Hotel vs Airbnb Revenue Management: Why STR Pricing Is Harder
Summary
This article discusses why pricing short-term rentals is more complex than hotel pricing, highlighting differences in product uniqueness, booking windows, and operational constraints. It also introduces practical revenue management routines for hosts to implement, focusing on daily and weekly pricing reviews, and a framework for structuring revenue management time. Finally, the article provides actionable advice for STR CEOs on strategic focus and time allocation to move their business forward.
Key Insights
- •STR pricing is dramatically harder than hotel pricing due to product uniqueness, hyper-fragmented demand curves, and operational constraints like cleaning and minimum stays.
- •Booking windows shape revenue strategy differently in STRs compared to hotels, and STR rate drops must be deeper near arrival.
- •Most STR operators underperform not because they lack tools, but because they don't know what to look at, when to look at it, or how to interpret booking behavior.
- •CEOs waste 30-50% of their time on low-value activities. Decision fatigue pulls CEOs into low-value tasks.
Action Items
- ✓Implement a daily and weekly pricing routine to stay ahead of the market, including reviewing every booking to identify pricing and demand signals.Effort: lowImpact: medium
- ✓Review pacing on a weekly basis using Market Penetration Index (MPI).Effort: lowImpact: medium
- ✓STR CEOs should focus on identifying business bottlenecks that require CEO-level attention instead of more activity.Effort: mediumImpact: high
Tools & Resources
- →Freewyld Foundry: Learn more about Freewyld Foundry
- →Freewyld Foundry: Get a free revenue review from Freewyld Foundry.
Watch Out For
- ⚠Most STR operators make a revenue mistake not related to their pricing tool but because of the lack of a daily and weekly pricing routine.
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