I hate, hate , HATE the suggested prices by Airbnb (along with their harassing emails!)

It’s called “the race to the bottom”. I get 80% of my bookings through Air but occasionally Stayz (an Aussie outfit who spend a lot of money on tv advertising). Anybody but Air I add 20% to the price. I just started on Bookings and got a booking within 2 days. I’m actually quite nice and suggest they use Air next time as the price is lower. I’ve found there is a certain group of older travellers with money, bless them, who prefer to pay more and so avoid Air.

@PitonView only I see it, of course. Although, frankly I wouldn’t put it past Airbnb to signal guests in some way, the bastards. But I rent my place almost as much as is possible in my market. I just had my best year ever in terms of booked nights and income.

Every time I see the label, my blood boils.

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I’m on Stayz too and I’m not even sure where they get the money for TV advertising as they’re my least booked platform. I started hosting in June and opened up a booking.com listing in October, got my first booking around a week later and was fairly slow until December. Since then we have received bookings in December alone. It is a lot more work with payments etc however it seems to be paying off as our Airbnb listing has only had 1 booking in more than a month.

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The only time I got that note was when I turned off instant Book while I was doing a long haul flight/travel for a day. But you seem fairly booked I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens to my listing as my other platform bookings pick up.

I am trying to work out how people pay on Bookings? I don’t have any credit card facilities as usually Air deals with the payments. I presume they can pay cash? If so how are they forced to pay if they cancel too late for a full refund?

Yes, you can get them to pay cash but we don’t live on site so I kind of make up my own rules…
There is a really good discussion topic on this site.

I do use Stripe.com and it’s pretty good and easy to use. I make sure guests have to enter their credit card details, cvc and address. Having CC details would be the only way to ensure you can charge them if they do cancel.

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Their suggestions are laughable! DON’T do it.
YOU are the boss and in charge of your own prices.

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And the not so subtle “low listing appeal” which in my case is entirely related to price…why would I rent my 5 bed victorian mansion for $121 a night…especially when i am booked out on other sites until the end of February …?

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What other sites are you listed?

Stayz / booking.com / local agent / trip advisor

@Debthecat - Are you getting anything from TripAdvisor?

I have a subscription with VacationHomeRentals and they show my listing on Tripadvisor, but so far down that I only get about one view a day or less, and I’ve had only six inquiries in the last year. Their booking fee is beyond outrageous, so I won’t list with them on a pay-per-booking arrangement.

Only 1 booking so far - but since so many people use trip advisor to check out the listings for an area, I just see it as free advertising and another way to get my listing out there. I have names for my listings and that is what people search for.

Hello all,

My wife and I are very new to hosting - our Airbnb advert went live a week before Christmas.

From the outset Airbnb were ‘suggesting’ a low price and continue to do so. We had done quite a bit of research and benchmarking against local listings and we listed at a price 10-15% lower than that, our ideal base price (putting it up/down by s £1 or £2). This is with their smart pricing though.

Airbnb was suggesting (and continues to suggest) a price approximately 40-45% lower than our hoped-for base price. We’ve had 5 bookings so far in the 12 days of listing at our price which were reasonably happy with. Our first guests check-out today!

Like the advice in this thread we’re going to ignore their tip to lower prices and manage it ourselves!

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Thanks so much for reposting that. I think I’ve sorted it out now.

That is the right approach I think. Though worth looking at their tips occasionally and wondering who is offering a sea view apartment for $50/night. Well I guess I was when I started 3 years ago. Having said that I see “neighbours” who advertise a single room in their house for $80/night but when I check they aren’t getting many bookings. Do your own research is the key and include Airs suggestion as a (very) low ball price.

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Thanks @JamJerrupSunset, we’ll keep our eye on the market and adjust as necessary. We’re heartened that we got another booking yesterday after my post. The next aim is to turn more of the bookings in to longer stays - I don’t see many tips on that subject. I’ll have a look around this forum.

I started out as cheap overnight $50 stay for travellers with continental breakfast makings provided. Now I set the minimum stay to 2 nights with 3 nights over summer. I spend a lot of time experimenting with prices and have gotten it up to $85-120 night. I keep my long price (say 2 months in the future) high as the people who book well ahead seem happy to pay a premium for the right place as they plan their round Australia holiday. People on Booking also seem okay to pay a higher price, presumably as they are comparing it against hotels. But I also offer my regulars a much cheaper price particularly if they book mid week outside the holiday season.

My advice: don’t be afraid to experiment with prices, you can always change them if not getting many bookings in a particular month (my low month is August, mid winter here, and to be honest I am glad to have the occasional week off). Then again I sometime put them up too high and come up against a bit of a wall, so reduce them again. I’d love Air to say “this is the average mid week/ weekend/holiday price you got last year” rather than random price recommendations.

As I say to local newbies asking for advice: “the right price is what someone is prepared to pay for it, not what you think it is worth”

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@JamJerrupSunset, all very good advice. Thank you. We’re hoping to increase the price gradually, particularly in the summer, to at least our base price of not higher. Hopefully getting some reviews from these first few guests will help.

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I find checking out the Air “stats” figure for monthly earnings is very useful

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Think of the Air price as “if you offered it at this rate you would definitely get a booking”. Then double that and compare it against what you are offering,