I thought I would post an update on how I'm doing with this, in case anyone is interested...
I've had some interesting discoveries after getting my subscription to RankBreeze up and running. It took a while to load the data, but after it loaded I was stunned by the amount of data points! The table below is just one of the views it gives me, telling me exactly where my listing is showing in the page rankings on AirBnb, across all the upcoming "free" dates I have in my listing calendar.
It was exciting to see our listing on Page 1, even if it was number 7 or 10 on the page half the time. When I clicked "details" on each data point, it showed me where exactly I was placed against the highest ranking listings in my area, including their rates, my rates, average rates... a full analysis of me vs. my competition, and not just on base rate... on everything.
Pricing drives SEO, so I dug deeper... and found my prices were doing something nuts.
I had recently put a lot of time into adjusting my base rate, thinking it would solve all our pricing problems. Our problems are the "good kind" in that we are constantly booked, but we know we aren't charging enough. I thought we had made some ground on fixing this, but this is the first time I have found a tool that went beyond base price and showed my average prices for all types of bookings!
We charge a nominal $10 extra per guest, over the first 2 guests, so it means our "base price" is the equivalent of a max 2 guest stay. We thought an extra ten bucks was reasonable and didn't think much about changing it....newbie mistake!
Take a look at this:
I tossed some of the RankBreeze data into a spreadsheet (15 mins or so) and looked at where my average prices were against average prices in my city. From this I saw my prices were actually $25 per night above average for a 2 guest stay, a whopping $100 per night lower for a 3 guest stay, and $150 per night lower for a 4 guest stay.
These prices are on the same day too, against my key competition, who are higher than me in search results. They also have "rare find", so people are paying their prices regularly. So.. logic tells me I shouldn't be scared about raising my own prices and dropping in search results. Having gone through their listings one by one, I can also say that... there is no good reason I should be pricing so much lower.
So, I did it. Last night, I went ahead and lowered my base price slightly over winter to ensure my listing rises in the 2-guest search results (I expect to need those winter business bookings), and secondly I raised my prices for extra guests from $10 per night to $40 per night! Knowing that, in theory, this should have no effect on my placement in search results for 3 and 4 guest bookings.
Then I saved, closed, and immediately wanted to put it back. I don't know why I just did. Bah, I thought I was going to lose my nerve. It's that little voice that says "pfffft as if anyone would pay that much for your place....". But I resigned to back myself and leave it for at least a week.
Around 8am this morning... we received our first booking for 4 guests at GROWN UP PRICES! We are also still rocking Page 1, for the closest bookings we are even still #3 in the results, so yeeehah SEO!