Airbnb Answers: Pricing tools that drive host success

Airbnb
Official Account

Airbnb Answers: Pricing tools that drive host success

You asked: Can Airbnb offer hosts more flexibility and options to set our pricing?

 

Leading up to the last Host Q&A, you asked for more flexibility with your pricing options. We went straight to the team that plans and builds these tools to see what’s on the horizon. What we learned was surprising. It turns out we’ve built solutions for much of what you’re asking for, but lots of hosts don’t know about or use the pricing settings available. We also found out that sometimes offering certain types of discounts harms rather than helps your business. Intrigued? We were too.

 

To make sure you have the latest insights on pricing, let’s take a look at what your options are and how your feedback influences what we build.

 

Current pricing options

 

You specifically asked for the ability to set different prices according to a guest’s length of stay, or based on the days of the week (for example, charging a different price for middle of the week vs. weekend stays). We actually have tools that help you do both! You can offer a discount for stays longer than a week or a month, and you can set up custom weekend pricing.

 

You also asked about charging guests based on the number of beds they use, rather than the number of guests staying in the listing. While we understand that more beds used means more linens to clean, it’s sometimes difficult for guests to anticipate how many beds they’ll use at the time of booking. For example, not every listing describes if beds are queen sized or double, how many sleeper sofas there are, or how the beds are arranged in a room. Some guests may want to see the place before deciding if they’ll share a double bed with a friend or sleep on the pull-out couch. However, guests can accurately and confidently say how many people will be staying, and you can charge an extra guest fee to account for that. If the cost of cleaning and check-in for shorter stays is a concern, you can add cleaning fees to offset those costs.

 

How host feedback is shaping our work

 

Your feedback shows us where things aren’t working for you, and where we can do better. Based on what you’ve told us, we’re focusing our efforts on making every tool more accessible and intuitive. And we’re helping hosts understand how pricing tools work together, which rules take priority when multiple rules overlap, and how to use the tools you have for maximum benefit to you.

 

When it comes to building new pricing tools, we try to account for a multitude of host preferences while keeping things simple enough for guests to still want to book your space with Airbnb. To do this, we solicit host feedback, test new ideas, and notice what happens to bookings when we add new options.

 

Here’s a little insight into how we test and pass along our learnings to you: Sometimes we can anticipate reliable opportunities to boost your earnings. For example, you may have seen insight messages on your calendar and emails highlighting discount opportunities for specific dates that would otherwise go unbooked. When you apply these discounts, we highlight to travelers the value you’re offering and that attracts bookings.

 

Alternatively, sometimes we find that less is more—like in a recent test in which hosts added discounts for 3-6 night stays in areas we noticed travelers were searching for accommodation, and it turned out the guests who booked those discounted spaces would likely have booked the listing at the regular price for the same duration. It’s these types of insights that we pass along to you in how we build and what we recommend.

 

You always have control over the price you set for your space. And we’re committed to sharing what we learn about pricing best practices. We’re excited that Airbnb offers competitive pricing flexibility for you, a simple booking experience for your guests, and the promise that we’ll continue to listen to your ideas about how to make pricing even better.


In the latest Host Q&A, CEO and Head of Community Brian Chesky answered top-voted questions during a livestream event. For questions he didn’t have time to address, we’ve introduced Airbnb Answers. Want to ask more? We’ll let you know in Airbnb Updates when the question platform will open for the upcoming June 27th Host Q&A.

291 Replies 291

The reason I do not use Smart Pricing is because it does not take classes of properties in 2 it's equation. What I mean by that is with standard investment properties there's Class A B C and D A being great D being you might get shot in that neighborhood. In my market there are over 10,000 Cabins Rentals some with use some with creeks some in the middle of nowhere some that are hard to get to some far from town. It is a very different type of Market my recommendation is that we select what we think we compared to and then Smart Pricing is based off of that. A Class A property and my market can get Triple the rate compared to a class C property. So as many have voiced your emails about Smart Pricing are more annoying than anything. It tells us as owners and operators that you don't even know the business that you're in. You are getting a reputation for squeezing owners which many are now looking at other ways to list and get guests. Airbnb needs to re-examine the way they are structuring their pricing and  fees. You do not want to become the Blockbuster because the Netflix will just come right behind you.

Diana495
Level 10
Sheffield, United Kingdom

Smart pricing is simply a ploy for you to reduce your price, there is no 'intelligence' behind it, I am really not sure why anyone would think that there was....There is nothing intelligent about Airbnb

Airbnb is toxic

Airbnb operate  illegally 

 

Ana1136
Level 10
Ohrid, Macedonia (FYROM)

@Diana495 well your properties seem to be doing pretty well for being on such toxic and illegal website. 

Diana495
Level 10
Sheffield, United Kingdom

Ana,

How would you know?  You know nothing about me or my experience with Airbnb.  I can tell you that I have enough experience of Airbnb to know what I am talking about.  So, cheers

Ana1136
Level 10
Ohrid, Macedonia (FYROM)

@Diana495 you have 117 great reviews so that is pretty well, I don't need to know you to see that, it is publicly available. How can a web page that offers you a platform to advertise and increase your revenue be so toxic? And I am sure they would not be operating if they were illegal. I am sure you have e

had some negative experience that made you think this way but you are still hosting so it wasn't that bad to make you remove your listings from this toxic place. There is not a single site that doesn't have problems, it comes with the job. They have a lot of things to improve but it is a chance for us to get guests that we otherwise wouldn't have so easily.

And cheers to you too 🙂 

Diana495
Level 10
Sheffield, United Kingdom

You don't know anything about me.

 

117 reviews means nothing.

 

Airbnb operate illegally.

