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My wife and I host in northern NJ in a New York City suburb. Our location is about 30-50 minutes to Manhattan via public transportation. I have given Air complete control over my pricing by just updating my calendar every few days and going with their pricing tips. I always felt the pricing was a bit on the low side but I have been booked solid since doing so.
Not that I had a hard time getting guests before but I used to have a few days off here and there. Since going with Air’s tips its been non-stop, this I’m sure is due to my place being at least 50% cheaper than the units in my area and with us having many positive reviews.
As of April 1st I am due to become a Superhost. With this new designation will Air’s pricing tips now be higher and allow me to charge a bit more?
I still want to be a good value but I’m here to make some money, not give charity.
Air BNB pricing tips only use the data from other Air Bnbs listing, not necessarily taking into account local event, high season, etc. We use Everbooked here in the US and Beyond Pricing in Europe and we have absolutely increased revenue YR/YR, maybe not guest count, but revenue. They both charge around 1% of the booking so not too much. Also, as a data point Air BNB smart pricing has one of our houses $200 cheaper than Everbooked.
Last summer when I started booking I had only a toilet on the same floor as the guest rooms. My guests traipsed upstairs to shower. The room had an airbed and old furnishings that I gathered up at the last minute. The ‘kitchen’ was in an unfinished junky part of my basement that was also crammed with storage. The second bedroom was a playroom with only a curtain for privacy. We had a student that lived in a second bedroom down there.
Now they have a full, private bath. Two private bedrooms (the student is gone). The kitchen is now a finished room with a table and a twin bed that doubles as kinds of a couch. The junk is all gone.
And the price tip? Exactly the same as this time last year.
Know your market, know your competition, and set your own price. Or, use the services azreala uses - I just never have gotten around to getting that together.
@dcmooney my Husband poo-poo’d me when I started using the services as we have high occupancy rates and were making good money. However, once I honed in with the above services we are making MORE money with less bookings, so far, we have only been using for 6 months. I was so sure I couldn’t charge more than X and low and behold on busy weekends I can charge 2X. I also consider myself pretty savvy with our local markets.
if we continue after September, I will definitely go with that - I just don’t want to commit to more bookings until I’m sure the family is still up for it after a summer of lots of bookings. I wish I had already enlisted their services. I think it some ways I’ve been afraid to book what it’s worth - there’s a sense that people will be happier if they are getting a bargain -
I was spending hours a day pouring over pricing, changing pricing for close end booking dates, etc. Its SO nice not to deal with that. I obviously still have to monitor but its not nearly as stressful.
We are in very high price areas so I’ve always been okay with higher pricing, but I agree sometimes I’m just like ‘HOW MUCH??’. We have one conference here in SF where we charge 5x the normal rate bc of the services, and previously we were only doing 2.5x.
i get bookings so far in advance usually and then small ones at short notice in between, i charge the same rate all year round and put it up 30% after I got my first 5 reviews and got even more bookings and im probably 80-90% booked which suits me as I cant handle guests in my home all the time. ive check my local comp in accordance with air’s lower price recommendation and they really arent comparable, i have 2 beds and a backyard and none of these do so i dont think their recommendations are that good a guide.
I dont know how anyone can go by what Air is suggesting. Their pricing is just plain ridiculous. I rent my room now at 90 -115$ /night, their suggested price is 37$. I am hosting for a year, and its always at least half of what i want.
If you are solid book 100% throught the year , not only holidays, it means you are underpriced severly.
WHy are you 50% less than others? Is there a reason for it? I am sure positive reviews are a very nice touch, but you are booked primarily because you charge pennies.
If you dont want to give charity stop underpricing so much. 50% less than others is charity.
Lol, of course they will be happier, but what about you?? I encourage everyone to stop giving away their services.
And charge fair prices. After all, guests are traveling, traveling is a luxury not nesesity. If they can afford to not work but travel, they should be able to afford normal pricing which is already cheaper than regular hotels
Thanks for leading me to Everbooked. I love the idea that I have some more info on how to price my unit. Signed up last night and looking forward to its results.
As always you make some great points. I am not at 50%, I think maybe 80%. It is so hard to compare properties. Yes, I agree that I could be charging more. I am very self conscious because the guest space is in the basement, and can be a bit noisy though we work hard to be quiet. Also the area is not finished yet. And its not private entrance so I have to list (legally) as shared home which then forces me to check "1 bedroom’ when I actually offer two. Also I’m not in the city, its about a 30-45 minute trip.
I run this business in addition to full-time homeschooling, working,teaching a class, motherhood and all the rest, I don’t want to be expected to always be on top of things. Does that make sense? Sometimes my guests may come home and our flotsam from a busy day is everywhere. I feel like my lower price gives me some room to breathe.
However, I’m still making dang great money and not having to tolerate a long-term renter. And we love meeting all these folks and it is an amazing education for my kids. So I’m happy. But, I’ll leave the pricing to the professionals if we continue after September.
However! I will also say that I looked at the professionals suggested prices and they were the same as what I was charging.
Can you tell this issue rattles around my brain a lot?!
Of course you know better, but the fact that you are booked so much in advance tells me that your prices are still very low. I forgot to change my calendar for New Years and Christmas and someone from Chehia booked me already. I can not cancell as it was through booking. Com. I am sure she will enjoy the horrendously low price of 65$, but I already feel resentful. Hope she will cancell herself
I don’t disagree with you at all, but I can’t change it now and have made peace with it for the reasons listed. I’m still learning. Next season (when my insurance renews) we will be more knowledgeable!
I mean you know better your situation:). Of course if you already booked you can’t change it, I heard though that so many hosts cancell if they get better offer, which is really not cool
The price tips seem to be related to your base list price as opposed to some other method of valuation. They increase at high-demand times and decrease at low-demand times. When we raised our base price, the recommendations went up with it.
There’s an interesting questions from a few posts back.
Have you ever received an offer to bid up the price in order to dislodge a previous reservation? We had this happen a few times recently, but the answer was “No.”
How long until they create a bidding option? You’ll be prompted to type a regular price and then a secret minimum price at which bid dates could be assigned to you.
@Kenny_Smith We are super happy with it! You def need to play around with the ‘Base’ price and min/max price, but once you have it figured out its pretty smooth sailing. I do manually change prices if we are sub 2 weeks out and not booked, but that has just happened this week
@dcmooney I agree you can probably ‘up’ your price but DON"T STRESS!! You are booked through the summer, deal with it after that!! I also not consider the Air Bnb Smart Pricing the ‘professional’ pricing, it seems way to wacky for me! Everbooked, etc have free trials, so when you get time to look into it, it a not cost and they will recommend what I would consider a ‘professional’ price.
@felixcat OH GEEEZZZ!!! Just what we need a bidding war to deal with, can you imagine those messages and angry reviews!
I am also with Everbooked, and there is a significant difference between theirs and AirBnB’s. AirBnB’s price tips…some had nights as low as $25. What? Prices that low, I would attract too many young guests, like college students. A I bet more seasoned guests would think something is going on with a price that low (like is there some kind of catch?) I went by Everbooked prices and I’ve gotten good guests and a solid 5-star rating in value.
AirBnB’s objective is to maximise occupancy, hence why they always suggest prices that are significantly lower than what can be achieved. This is (in my opinion) so they can prove to their investors that the AirBnB concept is a sound one. They want as many bookings as possible.
However the objective of most hosts is to maximise revenue. They are quite different objectives.
