5 Best Dynamic Pricing Software Tools for Airbnb Hosts and Short Term Rentals
May 16, 2022 | Amelia Melching
No matter what part of property management you’re in, it’s essential to take some time to figure out your pricing strategy. Whether you’re an Airbnb or short term rental host, a hotel owner, a property manager yourself, today’s pricing methods go beyond supply and demand.
With the advent of property management software and pricing technologies, you can master revenue management by determining pricing for all of your rentals that’s simultaneously:
Competitive
Profitable; and
Agreeable to your customers.
How? Dynamic pricing software.
What is dynamic pricing software?
Dynamic pricing software tools analyze historical numbers, industry trends, and even competitor data to help retailers set prices more accurately. Dynamic pricing is now the norm across many industries, and technology has allowed for its widespread adoption.
Dynamic pricing is a pricing strategy in which businesses set flexible prices for products or services based on current market demands. With short term rental and Airbnb pricing, this may mean having pricing specific to seasonality, day of week trends, and even actual sales in the market.
This data-driven pricing overpowers emotion or ambition in your business. You won’t mistakenly price something too low to appease your customers or too high to hopefully make a quick profit. The best pricing software will also fluctuate pricing recommendations based on supply and demand.
A dynamic pricing software tool is a perfect way for retailers to set prices accurately. Today we’ll walk you through why your rental business needs dynamic pricing tools and a few examples of available tools.
Why do you need dynamic pricing tools? Benefits of using dynamic pricing tools
Dynamic pricing tools eliminate the chance for human error in your pricing strategy. Bottom line? Optimal pricing helps you improve business profits. Here are a few more benefits of dynamic pricing software.
Time-efficient: With the market changing daily–or really, by the minute–it’s incredibly challenging to determine the best price for your Airbnb or short-term rental unless that’s all you’re spending your time on. Dynamic pricing softwares automate this time consuming process with less time and effort required on your part.
Reduced costs: Of course, could hire data analysts to research pricing trends across years, competition, and location—a position with an average salary of about $82,000. Or, you could pay a modest subscription fee for dynamic pricing software. A nice bonus is many of them offer a free trial to assist your decision process.
AI-powered: Many pricing tools use machine learning and state-of-the-art technology to provide you with the utmost accuracy. Artificial intelligence offers efficiency and laser-sharp precision to ensure your prices are optimized.
Adaptable: Every property professional knows how crazy the market is. Ups and downs, market trends, and other factors influence scattered pricing. You can configure pricing tools to meet your requirements—minimums and maximums, locations, historical trends—with just a few clicks.
Now, which pricing tools offer the most profitability and convenience? We’ve rounded up our top picks to help you decide.
5 Best Dynamic Pricing Software Tools for Airbnb Hosts & Short-term Rentals
Wheelhouse
Wheelhouse is a pricing tool for every type of real estate investor—hobby hosts, advanced owners, and professional property owners. The software includes an adaptable pricing tool, market insights, competition data monitoring, and ultimate customization capabilities.
Simply enter details about your portfolio and watch the magic happen with easily adjustable pricing. Customers rave about the platform’s intuitive interface and endless customization capabilities, including far-future predictions and risk tolerance
Features
Base, minimum, and maximum price
Configurable risk tolerance
Weekend adjustments
Far-future pricing
Performance tracking. dashboards, and targets
Easy preview
Market insights
Worldwide
Pricing
Pro Plan #1: 1% of revenue with a minimum monthly fee of $2.99/month o Discounts for 100+ listings
Pro Plan #2: $19.99/month, with the following discounts: o 15% ($16.99)for 10-49 listings o 30% ($13.99) for 50-100 listings o Contact for discounts on 100+ listings
Pro Plan #1: 1% of revenue with a minimum monthly fee of $2.99/month o Contact for pricing, custom offerings for 100+ listings
Beyond Pricing is a revenue management solution that’s a one-stop-shop for short-term rental managers. Founded in 2013, the company provides services for over 340,000 listings in 7,500 cities worldwide. This pricing software focuses on three major demand factors to inform its pricing automations:
Seasonality
Local Demand
Day of the Week
The tool provides market insights and intuitive dashboards, allowing you to view your portfolio at a glance. Overall, customer reviews are good, with users improving profitability and heightening occupancy.
