Platform automates prices for Airbnb hosts

Beyond Pricing connects to a user's Airbnb account and uses sophisticated algorithms to determine the optimum room price on any given day.

There are an increasing number of services designed to help Airbnb hosts streamline and maximize their operations. Urban Bellhop provides professional rental assistants who can check-in guests when the host is away or too busy, and now Beyond Pricing enables hosts to automate the pricing of their accommodation to increase their potential revenue.

Beyond Pricing is a tool which connects to a user’s Airbnb account and uses sophisticated algorithms, taking into account vacation rental sales, airline arrivals, weather and other factors, to determine the optimum price for a room on any given day. The start-up began as a property manager similar to Urban Bellhop, but soon morphed into a repricing service which can help hosts earn up to 40 percent more from their properties.

Users simply visit the site, create an account and link it to their Airbnb profile. The platform then evaluates the history of the user’s property and the performance of similar listing nearby and sets a base rate. It then enables users to preview the daily pricings before choosing whether or not to automate. If they proceed then listing continues to be automated indefinitely.

Beyond Pricing’s platform is currently free to use while in Beta, but it will eventually charge 1 percent for each rental. It already controls USD 1 million worth of Airbnb properties across 20 major cities. Are there other ways of enabling peer-to-peer rentals to tap in to some of the professional tools available elsewhere in the hospitality industry?