Smart Pricing

[Robin290]

Is anyone else seeing a change in how Smart Pricing is setting their listing price on the Calendar?  I've used it for over a year - with no problem.  Within the last day or so, the feature has started setting all future dates, for which I've turned on Smart Pricing, to the amount that I've set as my minimum.  I'd expect - as it's worked in the past - that dates futher out (6 months, for example) were set by Smart Pricing at 25-50% higher than my minimum.  

I called Airbnb Support and didn't get much of an answer.  The agent confirmed that all of my settings are properly turned on and kept saying "do not worry".  My response, was - "yes, I'll worry" - this impacts my high season/future bookings dramatically.  For now, I've turned it off and will keep an eye on anything that might change.

I did get the agent to agree to report this to the Product Development team.

Any ideas? Thoughts?

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Robin290:
I've never really appreciated Smart Pricing. It tends to book at the lowest rate most of the time. The way I have it set up, the bottom rate is $5 higher than the lowest rate I would ever charge and the top rate is about $20 more than I would charge. For seasonal pricing I go in and manually set the higher price I want. The nights in the short term that I'm not booked I manually reduce the price.  This lets Smart Pricing book homes in the mid to low range of what I would get anyway.

[Robin290]

Thanks for sharing our your experience.  It helps.

For the last 12+ months (our first year on Airbnb), there were a range of prices suggested by Smart Pricing when I had it turned on.  Typically, the upcoming 90 days were base price (or thereabouts), and then the pricing would rise as the months extended 4-12 into future dates.  Something changed - and I wish I knew what it was - either Airbnb's algorithm, or the market (demand down/inventory up, or a glitch in the way the feature is working).  In any case, I've just turned it off; it's of no value as it currently works.

[Robin290]

Well, what do you know?!  I reported the problem to Airbnb Support; got a reply that it was reported to developement team - and taa-daa!  Today, it's working more like expected.  Beginning end of Sept. the range of pricing kicks in again.  Guess, I'll keep an eye on it.

[Robin290]

And I am seeing a range of rates over various upcoming summer dates.  Who knows?!