Are you too getting ridiculous price tips?

[Stephanie27]

I am finding that the price tips given by Airbnb are just crazy low, they wouldn;t cover the cleaning and laundry...anyone else feel the same

[Alice-Kiandra0]

Ciao Giulia!  

Crepi, anche a te.  Lovely to get your message, I am staying with the prices I think are right and in the mean time some people come to be direct. 

Un saluto dalla Tuscia,

Alice

[Tatyana5]

Well said!

[Benjamin459]

Half your price? well yours are almost resonable compared to my price tips :))

I have a 5 bed luxury villa in a popular summer destination; i rent it ~700$/night in the highest season (which is already cheap for the market) and airbnb's price tip for that period is... *drum rolls* 11$/night. Doesn't even cover the linen, let alone all the other expenses :))

[David-and-Rosângela0]

Hello Stephanie,

We do that, and takes time on a Daily basis, and Airbnb should be doing that. Not compare us to listings that have inferior prices, but also Superhosts, and same type of listings, not other listings far away and  different criteria.

Criteria that Airbnb should do is, Locations, Type of listing, and Price, than do the average price, day of the week, weekend vs weekday, that should be done by airbnb, not the Hosts, that is time consuming and really Airbnb needs to meet everyones expectations.

[Julia1254]

Comparing to others is exactly what I do, and I do it at least once a week. It works. I usually do one dollar lower than the lowest. Unless the lowest is $19 or something stupid like that. Even though a lot of those hosts charge cleaning fees and the customer would pay more than choosing me, Airbnb shows in big numbers only the nightly price. Tiny little numbers show the actual price. So I look only at the big numbers, not counting on customers to consider cleaning fees on the others. When I go to adjust my minimum, Airbnb is now showing $17. I can't count on anything they recommend, not the minimums and not the weekly/monthly discounts. Airbnb actually has my three rooms in the same house competing against each other, whereas I want the same price for each. It will suggest different minimums for each - the newer listing lower than my older listings. It's a flaw in their algorithm for sure. In general I let AirBNB do it's auto pricing but as dates near, I start adjusting. Either depending on my mood (charging a high $45 for a one night block because I'm not in the mood to turnover the room) or on how much I need the money (charging one dollar less than competition even if it's for a one night stay). Right now, my area is generally 32-40 for the hosts that have "Rare Find: This place is usually booked." It is a good idea not to look at places where the host obviously does not want a lot of rentals. They set their price high and their empty calendars show they don't plan to lower anytime soon. Those are the ones where their time is more important than money, compared to me where money is more important than time cleaning. 

[Zoraida0]

Since I first saw the Airbnb price tips, I sent them a good advise to stop being so idiotic as what they are giving a very unrealistic advise that may any host fall in depression. Who can work for nothing. We are not a charity. Instead the Agemcy should reduce their taking from the guests. That is where the reduction should come.

[Olga6]

I would agree that prices are ridiculously low.

Suggested variation on Smart Pricing is from economiclly unviable low price to unrealistically high.

It always stuck on the lowes price though. The potential " High" seems to be just

some "marketing" fad to lure hosts into switching on smart pricing in hope of earning more but with a final effect of dumping prices.

Hosts seem to be lured into competition, lowering prices to the level that earning fall well below what would be long term rental income.....but with a lot more work and husstle involved.

The pricing does not take into consideration property price in a particular city and particular area.

I live in London.

My sugested prices are often no so ridicilously low but lower than what I pay for the propery abroad that I happen to know is 1 / 15 the value of my property, let alone the cost of maintenance.

In the past there were groups on Airbnb site where people from particular cities can communicate directly. Sadly, this is not the case any more so we can not syndicate in any way and keep the prices on acceptable level.

[Suzanna0]

Wow pressed sheets! That's above and beyond what we do. 

I try to put the sheets on the bed straight from the line or roll them neatly for storage - but pressing is not in our time budget!

I agree with you and I never go with price tips. For us we are clear on what we are willing to receive in exchange for what we offer. By the same token we don't deal with hagglers. I wish them well and suggest they find somewhere in their budget.

