How to Price Your Airbnb Rental

How to Price Your Airbnb Rental? This is Part 6 of our 14 Part Series.

 

If you sign up to host your place in Airbnb but you don’t price it correctly, you can end up either just breaking even or not earning what your property is worth..

 

There are some important things to consider when you’re pricing the rental space.

What you’d like to charge and what’s actually feasible can be two different things.

You don’t want to price so high that you run yourself out of business and you don’t want to price so low that you’re practically giving the space away.

Start by figuring out what the value of your space is.

This is going to fluctuate, depending on where the space is located.

Renting an apartment in Kansas will be a whole lot different in pricing than renting one in California.

You can look up current market value for your space by using an online market tool that tells you what the place is worth.

Once you know the value, look to see what other places are going for around the area where you live.

This is basically the same thing a real estate agent does when he’s doing a neighborhood comparison chart.

You must compare features in order to be accurate.

 

Do Your Research

You wouldn’t want to compare your one bedroom apartment with a three bedroom home.

Compare several similar places near where you’re located so that you’re accurate.

Look at the ones that are closest to your place in value and amenities.

You can do this by searching on Airbnb.

Look for the rate of bookings that other properties have at the price that they’re offering.

Check out what other hosts are offering.

Determine if they give different rates for different occasions and whether or not they’re offering any discounts.

If you’re new to Airbnb, it means that you don’t have any reviews so there’s nothing to recommend your place over the host who has hundreds of great reviews.

 

To get Started

To get on board, you might have to set your price a little lower than everyone else’s just to get started.

Price your space for whatever is comparable.

If all the similar spaces in your area are renting out at $250 a night, yours isn’t going to get many bookings if you come in and price it at $350 or more.

But you will get bookings if you price yours at $225 or even $275.

Don’t keep fixed pricing when the seasons change or when there’s a special event in the area.

Don’t have the same pricing for weekends, either.

Keep up with other hosts and raise your rates on weekends or when there’s a big event.

And finally, don’t forget to make sure that your price rates includes things like the cleaning fee and other incidentals.