The Nightly Pricing Habits of Airbnb and HomeAway Hosts


Skift Take

Short-term rental hosts, in many cases, haven't become as adept as hotels in knowing how and when to change their average daily rates but you can bet that won't be the story for much longer.
The average Airbnb or HomeAway host operates without the benefit of the pricing tools or staff that hotels have to help contend with constantly adjusting rates. Skift retrieved data from two startups, Smart Host and Beyond Pricing, which both help short-term rental hosts with dynamic pricing management, or guidance on how to price a property during different seasons and special events. The data collection shows examples of what's happening with pricing and average daily rates at Airbnb and HomeAway in different cities. In the sampling of cities we looked at, average daily rates don't appear to drastically change throughout the year. These numbers represent a slice of what's happening in these markets and only include active hosts with 60 or more bookings per year. For 12 global cities included in the data (see Beyond Pricing's chart below), the average daily rate for winter months (December to March) and summer months (June to September) and vice versa for the s