Updated: September 10, 2024
Property managers constantly look for ways to stay ahead of the curve in the continually evolving world of vacation rentals. With fluctuating demand, seasonal shifts, and ever-changing guest preferences, setting competitive prices and measuring and improving performance regularly is crucial. This is where technology, specifically PriceLabs, comes into play.
PriceLabs has established itself as a powerful revenue management tool, helping property managers automate pricing and optimize revenue across portfolios. However, what often needs to be noticed is how PriceLabs enables property managers to track and improve performance in a data-driven and scalable way.
Here’s a closer look at how professional property managers leverage PriceLabs to keep performance in check and make adjustments that benefit themselves and their homeowners.
Dynamic Pricing Adjustments for Enhanced Performance
While tracking performance is vital, understanding and adjusting to market conditions is equally important. Property managers who understand and foresee fluctuating market conditions can prepare for them in advance. However, it is tough to manually alter your pricing strategy when the market conditions change, like when an event or conference is nearby. Professional property managers must have the tools to identify these fluctuations and automatically adjust their pricing to make the most of high-demand days and be competitive during low-demand days.
PriceLabs’ Dynamic Pricing engine uses market data, historical trends, and booking patterns to suggest optimized prices that maximize revenue and occupancy.
For example, a professional property manager may notice that one of their properties is only 50% booked during off-peak months. Using PriceLabs, they can automate price drops for days less likely to be booked while ensuring prices for weekends or high-demand days remain competitive. This enables the property to maintain a consistent cash flow even when demand is lower.
Automating pricing adjustments while considering market fluctuations helps property managers remain competitive without sacrificing profitability, especially when managing multiple properties.
Monitoring Key Metrics with PriceLabs’ Market Dashboard
Property managers need to understand key performance metrics for their listings to compare their performance with the rest of the market and adjust their pricing strategy wherever necessary. Tools like PriceLabs Market Dashboard display essential real-time performance metrics. From occupancy rates to average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR), the dashboard provides all the information necessary to understand how properties perform across different time frames.
For example, a property manager overseeing 50 vacation rentals in a coastal city may notice through the PriceLabs Market Dashboard that one of their premium properties is underperforming compared to the area’s market data. By comparing the ADR and occupancy rates, the manager can identify whether they need to adjust the pricing to align with market conditions or add value through additional amenities or flexible booking options.
Property managers can also analyze different types of properties, time frames, amenities, or locations by creating custom comp sets in the dashboard, making it easier to identify trends and anomalies quickly.
Occupancy & Revenue Trends for Data-Driven Decisions
One of property managers’ most trusted and necessary data sources is their own listing data collected over the years. PriceLabs Portfolio Analytics allows property managers to visualize their listing data. It offers occupancy, revenue, and booking trend data, enabling property managers to analyze their portfolio’s performance over time with easy-to-understand graphs. Property managers can see periods of high and low demand by breaking down occupancy and revenue data and act accordingly.
For example, a property manager overseeing a vacation rental in a ski resort can use the charts in Portfolio Analytics to identify that their occupancy rates peak during ski season but significantly drop in the off-season. With this data, they can create special promotions, bundle deals, or reduce minimum stays during the low season to attract more bookings. This ability to see trends and make data-driven decisions ensures properties stay competitive year-round.
Market Data Integration for Competitive Pricing
As a Property Manager, you’d want to compare your listings with your direct competitors offering the same amenities, bedroom count, and luxuries as you. To make an informed revenue management strategy, you can identify your competitors using PriceLabs Neighborhood data. It integrates local market data of up to 350 listings, enabling you to benchmark their performance against competing properties. By tracking nearby listings’ prices and occupancy performance, you can ensure their pricing is competitive and realistic.
It also allows you to select your competitors to compare the listing performance directly. You can select up to 10 competitors in your market and directly compare your performance.
For example, a Property Manager in a popular tourist destination can compare their listing performance with similar properties in the area. Suppose their units are underperforming despite being well-reviewed. In that case, PriceLabs helps them identify market trends, such as nearby listings lowering prices or offering last-minute discounts, which might contribute to the disparity. The manager can adopt a more aggressive pricing strategy or provide additional perks to stay competitive.
This real-time benchmarking enables property managers to monitor the market and make adjustments that directly impact performance.
Custom Rule Sets for Tailored Pricing Strategies
Every Property Manager faces unique challenges based on the type of properties they manage, the location, and the guest demographics. PriceLabs allows managers to set custom rules to tailor pricing strategies specific to each property or group of properties. It enables you to implement your own knowledge of the market dynamics over the suggestions made by the algorithm to give you more control over your revenue management strategy.
For example, a Property Manager with properties spread across urban and rural locations might create custom rules that increase rates for city apartments during holiday weekends but lower rates for rural cabins during off-peak weekdays. With PriceLabs, they can define specific rules for each property, such as increasing prices when occupancy hits 90% or offering discounts for last-minute bookings.
This level of customization empowers Property Managers to develop strategies that maximize performance without manually adjusting prices for every property in the portfolio.
Forecasting & Long-Term Planning
PriceLabs helps with day-to-day adjustments and provides forecasting tools that allow Property Managers to plan for future performance. The Neighborhood Data dashboard shows future and historical prices, occupancy trends, and pacing data. This information helps you to make proactive adjustments by examining future demand trends, price elasticity, and occupancy trends.
For example, a Property Manager may forecast that occupancy rates for the next six months are expected to be lower than usual based on PriceLabs data. Instead of waiting for the market to dictate rates, they can proactively offer early bird discounts, partner with local events or attractions to drive demand, and adjust their marketing efforts to promote long-term bookings.
Property managers can maintain strong occupancy and revenue throughout the year by being proactive rather than reactive.
Continuous Performance Tracking
PriceLabs enables Property Managers to track daily performance and adjust accordingly. Instead of setting prices and checking in periodically, managers can see their nightly rates for the coming month in calendar view, allowing them to stay agile and responsive to market changes.
For example, a Property Manager may notice their occupancy rate for a popular holiday weekend is not as high as expected. With PriceLabs, they can see if competitors offer lower rates or if demand has decreased and adjust their pricing in real-time to capture more bookings.
This constant feedback loop ensures that Property Managers are always in control of their pricing strategy and can make adjustments as soon as changes in demand occur.
Conclusion
Professional Property Managers looking to track and improve their performance can benefit immensely from PriceLabs’ suite of tools. From monitoring key metrics and utilizing dynamic pricing to leveraging heatmaps, custom rule sets, and market benchmarking, PriceLabs makes it easy to track performance, make data-driven decisions, and stay competitive in any market.
By continuously analyzing their portfolio’s performance and using the insights provided by PriceLabs, property managers can maximize revenue and ensure their properties remain attractive to guests year-round, benefiting both themselves and their homeowners.
About PriceLabs
PriceLabs is a revenue management solution for the short-term rental and hospitality industry. It was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Chicago, IL. Our platform helps individual hosts and hospitality professionals optimize pricing and revenue management, adapting to changing market trends and occupancy levels.
With dynamic pricing, automation rules, and customizations, we manage pricing and minimum-stay restrictions for any portfolio size, with prices automatically uploaded to preferred channels such as Airbnb, Vrbo, and 110+ property management and channel integrations.
Every day, we price over 400,000+ listings globally across 150+ countries, offering world-class tools like the Base Price Help and Minimum Stay Recommendation Engine. Choose PriceLabs to increase revenue and streamline pricing and revenue management. Sign up for a free trial at pricelabs.co today.
