I am a long time user of the Dynamic Pricing feature. I love it, as I think it maximizes my earnings. I never would have dreamed of asking for more than $200/nt for my first listing, but when I experimented with Dynamic Pricing, I got several bookings at over $300/nt. I have used it ever since (save for a couple special events during the year where I set my own price), and been happy with the results.
EXCEPT
Every once in a while, it seems to just go totally off the rails and bottom out my prices into perpetuity. The way I understand the algorithm as it usually works is that I provide my minimum, target, and maximum prices as input, and the algorithm sets my prices. Generally, my price should be somewhere near my target price, skewing higher for high demand times, and lower for low demand times, then as dates get closer (generally 30 days out), it reduces the price to my minimum. Makes sense, and works great for me. But every once in a while (like today), I get a booking that makes no sense. My minimum price is $175, target is $250, and max is $500 (this is a different listing from the one I mentioned above). Today, Feb 19th, someone booked the weekend of July 11th for $175 per night. July is my busiest month. If the algorithm were working the way it has in the past, those nights should easily be going for $300+ at the moment. This is not the first time this has happened. So I look at my calendar, and sure enough, every night after mid-June is set to my minimum rate all of a sudden, rather than being close to or at my target rate. I have a ticket in with Airbnb right now to address it. If it goes like last time, they will reach out to the guest who booked, explain the mistake and cancel their reservation. Then, they will be free to book at the correct rate if they choose.
What I really want to know is: Am I the only one experiencing this? Over the last 2 years or so, this has happened to me at least 4 times. I complain, point out what is wrong, they eventually fix it, then it happens again a few months later. I realize that I could just set my own prices, but I feel like the better answer is for Airbnb to fix this feature. Why spend the time and energy creating and marketing a feature, just to let it malfunction to the point where no one wants to use it? I'd love to hear from some other hosts, and/or Airbnb with insight into this issue.
