What is an Upsell?
Upsells are the actual offerings available for purchase on stay. This page will help you understand what Host Upsells are, what they’re used for, and how to set them up. For Concierge Upsells, please see our Concierge Help page.
Categories of Upsells
For ease of use, we’ve created six categories for you to select from when creating your upsell. This will help you organize your upsells to help you keep track of what you offer. We also believe it will make your offerings consistent.
Enhancement — Early check-in times, maybe nicer bedding or access to premium toiletries.
Experience — Maybe there is a guided tour in your area you would love guests to know about, a private chef you might know, a local masseuse, or even a cool local class that’s unique to your town.
Fee — A broad category that can help you collect extra money for pets, late check-out, or any upcharge for guests with more extensive needs, or needs which are outside your usual booking parameters.
Product — snacks, coffee, shampoo. A useful category for consumable items!
Rental — Grills, bikes, baby strollers. Anything your guest might need for a day or night to get the most out of their stay.
Service — Examples can include: Mid-stay cleaning service, access to laundry, local grocery delivery.
There are no hard and fast rules for the categories. You are always welcome to use them as you see fit! We also offer an “Other” category when you create a custom upsell, which we cover below.
Host Upsells
At Frontdesk we like to call Upsells that you, the host, create and manage “Host Upsells”. This is because you will take care of the logistics and fulfillment of this service. This helps us keep it distinct from Concierge Upsells, in which Frontdesk takes care of the logistics and fulfillment for you. For more on that, see below, or check out our Concierge Managed Upsell page here.
For instance, creating a Fee Upsell for guests to use your property’s grill would be something you would provide from start to finish.
Upsells for things like property-owned bike rentals, snacks, and coffee products you keep in stock. Or if you have a local vendor or business partner in mind for experiences (live music, private chef, guided tours, bike rental, classes, etc.). Think of Host Upsells as anything you know you can provide and would like to charge for!
What types of Products can I sell?
This is entirely up to you and the needs of your property.
It is recommended that you include products, items, experiences, and services you can fulfill and manage consistently. When you create a Host Upsell, you will be managing, fulfilling, and coordinating these items, experiences, or services.
What is a Custom Upsell?
While we do our best to make sure upsell templates cover the most common Upsells, we understand that different properties have different needs!
How should I price my Host Upsells?
This would be entirely up to you.
Just keep in mind that we charge a combined 10% fee on all transactions, (7% platform fee, 3% credit card processing fee), and price accordingly.
What does Concierge Managed mean?
When you select “Concierge Managed” while creating an Upsell, Frontdesk’s team will take care of the rest. For more please see our Concierge Upsells page.
How do I Create Upsells for my Property?
Setting up upsells for your property is easy! The below assumes you are navigating via your desktop computer browser. Follow these steps:
Navigating to your “Create Upsell” Menu
If you have more than one property, make sure you have your account set to the property you wish to create upsells for. Please see our guide here on how to navigate your dashboard, and select the property you would like to be viewing.
On the left-hand side of the screen, select “Upsells”
From the drop-down menu go to Store. It should look like the following
On your store page, you should see a large orange button on the right-hand side that says “+ Create Upsell”. Click this!
The Create Upsell menu will now appear.
You will see “Custom Upsell” and several preloaded templates!
Select which Upsell you would like to create.
Creating Your Upsell
Below is a step-by-step guide to creating your Upsell. It will go over all the features and settings for your Upsell! Don't be intimidated by the steps below. This guide is in-depth and explains each part of the Upsell creation process. This guides exists if any confusion arises, and you are free to skip any part you already understand. If something is not covered in this guide, please reach out to [email protected].
Step 1.
From the Create Upsell Menu select the Upsell you wish to create. - At the bottom right of the screen, click “Create”
Step 2.
This will add your upsell to your store, as a Draft
Step 3.
From your Store Page, click on your newly added Upsell - This will take you to the part of Frontdesk that controls and sets various options for your Upsell
Step 4.
At the top of the menu, you can set your Upsell’s Status from Draft to Active
Step 5.
You can change your Upsell Type here if you wish
Step 6.
Make sure your Upsell’s Title is set appropriately to what you wish - We recommend keeping it simple and easy to understand!
Step 7.
In Description you can say as little or as much as you want. We also have added a “Use AI Description” button to help facilitate easy setup.
Step 8.
In Additional Details, you can add a Brand if you so wish (particularly helpful for Upsells that are selling locally made items you wish to support and spread the word on).
You can also add a 3rd Party Vendor. - Add a 3rd Party Vendor if you’re creating an upsell that requires the use of a 3rd Party like a chef, musician, art class, or grocery store. If your selection is not already in our Vendor Database, please select “+ Add Manually” right below the 3rd Party Vendor option.
Step 9.
Under Photos, you can add up to 10 photos. They should convey at least two things: what the upsell is and something that makes the upsell compelling or worth your guest’s time.
Step 10.
Availability is one of the most important sections of our Upsell Creation feature. It is where you can set some key options and features.
On Request
If you select this feature, when a guest requests this upsell you will get an email notification from Frontdesk, as well as a message in your Frontdesk Requests (symbolized by a tiny service bell at the very top right corner of the dashboard). You will have to approve the request before the guest can use or buy it
This feature is ideal for things like early or late check-ins, rentals, and experiences. Anything that might require you to be on-site so you can handle the logistics. Or anything that might interfere with your booking process (early and late check-in)
Note: On Request is the default setting for each upsell.
Instant Purchase
If you select Instant Purchase, guests will be able to purchase that Upsell without any approval from you.
This would be ideal for things like snack packs, access to a grill or BBQ equipment. Really anything you feel comfortable knowing that it won’t involve direct support or logistics in fulfilling the service.
