As a fellow real estate investor, I understand how big of a headache it is for property managers and vacation rental owners when it comes to pricing their rental properties just right.
Go too high, and you might discourage potential guests. Go too low, you’ll cut your profits. That’s why I switched to dynamic pricing tools and stopped obsessing over manually setting minimum and maximum prices for my bookings.
And I never looked back. You, too, can stop stressing out and let automated pricing tools do the work.
In this guide, I’ll uncover the best dynamic pricing tools you can use to automatically adjust prices based on real-time market data, competitor pricing trends, seasonal trends, and more.
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What are the Best Dynamic Pricing Tools?
Beyond
Wheelhouse
1. Beyond Dynamic Pricing – The Overall Best Airbnb Pricing Tool
Beyond boasts the best dynamic pricing algorithm among similar tools because its data points are based on real-time market trends, allowing hosts to make better smart pricing decisions based on demand and maximize profits.
Key Benefits
Great Performance Metric: Beyond features a “Health Score” metric in its pricing tool, which evaluates the performance of a property and helps identify if there’s room for improvement.
Easy-To-Use: Beyond’s pricing tool has an intuitive user interface (UI) that’s easy to navigate since it’s designed with user experience and convenience in mind.
Compatible with Most Property Management Software: Beyond seamlessly integrates with most property management systems such as Airbnb, IGMS, and Hostfully, allowing users to easily sync their pricing structure across multiple channels
Pricing
Beyond Pricing provides three different pricing plans. Its pricing structure is very straightforward and takes a small percentage of your total booking fees earned at the end of the month.
Growth – 1% of total booking earnings
Pro – 1.25% of total booking earnings
Performance – 2% of total booking earnings
Pros And Cons
✅ Its pricing tool follows a data-driven approach that factors in all your location and situation details — perfect for increasing your overall revenue.
✅ Seamlessly integrates with most property management systems available in the market.
❌Pricing structure can be more expensive than other tools that offer a flat monthly rate
❌Lacks more advanced pricing controls and metrics
2. Wheelhouse Dynamic Pricing Tool – Best User Interface
Wheelhouse is a highly favored pricing tool for both Airbnb property owners and short-term rental managers because they can easily optimize their rates, maximize revenue, and stay competitive using its platform.
Key Benefits:
Highly Customizable: Wheelhouse provides competitive pricing recommendations by taking into account local factors and events to deliver more accurate and targeted pricing insights on a daily basis.
With this feature, users can balance out the aggressiveness of their revenue according to their preferences by setting minimum and maximum rates.
Flexible Pricing Model: For property managers who have inconsistent occupancy rates, Wheelhouse allows its users to pay only when their property is booked. This may be more attractive than paying a flat monthly rate.
Great VacationUser Experience: Wheelhouse features a very intuitive and visually appealing UI, making it easier for users to monitor their pricing strategies and property performance.
Pricing
Wheelhouse provides custom pricing options that can be tailored to your current business needs, but it primarily offers two main pricing plans.
The Pro Flex plan charges a base price of 1% of total booking earnings for up to 100 listings, while the Pro Flat plan charges a set monthly fee per property with discounts available depending on the number of bookings.
Pros And Cons
✅Very user-centric and convenient UI
✅Wheelhouse enables users to strategize their pricing in advance by foreseeing market trends and making adjustments accordingly.
✅Wheelhouse can rationally adjust prices by conducting a daily analysis of 10 billion data points, which can help maximize revenue.
❌Wheelhouse has a very limited number of integrations with other vacation rental software and channel managers.
❌Some users have reported that Wheelhouse can underprice or overprice their listings on seasonal events like holidays.
❌Wheelhouse has a very limited global market presence and even fewer partnerships compared to its competitors.
3. Mashvisor Dynamic Pricing Tool – Best Dynamic Pricing Tool for Budget-Conscious Hosts
Mashvisor’s dynamic pricing tool provides hosts with advanced algorithms and real-time data analysis to calculate the optimal nightly rates for both high and low-peak periods.
Key Benefits
Dynamic Pricing: Features algorithms automatically adjust pricing based on local competitor prices, market demand, seasons, events, and more.
Great Pricing Strategy: Mashvisor’s dynamic pricing tool allows hosts to choose a pricing strategy based on maximizing monthly revenue and occupancy.
Data-Backed Market Rate Predictions: Mashvisor provides hosts with historical and real-time market data that can potentially maximize their booking and rental income.
Pricing
Mashvisor’s paid plan costs $9.99/month, which enables hosts to fully automate 1 property.
