Recent Airbnb news 2016 has confirmed that the company has rolled out a new smart pricing feature. This is expected to boost revenue for hosts.
CNBC reported that Airbnb has created dynamic pricing tips, known as smart pricing, for all hosts on the platform this week. Joe Zadeh, the company's vice president of product, revealed that the system will boost revenue by 13 percent on average.
"That is one of the great things about our marketplace and our business model," he said. "Our business scales with them."
The company gains three percent from hosts and between 6 to 12 percent from guests in all transactions. With the program, revenues are expected to rise as more users adopt the program.
Airbnb's smart pricing gives recommendations to hosts based on supply and demand, the offered amenities as well as comparative listings and reviews. The company gathers data from over 2 million listings and makes the suggestions to the user.
"Everything on our platform is incredibly unique," Zadeh added. "That provides an interesting challenge to our hosts - there's no standard way to price."
Hosts can turn on smart pricing by going to Manage Listings on airbnb.com. They can set the minimum and maximum price that they want to charge.
According to L.A. Times, home-sharing in the area through Airbnb has added $920 million into the local economy last year. The figure is about three times higher than the company's economic impact between May 2013 and Apr. 2014.
Business Insider added that Airbnb will continue to gain dominance in U.S. cities such as Miami, New York and Los Angeles. San Francisco and Philadelphia are part of the top five cities for the company.
"Thematically, we do not believe Airbnb represents an existential threat to the traditional lodging industry; however, home-sharing is an important phenomenon that is not going away," Shaun Kelley said in a note to clients. "At present, we believe Airbnb's impact will be particularly felt in certain urban areas, among longer-stay guests and during peak leisure travel periods."
