Dynamic pricing

So, We have a new property that has not gone live yet. I am reading about Dynamic Pricing and some recommend it. Is Dynamic Pricing the sale as Beyond Pricing and do you recommend/use it?
Does any numbers that show that it is worth the price?
Thanks

@Victoria_Dolci, I assume you mean Smart Pricing, right? I don’t know of anything called Dynamic Pricing.

Some hosts like Smart Pricing; others don’t.

I know Smart Pricing has been discussed a number of times on this forum. You might start by using the magnifying glass at the top right of this page to search for that topic and read through previous threads.

Best wishes with your property.

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I looked it up and “Dynamic Pricing/Beyond Pricing” seems to be some kind of pricing service you can buy. Their website is junk and won’t pull up on the computer so I can’t tell anything else about it. Solely on that point I would not use it - anyone that can’t get a basic website running is not getting access to my Airbnb pricing.

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It was why I flagged it as spam. Looks to be unflagged.

JF

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@Victoria_Dolci- John’s concern is a valid one but of course, I want to give you the benefit of the doubt. Can you please PM me to let me know that you’re a bona fide host and that you’re not here to promote a service? Thanks.

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As I stated in my post, my AirBNB property has not gone live yet. That is why I am doing research ahead of time. I am already a Superhost with AirBNB. Look me up if you are not sure. That should be easy to do. Victoria

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Absolutely not. All I required was your word. When a member here expresses a doubt, we simply want to be sure, that’s all.

Okay great because I have lots of questions.

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Are these two things not mutually exclusive? I must be misunderstanding something…

Do you already have other Airbnb properties listed?

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I had a different AirBNB property listed last year. I still have the Superhost status even though I am no longer using that listing.

Thanks for not taking it personally. As you can imagine we got a lot of people either posing as hosts or being evasive about it and their sole purpose here is to do market research for their nascent business idea or to surreptitiously sell something.

Welcome to the forum, we have lots of answers. They may not always be ones you want to hear though.

Hi @Victoria_Dolci in short: different names, similar service. BeyondPricing, PriceLabs, and others are 3rd party services that integrate with AirBnB, HomeAway, Booking.com, etc listings, monitor market demand in real-time, and adjust prices on your listings/platforms up/down on (generally) a daily basis.

I’ve used both PriceLabs (PL) and BeyondPricing (BP) since I started in short term rentals because AirBnB’s own “smart pricing” is not aligned to my interests in maximizing per night rates, as much as it is aligned to AirBnB’s corporate interests in undercutting area hotels. In most instances prices are at least $100 below what I know I can get in my market.

Higher occupancy at lower rates = greater wear and tear on my property than pursuing the higher nightly rates that I can tweak through tools like BP/PL. That’s largely because each of these tools offer much greater control in setting a base price, holiday pricing, etc than I have with AirBnB’s blanket and below market smart pricing.

Perhaps even more valuable, BP/PL also offer ways of boosting placement by making micro-changes in daily pricing, which they claim bumps up your listing in AirBnB/HomeAway/etc’s search results because it serves as a marker of a continually updated/active host listing. Whether you believe that or not is up to you, but I’ve always been on page one of results since using either of the services so it’s a worthy investment for me for a modest $20-$30/mo subscription, which I could easily pay for in a single weekend booking at market rate pricing.

Hope this helps and feel free to message me with any other questions you have on the services!

Cliff

There you go @Victoria_Dolci, fixed it for you :wink:

In answerto your question, no idea. I’ve looked at all of the paid for pricing stuff and, for me, it’d be a waste of money.

Firstly, they don’t appear to have enough data, and secondly, I know my market better than they do.

JF

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Dynamic Pricing is interchangeable with “Beyond Pricing” I’ve always referred to them as Beyond Pricing. I’ve used them for I think 3 years now and definitely recommend them. Not sure why someone said their website doesn’t function properly or won’t load(?) I’ve only seen very minor visual hiccups recently when they updated their dashboard aesthetics. But functionality has never missed a beat.

Pros-

  • ANYTHING is better than Airbnb’s pricing automation.

  • cannot beat 1% fee

  • boost SEO with their mico daily changing of prices by a few dollars, making it look like you are an extremely active host on your Airbnb account

  • Simple linking of Airbnb account, all listings import separately with just your login information, no need to even sync your ical links over.

  • Homeaway/VRBO integration as well

  • highly customizable discounting and surcharging (love surcharging) for example I’ll surcharge +30% on dates 4 months or further out. Because those dates will get booked as the date nears and some people actually pay the premium and don’t even realize they are overpaying. maybe they do, I don’t know. But surcharging rates is great, especially for people booking for peak season far in advance.

  • Numerous statistic tracking of best bookings, how you do vs. competition, occupancy.

  • All you have to do is set a Base Price and minimum price, which can also be customized by season, etc. I frequently tweak both figures based on how booked I am 30 days and 90 days out. They have a formula which explains you are priced ideally if you are 50% booked 30 days out, and 32% booked 90 days out. Make sure you take time to read how their model works, why it works, and how to make it work for you before you start!
    I’ve followed their formula pretty much, and its worked great for me. Every year my revenue has increased and Occupancy has been 80-86% (I’ve been told 85% is exactly where you want to be, if you’re 90-100% you are discounting your rates too much. 85% is perfect IMO because it gives you a few days a year to get major work done like an annual carpet cleaning, painting touch ups dropping off supplies and whatever else :slight_smile:

  • Extensive stats available on your listings i.e. RevPAR, ADR, Occupancy Rates, Booking Lead time, Ave night stays, all broken down by graphs, going back 12 months+

  • The number 1 reason I use it is the mico changes made to my prices every 12 hours, boosting my SEO. That alone is worth 1% to me.

On a listing that brings in $75,000 in a year, that’s a $750 expense. That’s like pennies. It’s a no brainer.

However I may need to breakup with BP, about to begin my search for another price optimizer. I just listed my listings on Booking dot com and it appears BP does not support automation for Booking. Still in research mode.

If anyone has a rec. for automation for pricing on Booking dot com please let me know!! Also, since Booking takes a straight 15% commission, taxes differently etc, guests pay less than they would if they booked on Airbnb—I need to account for this but am hoping someone knows already so I don’t have to do the math and research! lol :rofl:

Thank you!!

Thank you Rory for that thoughtful and thorough response. Please keep us informed as to what you find. Victoria

Bdc has been worthless for us, but may be good in your area?

We got one booking from them total.

In fact, no bookings outside airbnb and we have been on all of them since the start: vrbo/homeaway, bdc, misterbandb, and tripadvisor.

@Jefferson - Tripadvisor died by their own hands a few years ago when they set their service fee to outrageous percentages (like $1500 on a $4500 booking - 33%)