My prices are way too low, and I am getting lots of inquiries. How can I raise raise my prices?

[Jim95]

I am new to AirBnB (1.5 months/1 booking completed, 2 more booked).  I have just gotten 9 inquiries on my property within just a few days.  And all for bookings several months away, during our high season.  Some similiar homes near to me are hundreds of dollars more per night, for certain weekends. I am considering denying all of the current inquiries, and just taking my listing down for a week.  Then firing it back up, but with higher prices.  Is this even possible to do, to shutdown for a time, without losing all the data in my listing?

I would of course respond to all of those inquiries, but I am unsure as to what I should say.  And what if they get back to me later, asking why they were denied then my prices went up?

I am very sensitive to the people who have inquired, but at the same time, our whole purpose with listing our home is to maximise it's rental income.  And I am pretty sure that we, all hosts, should be able to charge whatever the market will bear.  But, just how do I finesse this in a way that enables me to raise my prices to nearer the market rates, while in as fair a way as possible, dealing  with the inquiries I already have.

Many thanks for any tips or advice anyone has!

Jim

[Cynthia-and-Chris1 · Accepted solution]

Sounds like you need to take some time to familiarize yourself with the Airbnb platform...

First, definitely respond to those inquiries so you're Response Rating doesn't suffer.  Thank them for contacting you and let them know you will get back to them shortly to buy you some time.  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/430/how-are-my-response-rate-and-response-time-calculated

Next, snooze your listing so you stop getting inquiries for the moment. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/476/how-do-i-snooze-or-deactivate-my-listing

Last, go to your calendar and adjust your pricing.  Are you using Smart Pricing currently?  If so, turn it off - it's not very "smart" at all.  Manually updating the prices on your calendar takes more time, but will give you more control over the pricing, especially during times there are event or busy season.  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/37/how-do-i-manage-my-pricing-on-my-calendar

Hope this helps!

[Jim95]

Hello Cynthia & Chris,

It sure does help!  I didn't know about the "snooze feature, but that sounds like exactly what I was looking for.

But how would setting "snooze" affect a booking I have coming up?  

And as to contacting the current inquiries, I only have one that I have not responded to yet.  The others I have responded to, and mostly did tell them I'd get back to them.  Should I just disappear on them (snooze), or perhaps say something before?  This is causing me anxiety, becasue I hate to seem overly greedy... even to strangers!  (changing prices mid-stream).

I wish to be communicative, and as honest as possible.

I have already gone into pricing, and manually changed all my prices. 

Many thanks!

Jim

[Cormac0]

@Jim95

You can also set you calander to only except booking on a three month rolling basis, thats what I discovered when i was getting enquiries for bookings in October 2016 for July 2017.

To do this go to "Availability Setting" and select "Booking Window" dropdown box and make your choice.

I convinced there are scaplers out there preying on the inexperiance of NEW HOSTS

[Lynnette3]

I'm just posting this, because I can't find where I was posting earlier, and I want to confess MY error....I looked at my transactions and saw that the nightly rate I was PAID was lower than the posted rate, and went to the community and saw lots of posts about the same thing......I know we all will be having various situations, but seeing more people complaining about that got me nervous....well my brain finally kicked in, and i realized the math for weekly and monthly discounts show up in the DAILY accounting that Airbnb lists in their payment, they don't show it at the END of the calculation. SO I was comparing the paid daily rate to the booking daily rate, without the discount in mind.....This is only my second month at this, so I am trying to stay on top of it. I do have an opinion about the program not including a dog fee, so I am putting it in my rules, and hoping that the guests will expect to pay that at check in. I hope the program changes and includes that soon.

Thanks all for being out there !
lynnette