Unknown Calendar Icons

[Ken167]

Hello, On my calendar for some days there is a green light bulb icon and sometimes there are days with a small red dot. I have not seen an explanation anywhere.  I do not use smart pricing but instant book is on. Does anyone know what those icons mean?

[Emiel1]

Hi @Ken167 ,

Click on them and you will see what they  mean (also look on right side of the screen)

Best regards, Emiel

[CNB0]

Airbnb just told me that I put that there by choosing some random something! So my price is 115 they told me it was 205 but charged guest 108! Go figure! That may be there to tell you you’re too high but they took it upon themselves to charge s different price

[Alysha5]

Same thing happened to me

[Paulo133]

I had that happen on my first day of hosting a new property, but in my case it completely overlooked all of my price settings. However on the following day they looked carefully at the situation and addressed in a helpful and comprehensive way. I am glad that all it was all well sorted out.

[Penny303]

Not cool of airbnb. I have a condo I work hard to keep. It is on the beach in Lahaina on MAUI! and they tell me to lower my rate? Apparently they don't want me to make my payment, and if they look at the resort managed rooms they will see 215 is a steal of a deal compared to 389 +. I built a brick and mortar BnB there 20 years ago (Penny's Place Inn Paradise) and if there had been an airbnb then or if I had listed to them, I'd have lost in the first season. They need to look closer at comparable accommodations before they put in their two cents. 

[Nia0]

Wrong Emiel, if you click on them you get nothing.  The right side of the screen does not show how it correlates with the red dot, squiggle, or green thingy.  So far I think the green thingy gives various wacky messages like mine (People are renting for $100 less than my $110 a night rate.  Come on.).  The red dot shows that your price is too high according to a useless algorithm that has my M-F rates at DOUBLE the Fri, Sat rates for one month and vis-a-versa for other months at the ski resort.  And, the holidays like New Years and Christmas are even less than the other dates.  The squiggle shows that you have this fun algorithm messing up your business.  I have been a super host for a long time despite AirBnB programmers not having a clue how to compare units to each other.  I don't know how much income I have lost by bad pricing.

[Lizzie]

Hey @Emiel1, based on your reply above, are you able to provide a little more information on this to help @Nia0 here? 

Thank you. 🙂

[Paul1911]

Why didn't I think of clicking on it?!? Oh wait that's the first thing I did before coming here. Thanks for being so boerishly helpful.

[Marzena4]

The bulb means that the price is too high according to airbnb algorithm, @Ken167. Can't remember seeing a red dot there, though.

[Nia0]

The Red Dot means:

1) Your Manual Price is higher than what Smart Pricing would put it at.  Proof, keep dropping your price and the dot will eventually go away.

2) Your Smart Price has hit your Minimum, but unencumbered with your minimum, the Smart Pricing would price it even lower if it could.  Proof, drop your minimum price until the dot goes off and you will see the algorithym suggested Smart Price.  Put your minimum back up before someone takes advantage of an artificially low price.

(I still haven't found an explanation of this anywhere in the help section or the discussions.  And you can not click anywhere on the dot or date to find this out.)

The Green Light Bulb means:

AirBnB has detected bookings that occured for that date that were lower than your price.  If you click on it you will see a message on the right telling you how low other units have been booked for.  (Of course you have no idea what kind of places those are.  There is no indication whether they are comparing your 3 bedroom unit that sleeps 7 to a studio appartment that sleeps 7.  Or in my case that they are saying the competitors are renting their units for $10/night.  I still haven't found any documentation that explains how units are compared.  There is a source that says the algorithym uses size, location, rating, beds, etc.  But no document explains how.  Imagine a getting a bank loan where the comps give you numbers but don't tell you what the homes are you are being compared to.  Hosts need more information or we just need to abandon the Smart Pricing tool.  I want to use the tool.)

[Mark1177]

What is the blue Line through the middle of dates on my calendar?

[Debi37]

My right side say this "Right now, there isn’t enough reliable data to show the median booked price of homes."  So no way would I every use the smart pricing tool.  The price tips sometimes show my 3 bedroom house for $30/night!  While the other V site keeps telling me to raise my price by 50%.  

Just trusting my gut and my level of bookings.

[Mitchell51]

A friend who is new to hosting asked me to view her listing on the days that she see these icons. I looked up her listing and saw that these days she mentioned having the bulb were blocked on my end. She could not figure out why they where showing blocked for me but available for her.  We did some research and came across this post. We're still confused and  never really understood where the problem is. 

[Lionel107]

I'm new to hosting.  From what I can see, the horizontal line is when I have utilised AirBnB's suggested 9% off offer for dates coming up that aren't booked yet.

The lightbulb indicates a pricing tip.
For the immedate few ones ahead, the panel on the right (on computer, not phone) tells me that compared to my average price charged so far, my price now is too high.
Further down the track I have other lightbulbs where a guest (or guests) has viewed my property for those dates, but they've booked a cheaper one. The implication is that you've missed out because your price is too high.  The reality is you've missed out for some reason, but nobody could tell you why for love, nor money!
These pricing tips are very blunt instruments and are likely to run against your strategy or budgeting. The reality is I'm getting bookings a week either side at the same price that the tips suggest are too high. I just figure that I'm getting the bookings because they want what my place offers and they are cool about the price.