Pay on Stay (1.49% charged when the guest checks in)
3. Pricelabs
PriceLabs is a dynamic pricing software monitoring current and historical booking information to recommend pricing. It also offers a market dashboard to help you measure your portfolio performance against the competition, assessing a wide variety of factors like:
Unfortunately, customers report challenges using the platform because it’s not user-friendly. Additionally, the tool is pricier than others on the market.
AIRDNA’s dynamic pricing software boasts data for over 10 million Airbnb and Vrbo vacation rentals. Its Smart Rates recommends pricing for every day of the week, backed with rationale for each recommendation. You can add adjustments automatically with minimum and maximum rates, risk tolerance, discounts, and more.
You can also access competitor pricing with the tool’s Market Minder, backed by a robust network of data partners.
Features
Competition pricing
Accurate data
Lead-time considerations
Market demand scores
Seasonality and demand settings
Risk tolerance settings
Pricing
$19.99/month for one market, >100 listings
$39.99/month for one market and 100-1000 listings
$99.99/month; one market & 1000+ listings
5. Outswitch
Outswitch aims to help property managers maximize their rental yield and improve profit potential. Founded in 2014, OutSwitch has been helping companies in the UK and beyond to outperform their competitors.
One of their biggest selling points is “no migration, no manual entry.” Customers can integrate with Outswitch’s platform to start saving instantly. However, this is one of the more expensive options on offer.
Features
Price optimization
Market & investment Data
Reporting
No migration, no manual entry
Group similar properties
Create smart rules
Channel management
Pricing
OutSwitch has a sliding scale for pricing, starting with one rental and moving to 100+. Their prices are listed in Euros, so exact costs depend on exchange rates at the time of booking. Some benchmark figures are listed below for your reference.
How to Choose the Best Dynamic Pricing Tool for Your Short Term Rental
Many of the tools above share similar features, some with unique pricing plans and interface characteristics. Here’s the thing: what’s the best way to figure out which is best for your Airbnb and short term rental business?
Think about what’s important to your business goals and values, and who will be using the tool.
Tool features
How do you sift through countless features and determine the ones that matter? When browsing through different tools, make sure your selection has all of the following features:
Market insights and analysis
Automated pricing
Profitability analysis
Far-out predictions
Adaptability and easy adjustments
Personalized pricing for customers
But none of these features will help your business if you don’t know how to use them. This brings us to our next criterion:
Ease of use
Ease of use refers to how intuitive the platform is. Check out customer reviews describing the learning curve and how long it takes companies to get used to the platform. Additionally, think of your employees and partners when assessing ease of use. If your team is full of experienced programmers, a high learning curve may not pose an issue.
However, it might prove difficult if your investors or partners want to explore the tool and examine pricing for themselves.
Our customers found Wheelhouse extremely intuitive and easy to pick up with just a few days of use.
Affordability
Most of this list’s tools hover around a similar price range (around $19.99/month). But the devil’s in the details. Assess the price against your number of listings and consider whether it’s worth it.
Additionally, look at customer reviews for experienced opinions about the tool’s value. Cheap isn’t always good: make sure the low price doesn’t equal poor performance.
Compatibility with your rental business
At the end of the day, the perfect dynamic pricing software should be compatible with your business model. Whether that means last-minute adjustments to cater to rapidly changing industry trends or easy integration with other software, the best dynamic pricing software will meet you where you are.
Conclusion: The Best Dynamic Pricing Software for Airbnb Hosts and Short Term Rentals?
There’s no shortage of dynamic pricing software out there. Technology advances daily, with new AI-powered tools popping up to enhance business continuity.
Out of all the pricing tools listed on this site, Wheelhouse offers the most comprehensive, data-driven recommendations with abundant customization options. Customers love how easy it is to tailor the pricing options to fit their budgets, business goals, and unique needs. Moreover, the tool is intuitive, offering immense ease of use.
On top of all that, we offer some of the most focused 1:1 customer care out of all the above pricing tools. Our dedicated staff works 24/7 to bring you clarity and confidence in using our tool to reach your rental business goals.
Ready to price your listings with precision and confidence? Contact us to find out how to take your short-term rental business to the next level!