Alternatively, Mashvisor offers hosts a free plan that enables hosts to analyze the market and determine the best nightly rates for their listing. However, this plan lacks access to Airbnb’s daily rate synchronization.
Mashvisor also offers hosts a 7-day free trial with access to all its features alongside a 15% lifetime discount.
Pros and Cons
✅Mashvisor’s pricing recommendations are very easy to comprehend for new Airbnb hosts and vacation rental managers since they provide clear explanations for every rate suggestion.
✅Automatically adapts pricing based on upcoming events, seasons, comps, etc.
✅Great feedback on Mashvisor’s responsive customer support for questions on the pricing tools.
❌Offer little legroom for pricing algorithm customizations
❌Automated recommendations cannot be manually adjusted
❌Mashvisor’s analysis relies on a more restricted set of data sources when compared to other pricing tools.
4. Pricelabs Dynamic Pricing Tool – Best Airbnb Pricing Tool for Different Property Types
PriceLabs is an excellent smart pricing tool that offers vacation rental business owners the option to dynamically automate their properties — regardless of their property type.
Key Benefits
Highly Customizable: PriceLabs offers short-term rental business owners very customizable pricing rules while also providing accurate price tips and recommendations. Pricing recommendations may include minimum and maximum prices, offers, and last-minute and length-of-stay discounts.
Group Management And Bulk Actions: PriceLabs offers hosts the ability to simultaneously manage multiple properties’ prices — streamlining the process for users with large portfolios or property management companies.
Global Coverage: Pricelabs is well-suited for multifaceted markets because it offers data-driven pricing suggestions for short-term rentals using a local market research strategy.
Great Analytics: PriceLabs provides in-depth analytics and reports that enables its users to track their property’s performance, which can positively affect its user’s long-term revenue strategy.
Extensive Integration: PriceLabs integrates with most property management system tools, channels, and booking platforms on the market — allowing users to simultaneously align their pricing across multiple platforms.
Pricing
If your property is located in the US, UK, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, or Israel, paid subscription plans start at $19.99/month for 1 listing, and the price goes up for more listings
Alternatively, PriceLabs offers a 30-day free trial for viewing analytics and access to its dynamic pricing tool and market dashboard.
Pros And Cons
✅Lets you manage simultaneously manage prices for multiple properties regardless of property type.
✅Pricing structure is based on your business needs.
✅For hesitant hosts, PriceLabs offers a 30-day free trial to test out and evaluate its features and capabilities — no payment or credit card information needed.
❌Due to its comprehensive list of features and complex pricing algorithm, PriceLabs’ pricing tool may come with a steep learning curve compared to other dynamic pricing tools on our list
5. AirDNA Smart Pricing Tool – Most Consistent Airbnb Pricing Tool
AirDNA has been a consistent choice for short-term rental hosts when it comes to picking a dynamic pricing tool because its algorithm analyzes local market demand and automation that gives hosts only two choices to pick from — maximizing bookings or revenue.
Key Benefits:
Automated Pricing: AirDNA automatically adjusts rates based on real-time local market conditions and daily data and analytics updates.
Highly Customizable: AirDNA gives hosts the freedom to set their pricing strategy by giving them the tools to set pricing rules, restrictions, price floors, and price ceilings.
Extensive Integration: Seamlessly integrate with all major vacation rental listing websites
Pricing
Interested Airbnb hosts can try AirDNA’s Smart Rates for up to 30 days.
For paid plans, hosts have six pricing options they can choose from, ranging from $12/month for a single neighborhood to $600/month for global market access.
Keep in mind that the amount of Airbnb properties you own or manage does not affect the cost of AirDNA’s pricing tool.
Pros And Cons
✅AirDNA works well for real estate investors and property management companies with large portfolios.
✅Very accurate data algorithm that aligns with local market conditions
❌May have data gaps for some of the less common listing types.
❌Not recommended for hosts with very few listings.
6. Airbnb Smart Pricing Feature – Free Automated Pricing Tool
Airbnb’s Smart Pricing tool is a free feature integrated into the Airbnb platform.
This is a great option for hosts who would like to try out free options first and get a general feel for it before moving to better ones.
Airbnb’s Smart Pricing tools allow hosts to adjust their pricing strategy by setting a base price, minimum price, and maximum daily price rate as well as manually customizing nightly rates.
Uses algorithms and market data to automatically adjust listing prices to maximize host revenue and booking potential.
Key Benefits
Free: The Airbnb smart pricing tool is a free feature built into the Airbnb platform.
Pricing Customization: Airbnb allows hosts to set acceptable price ranges and raise prices according to market demand.
