Removal of custom prices for calendar months

[Kevin129]

@Jenn8  @Bhumika 

@Stephanie  @Catherine-Powell  @Emilie 

As someone that primarily hosts long-term stays this is my basic pricing tool. I price each month according to likely demand during that month - 12 price points for each calendar year. Very easy to set and maintain. I just had an email announcing this feature will be removed from 28 August. This is super annoying. I anticipate this will just cause me lots pointless admin adjusting all the daily prices to achieve the same end. Any chance the admins can ask if this feature can please, please, pretty please not be removed? 

Many thanks, 

Kevin

[Bhumika]

Hi @Kevin129 ,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this update and I understand how you feel about seeing this feature go.

I will surely pass this feedback on to the relevant teams. 

[Matthieu301]

Just to add that I've just discovered that this feature has been disabled and that I agree with the above that this was an important feature and that the rule sets that replace are clumsy because they do not allow to dynamically set specific prices for a set date. Please bring back the feature!

[Nicholas439 · Accepted solution]

@Kevin129  Understood on your pricing strategy but you could easily replace by using rule-sets.  I have several different scales of discounts for different times of year, then I just select the days, weeks or months I want and apply that discount set to the selected time period.  That way I can leave my daily and weekend rate unchanged all year and adjust by discount.  You could just set up 12 discount periods and apply them to the appropriate month.  If there are specific hot weekends or days you can select that time period and change to a different rule-set. Hope that helps. 

[Kevin129]

Thanks @Nicholas439  - I really appreciate your answer - thank you! 

I did already have a quick look at rule-sets documentation but it said that only hosts that have 6 or more listings could use this feature. Do you have 6 listings?

[Nicholas439]

Hi @Kevin129 , no - I only have a couple but also am a Superhost so maybe that's why?  Let me check and see if I can figure that out for you.

[Nicholas439]

@Kevin129 , Here's how to turn that on

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2499#:~:text=You%20can%20switch%20the%20tools,or%20tapping%20Use....

It is for multiple listings but you have multiple listings on your page so I think you should be eligible.

[Kevin129]

Hi @Nicholas439 

Again - many thanks for your help. I have worked out how to create a ruleset now. I would have preferred to have kept the existing simple existing functionality but I the rulesets approach is workable. 

Best wishes, 

Kevin

[Joan2709]

Hi @Kevin129 

Actually ALL Hosts can use Pro Tools and Rule Sets now, even if you only have one listing (the Airbnb Help Articles have not been edited unfortunately). Looks like you are using Pro Tools now?

Below is a link to a Community Guide on how to use Pro Tools and Rule Sets (with screen shots).

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...

[Matt4595]

this does not help when you use smart pricing,  In arizona we have dead months, and these dead months for smaller hosts are difficult to use smart pricing and flat rate fees. i enjoyed the monthly pricing and would like to see airbnb bring it back.

[Kevin129]

Agreed. I've been using rule-sets but TBH it's a clumsy and inflexible workaround for the way I used to price on AirBnb. I also hope they bring back the original mechanism. It would save me a lot of time. 

[Julie5228]

Hi Kevin - I noticed the same thing today and when I reached out to Airbnb support, I got an email back that was quite alarming and had even more info than the removal of the feature to set monthly prices.  The email indicates that we will no longer be able to create custom discounts NOR will we be able to "edit old or set new custom prices for specific weeks or months."  I called Airbnb support after getting the email to confirm what I was reading and the person I spoke with advised it was correct. 

As someone who manages rentals in an area that is seasonal (ie. lots more traffic in summer versus winter, which means my summer nightly price is higher than my winter nightly price), I don't see how this benefits me.  If I have to set my summer price for all of winter, I am unlikely to get much if any rentals in the winter. 

[Bhumika]

Hi @Julie5228 ,

I was wondering if you had a chance to go through @Nicholas439 's suggestion below?

[Kevin129]

Hi @Bhumika 

On the documentation for rule-sets it says it's a feature available for hosts with 6 or more listings. Is that the case?

Many thanks, 

Kevin

[Bhumika]

Hi @Kevin129 ,

Just wanted to confirm, Do you have your pro tools on? 

If you want to access custom rule sets, you can do so by enabling pro tools by going to your account settings. I had shared a few screenshots here, if that may help. 

Please note this can only be done on a desktop and not on the app.

I hope this helps!