Is your price structure the same on all sites?

[Musetta]

I have always been a fan of an all-inclusive price; it annoys me to have to sort through listings and then figure out all the different added fees! I have always built the cleaning, laundry, utilities, etc. in my weekly rate. I, however, am noticing on Airbnb (mostly local Italian owners,) that, in my town, it is common to list, not only a separate cleaning fee, but per person. (i.e. They are listing houses for 29e/night and extra fee for each additional guest.) My home sleeps 4 but it is more common for 2. What do you think? I've only had one Airbnb booking so far and I have weeks to fill. It feels odd to have different prices on different sites though...what do you do? here's the Airbnb listing, btw https://airbnb.com/rooms/10749156?s=8&u ... fa14e0d557

[kevsboredagain]

I feel some of the listing sites are forcing us to break down our prices due to the insistence on a nightly price model. If you have to pay someone to do the change over then a nightly price cannot work for 3 nights the same as 7 nights, due to the fixed costs.

Some people do charge more for more people and indeed I pay more in cleaning/laundry costs when the number of people is higher. I just could not be bothered trying to add this as well into my adverts. It's time consuming enough.

So in answer to your question, yes I do have different price models on different sites. Where I can, I charge a fixed weekly, all inclusive rate, independent of the number of people but where a nightly rate must be specified, then I split off the fixed part and call it cleaning.

[Quiterio]

I just decided to give AirBnb a try, and was amazed that there appears to be no way to vary the price by season (unless I'm missing something).

I've never been a fan of setting a 'default price' on other sites (If you set it low, customers might get a bargain in high season, or if high, it's going to be uncompetitive in low season) and get round it by making sure I've posted all my prices well in advance for the coming year.

But this seems to be the only option on AirBnb - am I right? Link this with instant booking and how can you avoid someone booking high season at low season prices?

[Sam V]

I just decided to give AirBnb a try, and was amazed that there appears to be no way to vary the price by season (unless I'm missing something).

I've never been a fan of setting a 'default price' on other sites (If you set it low, customers might get a bargain in high season, or if high, it's going to be uncompetitive in low season) and get round it by making sure I've posted all my prices well in advance for the coming year.

But this seems to be the only option on AirBnb - am I right? Link this with instant booking and how can you avoid someone booking high season at low season prices?

There is a way, It popped up yesterday when I was trying to set some pricing, but lost it and can't find it again! I might have imagined it though!

[Quiterio]

Yes, there must be a way, because when I look at other properties advertised, different amounts can appear when you hover over different days on the calendar. Similarly, there also appears to be a way of charging for extra guests, and setting your security deposit.

However, none of these things appear on the initial set up.

The help page does tell you how to set seasonal prices in your calendar, but I couldn't follow it. So I guess it doesn't work until after you've actually 'published', which is a bit 'Catch 22'. I might actually get a booking before I've found out how to set the right charge!

[Nigel Goodwin]

Pricing models can get quite complex. Difficult to cater for all needs.

A start would be (and some pricing models go beyond this):

- weekly rate
- cleaning fee per holiday
- city taxes per night
- minimum length of stay
- extra per guest (per night or per week?)
- which days are weekends?
- weekend night rate
- multiple week discount
- returnable security deposit
- for each of 1-6 days:
* percentage of weekly rate or
* night rate or
* break rate


Then, for each special price period:

- start and end date of special pricing
- weekly rate
- if night rate or break rate defined above, night or break prices for each of 1-6 days
- otherwise day and break rates use percentages of weekly rate
- changeover days
- minimum stay

So, how much of the above do these listing sites cover? What is missing from the above?

The percent method is quite useful, you define the overall 1-6 day percents, and then for each price period you only have to enter the weekly price. Plus a weekend price.

Some pricing models ask you to specify whether a holiday uses the weekly price from the start date, or uses pro-rata. I think that is going a bit too far!

It would be nice if these listing sites used a weekly range for the summary when dates are not specified e.g. £400 - £1200.

