Which pricing approach is right for you? : Wheelhouse Blog

Which pricing approach is right for you?

October 18, 2022 | Andrew Kitchell

3 weeks ago, Wheelhouse launched Hybrid Pricing.

Hybrid Pricing is a new approach to dynamic pricing, designed to greatly expand your revenue management toolset.

Importantly, Hybrid Pricing enables to you to leverage:

So, which pricing approach is right for you?

Let’s answer this by exploring how & why teams are leveraging these different pricing strategies.

Read more below, or Watch a live webinar here.

Rule-Based Pricing

Rule-Based pricing is designed to make it easy for you to control all daily rates & settings.

With Rule-Based pricing, you are fully in control of every price & pricing change that Wheelhouse sends to your channel, PMS, or Channel Manager.

Therefore, your daily prices will always reflect either (a) a price set by you, or (b) a price adjust by an automation that you created (e.g. last minute discounting, far-future premiums, gap night pricing, etc.)

With Rule-Based Pricing on Wheelhouse, you will still be able to see demand data & pricing recommendations. However, our system will not adjust any prices based on this data.

Who is this best for?

Teams that prioritize full control
Teams that do not fully trust Data-Driven systems, yet
Teams that price places are very unique

Steps to leverage Data-Driven Pricing:

Import your current rates by connecting their channel, PMS, or channel manager.
Setup listings using Wheelhouse’s new Rule Based Pricing
Wheelhouse will create custom rates for all of your imported pricing;
Setup listings using Wheelhouse’s new Rule Based Pricing
Next, you can leverage Wheelhouse’s newly updated Booking Tracker, to analyze your portfolios pacing & revenue performance;
Or, you can leverage Wheelhouse’s new Portfolio Metrics, to quickly find properties that are underperforming;
Want to make a pricing change? Leverage new Bulk Overrides to quickly update multiple listings in your portfolio.

The impact?

Data-Driven Pricing

Data-Driven pricing enables you to leverage automated daily updates to your prices, based on your listing’s performance & local demand factors.

With Wheelhouse, our Pricing Engine evaluates each listing, CompSet & market performance, in order to update your prices daily. You can customize the Wheelhouse Pricing Engine to better fit your business goals, while still leveraging local demand.

Additionally, by activating Data-Driven pricing, Wheelhouse’s ML Pricing Engine learns more about your listing with each additional booking.

Importantly, the Wheelhouse Pricing Engine is the only published, documented & fully transparent Pricing Engine in the hospitality space.

Who is this best for?

Teams in rapidly-changing markets
Teams in event driven markets
Teams looking for pricing to more closely match demand patterns
Teams eager to stay fully-up-to-date
Teams with very dense markets, who struggle to keep up with booking patterns

How to leverage Data-Driven Pricing on Wheelhouse:

Import your current rates by connecting their channel, PMS, or channel manager.

Compare your current rates vs. Wheelhouse’s data-driven pricing recommendations, as you onboard a listing.

Next, choose your ideal Data-Driven approach:

(a) automate our pricing engine a single click;

(b) or, select a pricing persona (conservative, recommended, aggressive);

Next, to create pricing limits, leverage Wheelhouse’s updated Min & Max Prices setting

Next, to create custom rates, leverage Wheelhouse’s new advanced Custom Rates tool

Moving forward, track performance via your Booking Tracker, and rinse/repeat

Biggest Impacts?

Hybrid Pricing

Hybrid Pricing is the newest evolution of pricing, designed to put teams fully in control. It enables teams to access both Rule-Based Pricing & Data-Driven Pricing.

It enables teams to start with Rule-Based pricing or Data-Driven pricing, on a listing by listing basis.

And, for any Rule-Based Listing, you can start to add some demand sensitivity into your pricing strategy, but only if/when/where you want.

Hybrid Pricing means listings be fully Rule-Based, fully Data-Driven, or anything in between, and you can adjust your pricing foundation at anytime.

Who is this best for?

How to leverage Hybrid Pricing on Wheelhouse:

See above, for initial setup
If Rule-Based, leverage the “Demand Sensitivity” Setting, to start adding some demand data into your pricing strategy, on your terms
Or, if Rule-Based, adjust any setting (Seasonality, Far Future, etc.) to Data-Driven
If Rule-Based, leverage the “Demand Sensitivity” Setting, to start adding some demand data into your pricing strategy, on your terms
If Data-Driven, create a custom rule for any setting

Biggest Impacts?

Have a mixed portfolio?

For mixed portfolios, Hybrid Pricing is magic. For example, we are already seeing property managers leverage:

In total, Hybrid Pricing is going to help these property managers:

Reduce time spent managing prices 50% to 90%+;
Reduce new hires as Hybrid Pricing enables teammates to scale more effectively;
Increasing revenue, by maintaining more control of prices & testing our demand-driven price increases;
Increasing retention & acquisition of owners/listings/nights;
Reduce stress, from feeling more in control;