How We Price: The Simple Math Behind The Joes

At The Joes, we believe extended travel should feel transparent, luxurious, and refreshingly straightforward. If you’ve ever booked a high-end hotel or short-term rental, you know the drill: the nightly rate seems reasonable… until checkout. Suddenly there are cleaning fees, resort fees, service charges, taxes, parking fees, and add-ons you never saw coming. It feels sneaky, and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

As Joe and I have spent time talking with property managers, realtors, homeowners, and travelers, we’ve heard the same frustration again and again: people feel nickel-and-dimed. There’s the price you think you’re paying and then there’s the price you actually pay once the booking is completed or, worse, when you’re checking out. It’s no fun to incur an extra $3,000, $4,000, or $5,000 in unexpected fees you didn’t budget for.

That’s why we built The Joes on a simple belief: if a fee needs to be paid, it should be included in the price upfront, clearly, and honestly. No hidden charges. No surprise add-ons. No unpleasant checkout moments. Total transparency is our operating philosophy, and it guides everything we do.

The reality is that when you add up all the fees, taxes, and surcharges baked into most hotel rooms and short-term rentals, the fully burdened cost of 7 to 10 nights is often the same amount you would spend for an entire 30-day stay in one of our homes. That’s the foundation of our model: extended stays unlock dramatically better value. When you work backward, the effective nightly rate of a Joes stay is far lower than anything comparable in the luxury market.

Every monthly rate on our site is fully inclusive of regular housekeeping and a reasonable utility allowance. The only additional item we require is a fully refundable security deposit, which is standard for any rental of 30 days or longer. This isn’t a fee and it isn’t money you pay upfront, it’s simply a credit card hold that covers accidental damage, and it is released after checkout when the home is returned in good condition. In 99% of stays, the hold is released in full. We don’t touch it unless there is actual, documented damage. It’s routine, transparent, and part of creating a fair, long-term rental experience.

And here’s another built-in advantage: 30-day stays are exempt from all transient occupancy taxes, the room taxes applied to any stay under 30 days, whether it’s a hotel, a STR, or a traditional vacation rental. In places like California Wine Country, that means the 13% to 16% tax on short-term stays disappears entirely once your reservation crosses the 30-day threshold. Depending on the city, a typical hotel bill can include a transient occupancy tax, state and local sales taxes, tourism or convention assessments, business or tourism-improvement district fees, nightly room charges, and even mandatory resort or destination fees all stacked on top of your nightly rate. When you stay for 30 days or longer, all of these taxes and assessments fall away. It’s one of the biggest sources of savings in the entire travel ecosystem, and it’s automatically part of every Joes stay.

We’re not optimizing for nightly revenue. We’re optimizing for fairness, clarity, and a better way to experience places you love. The Joes pricing model isn’t a tactic, it’s a philosophy. One predictable monthly rate, no surprises, and a booking experience built on trust.

It’s how extended luxury travel should feel.