Be nice if they displayed weekly rather than nightly prices as a default. Or if it displays a single figure, why not the average over the year or next 12 months?

Then of course you can have a whole set of user configurable options, pets, cots, high chairs, massage services, super hamper, use of hot tub, 'romantic getaway special', dinner cooked for you, gym fee, etc. etc.

It isn't exactly rocket science.

[Robin S]

Re setting variable weekly seasonal pricing with ABB it's a bit painful / hidden but instructions at https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/5 ... al-pricing

We have a + cleaning fee (a "trivial" £45 on each property) per stay to help offset the overhead of shorter stays a bit. I'm probably inclined to remove it next year and just bump my night rates a bit but having just re-done our rates for the next 12+ months across both properties am begrudged to go near pricing tables until i have to again next year!

We have identical base pricing across different sites and are slightly (5pc) cheaper on our own site to try and drive direct bookings. Whether it's this tactic, a combination of guests getting more savvy and booking sites getting more greedy I don't know but we've seen a good uptick in direct bookings this year. In particular people enquiring via a listing site then coming to book with us directly with no prompting.

[Quiterio]

Pricing models can get quite complex. Difficult to cater for all needs.

In the good old days, prospective guests clicked on prices and there they could see a table showing an indication of the price for a week at different times of the year.

If you were in their ballpark they could then contact you for a quotation, which you could adjust for extra guests, discount for second week, etc. etc. Even maybe a rock-bottom bargain basement price for a last minute booking.

What happened to all that? Can't beat contact with the client, methinks.

Thanks for the link, Robin S.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Pricing models can get quite complex. Difficult to cater for all needs.

In the good old days, prospective guests clicked on prices and there they could see a table showing an indication of the price for a week at different times of the year.

If you were in their ballpark they could then contact you for a quotation, which you could adjust for extra guests, discount for second week, etc. etc. Even maybe a rock-bottom bargain basement price for a last minute booking.

What happened to all that? Can't beat contact with the client, methinks.

Thanks for the link, Robin S.

Agreed. It goes wrong when you try to make it a science, it goes wrong as soon as you have 'book now'.

[rosebud]

The percent method is quite useful, you define the overall 1-6 day percents, and then for each price period you only have to enter the weekly price.

Hi Nigel
Is that how it works on your new site? I do hope so ..
I have started uploading info about my cottage but got a bit confused when I looked at the rates page.

Re question about the same prices - mine are the same with one exception: Booking.com - who I have just started listing with - I resented their 15% fee!

I find it really tricky when sites like AirBnb want a nightly rate.

[newtimber]

Re question about the same prices - mine are the same with one exception: Booking.com - who I have just started listing with - I resented their 15% fee!

Do booking.com let you have higher prices on their site? I thought that part of their sales pitch is that they guarantee the lowest prices and didn't allow owners to do this. Along of course with the fact that you cannot decline any bookings.

[Nigel Goodwin]

The percent method is quite useful, you define the overall 1-6 day percents, and then for each price period you only have to enter the weekly price.

Hi Nigel
Is that how it works on your new site? I do hope so ..
I have started uploading info about my cottage but got a bit confused when I looked at the rates page.

I'm not surprised you got confused!

I allow either percents, or per break, or per night. About to upload the new version. Why does any software development take ten times as long as one first thought? Even having been in the profession for 40 years?

[rosebud]

Hi Newtimber

I know that used to be the situation with booking.com: I subsequently read that a court case upheld the right of owners to charge more ...

and thanks Nigel..
I hope to add more details re my property & rates to your listing site soon

[newtimber]

Hi Newtimber

I know that used to be the situation with booking.com: I subsequently read that a court case upheld the right of owners to charge more ...

Yes you're right. But you cannot charge less on your own website, so if you don't have your own website, you're OK.

[GRL]

Booking .com best price guarantee

https://www.booking.com/general.html?tm ... _guarantee