Coronavirus Support

May 2020 Webinar: Preparing for the Rebound: Pricing and Marketing Your Properties in a Post-Pandemic World

May 15, 2020 10:00 AM pst - Watch the video

April 2020 Webinar: Looking to the Future: Pricing and Revenue Management Strategies with TRACK + Beyond Pricing

Apr 7, 2020 9:00 AM pst - Watch the video

April 2020 Webinar: Navigating Coronavirus with BookingSync + Beyond Pricing

Apr 6, 2020 7:00 AM pst - Watch the video

March 2020 Webinar: Pricing Strategies & Revenue Management Amidst COVID-19 (LiveRez + Beyond Pricing)

Mar 31, 2020 10:00 AM pst - Watch the video

March 2020 Webinar: Navigating Coronavirus with Beyond Pricing

Mar 24, 2020 10:00 AM pst - Watch the video

Beyond Pricing Response

A message from the Revenue Management team:

As we all know, changes in demand mean changes in prices.

Beyond Pricing responds to the changes in demand, but it takes time before cancelled reservations are finalized by Property Managers and therefore the entire market. This is increasingly true since travelers will continue to cancel over the coming days and weeks.

But we're here for you, too. Our revenue management team has combed through the data and adjusted pricing in line with the impact we're expecting for your market. You can see the impact of lowered demand by hovering over a date in your Calendar, like you would to view dollar amount changes to your daily price due to Seasonality or Day of the Week.

We're aware that some of you have manually decreased rates as well. Please note that this adjustment (and all other changes in demand) will not impact dates that have been manually overridden (either using Bulk Actions or the tool in your Calendar). If you would like to clear these manual overrides, you can do so using the Bulk Actions tool.

Additionally, there are many tools at your disposal within the Beyond Pricing tool in order to counteract the impacts this virus is having that is specific to your business if you are receiving cancellations.

Pricing Tools at your disposal

While there are many factors to consider when updating your overall revenue management strategy, pricing strategy in the short term can have an immediate impact on your business. Here are some tips and tricks you can use in Beyond Pricing specifically to help you maximize the performance of your listing.

Increase Last Minute Discounts: Adding Last Minute Discounts can help address the short term occupancy brought about by cancellations.
Lower your Minimum Price: We will never push a price below your Minimum Price, so we recommend re-examining where your Minimum Price is currently set.
Use Manual Overrides: Use manual overrides to lower prices to gain short term occupancy.
Lower your Base Price: Lowering your Base Price lowers the pricing for every day for the next year. As a general rule, we discourage you from adjusting your Base Price dramatically in the short term, as this may leave your listing underpriced in the future. Given the potential for the Coronavirus outbreak to result in a prolonged low period for the industry, a lower Base Price may be a more viable option for the rest of the year.
Add Seasonal Maximums: Adding Seasonal Maximums will cap pricing which may help drive occupancy short term.

Strategies beyond just pricing

Pricing isn’t the only lever that you can pull as a part of your overall revenue management and marketing strategy. If people aren’t traveling, then pricing alone will not be enough. However, addressing some of the core concerns that people have can play a key role in putting your customers at ease, and stimulating demand for your vacation rental business.

Remember:

Flexible Cancellations on New Bookings: Offering the ability to move the reservation penalty-free to a later date, or apply to amount spent as a credit for future stays (similar to what airlines have introduced) can give travelers peace of mind to book today.
Highlighting Cleaning Procedures: Putting details about your cleaning procedures front and center can give travelers additional peace of mind that they’ll be safe staying in your property.
Marketing to Drive-To Customers: During these times many people want to get away from big cities to escape their small apartments and enjoy more space. Marketing to nearby drive-to customers can be a great option. Bonus: many vacation rental markets are not as dense as big cities, making social distancing easier and safer.
Discounts for Longer Stays: During these times, some travelers may be looking for longer stays in order to seek out any periods of isolation in one place. Offering a percentage discount for longer stays can broaden the customer base looking at your units and help attract more bookings.
Lowering Minimum Night Stays: Lowering your minimum night stay restrictions will mean you show up to more travelers in search results on online booking sites. More eyeballs = more potential demand.
Discounted Gift Cards Towards Future Stays: If you have a loyal repeat customer base, consider offering them discounted gift cards (e.g. $1,000 travel credit for $800) that can be applied to future vacations once this situation passes.

With more news developing every day about Coronavirus, it’s important to stay on top of how it will realistically impact your business. Be sure to utilize every tool in your revenue management toolbox (not just pricing) to maximize your strategy during periods of low demand in your market.

Q: I received many cancellations, and I’ve already paid Beyond Pricing for those bookings. When will I get refunded?

Rest assured we do not charge for cancellations and will definitely not start in these challenging times. Any bookings that are cancelled are refunded in the form of a credit to your Beyond Pricing account. You can monitor charges for bookings and credit for cancellations on your Statements Page. Click on the black triangle on the left hand side to expand your Statement.

