Amending discount rates

[Mike3042]

Hi guys

I'm relatively new to AirBnB, and been putting my prices on the calendar for 2024. Upt to a couple of weeks ago I was able to set a Daily price then give a discount at the same time for a Weekly one (this discount vairies pon the Daily Rate, so lower priced days get less %discount) This option now seems to have disappeared and I can only set a "global" discount% for all weeks. am I missing something?

Thanks Mike

[Paula]

Hello @Mike3042,

Recently, one of our amazing hosts, @Joan2709, created a guide on 👉"How to Use Pro Tools to Set Calendar Custom Pricing & Trip Length for the 2023 Summer Release."

Please take a look and let us know if you are able to adjust the prices.

[Joan2709 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mike3042 

Yes, Airbnb has removed the custom discount pricing on the regular calendar since the 2023 Summer Release. In order to use custom pricing going forward, you have to turn on Pro Tools and use Rule Sets to create new custom discounts and apply to the dates you want on the calendar. 

Once Pro Tools is turned on, you will have another calendar display called the "multi-calendar". This is where you will create a "Rule Set" with your custom pricing and apply to whatever date(s) you want on the calendar. You'll still be able to see the regular calendar, but you won't be able to add any custom discounts or pricing there. @Paula provided a link to the Community Guide with screen shots that explains how to turn on Pro Tools and use Rule Sets and the multicalendar. Lots of other things you can do with Pro Tools other than just custom pricing. Reposted Community Guide on how to turn on/use Pro Tools and added another Community Guide on how to set date range min stay/check-in & check-out restrictions:

How to Use Pro Tools to Set Custom Pricing

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Community-Guides/GUIDE-Use-Pro-Tools-to-Set-Calendar-Custom-Pric...

How to Use Pro Tools to Set Date Range Min Stay & Check-in/Check-out Restrictions

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Community-Guides/Guide-How-to-Use-Pro-Tools-amp-Rule-Sets-to-Cre...

[Mikael135]

Hi @Joan2709 and @Mike3042 and @Paula ,

This change to the pricing tools is frustrating. I found it very convenient to be able to set global discounts on the Listing page and micro-manage rule sets on the Pro Tools calendar. Having to create a rule set and apply it manually to all dates seems unnecessarily cumbersome when the previous pricing setup worked perfectly well.

A specific glitch appears to have been generated by this change, whereby any custom discounts previously set for the listing as a whole are still applied, but there seems to be no way to delete them or change them, since they can't be accessed in any way I can find.

I also worry that Airbnb will at some point clear those pre-existing global discounts without letting us know they're doing it, and it will require the attentive vigilance of hosts to catch it and correct for it—those hosts who are even aware of the changes, which I only stumbled upon a month or so after they took effect.

Airbnb could do so much better in communicating with hosts about things like this!

[Joan2709]

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Hi @Mikael135 

I agree the change has caused alot of difficulty for Hosts.

A specific glitch appears to have been generated by this change, whereby any custom discounts previously set for the listing as a whole are still applied, but there seems to be no way to delete them or change them, since they can't be accessed in any way I can find.

You say you can't delete or change previous settings....but you can. You do this by turning on Pro Tools and creating a Rule Set. Apply the Rule Set to the dates in question and it will  override any previous settings you had that you no longer want.

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[Mikael135]

Maybe I don't fully understand how this works, but I think we're talking about two different things, or different levels.

If I set a long-stay discount of three nights under the old pricing system (which I did), that applies to all open dates in all futurity unless I delete it.

If I use a Pro Tools rule set to override it, that will apply to the dates I apply it to, but only to those dates. Overriding isn't the same thing as deleting and the old setting will continue to govern any dates I don't apply the new rule set to, or if I forget to apply it, etc.

To further complicate things, as best I can understand, you can only apply one rule set at a time to any given dates. So applying this rule-set override to my entire calendar will make it a lot harder to apply other rule sets to any dates at all. Maybe I've got that wrong?

Regardless, and more broadly, the most useful thing for me would be to be able to set things like discounts and stay lengths at two levels. To have a global settings option that applies to all dates regardless of specific adjustments, and also rule sets to micro-manage things like long weekends or holidays, etc.

Hope that made sense. It's all a bit headspinning for me.

[Joan2709]

Hi @Mikael135 

It is confusing! Let me see if I can clarify:

The "glitch" came about as a result of custom settings used prior to the Summer Release for min stay (NOT your default settings for min stay). If your previous default min stay was 3 nights, that remained unchanged after the new release. Using a Rule set to override a custom min stay setting was a work-around, as there was no way to delete the previous custom setting after the software update; only override it with a Rule Set.

Default Availability Settings

Set your default setting for min stays as you wish (say 3 nights). This will apply to your entire calendar. Then set any new custom min stays (say...2 nights) using the custom calendar settings and apply to specific dates on your calendar.

Rule Sets 

Rule Sets going forward should only be used as a tool to override a previous custom setting that can't be deleted due to the software glitch, or as needed to set pricing discounts for custom dates, custom check-in, check-out restrictions, etc. 

Hope that makes sense 😊

[Mikael135]

UPDATE

After fiddling around with various settings I discovered a quirk that might be helpful to some hosts.

With smart pricing turned on there are no custom discount options, but if you turn smart pricing off those options appear in the righthand column of the single-listing calendar and you can customize them just as before, with global effect.

Unfortunately, and confusingly, if you turn smart pricing back on, the system will continue to apply any custom length-of-stay discounts that you've set, but will not apply last-minute or early-bird discounts. Those should still work as rule sets in the multi-listing calendar, but that is not currently working for me either, so I'm just going to give up on this for today.