Use your calendar to fine-tune pricing

Your calendar is where you control your space’s availability and price. Simply tap or click the settings icon at the top right of the screen to access all pricing features in one convenient place.

Guests want to find a great place and good value. Knowing what they’ll pay can help you set a competitive price, which can lead to more bookings.

To find what guests will pay, select any open date or date range in your calendar. Tap or click the button that displays the total price a guest would pay for that reservation. You’ll get a price breakdown that lists the nightly price, fees, any discounts or promotions, taxes, and your earnings.

“As Hosts, we sometimes just think about what we’re going to earn versus what the guest is actually paying,” says Felicity, a Host Advisory Board member and Superhost in New South Wales, Australia. “It really helps to see that number so quickly and easily, and remember to think about what the guest is paying for the night.”

There are several ways to fine-tune your pricing. Promotions let you offer lower prices for specific date ranges while allowing you to set higher prices over the longer term.

If you’re new to hosting, you may be eligible for the new listing promotion, which takes 20% off your nightly price for your first three bookings. This can help you attract your first guests and start to build your reputation as a Host.

Daniel, a Host Advisory Board member in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, says promotions allow him to “set a higher price for the long term, usually three months out.” From there, he decides whether to use a promotion to lower the price for any unbooked dates. “Promotions are one of my favorite tools,” he says.

You can also try a variety of discounts for different situations. Early bird discounts might entice guests who plan ahead, while last-minute discounts can help fill gaps in your calendar.

Weekly and monthly discounts may attract guests who want to stay a while. “Offering a discount for longer stays is a great way to entice guests into booking,” says Oliver, a Host in New York City. “Monthly bookings tend to mean less turnover work for me, too.”

To add weekly or monthly discounts, first make sure you’ve set minimum and maximum lengths of stay that follow local rules and regulations. Then adjust your maximum stay to be at least as long as the discount you’d like to add.

Next, go to your Pricing tab to add the discount. As you raise or lower your discount percentage from 0 to 99%, the screen will show how that discount changes what guests will pay and what you will earn.

You can explore all pricing tools, including promotions and discounts, in your calendar.

Information contained in this article may have changed since publication.