Remember, we will pick up cancellation data daily from your connected account. If you aren’t seeing a recent cancellation reflected in your Beyond Pricing account, try refreshing the connection on your Accounts Page.

See more here: How does Beyond Pricing handle cancellations?

Q: Why aren’t you dropping all my pricing for the next two months to my Minimum Price?

Everybody has different strategies behind how they set their Minimum Price. For some people, it’s the price at which they break even. Or the price that auto-populated when they signed up. For others, it's set to $1. With this in mind, we believe that a percentage-based decrease is more effective than reducing all prices to a potentially arbitrarily set Minimum Price. This also allows our suggested pricing to be more agile and shift alongside changing demand trends.

Have a question that isn’t addressed here? Reach out to us at support@beyondpricing.com, we’re here to help.

Q: Why isn’t my Health Score adjusting to let me know how my listing is performing compared to the current market?

The Health Score is based on your listing’s upcoming occupancy versus the ideal upcoming occupancy for your market, which is typically a good starting point for measuring performance. However, as we find ourselves in a unique situation with unprecedented demand trends, your Health Score is not necessarily the best indicator of how your listing is performing at the moment.

Instead, we recommend examining other indicators of performance, including the number of bookings you’ve received in the past few weeks and the percentage of days hitting your Minimum Price in the next 90 days. You can always surface the latest statistics by clicking the “Refresh” button on your Beyond Pricing Dashboard.

That said, having the lowest price won’t convince guests to book if they do not want to travel. To address the diminished demand, the Beyond Pricing Revenue Management team has combed through the data and adjusted pricing according to the impact we're expecting for your market. You can see the impact of lowered demand by hovering over a date in your Calendar, like you would to view dollar amount changes to your daily price due to Seasonality or Day of the Week.

If you would like to make additional adjustments for the short term, we recommend sticking to short term fixes outlined above: using more aggressive Last Minute Discounts, implementing Manual Overrides, and adjusting your broader strategy, to name a few.

Blog Updates

UK and Ireland: We've Got You Covered!

posted at 7/02/20 9:56 AM

From the lighthouses in Plymouth to the distilleries in Inverness to the hills of Galway, Beyond Pricing's revenue management solutions stand ready. We are now offering full coverage across the United Kingdom and Ireland!

Beyond Pricing Acquires Blizzard Internet Marketing

posted at 6/26/20 11:59 AM

We are so excited to announce our acquisition of the website design, hosting, and booking engine of Blizzard Internet Marketing from RedAwning.com! Beyond Pricing will integrate Blizzard's suite of vacation rental technologies into its current pricing, analytics, and channel management portfolio.

Turn Those Owner Conversations Around: Three Tips

posted at 6/25/20 7:30 AM

Communicating with owners is one of the most crucial, yet dreaded, aspects of short term rental property management... but it doesn’t have to be so bad! Here we'll cover three tips for turning those owner conversations from the worst to the best part of your week.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

posted at 6/19/20 9:34 AM

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the US, a day that honors African American freedom and achievement. Recent events in the US have raised awareness around race issues, and here at Beyond Pricing we reflect on how we can be agents of change.

Space vs. Isolation: Recovery is Treating Large and Small Listings Differently

posted at 6/11/20 10:20 AM

Are we still getting the same type of bookings we got last year as we rush to fill vacant homes and condos? We’ve previously touched on the impact of Covid on average daily rates (ADRs), but now we'll take a look at the impact across a diverse portfolio of bedroom sizes and markets.

What's New in Beyond Pricing Product | June 2020

posted at 6/05/20 12:46 PM

Insights • Bulk Actions • Guided New Listing Setup • Team Permissions

Postponed Event Pricing

posted at 6/03/20 7:36 AM

As we all know, the impact of COVID-19 has led to the cancellation and postponement of many events around the world. With so many events moving to new dates, how will this impact pricing strategies in their surrounding markets?

Beyond Pricing Now Integrates with Zeevou

posted at 5/26/20 10:32 AM

We are excited to announce our integration and partnership with Zeevou! Zeevou is an award winning PMS and Channel Manager in the UK, and we have recently joined forces to offer customers the best combination of software to ensure your business thrives.

Memorial Day Drama: Flori-Bama

posted at 5/23/20 5:16 AM

As Florida travel restrictions for vacation rentals have lagged behind hotels, we've seen frustrations erupt and petitions filed. Meanwhile, Alabama Gulf Coast has reaped the benefits of this dispute and rebounded much faster than their neighbors. So, what happened approaching Memorial Day Weekend?

Betting on Summer Rentals in the UK

posted at 5/21/20 2:25 PM

We're taking a deep dive into the UK's short term rental performance. Read further to explore how the United Kingdom’s short term rental industry is performing mid-COVID and to understand the unique position its property managers are in.

Helping Your Owners Understand Revenue & Occupancy Expectations for the Remainder of 2020

posted at 5/13/20 3:35 PM

We've boiled down some key conversation topics to cover with your property owners in order to set realistic expectations for property pricing and results in the new normal. In a nutshell: use data to tell your story.

