5 ms·

This is really interesting. I've found that Airbnb under-prices my listing pretty significantly, so I go through and set the weekend prices to roughly 2x of wha

This is really interesting. I've found that Airbnb under-prices my listing pretty significantly, so I go through and set the weekend prices to roughly 2x of what smart pricing recommends, and they all book up anyway. This makes me think that smart pricing errs on the side of giving guest a better value and not on the side of maximizing profits for the host. This may be good for hosts in the long run, however, but I wish it could tell me specifically how it was weighing the factors involved in my listing. For instance: - seasonal demand: high, weight: 3 - special case demand (annual conventions, etc): low, weight 2 - local lodging availability: scarce, weight: 5, - percentage of the time guests choose your listing vs others when both are available: 75, weight: 3 - competitiveness based on incentives for length of stay: 8, weight: 3 - your typical guest price sensitivity: low, weight: 5 It would also be very cool for Airbnb to offer beta testing of different smart pricing algorithms. Supply and demand is volatile, so just because a unit averages $x does not mean it can't sometimes fetch 5x (see Uber's surge pricing). Smart pricing never does this, so I suspect there is no notion of demand surges built into the algo, even though they obviously occur.

blt 8y ago
> Supply and demand is volatile, so just because a unit averages $x does not mean it can't sometimes fetch 5x (see Uber's surge pricing). Smart pricing never does this, so I suspect there is no notion of demand surges built into the algo, even though they obviously occur. There are laws against such price gouging in many US states, e.g. to prevent hotels from charging very high prices during natural disasters, or from discriminatory rates. Undoubtedly airbnb will not implement such protections unless forced to.
- oh_sigh 8y ago
  I think OP was talking more along the lines of, say, Atlanta during super bowl weekend, or Random, Wyoming during a total eclipse.
toomuchtodo 8y ago
> This makes me think that smart pricing errs on the side of giving guest a better value and not on the side of maximizing profits for the host. It's very similar to the economic relationship between a realtor and a home seller. The home seller wants top dollar, the realtor doesn't care; they want deal flow, and a few thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in price difference impacts their commission little. Airbnb would rather have a property available to be booked, and booked, then not booked with a host attempting to get top dollar. "For The Good Of The Platform"
rawoke083600 8y ago
Would be AWESOME if they can someone hook into the "amount of tourist" in the country: be in flight-information, flight-occupancy-rates (check for full bookings ?), local tourism services. , Trending Google Searchs(dates+location services,visa requirments), TripAdvisor (searches amount) for location. twitter hashtags (many ppl i see post 3 more week before going to xyz) #mysuper-holiday-location. Feature engineering :) Got to love it

blt 8y ago

> Supply and demand is volatile, so just because a unit averages $x does not mean it can't sometimes fetch 5x (see Uber's surge pricing). Smart pricing never does this, so I suspect there is no notion of demand surges built into the algo, even though they obviously occur. There are laws against such price gouging in many US states, e.g. to prevent hotels from charging very high prices during natural disasters, or from discriminatory rates. Undoubtedly airbnb will not implement such protections unless forced to.

oh_sigh 8y ago
I think OP was talking more along the lines of, say, Atlanta during super bowl weekend, or Random, Wyoming during a total eclipse.

toomuchtodo 8y ago

> This makes me think that smart pricing errs on the side of giving guest a better value and not on the side of maximizing profits for the host. It's very similar to the economic relationship between a realtor and a home seller. The home seller wants top dollar, the realtor doesn't care; they want deal flow, and a few thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in price difference impacts their commission little. Airbnb would rather have a property available to be booked, and booked, then not booked with a host attempting to get top dollar. "For The Good Of The Platform"

rawoke083600 8y ago

Would be AWESOME if they can someone hook into the "amount of tourist" in the country: be in flight-information, flight-occupancy-rates (check for full bookings ?), local tourism services. , Trending Google Searchs(dates+location services,visa requirments), TripAdvisor (searches amount) for location. twitter hashtags (many ppl i see post 3 more week before going to xyz) #mysuper-holiday-location. Feature engineering :) Got to love it