Record the Events
Open the calendar that is attached to your Airbnb email address and mark all of the events there. Start with long-term planning events, then mid, then short. You will have to look up the short-term ones most often. Make some bookmarks and set weekly calendar reminders to do this!
1. Do a Competitive Analysis
Go to Airbnb, and see what comparable units in your neighbourhood are increasing their rent by on event days, then increase yours accordingly.
Record three things and repeats this for about 5 units.
1. Rate on day of event
2. Rate 1 week prior to event
3. Rate 1 week after event
Keep a historical log of the event’s impact on rental rates for reference for upcoming events. After a certain point, you will know sporting events go up X%, conventions go up Y% and etc…
2. Pricing Strategy
There are three suggested methods:
- Set the price and leave it
- Start high and lower as it gets closer to event
- Start low and raise prices as it gets closer to event
Test out all of the strategies to see what works best for your market. I have found the best success with starting low and raising the price up because as events are getting closer, people expect to pay more for a last minute convenience.
Raising price example: If the full rent increase for an event is 25% above average rent, take 10% increase on the event day when you are 10 weeks out and add 1-2% every week closer to the event.
If you do not regularly update your pricing on Airbnb.com, you can be loosing out on extra income. Also, if you enable Instant Book, you MUST make sure you are updating your calendar.
Note: For big events that get a huge draw, track the changes in rental rates over a few weeks or even months.