Active Revenue Management in the Recovery Part 2

posted at 5/11/20 12:07 PM

Dynamic pricing is more important now than ever to stay competitive in a quickly changing landscape. We believe spending dedicated time focused on pricing will be critical in the recovery process and that you should be ready for a flood of short lead time bookings. Read on for further thoughts!

Competitive Edge: Optimizing Your Cancellation Policies

posted at 5/04/20 2:38 PM

How can property managers leverage rental policies to generate more rental revenue? Here are four key levers to consider in ensuring your cancellation policy is fair, competitive, and is able to attract the sprouting guest demand for vacation rentals.

Active Revenue Management in the Recovery

posted at 5/01/20 11:04 AM

It is critical, especially in these trying times, that vacation rental property managers implement active revenue management by investing time and resources in using objective data to make pricing decisions for their business. Here are some of our thoughts on these practices.

Beyond Pricing Now Integrates with OwnerRez!

posted at 4/29/20 8:50 AM

Since its inception, OwnerRez has been on a quest to create a comprehensive yet simple PMS that integrates seamlessly with other websites and online services. Here at Beyond Pricing, we are delighted to partner with them on their mission and provide their customers with dynamic pricing.

Recovery Key Indicators: Part 2

posted at 4/22/20 12:29 PM

Last week we identified three key indicators to look out for to know if your market is on its way to recovery from COVID-19. Here we will take a look at a few more.

What Revenue Pacing Tells Us About the Vacation Rental Recovery

posted at 4/20/20 11:33 AM

Here we examine anonymized revenue pacing by markets to give context to how different areas are coping with the challenges related to COVID-19. This will help all of us anticipate the lows & some highs we're seeing, which allows us to make better business planning decisions in these turbulent times.

Recovery Key Indicators: What to Look Out for in Your Market

posted at 4/16/20 3:00 PM

We have identified several key indicators to look out for to know if your market is on its way to recovery from COVID-19. Here we are introducing and analyzing a few of them.

Restoring Your Pricing Strategy

posted at 4/13/20 12:30 PM

Since January, we have been monitoring markets impacted by COVID-19 and have focused on several key indicators to identify important trends ahead of time. Here's a look into how we have been monitoring markets as well as the indicators to look out for when your own market starts to recover.

What's New | March 2020

posted at 4/08/20 10:46 AM

Our main focus in March was helping our customers navigate the impact of COVID-19 on the vacation rental industry. We implemented several new features, hosted a series of webinars, and shared daily insights and data trends on our Corona Support page. We also welcomed four new members to our team.

Guests Taking it Day by Day in the Big City

posted at 3/31/20 8:00 PM

Another key metric that has shifted dramatically is booking lead times, and larger cities have seen the greatest deviation by far. We took a look at the data and focused on the median booking lead time for reservations before and after March 14 in the largest cities in the US and around the world.

Dynamic COVID-19 Discount Extended Through June

posted at 3/30/20 2:40 PM

Our Revenue Management and Data Science teams have been working to analyze and publicize the data around how our industry is changing in these uncertain times. We have made available up-to-date local data on the majority of popular destinations and have extended the 'COVID-19 Discount' through June.

From the front line: How Casiola is navigating uncertain times

posted at 3/25/20 9:38 AM

For many property managers, hearing how peers are trying to navigate through the very choppy waters of the coronavirus pandemic can be hugely reassuring. In a live web chat Emily Pattillo, revenue manager at Casiola, shared how she and her company are charting these uncertain times.

How travel restrictions are impacting your ADRs

posted at 3/24/20 9:04 PM

We’ve examined some of the cancellation trends we've seen as a result of travel bans, but what about the bookings that are still coming in? What can the data tell us about those?

Six strategies to capture demand in the face of Coronavirus

posted at 3/20/20 12:29 PM

As the impact of coronavirus deepens across the vacation rental industry we are hearing from property managers that a key area of focus is to capture the demand that is still out there. Here are six strategies that you can adopt.

Navigating Coronavirus with Beyond Pricing

posted at 3/19/20 3:45 PM

We hear you, we are here for you, and we will continue to be here for you. We take pride in being on the same team as property managers. That’s why we’ve always aligned our revenue with our customers’s revenue; we make money when you do.

Ski markets and Florida hardest hit in widespread weekend cancellations

posted at 3/17/20 2:26 PM

Following the announcement of travel restrictions for people entering the United States from Europe last Wednesday evening, we have seen a significant spike in cancellations for stays in vacation rentals across the United States.

Coronavirus and cancellations: Emerging trends in the vacation rental industry

posted at 3/14/20 1:54 PM

While there are concerns about a downturn for the market in general, property managers are most acutely feeling the impacts in the short term due to widespread cancellations.

Airline closures: Potential impact on "fly to" vacation rental markets

posted at 3/10/20 1:13 PM

With the many markets in the vacation rental industry reliant on airlines to shuttle guests back and forth, property managers can in turn become reliant on local airlines for success. So what happens when a major airline goes out of business?