[Anneliese1]

Yes, no hagglers.

Just as you get what you pay for, you get the kind of guest experience that the price point dictates.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

What I really hate is how much the price tips change the closer you get to the reservation date.  A tip that started out well over $60 can sometime end up being $29 in the days just before the actual reservation. If you follow their tips and indeed drop so significantly, we are training people to wait until the last minute to book.  This makes it awfully difficult to plan.

With the competition getting stiffer with so many more hosts, this sends the wrong message of desperation and "cheapness".  Let's not even begin to mention how this will ultimately skew the data they are using. Plus, they don't and can't take into account local events like college graduation weekend or a festival because I'm sure the algorithym they are using is based soley on historical bookings, so beware.  Data mining and suggestive formulations are the work of professionals trained to work with big data sets.  Airbnb can't keep their website working correctly without outages and errors, I really doubt they've hired a PhD to work on the data model necessary to make this feature highly functional.  

That being said, it is at least somewhat more useful than the pretty graph on the stats page showing you how many views you got 3 days ago because you can clearly do something about THAT! lol.  Besides, the 5 views I got last Monday might not even be unique - not a whole lot of transparency in what is included in the data.  It is probably my mom looking at my listing over and over and thinking about her upcoming visit 🙂 

[Dede0]

Without wanting to contradict anyone else's experience, I have to say that our own experience is that AirBnB's price tips are usually HIGHER than what we've set and believe to be appropriate. They typically suggest prices $5-15 above what we set, and, honestly, we set our prices rather high for our area because of our good ratings and bookings.  I think their recommendations are what they are because we are hightly rated and highly reviewed AND we tend to book up 100% one month in advance, 90% two months in advance and 70% three months in advance. (We only open booking 3 months in advance.) In our case, I think AirBnB would be happy to see fewer bookings at higher rates. We use their recommendations to set our rates below theirs. More bookings, happier guests.

[Olga6]

You are very lucky!

The price tips I was getting are most of the time 1/2 of what works as a daily rate when letting long term and that is without bills taxes and of course cleaning / laundry. Taking all into account that would be 1/3....and that still does not cover my time.

I live in a very desireable area of London.

[Dede0]

I have an opinion about why some people find AirBnB's tips too low, but I'm hesitant to get into it here because of the general negative sentiment here. Basically, my thoughts are that the lower recommendations are related to *super-competitiveI* locales where hosts are essentially competing too strongly against one another. As compared to more "balanced" markets such as, I believe. the one my own listing exists in. So, I'm not denying the reality of hosts who find AirBnB to be recommending ridiculously low rates. I'm sure that happens a LOT. Meanwhile, within my zip code, I find myself making good money while almost always settings rates a few dollars LESS than AirBnB's recommendations. Lucky me...

[Mary-Ann0]

Well, I would not have minded so much the very low price tips if they didn't come with the idea that low prices will get you the "great reviews" signifying that your first time guests would be “great” and appreciative of your efforts and reward you with "those great reviews".

Maybe Airbnb should just say, “if you feel like being extremely competitive then try these price tips”; but then they should advise that competitive low prices do not guarantee the type of guests you attract and most of all do not guarantee what ratings or reviews you would get.  

But right now they suggest (from the way I read it) on the same page, that you should try the low price tips “until you get those great reviews”.  See a newbie to Airbnb (like me) might think that guests will oblige you and give fair ratings and reviews, but (like I said) it did not work that way for me. So I think that they should not be putting low price tips on the same page as a suggestion that they will bring you "great reviews" - that is what I am getting at.  And that is why I feel a bit irritated and “negative” about the price tips and maybe that is why there is a little negativity about this subject here.

BTW the two price tip budget guests I had both rated my place with 4 stars in the value category; where the guest that booked with the higher price gave me 5 stars in the value category - go figure.  So I think that the problem for me is not so much the price tips but the suggection of "great reviews" along with them and that Airbnb connects the price tips with the guest’s reviews and ratings on the same page and I feel that is a mistake.