Smart Pricing

[Grace165]

Hi,  I have smart pricing set with a high maximum (per suggestions).  I've just noticed that for Nov_Jan my listing is set it to the max price. I can't really understand why, it's on the UK seaside and there is still plenty of availablity among other similar listings.

I'm fairly new to air bnb and have been doing quite well, 5 star reviews etc, but seems odd that it would hike the price 300% from one day to the next. 

Obviosuly I can ammend the pricing parimeteres, but it doesn't fill me with confidence that having it on at all is sensible.  Any ideas what might be affecting it?  I've not set up any specfic monthly/weekly pricing...

Thanks!

[Linda108]

@Grace165  There is a post just before yours with the same problem.  May be a glitch in the system.  Contact Air BNB.  Here is a guide for contacting them.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide/m-p/16165#M728

[Marzena4]

@Grace165 Sometimes it is good to check whether the topic is not yet started:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Voice/Smart-Pricing-Bug-erratic-algorithm/idi-p/518939

[Kate267]

I am having the same trouble too!  Just stated today...

[Carla288]

I am also having this problem - it's low season in Michigan where our property is, and for the next 3 months it was set to the highest number. I called Airbnb twice - the first time, the girl argued with me that I should just do it manually. Which, fine, but I use smart pricing to adjust to demand factors that I am not aware of. Then she hung up on me. I called back and spot with another woman who basically said the same thing - there's nothing on their side. Clearly, this is on their side. This is a glitch, and I will miss out on revenue if I price too low. This just happened today - I monitor my rates frequently.

[Grace165]

The Air BnB "handwashing" seems to be quite a common complaint, very frustrating.

I check our listing most days so I adjusted quite quickly, feel sorry for those that won't pick up on the error, could be very costly.

[Carla288]

Same, I hope with enough people immediately complaining to them they fix it asap.

[Sandy153]

There appears to be a bug in the Smart Pricing algorithm. I called to alert Airbnb about the problem, and was told "Smart Pricing is a system and it selects the price for you based on supply and demand". It is obvious that the "system" isn't working right now. I reminded the agent that the algorithm is programed by people and there is a problem. My entire month of November jumped to my highest price but December is the minimum. I was wondering why I had no bookings for November - this is why. So I turned off Smart Pricing. It's a great idea if it is programmed correctly - which it is not right now.

[Gillian19]

I never use smart pricing as it never seems to bear any real relation to what should be charged for the time of year, location and size of property. I would have lost thousands if I had turned it on.  Then this week their recommended price went to over $12000 a night!! So they definitely have an issue whether they chose to fix it who knows?! Use it at your peril. 

[Lizzie]

Hello @Gillian19, @Sandy153,

Thanks so much for highlighting the difficulty you were experiencing last week. I did pass your feedback over to the Smart Pricing Team, and so I wanted to update you on this:

"We had an issue on October 3rd that affected price tips and Smart Pricing for 19 hours. It only affected a small number of bookings, and our team worked to quickly fix the problem. Smart Pricing and price tips were back to normal on October 4. In addition, our team has put checks in place to prevent this and similar issues from happening again."

I hope this information is reassuring to you, please do keep me updated though on how it is working for you. 

Thanks everyone,
Lizzie

(Grace, Kate, Marzena and Carla I have already mentioned you in another post with the same update, here) 🙂