"See tips for all days" is massively broken

"See tips for all days" is massively broken

My incredibly complex and innovative idea is that AirBnB should consider firing all the coders (and their managment) who are involved with the pricing tips, and then make that stuff ACTUALLY WORK. Let me explain...

 

Let's say that I set some rates for a month that's 2-3 months off in the future. I then click on the button labeled "See tip for all days" to see what AirBnB recommends. (I typically ignore those recommendations because they rarely make any sense.) Just for the sake of this exercise, let's say I decide to click on the "Save these prices" button. One might expect all of the new daily rates to appear in green, indicating that they're now in line with AirBnB's predictions. Oh! But wait! It usually turns out that even more of them are now yellow or orange and OUT OF LINE with AirBnB's reommendations. Which, uhh.... they just, uhh... recommended to me. Let me post three screen captures to illustrate this timeline.

 

 

First shot is my prices before asking for "tips":

A1.jpg

 

Next shot is after asking for tips:

A2.jpg

 

Final image is after I've accepted the recommendations:

A3.jpg

 

Not a lot of sense there, is there?

 

The logic is either totally brokwn, or (I suspect) simply BS from the get-go. As in so much of AirBnB's coding, I think the company is being ripped off by whomever they've contracted this out to. Or, worse, if it hasn't been contracted out, then ripped off by their own in-house team.

 

I say this fully understanding that I may be putting my own listing at risk of retaliation. But I also say it as someone with a (quite successful) 25-year history in the software biz. AirBnB, you're being ripped off. None of this is all that hard. Fix it. For starters, by firing your contractors or your lower/mid-level management.

 

Lastly, if you'd like to open an offline dialogue about this sort of thing, feel free. In the meantime, fix this sort of sloppy stupidity. Love ya!

 

5 Comments
Mike77
Level 10

I like this guy.  🙂  

 

Mike
AirBnB Treehouse for Rent
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/7292887

 

 

Christine1
Level 10

I am not qualified to discuss coding and the back end of the website, but I agree with your comments and experience with smart pricing. I find it dysfunctional because it doesnt track any local peak periods and even if it did, I dont feel that my listing or business reputation will benefit from constantly maximising my tariffs, I began with a clear intent and target market and pricing structure to support my vision. I want to have tariffs that are good value for myself and my guests. Higher tariffs are not my goal, nor am I in a race to undercut my fellow hosts. 

What i have noticed is in my early years of hosting the platform was relatively stable and behaved as expected. The more frequent the updates the less stable is the website. Best regards, and thanks for your comments. 

Dede0
Level 10

@Christine1 AirBnB doesn't need any specific awareness of local peak periods, and I woudn't think they could keep up with that for the tens of thousands of locations. The way I assume the price tips (and Smart Pricing) *should* work is that AirBnB would simply factor in the rates set by all of the other rentals in your area for any dates in the future, with weighting given to places nearest you, and most similar to your offering, and most similar in ratings and level of bookings. Something like that.

Whatever algorithim they use, it should, if properly formulated, end up being somewhat close to accurate. And, when one accepts the suggested changes, the new results shouldn't instantly be even further off the just-received recommendations than the previous numbers. The fact that the suggested rates are even worse than the original rates suggest to me that that portion of their coding team is either really weak or they've been faking the actual numbers.

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Status changed to: Archived
 
Lilian31
Level 2

I've found that the rate suggested changed with my changing minimum price per night.