If you’re an Airbnb host, then you know that pricing your rental can be tricky. You want to make sure you’re getting the most money possible, but you don’t want to price yourself out of the market. And if you’re not careful, you can end up spending hours monitoring your prices and adjusting them accordingly. Luckily, Airbnb has a solution for this: Smart Pricing.
In this blog post, we’ll take a look at what Smart Pricing is and how it can help you optimize the price of your rental without all the hassle. We’ll also give you some tips on setting an average price, price ceiling, and where to get expert advice.
What is Airbnb Smart Pricing?
Simply put, it’s a tool that automatically adjusts your price based on market demand. Airbnb takes several factors into account when setting prices, including seasonality, occupancy rates, and how far in advance guests are booking. This way, you can be sure that your rental is always priced competitively without having to do any of the work yourself.
How to Set Up Airbnb Smart Pricing
If you’re interested in using Airbnb Smart Pricing for your rental, there are just a few simple steps for getting started.
- Login to your Airbnb hosting account
- Go to the listing you want to manage under “Listings”
- Click on “Pricing and availability”
- Go to “Pricing”
- Click on “Nightly pricing”
- Click on “Edits”
- Enable “Smart Pricing”
- Click save and you’re done setting it up!
You are now ready to utilize Airbnb’s free pricing tool. Setting this up will not affect any current reservations you have pending.
How to Use Airbnb Smart Pricing
Now that you have Smart Pricing enabled, there are a few factors to consider.
First, you’ll need to set an average price for your listing and what price fluctuations you are comfortable with. The average price is the amount you want to make on average per night, while your price range will be how much your price can go up or down from that average.
Additionally, since you are ultimately in charge, you can also customize specific nights if you don’t want them to fluctuate.
Other Smart Pricing Tools
There are a few software programs that have been designed specifically for short-term rental platforms like Airbnb. These include:
- Beyond Pricing
- PriceLabs
- Wheelhouse
- Guesty
All of these software programs offer similar pricing services to Airbnb’s Smart Pricing tool. They will help you optimize your rental price based on market demand, while also giving you the option to customize specific nights. Plus, a lot of them also offer other perks for managing your rental, such as:
- Listing your property across different booking platforms, such as Booking and TripAdvisor Rentals
- Coordinating and managing guest communications
- Automating tasks, such as generating rental agreements and sending welcome emails
If you want to take your Airbnb rental to the next level and reach its full income potential, then tools like Smart Pricing and other software features are definitely worth considering.
How to Choose a Nightly Price for Your Rental
One of the most common questions we get from new hosts is “how do I choose a nightly price for my rental?”
Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer to this question. It really depends on a variety of factors, such as your location, the amenities you’re offering, the seasonality of your area, and more.
The best way to come up with an accurate nightly price is to look at comparable listings in your area and see what they’re charging. You can also reach out to a local vacation rental management company, like Skye Management, for expert advice.
Once you have an idea of what the going rate is, you can start to play around with different prices until you find one that you’re comfortable with. And, if you’re still not sure, you can always use Airbnb’s Smart Pricing tool to help you out (it will make suggestions for you).
Finding the Sweet Spot
Pricing your rental is all about finding the right balance. You want to make sure you’re not undercharging and leaving money on the table, but you also don’t want to overprice your rental and deter guests from booking.
The best way to find the sweet spot is to experiment with different prices and see what happens. If you’re getting too many or too few inquiries this is a good starting place. From there, you can start to gauge the quality of your customers to make sure you are targeting the right people at a price they are comfortable with.
Eventually, you’ll find that pricing spot that works for you and yields the most profit. However, it may change over time as well so be open to experimenting and adjusting as needed.
Head Spinning? Leave It to the Experts
If all of this talk about pricing has your head spinning, then you’re not alone. It can be a lot to take in, especially if you’re new to the vacation rental game.
Luckily, there are people out there who specialize in this stuff and can help you price, and manage, your rental like a pro.
At Skye Management, we have a team of experienced vacation rental experts who can help you with all aspects of your rental, from pricing and marketing to guest communications and turnover.
We’ll work with you to come up with the perfect price for your rental and make sure it’s getting in front of the right people. We use our own pricing (and booking) software that will give you the upper hand on bookings. Plus, we can take care of all the small details so you can relax and simply enjoy the extra income from your rental- as you should!
Get In Touch!
If you’re interested in learning more about our services or pricing your rental, contact us today! We’d be happy to chat with you about your specific needs and see how we can help.
