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Hey guys! I’ve been hosting for a while now, and I’m getting a better and better idea of what it takes to provide an enjoyable experience. But the one issue I consistently struggle with is pricing. It’s impossible to know whether I’m pricing my property efficiently, or how prices should be increased/ decreased on certain days or around certain events.
And this is something that comes up again and again when I talk with other hosts - there seems to be very little consensus on the best way to manage pricing. Manually pricing is a game of guessing, Airbnb’s automated system massively underprices (in my experience), and I know of a few dynamic pricing services but haven’t had enough exposure to know whether they’re efficient.
What are your experiences with pricing? Have you found anything particularly effective? What things should I be considering when pricing my property, or more importantly what will make the process easier?
I wrote a brief blog post on the topic here, but I’d love to hear your guys thoughts.
We think it is. That’s why we have 4 Ph.D Data Scientists on the team that have helped us build the most personalized and powerful pricing tool in the space. There’s a reason why HomeAway and TripAdvisor chose to partner with us over our competitors.
Pricing is very easy. Get together your annual expenses - every last thing including insurance, maintenance, wear and tear, supplies, cleaning, laundry, your time etc. and consider what you expect your annual occupancy to be - underestimate if anything.
Do you sums and this will give you the bare minimum that you need to gross per night. Add your profit onto the nightly rate you have calculated from the above.
Put that rate into Smart Pricing as your minimum, add your maximum rate and set your prices manually for special events. Simple
@jaquo Seems like a pretty clean way to go about it, and totally quantitative which I like. I think I’ll definitely give a more systematic approach like this a shot. The only thing though is that I still wouldn’t have any idea whether the listings could be priced hire and still sell effectively. (Only a concern for someone like me who tries to optimise things as much as possible though I guess!)
I am using Beyond Pricing as it is the only one available in my city. I linked it to my AirBnB account and to my VRBO account. However for VRBO it sys they have no data available for my city. It is the same house in the same city… duh?!
@PennyM I forgot to reach back out to you via this thread! Wheelhouse has been live in BsAs for a few weeks now! Check us out here and let me know what you think: www.usewheelhouse.com
@jaquo - this makes sense if you are expressly buying investment properties to rent, but when you are sharing a vacation home or just bringing in extra money by sharing occasionally it is not just a matter of adding everything up. For some the goal is a profit, for others simply defraying costs. Others are just saving for a specific purchase.
I’ll have our Data Scientist add BsAs next week!
Wheelhouse has been live in BsAs for a few weeks now! Check us out here and let me know what you think: