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Discussed many times here but it is 2023, and a lot changes over the years. Yes this is a topic that is not new, but I think needs discussion…
Do people find SP viable? Are there alternatives that work as well / better? Is paying worth it for a ‘better’ product?
I found smart pricing to be too low. I used to use pricelabs but I didn’t think they did a very to good job.
I put it in my description that guests can inquire for
discounts. Then once I get an inquiry I raise the rates. After every couple of inquiries I get an instant booking at the higher prices. That has been the best data for me as far as understanding demand.
I also track the number of listings available for the next couple of months every few days. I raise rates when the number of listings drop.
The recession has affected pricing and my average is now 40% lower than 2021.
Yes, very much so. I know that a lot of hosts don’t like it though.
I found that SP needs to be ‘trained’. We can’t expect a computer program to understand our rentals, our location, our special events and so on so we have to ‘tell’ it.
It took me several months. At first, SP set my prices higher in the summer months, for example. But in South Florida, November to May is traditionally the peak period.
So just about every day, I had to spend a few minutes adjusting prices. Eventually, SP got the hang of things.
Although hosts here have said that SP has priced their rentals lower than the lowest price set, it has never done this to me - and that’s in eight years.
What it has done though it charged higher than I would have on some occasions - and it was right to do so. Whenever that happens, I get booked at the high price.
So yes, it’s very viable for me.
What hosts can’t do though is give it a quick try. Trying it for a couple of weeks without ‘training’ it probably doesn’t work.
Could you explain more how you trained Airbnb’s Smart Pricing?
You say that just about every day you adjusted prices. So I assume that means you turned SP off to:
a) change the price for a given day(s) and/or
b) you changed the overall minimum and maximum price.
If you did ‘a’ the change would go away when SP is turned back on, right?
So you must have done ‘b’ – is that right?
Or is there a way that you can change weekend prices that are not over-ridden when SP is turned back on?
I have a hard time understanding this. So a guest who is interested in your listing, and has seen the listed price, but may have a question before committing, then gets the price instantly changed on them, so if they go on to book, they find they are charged a higher price? That seems to me like false advertising and pretty unethical.
What if you went clothes shopping, saw a dress you liked, asked the salesperson if they had it in a smaller size. While they were checking to see if there was one in the back, you were perusing the racks meanwhile, and they then brought out one in your size, but had changed the pricetag to $20 more?
You seem to be regarding any guest who may have a question before deciding to book as undesireable and using them as unwitting pawns in your pricing game.
As I explained, at first the prices were very odd, showing high prices in July and low ones in November. So that was the first job I had to deal with. That took a few hours because the changes were made manually. Thereafter it was a few minutes.
After that, I went in most days and changed prices for days that were meaningful for my area but not for others. (For example, a local art fair which has many visitors needing accommodation but is confined to just a small locality)
I changed prices to be higher when there were larger events within a twenty or so mile radius , if there was a Broadway show in town, an important concert and so on.
No, I didn’t have to turn it off in order to make changes. I left the minimum and maximum the same for a long time (I had quite a large range - the max being higher than I’d ever charged).
I’ve never had a weekend price - my rates are the same for any day of the week.
This probably wouldn’t apply to all hosts but we have the same demand throughout the week. Although we are known for being a tourist area there is also demand for business travellers, people house hunting, people exhibiting at local fairs, people attending conferences and so on.
Interesting!
You are suggesting that I change prices higher based on past events (such as local shows etc)? And raise prices some weekdays (for me weekdays are important - so changing Mon-Wed higher?)
Well, the only way I know how to change a price is to go to ‘Calendar’ and then click on the day. I can then enter the price but I have to remove the check for Smart Pricing for that day. See below.
I have used many of the pricing services out there. Many of them take a percentage of your monthly income, which is a hard no for me.
Smart Pricing using Airbnb always come in WAY too low for me (in New York).
I have now been using PRICELABS for about 5 years. They are technologically savvy, reliable, and provides some extras that other pricing services don’t. Plus they are VERY flexible in the way you can price, much more so than Airbnb pricing. And, it’s a flat $19.99/month - does not vary.
If you want to try it, you can use this link: Revenue Management for Vacation Rentals | PriceLabs . It will provide a free month of pricing and $10 off if you subscribe afterwards, so you can try it out. For full transparency, I get a credit if you decide to join…but I truly do believe this service is the best.
I don’t think I’m violating any Airbnb TOS.
I believe this is how dynamic pricing and revenue management works in the airline and hotel industry.
Yes, the people sending inquiries get disappointed that price has gone up. I’m also disappointed that houses are no longer $100k, gas is no longer $1.
I’m not selling any life saving medications, or essentials. It’s vacation accommodation. Nobody needs it. It’s a luxury only a few % in the world can afford.
I didn’t say you were violating any TOS. And your comparisons don’t compare. Yes, the price of gas has gone up, but it doesn’t go up when you drive into the gas station, see the price on the pump, set it for 10 gallons, stick the pump in your gas tank, fill the gas tank, and then see that it is now 50 cents more per gallon than when you started pumping.
A Guest could have booked at that price and many do instant book at that price. If some people instead waste my time by sending inquiries, I need to be compensated for spending the time to read their inquiries. So I raise the rates if the market dand can support it. Otherwise I leave where they are and often have to lower it if I get no bookings of inquiries.
