I have been an Air Bnb host now for nearly a year. When I began hosting, last February, the prices that Smart Pricing would suggest were ridiculously low. I just got super host for the third time. I don’t know if that explains the much higher prices the platform suggests these days? Or is it time in- or number of positive feedbacks? Can anyone shed light on how Air comes up with these prices? Have any of you made their prices lower than SP suggests? I’m also trying to get more three day weekend bookings and some weekends my place goes unrented, so there are more variables involved than just ratings. If I don’t get a three day booking I set it to two days on Tuesday for the coming weekend. Any suggestions or thoughts? Thanks!
I just don’t do it. I tried it very briefly and the pricing was crazy.
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Prices go up when compared to similar listings in your area and how much guests are willing to pay.
For example: There are two new Airbnbs in my area and both sleep 10 so they charge about $200 more a night. Airbnb suggested pricing for my Airbnb went up $178.
However, I only sleep 6. I’m guessing number of guests doesn’t matter. It seems like they just compare it to other houses that are 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
Smart pricing isn’t really smart. I tried an experiment once - set one night to $600 and the next to $1000. Smart pricing suggested $480 and $800, respectively - a simple reduction of 20%.
I then used their price suggestions for those two nights, and it again suggested a 20% discount to each night.
It may work for some properties when they are practically identical to the competition (like condo buildings with hundreds of rentals), but it doesn’t work well for unique properties or in areas with only a few properties.
One more example - I have $800 a night on some March dates that are blocked (booked through VRBO for $950 a night), and the price tips from AirBnB for those dates are all $442.
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BEST THING about Smart Pricing??? You can (wisely) choose not to use it! Generally it has little or no connection to the actual value of your listing in your area.
If they ever require us to use it, I’ll be off the platform in a heartbeat!
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Are we talking about Smart Pricing or Price Tips? Totally different ballgame. The fact that I’m seeing the word “suggestion” in these posts leads me to believe that these are price tips which are totally inaccurate and should be completely ignored. Smart Pricing is controlled by the host and, for this host, has led to much higher income bookings than I had previously.
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Fair enough point - I was talking about Price Tips. But if the Price Tips are so useless, why would I ever think Smart Pricing would be any better?
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Because price tips are based on an Airbnb based algorithm that basically tells you to go about 30% lower than your base price. Smart Pricing is set by you and adjusts your price within the range that is acceptable to you. It raises prices according to demand and availability in your area.
If you fail to set appropriate parameters you cannot blame Smart Pricing for doing exactly what you told it to do.
That’s said, I’ve see full home hosts who say it has not worked well for them. I list a private room/bath in a seasonal destination and it has booked my room at way higher rates than I would have ever thought possible. It all comes down to knowing your specific market. But price tips, yeah, they are horrible.
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For someone who has never used Smart Pricing, I fail to understand how you can proclaim it to be so awful. Many of us hosts have used it (and instant book) with great success. To each his own, but just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.
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I really don’t know I’ve been hosting for six years and have never looked at smart pricing. I set my pricing based on my competition and my ratings and reviews .
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I tried smart pricing thinking it was great. It wanted to set prices for a 3BR+ home at something like $71/night when the going rate is over $200. I think they are comparing a room to a room, and not including the fact that one is a house, another a townhouse, etc.
We too chose to just do manual pricing.
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It’s just an algorithm, and as such, cannot take into account the difference between listings beyond general area, number of bedrooms, etc.
What Airbnb algorithms consider to be “similar listings” can be not at all similar. One might be in a quiet area, one in a noisy one, one might be gorgeous and one a dump, one might offer lots of great amenities and the other only the basics, etc.