Smart pricing is a crazy maker. I’m a new host of 8 days. Last week SP suggested $42/night when my prices were $52 — which is way below the average competitor this time of year. This week it states $32. What?! $10-15 in a welcome basket + water + increased utilities + wear/tear on the room = I’m paying someone to stay here. Or, in effect paying for 5-star reviews (by paying someone to stay here) and taking a chance with IB on. I charge $30 cleaning; it’s expensive here. If the cleaner does it they’d charge me $40-50. So $32/night + $30 cleaning fee? Something doesn’t sound right. … I know I’m not supposed to pay attention to SP, but I feel like Airbnb may be keeping my new listing low in the search results because of it. Meaning = not the bookings I heard I should be getting with the ultra low price it’s already set at… As a side note, I researched Motel 6 pricing in the largest metropolitan town 2 hours away, and it’s $32/night. What the what? Thoughts?
Well that’s right, you’re not. Smart pricing is only a pretty basic computer program. It has no idea about your listing, the amenities you offer, local events etc. etc.
It’s up to you to ‘train’ it.
Be sure to set your minimum and maximum price. Put something daft as your maximum if you like but put your minimum as your base price. Every so often, manually adjust the prices to reflect local events and so on…
Pay no attention to any ‘tips’ it might give you. They are only computer-generated suggestions and you know far better.
I didn’t know I was supposed to train it. That’s interesting. Thanks.
It takes a while but it really does work. Then you can leave it alone to do its thing.
As a new host, do you think it hurts me in search if I ignore SP?
No, I don’t think it will hurt at all. Remember all these things are just tiny computer programs. Big Brother isn’t watching. 
I thought maybe it was programmed in the software to provide less often in the search results if I don’t follow their suggestions. 
It is smart from an AirBnB perspective, not from a Host perspective.
I tested Smart Pricing (well, the pricing tips) once. I set a Friday rate to $400 US. I set the next night at $1400 US.
A few days later I looked at the ABB pricing suggestions. The Friday suggestion was $350, and the Saturday suggestion was $1225. Their suggestion was a simple “reduce your rate by 12.5%”. It clearly had nothing to do with my competitors - they just wanted me to lower the rate.
Wow! Now that is really interesting. What about Wheelhouse?
I can’t use Wheelhouse, as our area does not have enough listings for them to include it.