 

Airbnb CS are reckless, leave people in vulnerable situations, ignorant, stupid and lie

 

You may be happy to condone this behaviour, but I am calling it out.

Diana495
Level 10
Sheffield, United Kingdom

Airbnb are Toxic

 

Airbnb operate Unlawfully

 

Always ask for an AUDIO copy of your telephone conversations (give them dates & times) under your Data Protection Rights, to substantiate your claims for negligence, their lies and incompetence.

Gerald67
Level 2
Ottawa, Canada

I receive e-mail messages suggesting that I lower my price to meet competive pricing in my area. However, I never see AIRBNB offering to reduce their fees to make guests fees more attractive. How about a sale on your fees?

Linda_Ron0
Level 2
Rhinebeck, NY

When I first read this new article I thought we were going to be able to charge per bed.  But we still can't do that.  I have a suite that has the potential for six guests, with one queen bed and two futons.   The only way to do the listing is to have an extra guests (anything over a couple) charge. But this doesn't help when I have people book and I am not sure if two are a couple or they all want seperate beds.  I have just that situation today.  I have a guest now who had booked for two people.  Mass confusion in trying get her to understand my question- did she want one bed or two?  I have no way to know if they were a couple or not.   In the final   email she then tells me that it is actually three people and they all want seperate beds.   Spent way too much time on this.  And now today I am stuck with her officially booked for two people and have to somehow get the extra money for the extra guest.  

Tea17
Level 2
Tbilisi, Georgia

:)) thank ib:)

David944
Level 8
Termeil, Australia

 

 

 

A short stay or overnight premium would be very beneficial, as would a bed usage fee rather than a head count. Single occupants have regularly used more than one bed to take in morning and afternoon views, and couples have arguments!

Regarding your suggestion to charge cleaning fees to offset short stays particularly a single night where a host (risking their assets not Airbnb's) wants to charge a premium, and justifiably, it has been my experience guests simply leave a mess and disregard house rules.

My offering is in the bush alongside a pristine national park, remote and promotes an eco environment, off grid experience, but charge a cleaning fee? Simply encourages people to leave rubbish behind, food scraps in and under beds and plastic bags of rubbish for a non existant council collection, that simply attracts critters and creates a lot more work than a cleaning fee reasonably covers.

Selçuk3
Level 2
Nice, France

There are tons of shortcomings of the pricing options. Minimum price applies to all the dates,for example. But for me, the biggest problem is the smart pricing. You use some big fancy words explaining it, trying to give the impression that it is smart, well it is not. There must be some data processing, I give you that, to set a price on the calendar for each day. Well. This is not enough. I will go with examples:

 

-Your algorithm puts great emphasis on how many days there are between the moment of reservation and the moment of the  check in, like, if there are  fewer than 30 days, then the impact is great, and smart pricing proposes to decrease the prices drastically when there are fewer than 30 days. Have you guys ever booked a flight for a date which is a week in the future ? Have you booked a flight for the following day ? Compared to a plane ticket 6 months in the future, how is the price of a plane ticket, 6 days in the future ? According to the logic of smart pricing, guests should never reserve in advance. They should book, say 4 - 5 days before the check in date and they will get the best deal. This is not logical. I do agree that the time between the moment of reservation and the moment of check in is a factor, but not linear at all. In Nice, in summer,  if i try to book as a guest lets say a week in the future, you put alerts on the page, saying stuff like, "hurry only 10% of the properties are left" ( 90% of the places are booked, supply is low ), what should happen to the prices, when supply is low ? Well here is a hint, they don't drop, not at all. Well they might in a reasonable manner, but your pricing way.. way off. I understand that there are other factors too but, well it doesn't add up, even with other factors.

 

-Putting a price on the calendar is really not enough. the price should depend on the booking request inputs. Say, for a 5 day period in the future, the smart pricing sets the same price per night, and for this same period, let's consider these 2 requests:  a request for 2 people 1 night and 3 people 5 nights.. These are very VERY different booking requests, different pricing logic should apply for these such different requests, not the same price per night ( Yes, on the top of the extra person charge ) . So what should be there on my calendar ? for 1 guest only this night : a price. for 2 guests this night : another price. For 1 guest on this night and the next night : yet another price. Seems complicated, but seems correct too.

 

-Lastly, this is not about smart pricing but extra guest fee. It would make more sense to set price per each guest differently. My place can host 6 people, but there are a lot of guests traveling in groups of 2 people, so I don't want to set a high base price to lose this potential. I set a price that is affordable for 2, and I charge extra for every guest after the second guest. So I want to, as an example, charge only 5 euros the third guest, 10 euros the fourth, 15 euros the fifth and 20 for the 6th.  An exponential-like increase, which can greatly help optimize my revenue.

Nahla4
Level 1
Lebanon

I recently joined Airbnb and therefore I still have many questions. What is the purpose of setting a minimum and a maximum price per night if you cannot define your asking price in high seasons for instance, In my case July-August-September and December.

 

Jamie184
Level 3
Atlanta, GA

I would love to see a option that the cleaning fee can be charged multiple times for a single reservation, as for every so many days. Or a extension of a reservation. Having a 2 day booking verse's a 7day booking. I do the laundry once every 3 days and clean the bathroom at a minimum of every other day and that can be alot of cleaning especially depending on the particular guest. 

Jamie B
Laurie161
Level 3
Hamilton, Canada

You need to allow us to set the frequency of the cleaning charges - or allow us to set the amount of the cleaning fee based on the duration of the stay.

 

If I have a guest staying for 1 month - I have to have it cleaned every 2 weeks.. they should be required to pay more than 1 cleaning fee.