Hope you are not sick of me talking about ABB Pricing Tips

But…to heck with them!
Seriously, they have the suggested pricing tip for a Saturday night for my private bedroom/bathroom listing in August at $48 dollars. Not kidding, I checked it this morning and took a screen shot of it. I am a bit obsessed about this subject, yes, I admit it!
I did not change my prices.
And sure enough, along comes a reservation request from a single 60 year old woman who lives in Manhattan and is going to be participating in a bicycle tour thing that is happening here.
And YUP, she didn’t even obviously blink at the $74 per night and $5 cleaning charge!
States she will arrive by 2pm, visit the town a bit, be in bed by 9pm. Will be out the door by 630am the next day. SERIOUSLY.
I get stoked by these things :slight_smile:
Unfortunately its a saturday night so I lose the ability to offer it for 2 nights (unless I have that weekend off and can clean/change linens Saturday before she arrives.
ABB is just SO WRONG about this!!!
People from Manhattan and CT and NJ do not blink an eye at my prices because I’m a place they WANT to go to.
Love you ABB, but the pricing tips thing is way out of line.

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Do you notice they never do their booking fee by “price tips”? How about they waive the booking fee and we can raise our pirce? - Nah…

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I have the Smart Pricing thing going. My usual price is $125 per night. I noticed today that for July, Smart Pricing had raised it to between $140 and $165. Well, good, but July is off season here. I so much doubt that I can get bookings during the slow season charging $165!

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I’m not wowed by the price tips but once they offered smart pricing with a MINIMUM I signed on. I’m getting more bookings (about doubled) in the last two months but I changed too many things at once to know why. Instant book, lower price, nicer room or a combo?

They are wrong. They are wrong because they push the guest over the host.

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They wanted me to put a price 4 times lower than my price (I am booked over 95% the last 2 months…)

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I too was obsessed with it when the feature first became available in my area, but the pricing patterns didn’t match up with the reality of my area so I turned it off. I’m a new host and thankfully the more experienced hosts in my area held steady on their prices while I tried to figure out mine. None of them are on SmartPricing. Now I think we’re all priced appropriately and it’s easier for travellers to figure out who’s the best fit for their needs/budget. There’s peace and harmony for now, until the next newbie host turns on SmartPricing :wink:

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I have no idea how ABB work out their so-called Smartpricing but I think they are often trying to compare apples with oranges when they try to set a price and for us it would have been extremely Dumbpricing! Like posters above, we have ignored it and are completely booked out for our season (May-September) at prices often 100% higher than the recommendations!

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I turn on smart pricing when I need a good laugh! I started my listing 30 bucks above sp in January and I have raised my price three times since and I’m getting booking and 5 star reviews. SP is not too smart!

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@sylvainbg @SuiteRetreat @Malagachica Either it’s not the same everywhere or I am confused. Can’t you set a minimum price and then ABB would only raise from there if the market would bear it? Or do you object to raising the price if there is more demand, say if there is an event. I have it on with a minimum price but your posts lead me to believe I should turn it off. Can someone explain? TIA.

Yes I can set a minimum price but the difference I said was if I am not putting a minimum price.

The problem is it’s not adapting to the evolution of the local demand so I will get always my minimum price nothing more (not any use). I prefer to make my own pricing depending on days of the week, time of the year, local events.

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That’s what I do. I set a minimum price and then the system updates the prices to what it thinks they should be. (Sometimes crazily high). Then I override it when there are special events or for holidays etc.

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Even with setting a reasonable minimum and maximum price, I found that I was adjusting my prices manually all the time anyway. I don’t know what algorithm SmartPricing uses, but it just wasn’t getting it right. Mostly it just wants to keep the prices too low e.g. on weekends it should be showing my higher price but it doesn’t. So I keep it simple with two prices only. I have one rate for mid week and off season and another rate for weekends, holidays, and high season. It works for now.

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It’s not a Pricing Demand. It’s not Price It This Or We’ll Ban You. It’s a bloody TIP!!! If you don’t like what they suggest, ignore the tip. You seem to be obsessing over a moot point. Relax!:wink:

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Same here. There are so many cheap rentals in Barcelona that ABB thinks our pricing should be around €100 durinf high season. We charge €200 and are completely booked.

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I have just plugged in my open dates, research my competition and adjusted my rates accordingly. I laugh at the tips they give and figure I might as well adjust my rates to bring me up on the search page anyway.

I know right?

Also, what I found is that if you stick to a certain price, then eventually the price tips most up to match it. It’s a downward spiral if you match price tips all the time.

@KenH @Kirsty_Jane I know it seems like we’re being fussy, but my main issue with Pricing Tips and Smart Pricing is that newer hosts in my area will see these tips and try to match them, unaware that it’s possible to be fully booked charging much more. As the number of hosts in my area increases, we’re already seeing steady price erosion, and I can’t help worrying that these algorithms (that appear to consistently undervalue our properties) will speed that up.

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Yeah that’s happened in my area and you just have to stay steady and not match them. There’s not much else you can do!

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@Lucy_R and @Kirsty_Jane re: both of your comments…EXACTLY! Hopefully new hosts with pricing questions will find this thread. It’s tough when you’re new and you think that ABB holds all the answers. In the amount of time it takes to figure out that they don’t, some serious damage can be done.

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