Airbnb Merchandising | How to optimize your pricing strategy to stand out from the crowd

Displaying the right price on your listings can considerably boost your bookings and vacation rental earnings. It also doesn’t help if a guest sees a special price and isn’t aware that it is in fact a discounted rate.

In this article, we’ll explain Airbnb’s unique merchandising options available to hosts and show you how to use these new promotion tools to benefit your overall vacation rental business.

A solid pricing strategy is essential to your overall marketing plan for your short-term rental properties. Understanding the importance of pricing, our partners at Airbnb have created a list of available merchandising options for you to integrate into your listings.

However, as a host or property manager of multiple listings, you might not know how or where to add these discounts onto listings or how it’s displayed to guests searching for a stay.

What is Airbnb Merchandising Exactly?

Essentially, it is a promotion tool to make your listing more appealing, specifically targeting the displayed price point.

By applying special tagging, like strike-through pricing and a “new lower price” message, guests are encouraged to click on it, which ultimately increases the traffic your listings receive, thereby upping the conversion rate.

As a result, Airbnb’s merchandising options let you choose between four specific custom features to add discounts and promotions to your listing.

Airbnb Offers 4  Merchandising Options to Increase Engagement on Your Listing

Depending on the strength of your discount, Airbnb will apply the following types of merchandising to your displayed pricing:

1. Discounts of 10%, 15% and 20% off

Your listing receives a new line item in the rate breakdown.

2.Discounts of 10%, 15% and 20% off

Your listing gets strike-through pricing in the search results and a new line item in the rate breakdown.

3. Discounts between 15% and 20% off

Hosts benefit from everything above, plus a special callout on your listing page.

4. Discounts over 20% off

Your listing received benefits one to three, plus a promotional placement option in emails to guests.

It is important to note some merchandising features, such as strike-through styling, may not be available for display for promotions in certain countries.

How to Set an Effective Pricing Strategy

Before you can look at adding any of the individual benefits of each of these merchandising options, you must have a pricing and marketing strategy to see which option aligns best with your revenue goals.

Rates and occupancy go hand in hand. Hosts run the risk of outpricing themselves if they’re not competitively priced. Demand is always a key consideration, factoring in seasonality, the day of the week, and any upcoming events.

Traditionally high demand pushes prices up, while the common strategy is to drop rates during the low season. Calculating and knowing the lowest price you’re willing to accept is essential to your flexible pricing strategy.

Pricing Management Made Easy

iGMS subscribers can access seamless payment processing through our partner providers – DPGO, PriceLabs, Wheelhouse and Beyond.

Automated features that take the slog out of your daily vacation rentals tasks include updating your pricing across Airbnb, Booking.com and/or Vrbo. Listing on multiple platforms couldn’t be easier, giving your listings extra exposure and improving your occupancy rate and revenue-earning potential.

Tips for Setting a Competitive Pricing Strategy

Savvy pricing requires that your think like a guest, first and foremost. Pricing is one of the main deciding factors when guests choose where to stay, according to Airbnb.

“No matter how beautiful your space, if it’s priced higher than comparable listings in the area, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out on bookings,” advises Airbnb.

The added service fees, like cleaning charges or taxes, also mean the set price isn’t the final price for your guest.

Do your market research  

Compare listing prices to your property type and your available amenities. Check how hosts near you adjust their pricing in advance and apply Airbnb merchandising tools by checking multiple dates in the future. Similar properties booked up far in advance are a solid indicator of being competitively priced. Benchmark your pricing strategy against these properties.

Highlight your location and unique amenities  

Your listing details all support your displayed price. Your future guests might not register that they’re getting what they’re prepared to pay for if you don’t mention attentive inclusions like breakfast, welcome baskets, or easy access to nearby attractions.

Competitive pricing gets your guest’s attention

Guests are usually sceptical of listings without any reviews. If you’re just starting out your vacation rental business, it’s a good idea to price competitively. Without reviews, it’s a good way to attract a guests’ attention.

Use the Smart Pricing tool

Airbnb has also taken some of the guesswork out of pricing with Airbnb Smart Pricing. The pricing tool takes into account over 70 factors, such as lead time, local popularity, and your review history, to determine the best price for each available night on your calendar.

Turning on this pricing tool means your pricing will automatically update. Therefore, hosts must set a minimum nightly rate so your rate will never fall below that threshold. If at any time you’re not happy with the rate set by the tool, you can simply type a new one into your calendar.

Promotion and Discount Ideas to Activate on Your Listing

While your competitive rate is crucial to your pricing strategy, it makes no sense if your guest doesn’t even know they’ve booked a reduced rate. Thus, merchandising tools leverage all the effort you’ve put into honing your display price. Try these promotions and discount ideas to activate merchandising

Length-of-stay discounts

A discount option enabling Hosts to offer er weekly, monthly, and other length-based discounts that encourage travelers to book longer stays.

Early bird discount

A promotion tool to encourage and pick up early bookings.

Last-minute discount 

A promotion tool to encourage last-minute deals.

Non-refundable option

A discount allowing hosts to list their properties at two different price points (standard rate or a lower non-refundable rate).

How to Add the Display Discount to Your Preferred Airbnb Listing

So there you have it. If any of the above alternatives of merchandising aligns with your pricing and marketing strategy, you may choose to apply the respective discount to your listing by opting in for any of the promotions and discounts below.

The following steps apply to all, excluding the non-refundable option:

• Go to Listings and click the listing you want to change.
• Click Pricing and click Edit next to the pricing options.
• Make your changes and click Save.

How to add the non-refundable option:

Go to your Opportunities under the Performance tab and look for the non-refundable promotion.

Want to Take Tour Pricing Management to the Next Level?

If you’ve been looking for ways to better manage your properties, you’ll be amazed by the efficiency vacation rental automation can bring to your business.

Try iGMS and its advanced features for yourself to automate a substantial part of your workload that includes pricing by signing up for a free 14-day trial.