Experience the difference of "Elite".

Dynamic pricing

Status: Released 4 Votes
Villa Serenity
Nov 17, 2017 7:39 AM
Joined Feb, 2017 3 posts

Does Ownerez integrate with any dynamic pricing tools.

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 19, 2017 9:25 AM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

As far as I know, no. I use wheelhouse for my AirBNB and Tripadvisor listings, and when it comes to tripadvisor, I had to disconnect OR auto response with quote as I want to use WH set pricing, so I have to change my OR quotes to match the price set by wheelhouse..

Chris Hynes
Nov 20, 2017 7:25 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1400 posts

We've looked into a couple, such as Wheelhouse and Beyond Pricing. What we heard was that they're all waiting on additional integrations till the new year.

If you've got a contact at one of those, we're happy to get talks started so we can work on the integration.

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 21, 2017 6:49 AM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

I do not have a contact per se, but an observation. when I stared with Wheelhouse, they had integration with Homeaway, Airbnb , tripadvisor and a few others. then apparently Homeway paused the integration. For a while on the WH dashboard there was a banner saying that they are investigating the problem and will update as soon as integration is restored. Now banner is gone, but so is Homeaway from the list of supported platforms. I have asked the question on Homeaway owners forum and had been told that there are "no plans" to restore integration with Wheelhouse. I think the reason is 2 fold: 1st, Homeaway is /will be rolling out their own dynamic pricing tool; 2nd, HA's fee is already dynamic, so 3rd party dynamic pricing potentially won't leave much room for the fee when it prices to market.

So I tried to use BP for my Homeaway properties. I find it wanting compared to Wheelhouse - some days were priced too low, some too high, I ended up turning it off for my 3 bd cabin and going back to manual pricing. I still have it on 4 bd, but it is hard to judge whether it is of any benefit - as I have been getting so few bookings via HA lately for that property.
if I were to choose, i would choose Wheelhouse.

Pedro T
Nov 22, 2017 2:12 PM
Joined Nov, 2017 49 posts

Please look into Outswitch. It's a flat fee based dynamic pricing tool. It's not as flashy as BeyondPricing or Wheelhouse but it offers powerful tools for dynamic pricing, the most useful of which is a matrix that looks at the immediacy of vacancies vs. occupancy rates to apply a multiplier to rents. It also manipulates my minimum night requirements based on gaps and seasons.
Currently it integrates with AirBnB, Booking.com, agoda and RentalsUnited. They could use more partners.
http://outswitch.com

My contact is Anton Croy
anton@outswitch.com

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 24, 2017 9:15 AM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

Sounds like outswitch does not work with homeaway?

Sam Westcott
Nov 25, 2017 11:30 AM
OR Team Member Joined Dec, 2009 240 posts

@Pedro -- thanks for the tip on Outswitch. We'll take a look. Young and hungry are typically the best partners ;-)

Pedro T
Nov 27, 2017 1:22 PM
Joined Nov, 2017 49 posts

BlueMtnCabins said:

Sounds like outswitch does not work with homeaway?


unfortunately that's currently the case. To get HomeAway integration with Outswitch you have to go through RentalsUnited. Hopefully they get it soon.

Pedro T
Jan 17, 2018 12:51 PM
Joined Nov, 2017 49 posts

Sam,
I don't know if you've tried to reach out but it appears Anton has left outswitch. Please reach out to their engineering lead, Ahmad:
ahmad@outswitch.com

BlueMtnCabins
Feb 23, 2018 11:04 AM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

I want ONE dynamic pricing software I can use across all major platforms without pass through a channel manager. Wheelhouse covers most except for Homeaway/ VRBO.

with only 2 (soon 3) properties I just do not see how adding another layer (i.e channel management) would be beneficial to me. Right now I am using beyondPricing with VRBO but I do not find it to be "all that". I like Wheelhouse better but as mentioned it no longer integrates with VRBO.
all that said seems that soon all these tools will be a moot point as it applies to major booking sites as the share of those bookings is dropping

Chris Hynes
Feb 23, 2018 6:46 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1400 posts

What particular parts of dynamic pricing do you like? Is it automatically calcing based on time of year, looking at other properties in the area, or what?

BlueMtnCabins
Feb 23, 2018 6:51 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

What i like is that it looks at comparable properties. But most importantly, it can bump up price based on upcoming local event that is expected to increase demand. I do not always know all the events but it does. Like they have several car shows om Pigeon Forge a year. I may not even know when if i had to orice those events manually. Overall it seems i was able to rent at higher per night price on Airbnb especially.

Pedro T
Feb 24, 2018 12:06 AM
Joined Nov, 2017 49 posts

This is what I like of the couple of platforms I've tried out.

The one I use, as I mentioned above, is called Outswitch. Some of this may already be available in Ownerrez, this is a copy and paste I posted in another forum not too long ago.

Its most robust feature in my opinion is a group pricing matrix that looks at your occupancy % vs. immediacy of vacancies and adjusts your pricing based on that.
It differs from the more popular pricing platforms in that it doesn't automatically track local events and holidays. You have to enter them into Outswitch's seasonal pricing yourself and I'll admit it's a bit of a chore, especially needing to remember to copy it over from year to year if you happen to have your availability set further than 6 months out.

The software allows you to set Length of Stay requirements that change within date targets and is intelligent enough to alter the length of stay per listing to fill in gaps. I have mine set to a 4 night minimum from 90+ days out, 3 nights within 60 days, 2 within 30 and no minimum stay within 14 days of a vacancy.

You can furthermore set specific percentage drops or increases for calendar months to automate a discount for your slow seasons or a premium for your high seasons, day-to-day pricing rules for days of the week, and a last minute rule for a change to your base price % within 0 to a number of days you specify.

It has nice reporting tools that I don't take enough advantage of and developers that are readily available to help. I asked for the ability to export a custom report to xls and the next day the feature was added, for instance.

The most amazing thing about it to me is their pricing is a flat fee which sets it worlds apart from the the next automation software I'll talk about and starts at $11/listing with breakpoints at certain stages. I'm currently paying $90/mo. for 10 listings. If you're out to take their lunch I'll feel kind of bad, they seem like nice guys.

BeyondPricing is very elegant but I don't believe in percentage based pricing platforms. They're not absorbing any of my risk so I'm unwilling to give them any of my profits. It tracks holidays, which isn't too hard but it also tracks events in my area to adjust pricing. It's a lot more hands-off than Outswitch and just kind of works out of the box.

David H
Dec 2, 2022 12:55 PM
Joined Jan, 2021 1 post

Dynamic Pricing questions.  Pricelabs, Beyond Pricing and others are designed to suggest price changes based on comparable occupancy. Here's my challenge. How can the suggest price change if they don't use apple-to-apple comparable info? How can you accurately suggest a rate change for a home with a private pool if you're using occupancy data that is heavily weighted with homes without a pool? The same applies to homes 300 ft to the beach when you lump it in with homes 15 blocks from the beach. Anyone else questioned this flaw? How did you overcome this challenge?  Is there a product that allows you to choose a true comparable set across both VRBO and AirBnB?  This would allow you to track their occupancy and rates.