Hotel-style dynamic pricing launched for Airbnb

A new dynamic pricing platform has been launched for short-term rental companies, including Airbnb, VRBO and HomeAway.

PriceMethod, which is headquartered in San Francisco, has initially launched in 60 markets across the US. It claims that its software can help vacation rental owners increase their revenue by 20-40%, by helping hosts charge more during periods of high demand, and capturing more bookings during off-peak times.

“Most hosts we speak to realise that they should be optimising their pricing, but very few realise just how much money they’re leaving on the table,” said Joe Fraiman, founder & chief operating officer of PriceMethod. “Optimising pricing is the number one thing a host can do to increase their revenue.”

Hotels have operated this way for many years, but until now the peer-to-peer rental market hasn’t been able follow suit. In this way, Fraiman said that PriceMethod is “trying to level the playing field” by offering private rentals the same kind of software as hotels.

PriceMethod’s software works by using algorithms to collect and analyse more than 500 million data points, to recommend the best prices for each property each night. Rental owners can then connect their Airbnb, VRBO, or HomeAway account to see their ideal price for each night, and update the price on their listing.

PriceMethod has also established a partnership with Tripping.com, the vacation rental search engine that aggregates over 2.5m properties worldwide.

“We find it beneficial to pair PriceMethod’s data analytics with the pricing data and search trends that we currently observe,” said Jen O’Neal, Tripping.com’s CEO & founder. “The more trends we can identify and analyse together, the more we can lead the industry by helping our partners, hosts, and guests alike.”

While PriceMethod is currently only available in the US, the company said is “expanding aggressively”.