How can some properties display/advertise such a low rate until you click on a date?

[David-and-Annie0]

I am baffled by something I'm noticing. Many properties that I search in Big Bear Lake (where our place also is), list--for example--$165/night when you look at the page of searches. But then as soon as you click on any date to check prices, the rate appears as $365/night--for example, and some are much higher. This is an advantage when people are searching b/c of course a lower price is more enticing, so people will click on the listing. I tried to get our listing to do this, too, so I lowered our base price to $100/night and then went in and individually changed the pricing on each day on the calendar. Our listing still shows up as starting at $225. Does anyone know how to do what these other properties are doing? Maybe I need to lower the base price even more? Like down to $25? But I hesitate to do that b/c I will have to reset all the days in my calendars, too. Thought I'd check first to see if anyone understands what I'm talking about and can help. I would try asking customer service, but I am afraid they will not understand at all, or they will give me some vague answer in which I cannot tell if they understood my question. So far, you guys have been WAY more help.

Thank you!

Annie

[Jennifer1421]

@David-and-Annie0Do not lower your price for any day to less than you are willing to book for!

It sounds as though other properties that you're looking at have been set up to use smart pricing (an option under "listing", which allows a price to "float" depending on demand), or have entered different prices manually depending on their own needs. Airbnb will pretty much always display a listing's lowest price point (let's not get into the ethics of that), so if a host has set up smart pricing, with their lowest base price at $165, then that is the price it will appear as when searching without any dates entered.

When I look at your listing, (without dates) the price appears as $296 (CAD, which makes sense if your lowest price is 225 USD). If I enter the dates as Nov.18 - 20/ the price becomes 378/night (plus cleaning and service fees). If I searched Big Bear Lake using the dates as a filter, your place would show on the map as 1113 (the end total)

If you (or a guest) enters dates in the filtered search, then the true price will show for each listing (i.e. the $385 you mention).

Hope this helps - happy hosting!

[Sarah977]

@David-and-Annie0  Showing your listing with a base price that is hugely less than what you actually charge is a good way to piss off guests. Yes, of course the price would change depending on the dates they enter and number of guests, but the idea of lowering it to $25 to lure people in, only for it to jump to $365 would be really bad business sense. You might get lots of views, but you wouldn't get any bookings and it might even cause guests to report your listing.

[David-and-Annie0]

Yeah, I wouldn't ever want it to show that our place was $25, but I was wondering if I set the base at $25--for example--would that somehow correspond to it showing up initially at $150/night, like some of these other huge places do--only to change the second I put in actually dates. I just don't understand why so many places list at such lower rates. It makes ours look really expensive in the searches next to this others that display so much lower. But they are not actually lower at all! Perhaps it's what Emilia42 said: that somewhere, on some date in their calendar, the price is actually $150, and that is why it shows up like that in the listing? I'll try it--I'll just lower one day and see what happens...

[Sarah977]

@David-and-Annie0  Whether other listings in your area are showing up looking a lot less expensive will mean guests will indeed click on those listings first, but when they enter dates, they'll see a much higher nightly rate, and will likely not book it.  It's the bookings that are important, not the views. I have a fairly high booking rate, which doesn't translate to fully occupied,  simply because I don't get a huge number of views (I won't use IB and don't charge a lot, meaning low service fees for Airbb, so they bury my listing) but of those views, many guests go on to book. I also don't raise and lower my prices- it's the same price every day of the year, so guests don't get any pricing surprises when they go on to enter dates. I realize that most hosts want to rise the price for holidays, weekends and events, though.

[Susana556]

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@Sarah977 wrote:

@David-and-Annie0  Showing your listing with a base price that is hugely less than what you actually charge is a good way to piss off guests. Yes, of course the price would change depending on the dates they enter and number of guests, but the idea of lowering it to $25 to lure people in, only for it to jump to $365 would be really bad business sense. You might get lots of views, but you wouldn't get any bookings and it might even cause guests to report your listing.

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My place on Jerusalem Israel have fix rate we cannot change our price same as we publish.Anybody needs apartment inside jerusalem we have available .

[Emilia42]

@David-and-Annie0 

Somewhere on that host's calendar IS that low price ($165 per night) and Airbnb defaults to the lowest available price of the listing. When you search with dates, the pricing is accurate for those specific dates. One of my listings shows a base price of $67 per night . But that rate is for dates that I've grouped together with a 2 night minimum in my off season. Selected weekends in the spring will be priced at 3 times that. But still, the $67 per night will show as the base price when someone looks at my listing page.

[Emilia42]

P.s If you were to set one random day (say December 2nd) at a rate of $25 then your listing will show as $25 per night until dates are selected. It should really say "Rates staring at . . . "

[Lisa723]

@David-and-Annie0 as @Emilia42 notes Airbnb displays the lowest available nightly rate, exclusive of taxes and fees, until dates are entered. For listings with variable pricing this is frustrating for everyone. Of course, hotels etc.. do this too, but Airbnb is deceptive in that it doesn't make this clear in the display.  (Vrbo, for example, shows an average price rather than lowest, labels it as such, and includes a banner directing guests to enter dates for accurate pricing.) As a host, I don't want guests to think I am trying to bait and switch so my listing descriptions include "Please enter dates for accurate pricing" in their summaries and this at the end:

"We regret that Airbnb displays only the lowest available nightly base rate, excluding cleaning fees and their own service fees, until you enter your specific dates." 

[Susana556]

Hello have a great day!you need place to rent inside jerusalem our place are vacant now.

[Trude0]

Hmmm...

Wanted to see which price my listing appears at, if guests search without dates. But when I search without dates, I see no prices - I see a list of properties, with pictures, reviews, stars etc, but without prices. Map also shows no prices.

Klick on a listing, and see ”Add dates for prices”. I tried searching for Stockholm, Sweden (where I am), but also for listings in the US. 

Also, when I do search with dates, the cleaning fees are always included in the average per night price for the dates I search for. Have seen posts here debating whether or not it is smart/fair to lower the price to attract more interest, and instead have a huge cleaning fee. 

Looks like you are all in the US or Mexico - maybe the app works differently in different markets?