Low price from Air B&B and I had an enquiry before I realised...

[Natalie503]

Hi everyone,

I'm very new to this, last week we listed our family home for the first time for the Easter Holidays to 'test the waters' and see if this is something we want to do long term as we're going abroad for a year.  I went with Air B&B smart pricing and it showed my house as £110 a night midweek and £120 a night Easter weekend.  I thought was ok and I also signed up to the 20% discount for the first 3 reservations that they recommend.  Today I've had an enquiry from a family wanting to book 6 nights, but when I looked they are enquiring based on a price of £75, which with the 20% off is £60 a night.  Quite a bit less than we'd anticipated.  I hadn't realised that the price would fluctuate based on algorithms, I thought smart pricing just changed prices for weekends, bank holidays etc. 

Anyway, my query is, should I accept this and just take a hit for my first booking?  Or can I decline the request and increase the prices?  I'm uncomfortable with simply changing the prices when a family has searched and enquired most probably based on the price.  However it's so much less than I expected, then again I do just need to get a rating.  

Any tips for a newbie???

[Noel102]

Take the hit.  Same thing happened to me on my first booking and I took the hit on a 12-week stay.  Go into your settings and set a minimum price so it doesn't happen again.  Setting a minimum helps your bottom line, but also allows smart pricing to increase the price if market conditions command a higher price.

[Sarah977]

@Natalie503   If the price that was listed for the dates the family enquired about is a price that means you will actually be loosing $ after utilities, other amenities, laundry, etc, then you can just message back, explain how sorry you are, but were green and confused about how to set pricing, and ask them if they'd still be interested in booking if you set the price to what you thought you had it at. On an Inquiry, you, in fact, don't need to Pre-Approve or Decine, just messaging back within 24 hours fulfills the response requirement and you can ignore Airbnb messages reminding you to Pre-approve or Decline. (If it's a Booking Request, you do need to Approve or Decline within 24 hours)

If it's just that you'd hoped to make more $, but you'll still be making some, I'd let this one through and take it as a learning curve. You do need some good reviews to get you rolling, so it will probably be worth it, as long as they do leave a good review. And like you say, you'd feel bad to mess up their holiday. But for all you know, they may have sent out Inquiries to 5 different places, so just because you approve at the price they saw, doesn't necessarily mean they'll follow through with the booking. Inquiries can be like that- you reply nicely, even without a pricing issue, and you never hear back from them.

So if they don't want the booking at the price listed, and let the Inquiry expire, message again asking if they are serious about booking, because you're about to change the prices. Give them awhile to respond, if they don't, then get in there and change the prices or turn off smart pricing.