Cottage Pricing

[Brychan0]

Hello

We have a Cottage at Bont Dolgadfan which  caters for up to 5 people.

I'm rather confused, we have smart pricing and and have our calendar open for at least the next 12 months.

My question is when we come to peak booking times e.g Easter and Summer holidays, the rates do not increase. 

Is this the reason that I notice that a lot of local hosts within air bb don't have there calendar open to far in advance and manually adjust the rates themselves.

[Joelle43]

Hello @Brychan0 

Personally I would never let anyone/anything dictate what my pricing should be at a given time and especially so far in advance.  I hear hosts say that "smart pricing" is anything but😉  Prices are usually way below what they should be and don't take into account seasonal disparities between certain towns or special events that might be happening in X months time.

Whilst opening your calendar so far in advance will give you brownie points with the Airbnb algorithm, there is also a risk that something may come up down the line/unforseen circumstances  and then you have to cancel and that's the worst thing that can happen to an Airbnb host.

I think it's safe to say that you know your market better than an algorithm and are more aware of market trends than AI.  Pricing a listing can vary so much according to its location, its amenities, its reviews and I can't see how AI can measure all these adequately.

My two pennies worth😉

All the best
Joëlle

[Joan2709]

@Brychan0 

I agree with @Joelle43 . Not a fan of smart pricing. It usually prices your listing too low and is never accurate the further out you go. 

I suggest turning it off and manually pricing your listing. You an also use a dynamic pricing tool that instead of Smart Pricing. Several out there, but I hear PriceLabs mentioned most often by Hosts and they are happy with it. $20/month I believe.

To manually price you can use the "Compare Similar Listings" tool on Airbnb and manually look at other listings that are similar to yours:

Compare Pricing Similar Listings

https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/how-to-compare-the-average-prices-of-similar-listin...

There is also a Guide for New Hosts you can refer to:

Guide For New Hosts 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Community-Guides/A-Guide-For-New-Hosts/m-p/2073093#M2346

[Emilie]

Hi @Brychan0, 

What a lovely cottage you've got; can any wildlife be spotted in the surrounding countryside?

I see that Joelle and Joan have shared some advice with you regarding pricing, let us know what you think once you've had a chance to take a look please. 🙂

Thanks, 

Emilie