Smart Pricing

[Chris-and-Karen0]

Hello Community, can any of you shed some light on "smart pricing" as to whether or not you think it works in terms of higher revenue coming in, as opposed to me setting the prices? TY 🙂 

[Emiel1]

@Chris-and-Karen0 

I use Smart Pricing with a very small bandwidth. And put in custom prices on special periods if i want to control pricing manually.  So then it is best of both worlds. Please note if using Smart Prices it is not possible to set general prices for the weekend. And Smart is not always as Smart you would like it to be..so always keep an eye on the generated prices. My experience is prices are generaly  kept close to the minimum set, so in terms of getting higher revenues it does not a great job.

Best regards,

Emiel

[Alexandra316]

@Chris-and-Karen0like @Emiel1, I use it on a very short leash, and I actually set the minimum well above what my actual offseason minimum is. I don't trust it not to suddenly set the pricing on a holiday weekend right down to my minimum, so I always set my own pricing on those days. 

My experience is that largely, I'm better off setting the pricing myself for the most part.

[Lisa723]

It's notorious for pricing too low.  I'm really happy with www.usewheelhouse.com...

[Jim40]

Agree with Lisa 100%.  I think it was Ben from NZ who said it best.  Smart Pricing is by and large “stupid pricing”...designed to keep you overbooked and underpaid.  You’re better off on your own.

[Wesley58]

The smart pricing tool does a good job of telling you when prices should be higher, but it's awfully bad at being correctly priced for hosts. I'd use it to tell when to surge your prices, but still, charge an extra 20% on top of that recommended price. AirBnB is very guest-centric and would rather fill your calendar up, when in all honsty you should rather be at 80% occupancy monthly to make sure you're getting the most revenue possible. 

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[Ann72]

@Chris-and-Karen0, I use it similarly to @Emiel, @Alexandra316, and @Wesley58.   I like the surges but fill in manually when it goes flat.

One thing I've noticed, and you might want to keep an eye on:  a booking at top dollar has the day before and the day after the booking priced at the minimum.  I go in and raise it to the top dollar in case the guest wants to add a day or come a day earlier, and obviously in case someone else books that day.

I don't understand why, once a listing has been booked at a much higher price, the algo thinks it's smart to plunge the price on the very next day.  As I've said elsewhere, all sales experience tells me that once a product is less available (i.e., in this case, has fewer days available), it departs the buyer's market and enters the seller's market.

[Ann72]

@Chris-and-Karen0, one other thing that's useful about Smart Pricing:  turning it on can help give your listing a rankings boost.  But I know people who turn it on for one day a year just to ensure that.  🙂