They do. Way back in the seventies the English Sunday magazines (the ones that came free with the paper) used to judge demand by doing a similar thing.
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Smart pricing, changes all your rates, for all your dates, well into the future, unless you are certain that you are blocking future dates. It also has a wierd way of changing prices, and showing the guests. When I did smart pricing I must have had a dozen guests tell me that it was a shady practice for me to have different prices for different dates, as if they assumed it was me, and not the proprietary software within airbnb. They don’t see it as airbnb doing this, they see you as doing this. Why is it this price, on the show tag, but when I choose this date, it says a different price. They blame the host, not airbnb, and they will say that they will not book with you because of the confusion of pricing and they feel as if you are playing them. True story, I have the messages.
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Even if it were you changing the prices for different dates it’s stunningly ignorant for any guest to act like that’s a shady practice. Any guest who told me that would be encouraged to find a different accommodation.
It would certainly show that the potential guest knew very little about how pricing works and in particular the pricing standards of the hospitality and travel industries. That alone would make me wonder what they’d be like as guests. Probably not good…
Yes that’s a consideration, about the quality of the guest. Many of them are clueless because most guests are not hosts, and do not know about airbnb’s pricing software.
Bottom line tho, they are choosing listings with solid pricing and that to me, would indicate that airbnb is missing something on behalf of hosts. The last minute pricing is a good incentive, for percentage discounts on available dates, especially if there are last minute cancellations.
Also, it would be nice for listings that are not houses or apartments, be specially crafted for those specialty environments. Especially since guests have a tendency not to read listings while booking, or act like they don’t read them, and have house or hotel expectations. I would like to be able to list amenities that I provide that are not on the list. One of the choices say, location. We are by a beach or a lake? And do we provide swim gear. But we can’t choose it at all, because its a desert. But we do have a view, just not of a lake haha. But there’s no options for rocks. We have some great views of really cool rocks hahah.
But in terms of payouts, it would really help us, to have a customizable set payout, for different people or things like firewood purchases we make routinely, or paying someone a set amount for cleaning. Instead of percentages.
There is a browser app/extension called “Honey” that shows you the best price for an item, coupons, and also shows you price changes. I’ve seen an add for it linked here on the forum…
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