Suggested listing prices worth it?

I’m a host in Toronto and I’m wondering what people think about the suggested listing prices Airbnb reminds you of every day. I find it annoying being in Toronto that they keep telling me to sell for ridiculous rates like $25 a night or even $13 (based apparently on what a majority if users who viewed my listing apparently paid). I think anything under $50 just isn’t worth it, not to mention the types of people I might get who want to pay 1/5 of that price…

What are other host’s opinions on this?

Thanks!

The consensus seems to be that their suggestions are terrible and you should price based on your own research of your market or use an outside service (like Wheelhouse).

They talk out both sides of their mouth in Silicon Valley - on one hand we’re to pledge a “living wage” to cleaners, but then they suggest prices that wouldn’t cover a cleaner’s time much less the host’s.

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Oh don’t get annoyed @lakerice - just ignore them.

Set the minimum base price you are happy with and then if you can get more it’s a bonus.

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AirBnB increases their percentage for the guest fee as the price goes down - so they get about the same as you lower your price. And as you lower your price, there’s a better chance the guest will book through Air instead of Booking dot com or HomeAway. It’s in THEIR best interest for you to lower your price, so they push you to do it.

Ignore it!

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@Allison_H I agree wholeheartedly. I feel like they don’t care about good prices because they make profit no matter what and if more people are using airbnb with lower prices, it doesn’t matter because they still make profit. Like freelance sites like Fiverr or Freelancer…they don’t care that people in the US and Canada can’t make money because we have higher living costs; as long as tons of small transactions go through constantly, they still make huge profits.

@PitonView wow I didn’t realize they increase their percentage for the guest fee as the price goes down…very sneaky. As I mentioned in response to the first response, I think smaller prices actually help airbnb because that means more people using it and more transactions. Like coca cola…billions of cans for cheap prices sold every day but enormous profits for the company.

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I have sent feedback to Airbnb about this pricing memos. I hope others will also do this. It is unfair for them to show what others booked for less without know if they are comparable to what you offer. For example: Home share vs whole space, downtown city or suburb. This info could be useful if we could see what properties they are comparing us to.

(This is about the emails we receive not the Airbnb suggested pricing on the calendar.)

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@Lynick4442 yes that is a very good point. I think though, that the reason is because it’s a robot telling you to sell for less constantly whether or not you have a shared space, guest room, whole apartment, etc. Why else would they say it every time someone messages you or send it to your inbox or send you marketing emails to sell for cheaper? The only thing I can think of is that it works in their favour.

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Will do. I get the same messages from them too, from time to time. I am on a gholf estate, and I know what the price ranges are for other bnb’s on the estate. The prices they suggest are for places in town.

Not just ridiculously low prices but insulting. They are annoying and I completely ignore them. They don’t take into account overheads such as a host renting the property listed on Airbnb or the high cost of electricity used for heating or cooling in winter or summer.

I set prices to undercut those of the old, low end hotels in town by about 25% overall. Eg they charge €60 I charge €40 which with Airbnb commission to the guest costs them around €45. Not to mention that my deal is overall much better than these hotels though they might include breakfast and swimming pool but their rooms / bathrooms are of a much lower standard being worn down with uncomfortable beds, noisy air conditioning units, also extra charge for WiFi in room.

Airbnb suggest a price of €22 - €25 instead of my price of €40

I had no idea!!! I thought the percentage was the same no mater what. How did you learn of this?

VRBO does it and they told us about it, so I tested a few listings on AirBnB to see if they did the same.

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The Airbnb help pages says this:

The guest service fee for homes ranges between 0% and 20% of the booking subtotal (the nightly rate plus cleaning fee and additional guest fee, if applicable, but excluding Airbnb fees and taxes) and is calculated using a variety of factors—these include the reservation subtotal, the length of the stay, and characteristics of the listing. In general, the service fee gets lower as the reservation cost gets higher. Guests see this fee on the checkout page before they book a reservation.

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They’ve raised the percentage and we now get fewer bookings from AirBnB than last year. I did not reduce our prices to offset the increase because we are getting most of our bookings from VRBO without lowering the price.

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