Airbnb is working on a new version of Smart Pricing!

1

Hey All.

I’m the developer of Superhost Tools an automated messaging and pricing tool and while I was working on some new features I found in the Airbnb API, a new value that piqued my interest, below is part of the data returned from the Airbnb servers when requesting the pricing settings on a listing:

"smart_pricing_is_available": true,
"smart_pricing_v2_is_available": false,
"smart_pricing_is_enabled": false,
"smart_pricing_last_disabled_at": "2019-05-17T19:55:24.000+0000",
"smart_pricing_last_enabled_at": "2017-07-10T01:40:52.000+0000",
"smart_pricing_max_price": 367,
"smart_pricing_min_price": 80,

Notice the new value named "smart_pricing_v2_is_available"? It looks like Airbnb working on a version 2 of their Smart Pricing. It doesn’t look like my listings have available yet but I will definitely be monitoring it as I feel (like everyone else) that Smart Pricing could use an update.

Anyway, I thought you guys might be interested even if you’re not using Airbnb’s Smart Pricing.

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2

If you are the Airbnb software developer, can you please fix my problem with the Airbnb guest-booking platform?:

I charge by the bedroom and not by the number of guests per-night. However, I only allow two people per-bedroom.

Why can’t there be a dual online-booking option for hosts, by either:

  • Nightly cost per-bedroom?
    or
  • Number of total guests?

I have called Airbnb customer support several times, who say this is a decision only Airbnb headquarters can make.

I do not want to create and maintain separate Airbnb online listings for my two rental bedrooms, which adjoin each other in my house’s downstairs guest space.

Then seven months ago, I mailed three separate letters about this to the Airbnb CEO, vice president of IT and vice president of customer relations at their San Francisco corporate headquarters – but I never received a courtesy reply.

Please help.

3

Thank you for sharing.

4

He works for Superhosttools.com, not Airbnb.Pricing lies within the Airbnb platform so not under his purview.

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5

That’s right. I do not work for and am in no way associated with Airbnb. I’m just a fellow host that builds tools for other hosts.

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6

I don’t understand the value of this pricing tool, when pricelabs and wheelhouse & Beyondpricing are available and are very well-established and accepted.

7

Smart pricing is at no additional cost to hosts.

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8

Yes. But the independent ones actually work.

9

They definitely work better than Smart Pricing and they are nice because you can set them and forget them but you can do significantly better if you use a rule-based pricing tool or a combination.

10

Can’t just set and forget, as there may be occasional glitch or event they don’t consider.

As to better with rule based, that is an unevidenced assertion you have made.

11

You’re right. I have no evidence, just my opinion based on my experience from using both rule based and dynamic pricing tools. I should do a study of it though. I have two almost identical apartments in the same location. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while but haven’t had the time.

Last time I used the dynamic pricing tools I felt pricelabs did the best job, what are you using?

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12

As does Smart Pricing. It might not work for you and you’re only too welcome to give your opinion. But so are others. For many of us, myself included, Smart Pricing works extremely well (yes, just my opinion) and is as mentioned, provided to hosts at no extra cost.

This forum is really more valuable to new and potential hosts if we can show a balanced view rather than blanket statements. Thanks.

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13

I’m looking forward to see whatever they launch. Maybe some ways to differentiate within the different prices and some more options.

I too use Airbnb’s smart pricing and I can’t complain. I really like it so long I always can control my bottom and top rates.

14

There is a huge number of posts on the internet that considers Smart Pricing to be generally ludicrous, and very few that praised it. Your post is one of the very few that I ever said about it working very well. I don’t give my opinion, but that of many dozens of threads I have seen that made me decide not to depend on it.

As for no extra cost, if something costs 0.75% of each booking but yielded 5-20% extra, that is not a cost but a wise investment.

15

Not if it’s totally unnecessary. And yes, there are a huge number of posts on the internet about just about anything at all but it doesn’t make them fact. It would be great if you could post that your comments are anecdotal, or gleaned solely from the internet if they are your sources, rather than your own personal experience.

16

I only used one because my PMS only supports one. They are in process to API two more in the next few months.

I use ABB, BDC,VRBO, Flipkey, my own website so I will need to get the PMS and the OTAs and the dynamic pricers to work smoothly.

When they have several working (PriceLabs, Wheelhouse, BeyondPricing) I plan to run A/B testing on comparable properties for a few months. I want to see if any of them outperform the other. I am a very very patient person, so a little lost revenue for perhaps 10 years worth of improvement is worth it,

17

so finally did they release an update of smart pricing or PMS still better ?