Pricing
Airbnb Smart Pricing is a free feature already built into the platform. The cost of using this feature is already covered by the 3% service fee that Airbnb already charges to its host.
Pros And Cons
✅Airbnb smart pricing is a free feature that allows you to test out your pricing strategies and see if it meets your needs.
❌Can sometimes be very unreliable.
❌Limited features and integration with third-party tools.
7. DPGO Airbnb and Vacation Rental Pricing Tool – Best for Beginner Hosts
Key Benefits
Dynamic Pricing: Fast price reaction and adjustments thanks to its AI-driven market insights that base its analytics on billions of data points.
Highly Integratable: Supports most major online marketplaces like Airbnb, Booking.com, and VRBO.
Pricing
To try out DPGO for free, hosts can try out their 30-day free trial — no credit card needed.
For paid plans, hosts have the option to choose between a flat monthly fee ($18/listing) or 0.5% of their booking revenue.
Pros and Cons
✅Highly configurable algorithm when it comes to modifying your prices during certain seasons
✅Hosts can choose between aggressive, balanced, or conservative-focused pricing strategies
❌ Platform can sometimes be unstable due to bugs
What is a Dynamic Pricing Tool?
In Airbnb topics, dynamic pricing means adjusting your listing rates based on supply and demand, local events, booking time, and more.
Dynamic pricing tools are automated tools with integrated market algorithms and data analysis tools that allow property managers and Airbnb owners to fine-tune their prices during certain seasons in order to maximize their potential revenue.
How Does Dynamic Pricing Software Help You?
Choosing the best dynamic pricing software based on your needs can significantly impact the success (and revenue) of your listing. Here are three important benefits in using Airbnb dynamic pricing tools for your rental properties:
1. Maximizing Potential Revenue
Optimizing your revenue stands as a primary benefit of incorporating dynamic pricing tools into your strategy. By aligning your rates just right with the current market demand, you ensure that you’re offering the most competitive prices for your rentals.
2. Competitive Edge
Employing dynamic pricing for your Airbnb business can prove to be a highly effective strategy to maintain competitiveness in the market since it can increase your property listing’s visibility and Airbnb ranking compared to other listings in the same area.
3. Higher Occupancy Rates
By using dynamic pricing tools to align your prices with market demand, you can potentially increase your occupancy rate since you will attract clients who are willing to pay a fair price.
This strategy not only prevents overcharging but also makes it more appealing for customers who are looking for a bargain.
Buyers Guide: How I Conducted Research
My research methodology involves a comprehensive approach to gathering information and insights on Airbnb hosting.
I gather data from various sources, including review websites, Airbnb forums, and direct conversations with property owners.
By utilizing these sources, I ensure that our findings are well-rounded and provide a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by hosts and property managers in the vacation rental market.
Through this research process, I aim to deliver valuable insights and recommendations to help Airbnb owners optimize their listings, enhance guest experiences, and grow their businesses.
My husband and I are active real estate investors in the hotel space. We use similar tools in our dynamic pricing strategy. We thoroughly understand the immense value these types of software can contribute towards enhancing our profitability.
Wrapping Up: My Experience with Dynamic Pricing Software
Thanks to the development of advanced algorithms and data analysis tools, adjusting prices in real-time based on shifts in supply and demand has never been more accessible — making it a very popular tool for the short-term rental industry.
Utilizing an Airbnb pricing tool is a smart way to ensure competitiveness in the market, and the best tools will boost your property performance and maximize your revenue.
In my hotel business, I always use dynamic pricing tools when creating a pricing strategy. From adjusting prices to market research, the value these tools have given me is immeasurable.
That’s why I recommend incorporating one into yours. Try one on our list today and be amazed at how automation frees up so much of your time and lets you focus on other things for your business.
Dynamic Pricing Tools FAQs
Does Vrbo use dynamic pricing?
Yes. If your market is heavily dominated by Vrbo, you can use Beyond, PriceLabs, and Wheelhouse to track its booking trends.
What is Airbnb dynamic pricing services?
Dynamic pricing services involve software like Airbnb pricing tools that use an algorithm to automate pricing and automatically adjust rental rates.
When demand is high, prices are increased to maximize revenue. When demand is low, prices are decreased to improve your property’s occupancy rate.
What Do Pricing Tools NOT Do?
Vacation rental pricing tools cannot function as property management software, channel manager, and guest communication tools.
For more information on those tools, you can check out my in-depth review of Airbnb tools.
Nic
Nic is an avid real estate investor who partners with her husband on hotel syndications. Prior to hotels, she owned apartment complexes and single-family homes. Her insider expertise makes her the ideal resource for those seeking to grow their income via property investments.
