against such challenges, we encourage our Guests to consider (but do NOT require them to get) travel insurance that covers damage and excessive-cleaning costs beyond the amount of the Security Deposit.
PLEASE NOTE that OUR CANCELLATION POLICY for direct bookings may differ considerably from the other platforms -- which are not particularly host-friendly in this regard. The cancellation policy for your specific booking will be indicated in the Offer/Invoice email.
- For cancellations PRIOR TO ARRIVAL, the full End-Cleaning Fee and Security Deposit will always be returned. The "booking cost" percentages indicated below for the amount to be returned include ONLY the Rent and the State/Local Tax on the Rent/End-Cleaning Fee/ Guest Service Fee, but DO NOT INCLUDE the Guest Service Fee itself which will be retained by us. For cancellations AFTER ARRIVAL/ENTRY into the property that are NOT the result of a Government Mandatory Evacuation Order or failure on our part to provide adequate accommodations (as determined solely by us), there will be NO refund of the Rent, End-Cleaning Fee, Guest Service Fee or State/Local Tax. (The cleaning will still need to be done, and we will still be required to pass on the tax.) The Security Deposit will be refunded, as appropriate, after our post-stay checks have been completed.
-- We will, of course, be reasonable in our consideration of a Guest's situation and justification for cancelling prior to or after arrival -- and will also take into account the length of the booking and timing of the cancellation, and how that may affect our chances of getting last-minute bookings to make up for the cancellation. If we are successful in getting new bookings to fill part of all of the gap in our schedule created by any cancellation, and if our net income generated by those new bookings during the full period of the cancelled booking (when added to the amount we retained after a cancellation) exceeds what our net income would have been had the original booking NOT been cancelled, we will refund a reasonable portion of the funds that were withheld. Although we don't have a magic one-size-fits-all formula for every possible situation, if we were to meet that threshold, we would reach out who the Guest who cancelled to discuss a supplemental refund amount and process.
-- Refunds will be sent by paper check mailed from our bank to a postal address designated by you. If you prefer, we can send the refund by domestic wire transfer from our bank account to a bank account designated by you -- but we'd need to deduct our bank's domestic outgoing wire fee (typically $25) prior to sending the balance of the refund, and you may want to check with your bank to learn of any incoming wire fees they may charge.
*** SEE ABOVE for important information regarding the "booking cost" percentages indicated below!!!
- For bookings of the Lake Tomahawk Suite OR the Lake Tomahawk House when booked separately:
For cancellations of bookings of up to 7 nights, 100% of your booking costs will be refunded if you cancel no later than 10 days prior to the scheduled arrival date, or 50% if canceled no later than 5 days prior to the scheduled arrival date. No refund will be provided for cancellations fewer than 5 days prior to arrival. For bookings of 8-14 nights, 100% refund for cancellations no later than 14 days prior to arrival, 50% refund for cancellations no later than 7 days prior to arrival, and no refund for cancellations fewer than 7 days prior to arrival. For bookings of 15-21 nights, 100% refund for cancellations no later than 21 days prior to arrival, 50% refund for cancellations no later than 10 days prior to arrival, and no refund for cancellations fewer than 10 days prior to arrival. For bookings of 22-28 nights, 100% refund for cancellations no later than 28 days prior to arrival, 50% refund for cancellations no later than 14 days prior to arrival, and no refund for cancellations fewer than 14 days prior to arrival.
-- We will consider requests for Lake Tomahawk Suite OR Lake Tomahawk House bookings longer than 28 nights. Those stays will have special maximum occupancy limits and cancellation policies. Please contact us for details.
*** KEEP IN MIND that the 13% State/Local Tax IS NOT CHARGED for bookings of 90+ nights, since NC considers such stays to be long-term rentals.
- For bookings of the Lake Tomahawk House & Suite when booked together:
For cancellations of bookings of up to 4 nights, 100% of your booking costs will be refunded if you cancel no later than 14 days prior to the scheduled arrival date, or 50% if canceled no later than 7 days prior to the arrival date. No refund will be provided for cancellations fewer than 7 days prior to arrival. For bookings of 5-9 nights, 100% refund for cancellations no later than 21 days prior to arrival, 50% refund for cancellations no later than 10 days prior to arrival, and no refund for cancellations fewer than 10 days prior to arrival. For bookings of 10-14 nights (our current maximum stay), 100% refund for cancellations no later than 28 days prior to arrival, 50% refund for cancellations no later than 14 days prior to arrival, and no refund for cancellations fewer than 14 days prior to arrival.
-- Contact us if you wish to book more than 14 nights at the Lake Tomahawk House & Suite. Those stays will have special maximum occupancy limits and cancellation policies.
HOUSE RULES: We will include a PDF copy of our Welcome Packet as an attachment to our Offer/Invoice email. The Packet includes our House Rules, and by paying our invoice you, as the Guest, affirm that you have read, understand, and will comply with all of the House Rules.