Require Start Date
This is always on when your Upsell is “On Request”
This will help you understand when your guest needs this upsell to be fulfilled. For experiences or rentals that require booking tours or contacting a third party, the start date will be when the guest needs the Upsell.
This can be turned off if your Upsell is an “Instant Purchase”
Require Start Time
This will have to be toggled off and on, depending on your needs. For experiences and rentals, it is best to have Require Start Time toggled on. The more information you have to fulfill these Upsells the better.
Request Submission Deadline (On Request Only)
This is a very powerful part of our Upsell Creator tool. This will do two things: the Upsell will tell guests that they need to request the Upsell in advance and will only show available dates in the calendar when Guests press “Select Dates”.
This is very good if you need advanced notice to set up an experience or rental. It is also helpful for setting up early and late checkouts, or even extend their stay. That way if a guest needs a late checkout, they will have to let you know however far in advance you need. You can set it by: Week, Day, Hour, or Minute.
Step 11.
Pricing & Options will be a very important section to fill out as well. Every Host Upsell will need a price, and it is a price that you the Host set. Keep in mind that we charge a 10% combined fee for each Upsell transaction.
Choosing Your Pricing Model
Per Item — this makes the most sense for things like food, flat fees, and some rentals.
If you select the Upsell to be sold on a per-item basis, you will be asked to set a Quantity.
This can be set to the following three options:
Do not Track Quantity — This is a good setting if you wish to charge a simple flat fee for your Upsell, where item quantity will not be a factor in how this is fulfilled.
Set Quantity Availability — This is an ideal setting for on stay consumables like snacks, or if you have a set number of rental items (for example, say you have 3 bikes on-premise and only want to rent out 2 at a time)
Limit Purchases to 1 Per Guest — This might be an ideal setting for things like early check-in, or late check-out.
Options — The following is how to use Options for Per Item Upsells. This is ideal for Upsells that are grouped together but might have different item use or sizes. For example: for early check-in Upsells, you can set it to have multiple early check-in options. For example: 5 Hours Early, 2 Hours Early, etc.
Option title — Make the option title clear for your guests what they’re purchasing.
Price — Whatever you think is fair here. For example, a 5 hour early check-in might be an extra $100, while a 2 hour early check-in might be $45.
"+Add Another Option" — Use this to add as many options as you need.
Per Person — This is ideal for events, experiences, classes, and tours.
From Per Person you can set Max participants (ideal for tours, or experiences that you know have maximum people per group). Toggle that on by clicking the button to the right of “Max participants”
Add the number of maximum participants to the right box below
You will be able to add multiple Options and from there participant types. Options settings will change depending on per item/per person. But they function somewhat similarly regardless. The following will explain its use for Per Person:
Option Title — This is simply the name of your option. For Per Person Upsells you might have the best luck using this extensive Options Setting for group activities that might have different levels of cost based on: duration, group size, participant age
Participants — This is the kind of participant in the event or experience. It could be Adult, Kids, Group size--whatever the Upsell calls for.
Participant Title and Price
Set Max — Use this if the event has max participants, as to not disappoint your guests!
Private Pricing — when you select Per Person on your upsell, you will be allowed to turn on the setting “Private Pricing”. This would allow you to set the price so that if your guests wanted to buy out an entire event, class, tour, or the like. That way they pay one flat fee!
On Request — This setting means you will be able to dictate the cost only after a guest requests your Upsell. This gives you maximum flexibility and might be good for events or experiences that have seasonal or monthly price fluctuation. Keep in mind Guests might be less likely to use this Upsell the more contact and effort it takes to book.
an option will appear to set an example price range. You can do this to give your guest an idea of the potential cost. It should look like this:
Step 12.
Redemption Instructions — You can toggle this off and on as needed, but we recommend you put something here. This will help guests find the items or events they have purchased. For example, if you want to charge for the use of a Grill on your property, you can add instructions about how to use the grill. For rental items, you can put instructions on how to find their rental, and put the item back.
Step 13.
Cancellation Policy — Put your cancellation expectations here. You can simply say you do not refund in the event of a cancellation.
Step 14.
Notify Additional Contacts — This is where you would add your Third party vendor contact that you are using. It will ask for their email. Make sure they have given you the correct email and you and coordinate from there.
Step 15.
Require Waiver — This will give you the ability to upload any waiver you may have around your upsell. You might already have a waiver in mind or one on hand. Simply add it here for your guests’ convenience. We do not currently provide or have waivers, and you will need to provide your own appropriate for your upsells.
When you are done with your Upsell, make sure it is set to “Active” instead of “Draft”, otherwise Guests will not be able to purchase your Upsell!
Managing Host Upsells
For questions about managing your Upsells, please check out our Request page here.
How do I replicate Upsells across Properties?
At the moment, there is no way to replicate Upsells across your properties. You can always save your Upsell's information in an external document and copy+paste the information into your new Upsells in a different property.
If you need help creating your Upsells, please reach out to [email protected].
Utilizing Upsell Templates
There are a number of ready-made Upsells for the most common Upsells. They appear in your “Create Upsell” Menu. They come pre-loaded with a description, photos, and suggested pricing. You are free to use this however you want.
How do I get paid for Upsells?
When a guest pays for your Upsell, your portion of your Host Upsell will be added to your Frontdesk Earnings. It will be 90% of the Upsell price you charge.
Once your wallet accrues over $100 we will pay you out, either via a secure electronic transfer.
You can always check where the status of your Wallet is at in a few different places. When you click the green-yellow wallet icon at the top right of your screen, you will be routed to the Earnings page of your account. For more information on Earnings, please see our Earnings and Payouts page.