How do I turn on Smart Pricing feature?

Modified on Fri, 08 Dec 2023 at 09:42 AM

Everything you need to know about our Smart Pricing tool and how to use it.

Smart Pricing is a dynamic, data-driven pricing engine which automatically sets personalised and up-to-date nightly pricing for your property for the next 365 days, in order to get you the best rate for your vacation rental. This feature can help you to earn up to 60% more in revenue by automatically adjusting prices according to local market trends.  



This guide explains how the tool works, and how to turn on Smart Pricing feature within the Travelnest account. 


How does Smart Pricing decide what price to set for each night?


Once enabled, our Smart Pricing tool will leverage a variety of external data sources to conduct an ongoing analysis of your local market and determine an optimal price for each night. Periods of low demand will lower your price, and periods of high demand will increase your price. To understand the demand for your specific local market, Smart Pricing will consider:

  • Local concerts, sporting events, professional conferences, festivals, etc.

  • Attendance of events.

  • Bank holidays, school holidays and observances.

  • Day of the week and time of the year.

  • Availability of hotels and short-term rentals.

  • Pricing and occupancy of comparable properties.

  • ️️️️The booking lead time (how far in the future is the available night).


How often does Smart Pricing update my prices?


Smart Pricing will scan your local market and update your prices every 24-48 hours.


How far in the future will my property be priced with Smart Pricing?


With Smart Pricing, your property will always have pricing for 1 year in the future from the current date.


Can I set up pricing for more than 365 days with Smart Pricing?


Currently, Smart Pricing will only set pricing for the next 365 days and you cannot add more pricing yourself to extend your availability beyond this. Over 99% of all bookings are received within 365 days of arrival so this limitation is very unlikely to impact your bookings.


I don’t want to be available for a year in the future, how can I change this?


If you only wish to be available for a more limited period, e.g. for the next 6 months, we suggest blocking the additional dates from your calendar, either before or after enabling Smart Pricing. For more information on how to manually block dates on your calendar please read our guide here.


How can I guarantee my prices will not drop too low?


You will be asked to provide a minimum price when enabling Smart Pricing, this is a floor price that Smart Pricing will respect and never drop below, regardless of demand.


How do I turn on Smart Pricing feature?


Since the 8th August 2023, we have set Smart Pricing as the default pricing option when onboarding a first property. This ensures that you have the best possible setup to boost bookings. You can turn it off at any point, more information on how to do this can be viewed below.


If you want to turn it on other properties, you can head to the nightly pricing section of the Travelnest account. Smart Pricing can be turned on by selecting the 'Turn on smart pricing' button at the top of the pricing page.



When you select the button, you will be asked to confirm your minimum price, allowed check-in days, minimum night stay and values for 7/28 night discounts. These values will apply across the entire 365 days of pricing generated by Smart Pricing as soon as you publish your listing.



Click the plus or minus buttons to increase or decrease the number of days a guest can stay for. 



If there's a day of the week when you won't be able to host guests, you can deselect that day. We've deselected Tuesday as an example.

 


Click the plus or minus buttons to add discounts for 7/28 nights. Then click on publish prices.




How can I see my nightly pricing?


Once enabled, you can view your pricing for each night from the calendar. As the property will be bookable with this pricing within the hour, it is important to review your prices for the upcoming year when you enable smart pricing and determine whether you wish to alter your minimum price or override prices for specific nights or seasonal periods (please see the “What control do I have over Smart prices?” section for more details).




Can I change my default values?


Yes, you can change any of your default values (minimum price, allowed check-in days, minimum night stay, 7/28 night discounts) at any time by selecting the edit button on the pricing page — which is available when smart pricing is enabled.



Can I deviate from my default values for a period of time?


Currently, Smart Pricing only allows a single value for a minimum price, allowed check-in days, minimum night stay and 7/28 night discounts that apply over the full 365 days of smart pricing — you cannot yet deviate from your default values for specific periods of time, although you can set a custom price for any night.



What control do I have over Smart prices?


You can review your Smart prices for each day directly from the calendar and manually override prices by providing a custom value for selected dates. This is useful if you have a specific desired price in mind for particular dates or seasonal periods, such as Christmas.



In order to override smart prices, select the dates you wish to change, change the toggle from “Smart price” to “Custom”, and enter your new nightly price. Both your new price and our suggested Smart price will be displayed on available nights. You can revert back to Smart Pricing for selected dates at any time by changing the toggle back to “Smart price”.




What happens if I already have pricing when I enable Smart Pricing?


Enabling Smart Pricing will preserve any existing pricing periods, but existing pricing periods will not be used while Smart Pricing is enabled.


How do I disable Smart Pricing?


You can disable Smart Pricing at any time from the pricing page. Doing so will automatically restore any pricing periods present prior to enabling Smart Pricing.




What happens if I don't have Smart Pricing available in my area? What other choices do I have?


Our pricing generator tool can assist you in setting up rates for your property. It creates recommended pricing for the next 24 months. For a step-by-step guide, click here.



What happens if I set a high minimum rate?  


When you turn on smart pricing, it's best to avoid setting a very high minimum rate. If you see the same rates across all dates on the calendar, it means your minimum price is too high. To learn more, please read our guide here. 


How can I give feedback on Smart Pricing?
Please help us improve Smart Pricing by providing feedback on your experience via this form.



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