Smart Pricing drops views and bookings to hell

Lila-And-George0
Level 3
Athens, Greece

Smart Pricing drops views and bookings to hell

Hi there!

 

 

I have the feeling that a Smart Piricing glitch drops the views (and consequently the requests ) dramatically.

Has any one else shares this feeling??

 

Thank you 

9 Replies 9
Victoria57
Level 10
Strathpeffer, United Kingdom

Hi @Lila-And-George0, I haven't had that problem with smart pricing as I don't use it. I tried for perhaps 1 day and found that it reduced the prices to a silly level while taking no account of the area, local festivals etc. It's actually not smart at all but an attempt by AirBnB to generate volume by reducing the prices so much that people will book in large numbers without worrying if it's actually what they want or is a good fit for the host. I suggest you remove smart pricing and set the price that you think is appropriate for what you offer compared to the competition in your area. You will set the prices much much better than AirBnB.

Melanie58
Level 10
Boise, ID

I have been using smart pricing since starting on airbnb 2 weeks ago.  I have had 12 bookings so far.  As I have gotten more reviews/experience, smart pricing has steadily come up and seems to be in line with what others are charging in the area.  I am really happy with it and as far as I can tell it has only had a positive effect on views and bookings, but I can only guess because I don't really know what the experience would be like without it.  

Ira4
Level 10
Athens, Greece

@Lila-And-George0

Smart Pricing normally would not drop the views, because the prices it gives you are much lower and you would be more competitive to other listings. But there is something else. When you have Smart Pricing, you probably don't change the prices manually, because you let the system do it and as a result, your calendar is not updated very often. By not updating your calendar, you get a lower place in the search results, so you get less views and less requests. 

All the above is something Airbnb service replied me, when I asked them about my low views at one of my listings.

You can still have Smart Pricing, but change the prices of some dates just to keep the Calandar updated. 

 

PS. My opinion and many others hosts' opinion is that Smart Pricing is very low, so when you have some more bookings, make some tests to raise your price. Especially in our city! 🙂

Steve44
Level 2
Los Angeles, CA

I am having the same issue. My bookings and inquiries dropped drastically, ever since I opted into Smart Pricing. It also has not been accurate at providing comparable prices. $280/night is not accurate for a four bedroom house in Palm Springs, when there is a major convention in town, and during peak season. 

Daniel-Rusteen0
Level 10
California, United States

@Steve44 and all

 

That's frusterating! Regardless of if a drop happend to other people or not is irrelevant. If your listing dropped, you need to investigate. The first question would be, is smart pricing the only change you made since you noticed the drop?

 

I'm not a fan of Airbnb's smart pricing which is why I use one of the 3rd party intelligent pricing tools (Smart Host, Price Method, Price Labs, Everbooked, and Beyond Pricing). I'm in the process of putting together a review of all these tools and a side-by-side comparrison tool on the blog on my website at AnalyzeMyAirbnb.com.

 

I also do listing optimization on the site. This is an investment and I offer a full-refund if you're unsatisfied with my work. As I launch, I'm offering a 50% discount through 9/30/16. All you have to do it like this post and send me an email that you did so and I'll send you the discount code.

Hi @Daniel-Rusteen0 - thank you for your response, and apologies about my delay. I will look into your blog, and definitely consider you're service. It looks like a wonderful deal. Should I email you via this link: https://www.analyzemyairbnb.com/contact/

 

Also, another issue I'm noticing is through Airbnb's price optimization/suggestion feature (which is likely the same technology used within Smart Pricing) my average price per night (per their suggestions) has gone down drastically. In some cases, I am more than 50% more than their suggestions, in a smaller subset I am more than 100% more. I have perfect reviews, but have yet to achieve Super Host, due to the fact that I had to decline some inquiries, due to the Smart Pricing feature deeply discounting my home during Coachella and Stage Coach. I think my backend quality score on my listing or me as a host must have been severly impacted by this, and thus now I may be in some  sort of 'penatly box' (e.g., less inquiries, less bookings).

 

My best bet right now, is likely going with your service, Daniel. Unless anyone else has some quick tips.

 

Thank you, all.

-Steve  

Daniel-Rusteen0
Level 10
California, United States

@Steve44

 

Yes, that contact form will go straight to me. 

 

I'm happy to provide you (and do all the time on this forum) with quick tips. I just can't spent a couple hours doing a deep dive into your profile and listing as I would for the paid version. Actually, I'm going to get up some prior host unsolicited testimonials up on my site soon as it's been requested a few times.

 

First, turn off Smart Pricing. I don't recommend it as it's not flexible. There are numerous cheap (and a few free) third-party pricing tools out there you can and should use. By 'decline' I think you mean 'cancel'? Airbnb views cancellations as very, very, very bad. Probably the single, by far, worst thing you could do as a host. Here's why:

1) You took revenue away from Airbnb

2) You cost Airbnb money as they give the guest X% more than your reservation to book another place

3) Bad guest experience

 

There's nothing I or anyone else can do about that. Your best bet is to never cancel again and respond within 1 hour to all first message inquiries. 

 

By the way, I've been to Stagecoach the past three years and hope to go many more years to come. I heard they're doing two weekends next year?

Thanks for the insight @Daniel-Rusteen0. I sent you an email. 

 

I think I made one cancellation, but I did decline several other inquiries. I'm assuming they view declines as bad as well, but maybe not as bad as cancellations. This entire thing started when I bought into their Smart Pricing pitch. 

 

I haven't heard about the two weekends for Stage Coach, but it makes sense since Coachella has been two weekends for some time now. 

Rhiannon6
Level 2
Kansas City, MO

I would agree that the smart pricing range is confusing to bookers. 

They click on your property based on a price and then when they total their days, they are often very surprised by the math.  Its hard to budget ahead of time.  I had someone try to rent my room for 30 days while smart pricing was on and their total came out close to $7900 - by the time I could get to the bottom of it (hours of time on the phone with customer service)  she had found another room for 2500 month and booked it seamlessly.    I have a hard time trusting it since - its hard to loose bookings like that when you count on them.