How do you find local events, to adjust pricing?

[Marvin262]

Hey everybody,

I'm currently spending around 20min every month looking for newly announced events in my area.
I do this to adjust the prices of my Airbnb in case a big event is happening close to me.
Of course this takes a lot of my time and often is not accurate.

So I was wondering how you handle the situation.

- How do you keep up with local events?
- What sources of information do you use?
- Do you pay for any tools to tell you about local events around your Airbnb?
- How much time does it take you to follow local events each month?


Any help is appreciated,

Thank you

[Helen3]

20 minutes a month really isn't too much time is it @Marvin262 

most of our big events are annual and available on our local tourism website 

[Marvin262]

Thanks for your reply. 20min doesn't sound much, indeed. But with sitting down, opening all websites etc it can be much longer. Plus I am missing big events from time to time. 

Good for you that you don't have the struggle 🙂 

[Kelli405]

It’s easier said the. Done for sure! It doesn’t sound like a lot of time but when doing it it seems tedious! Good luck. Idk but…maybe look at Facebook and see if the town has a local website. Most places have a calendar of events you just need to find one that’s local for your town . Good luck bud

[Marvin262]

Thanks @Kelli405 ! So you use facebook for the task I presume? 

[Helen3]

That's because I don't bother researching them monthly 😀 @Marvin262 .... life is too short 

Really shocked in a major tourism destination like Berlin there is no tourist authority website 

[Shelley159]

Hi @Marvin262 

I think what you're doing is very good and pro-active, but it could be a lot of work trying to stay aware of all the events and then (on top of that) trying to guess what the impact may be on your listing.

I don't specifically look for events, I just keep smart pricing turned on and hope that the Airbnb bot will increase my fees when it sees that certain nights are becoming popular. Sometimes when I notice the price of a few nights going up unexpectedly, I try to figure out what may be driving up the price. Then I can decide whether I perhaps want to add a minimum stay or something like that. There are also plenty of times when I expect the price should go up and it doesn't, for some reason!

[Marvin262]

Thanks for you answer. Has smart pricing ever missed a big event or lowered prices too much?

[Shelley159]

@Marvin262 

With smart pricing turned on, your minimum price (which you choose yourself) displays on your calendar for all the available nights, except the ones where smart pricing has increased the price (in my case, often weekends and public holidays automatically become more expensive, and major events). The smart pricing price can never go below your minimum price, unless you do something from your side (like add a special). If all your nights always display the minimum price on the calendar, it may be a sign that you can consider lowering your minimum price (unless you feel you are getting enough bookings anyway).

[Kia272]

@Marvin262  I don't worry about it at all. I set a price for the cost of staying at my AirBnB, and I take bookings. I don't feel the need to capitalize on things happening around me. The value of a stay at my place remains the same, and I don't have to drive myself crazy looking for things on the Internet. 

[Fiona256]

I agree. It is unethical to increase prices when "events" are taking place.  You are not providing anything different, so why should guests pay more?

Supply and demand will be cited, but I think it is wrong to do this.

[Kirsten266]

I only increase my price during the weekend of formule 1.

I also increase it when there’s a foreign holiday. We have a lot of German and French guests. 

[Marvin262]

Thanks Kirsten. 
How do you find out about the foreign holidays?