Beyond Pricing – Automatic Dynamic Pricing for Airbnb • Hacker News Board

Re: Beyond Pricing – Automatic Dynamic Pricing for Airbnb

#41

Post by zaius » Tue, Jun 10, 2014, 10:29 PM UTC

PinguTS wrote: post #30

Back to times, where websites that could be plain simple HTML do not work. Not working at all in Firefox 29.0.1. Just a blank page. (Yes, I know. It works in Safari. But that is not the point.)

Apologies - I'm developing on firefox aurora and haven't had a chance to test it on older versions yet. I honestly wasn't prepared for a HN submission but some more cross browser testing and mobile testing are very high on my todo list.

This is my first project where I've developed with an IE10+ only policy, which is actually really nice because of flex box, but it's easy to accidentally break other browsers if you miss a single prefix.

Re: Beyond Pricing – Automatic Dynamic Pricing for Airbnb

#42

Post by zaius » Tue, Jun 10, 2014, 10:33 PM UTC

vladgur wrote: post #32

Given that you expect people to share their AirBnB login and password, can you specify which locations you actually support prior to us handing this sensitive info over

Yep we need to be a bit more explicit about that. Currently we're only in SF, but that should be changing very soon.

That said, you can preview the prices for a listing without logging in - click the "preview your listing" button on the demo page.

Re: Beyond Pricing – Automatic Dynamic Pricing for Airbnb

#43

Post by lifeisstillgood » Tue, Jun 10, 2014, 10:49 PM UTC

I am looking for the right word to describe this rather unpleasant strategy that seemed to start with YouTube and now is Über and AirBnb. AirBnB is explicitly or implicitly encouraging people to sublet rooms in breach of their contracts, similar to how YouTube rode on the back of old music videos.

It feels vaguely like the Pikkety rumpus - like a right wing think tank would approve of the "destroy the red tape holdin us back" when mostly it's not red tape, it's someone else's property.

I don't have the right words for the approach - it's hoping we get too big before we get caught.

Re: Beyond Pricing – Automatic Dynamic Pricing for Airbnb

#44

Post by _delirium » Tue, Jun 10, 2014, 10:56 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #31

buro9 wrote: post #4

Surge pricing for AirBNB, and suddenly we're back to looking our networks for floors to crash on and spare rooms to be had. I guess the rule of thumb is that even when costs are eroded, profits increased, intermediaries disintermediated... the prices will rise to the maximum levels that the market will bear. It just takes away the magic of being able to find that rare, cheap and great place. The sharing culture is no…

> I guess the rule of thumb is that even when costs are eroded, profits increased, intermediaries disintermediated... the prices will rise to the maximum levels that the market will bear. Price has always been about demand versus supply, not demand versus cost. Reducing costs in situations where supply is constrained by some other factor will just increase profits.

The interesting part of AirBnB, though (imo, of course), has typically been sort of a couchsurfing where you cover some of the offering party's rent in exchange for the accommodation. That occupies a kind of awkward niche between fully-free and fully-commercial accommodations, where there is (or was) some kind of expectation of a relationship to cost: you don't stay free like with Couchsurfing, but the other party isn't trying to run a profit-maximizing hotel, either.

It's true that it's increasingly converging towards becoming a competitor to standard vacation-rental sites like booking.com and HomeAway, though, which come with different expectations.

Re: Beyond Pricing – Automatic Dynamic Pricing for Airbnb

#45

Post by fiatjaf » Tue, Jun 10, 2014, 10:57 PM UTC

buro9 wrote: post #4

Surge pricing for AirBNB, and suddenly we're back to looking our networks for floors to crash on and spare rooms to be had. I guess the rule of thumb is that even when costs are eroded, profits increased, intermediaries disintermediated... the prices will rise to the maximum levels that the market will bear. It just takes away the magic of being able to find that rare, cheap and great place. The sharing culture is no…

Higher prices make room for competition.

Re: Beyond Pricing – Automatic Dynamic Pricing for Airbnb

#46

Post by fiatjaf » Tue, Jun 10, 2014, 11:00 PM UTC

Any examples of the algorithms these kind of service uses? Or in any other area in which automatic pricing is used.

Thank you very much.

Re: Beyond Pricing – Automatic Dynamic Pricing for Airbnb

#47

Post by downandout » Tue, Jun 10, 2014, 11:01 PM UTC

buro9 wrote: post #4

Surge pricing for AirBNB, and suddenly we're back to looking our networks for floors to crash on and spare rooms to be had. I guess the rule of thumb is that even when costs are eroded, profits increased, intermediaries disintermediated... the prices will rise to the maximum levels that the market will bear. It just takes away the magic of being able to find that rare, cheap and great place. The sharing culture is no…

On the other side of this argument, from what I've seen on AirBNB, a significant percentage of owners have dramatically overpriced their accommodations. Consequently, widespread adoption of a yield management system like this would lower the prices of many places on many days (while increasing the occupancy rate).

Re: Beyond Pricing – Automatic Dynamic Pricing for Airbnb

#48

Post by md2be » Tue, Jun 10, 2014, 11:05 PM UTC

Can you go into your algorithm? Statistical Method?

Re: Beyond Pricing – Automatic Dynamic Pricing for Airbnb

#49

Post by dyadic » Tue, Jun 10, 2014, 11:05 PM UTC

I almost exclusively live in AirBnBs these days, and when I'm looking for a new place to stay it will usually take me a few days or possibly a week to check out what's available, message a few people and then choose the one I want. If the prices are changing daily then that would really confuse my way of using the site.

However, a lot of pricing on there does seems to be guesswork, wildly varying, sometimes really cheap and sometimes really expensive. So if this helps enough people to price their property better then that's something I can get behind.

Re: Beyond Pricing – Automatic Dynamic Pricing for Airbnb

#50

Post by tomkarlo » Tue, Jun 10, 2014, 11:30 PM UTC

downandout wrote: post #47

buro9 wrote: post #4

Surge pricing for AirBNB, and suddenly we're back to looking our networks for floors to crash on and spare rooms to be had. I guess the rule of thumb is that even when costs are eroded, profits increased, intermediaries disintermediated... the prices will rise to the maximum levels that the market will bear. It just takes away the magic of being able to find that rare, cheap and great place. The sharing culture is no…

On the other side of this argument, from what I've seen on AirBNB, a significant percentage of owners have dramatically overpriced their accommodations. Consequently, widespread adoption of a yield management system like this would lower the prices of many places on many days (while increasing the occupancy rate).

How are you determining that they're "overpricing" their accommodations? For a lot of property owners, the reserve price may be driven by considerations like (perceived) risk to their personal property and the hassle of managing bookings rather than the price at which they'll maximize revenue.