Your clothing and gas station analogies are not applicable. Online businesses show different rates to different customers.
And I’m sure Airbnb likes what I do because they make more commissions when I charge higher rates.
Hmmmmm.
Sending inquiries from guests are potential guests for my Airbnb, and it is never a time waster (or almost never). However, raising the price after they inquire is a sure way to PO a potential guest and is a dick move. We here are always looking to avoid potential bad reviews and testy guests, so we try very hard NOT to get them pissed. It is a short term gain… but long term puts you in the ‘this host is an ass’ category…
I know that some inquirers are time wasters, asking for discounts, or for you to bend your rules for them, but that’s no different than any other business. How many shoppers walk into a clothing store and purchase something compared to how many are just browsing? Should the salesperson refuse to help potential customers unless they commit to buying something? Should they raise the price of an item because the shopper dared to ask them a question?
Guests are supposed to use the inquiry option if they have questions- it’s much better than them just booking and then finding out that their expectations or needs don’t match what is on offer. I just don’t understand punishing guests for asking questions.
It’s a very profitable move in my case 
I don’t consider them potential guests… to me they are just data points to help me make more money.
But people who don’t book can’t leave you reviews.
like this guy may be pissed but he can’t review me. I have had a large number of these and it hasn’t hurt me.
This is the beauty of the Airbnb platform. There is an endless stream of marks you can monetize. I don’t aim for any repeat guests.
If people who don’t book put me in the “this host is an ass” category, it makes no difference to my future earnings.
Once they book, I provide them excellent service to get great reviews and maintain SuperHost.
Generally, people who inquire tend to be less desirable. They either have reading comprehension issues so they are a pain to host as they will continue asking questions they should be able to figure out on their own or want to break rules (smoking, pets, early check-in, exceed occupancy) or have some very specific needs (keurig coffee maker, dark out blinds, noise levels, double-paned windows, etc.). It’s great to be able to avoid guests who have a high probability of requiring more work.
That’s a burden I don’t have as an Airbnb SuperHost. I can treat time wasting inquiries as data points to raise rates. We have other burdens as Airbnb hosts.
I prefer it the other way around. I set expectations after confirming, and if my place doesn’t meet their needs, I request them to cancel within 24 hours and provide a full refund.
One benefit of this approach is those confirmed bookings that get canceled later are used in the denominator to calculate the cancellation rate. Once I could not get a guest checked in on time, and Airbnb considered that a host cancellation. But thanks to the large number of bookings I had accepted, I could still keep SuperHost!
It pisses guests off when hosts do these things, gives the platform and by extension all hosts a bad name and hurts all of us. When guests experience things like this, they often say they will never use Airbnb again, and post about it on social media.
People are data points to you? An endless stream of marks you can monetize? Wow, that’s quite the attitude.
Don’t worry about the Airbnb platform… Airbnb employs thousands of people to worry about it.
Last I checked, they had record profits for Q3 2022. They are doing just fine!
https://news.airbnb.com/airbnb-third-quarter-2022-financial-results/
Overview of Q3 2022 results
Q3 was our biggest and most profitable quarter ever despite geopolitical and macroeconomic headwinds.In Q3 2022, we had nearly 100 million Nights and Experiences Booked, up 25 percent year-over-year, and $15.6 billion in Gross Booking Value, up 31 percent year-over-year (or 40% ex-FX). Revenue grew 29 percent year-over-year (or 36% ex-FX) to $2.9 billion—our highest quarter ever.
We also had our most profitable quarter with net income of $1.2 billion, up 46 percent year-over-year, representing a 42 percent net income margin. Free cash flow of $960 million increased more than 80 percent from a year ago. And, over the last twelve months, we generated $3.3 billion in FCF, representing a FCF margin of more than 40 percent.
This literally happens to women when they shop for clothes. I don’t consider it unethical at all, just annoying.
What in the world? Best case scenario for me is when a guest sends an inquiry before a request. It gives me an opportunity to vet them before potentially declining. Worse case is when they, for instance, send a request along with a message that convinces me to decline. “We are bringing our dog.” I have a no dog policy. “It will be for my husband and our toddler.” I have a no children under 12 policy, the first statement of my description. The best guests send inquiries. The worst send a request that says, “We are coming on such and such a date.”
There is something off putting about thinking you need to be compensated for having to read an inquiry. You think they should just instant book with no inquiry and stop bothering you? When I did instant book, I had a guest bring three dogs. An inquiry first would have been nice. Many examples of IBs that should have been inquiries in my short foray into IB. An inquiry shows respect.
I understand your point of view. I myself would not feel comfortable with @house_plants ’ approach. BUT it seems to work for @house_plants .
I’ve read that airline prices can change just by browsing them, that somehow it’s known that you’re looking for a particular flight or to/from and the prices change. Regardless of whether that’s accurate this Host knows everything you and I know, including the potential for blowback/bad feelings from the guest, and yet it works for @house_plants .
The one thing I continue to learn on this forum is that what I feel is right for me in my. situation/market/property etc might not be ‘right’ for someone else, and vice versa.
It’s not just that for this Host. This Host has also stated that the inquiry gives the Host valuable information on the demand for the listing and the Host immediately incorporates that knowledge into the pricing.
