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Calendar

As of October 2016, Airbnb had put all their pricing and calendar functions under the calendar section. We will briefly cover some of the options and give more time to others. 

 

First off, this is where you set different prices for different dates. On the calendar, simply click on a box and then drag the handle that pops up to highlight the dates desired. Then to the right of the calendar, you can put in a new price for those dates. 

 

This option is particularly helpful when you're starting out with that lower base price. For instance, you can set a standard base price of $150, but then highlight the first three weeks you're opening your place up and change the price to $120 to try to draw in people. (For more about why this early low price is important, check out the Price section.)

 

Once in the calendar section, at the top right, click on “price settings." Here you have many options:

 

  • Base price

This is what you determined earlier in the Pricing section.

  • Smart pricing

We find the smart pricing tool sets prices lower than what we can get. We believe this is because Airbnb is using an algorithm based on surrounding listings. It only takes a few low-cost listings to bring that smart price down. If  you like the hands-off convenience of this function, then be sure to set a minimum price on the Smart Pricing tool, so that you don't accidentally get booked for $24/night on a big holiday weekend.

  • Cleaning fee

$25 to $50 is average in the Denver market for a 1-2 bedroom places. Larger houses might charge more knowing that families coming to stay there will be fine paying it. 

  • Extra guest fee

You'll set how many guests are allowed and then you can set how much you charge for each additional guests per night over the limit.

  • Security deposit

This is a personal preference thing and you can read more in the Deposits & refunds section. Some people don't both as long as they have proper short-term rental insurance.

  • Long-term pricing

I tend to give a 5% discount for week-long stay and 10% for a month-long stay, but we know many people give a bigger discount.

 

One of the biggest decisions you need to make when calendaring is your minimum and maximum stay. At the top right of your calendar page, you’ll see “Availability Settings.” The biggest factor here is how often you want to clean (or want to pay someone to clean).  When we were operating a full-time Airbnb, we set the minimum at 3 days. You might only be comfortable with a week-long minimum. The shorter the minimum stay, the higher likelihood of getting booked.

 

I love the minimum-maximum stay option, because you can individualize it for certain date ranges. Why is this helpful? For two reasons:

 

One, if there is a big event for which you will charge higher prices and there are obvious date ranges guests would stay — say Wednesday-through-Sunday for the Great American Beer Festival — you can create a four-day minimum stay for those dates. That way, someone doesn’t book for only three days leaving a high-priced day dangling and unlikely to get booked.

 

Two, for the host trying to maximize their occupancy, the individualized  minimum-stay feature allows you to better fill in gaps between longer stays. Say you have set a three-day minimum for most stays and you have two five-day stays sandwiched around a vacant two days. Because you have set up a three-day minimum, those two days could go to waste. But instead, you can set a two-day stay just for those dates to make sure they get filled.

 

NEXT > Screening guests

 

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