You’ve readied your seaside cottage for renters (ocean-inspired décor and all) but how much should you charge for your abode on Airbnb? Hotels utilize advanced pricing engines to set their fees, but you’re stuck clicking through similar properties in your area.
Help is on the way. Software-manufacturer Beyond Pricing recently secured $1.5 million in seed capital to help renters earn the most bang for their buck. The site uses a proprietary algorithm to track nearby properties’ rental rates, but it also takes into account data from lots of other sources, from vacation rentals and hotels to airline arrivals and conference attendance to weather. It then automatically updates your home’s listing price if, say, beach-perfect weather is on its way or the airport canceled a bunch of flights due to a freak snowstorm. The company hopes to have a similar feature on HomeAway and Booking.com soon. It’s also joined forces with short-term rental property managers such as Onefinestay, MyVRHost, and Guesthop.
To get started, users provide Beyond Pricing with access to their Airbnb account. With this green light, the company gets valuable (encrypted, it says) information about the listing, such as base and minimum prices. As the host secures bookings, the property receives a “Health Score.” A good score indicates the host has a good booking rate, while a poor one may indicate renters are passing up the home because the cleaning fee is too high, for example.
Since its 2014 launch, BeyondPricing has already penetrated 26 cities from New York to Tokyo worldwide. With help from its new backers, the company plans to expand in to additional markets.
Free for the first two months for new users, Beyond Pricing then charges a one-percent fee from your Airbnb bookings, though the site says hosts enjoy a 10- to 40-percent surge in revenue after signing up.
