Airbnb Pricing Strategy: How We Stay 90% Booked All Year Long

Marifil Limpahan
3 days ago
3 min read

The Pricing Strategy That Keeps Our Airbnb Calendars 90% Booked Year-Round

Struggling to figure out how much to charge for your Airbnb? If your rates are too high, your property sits empty. If they're too low, you're leaving money on the table. It’s one of the biggest challenges for new hosts—and one of the most powerful levers you can pull when done right.

At BNB Guardians, we teach a simple but powerful concept called pricing for occupancy—and it's been a game-changer for our clients. With the right Airbnb pricing strategy, you can keep your calendar full, your income flowing, and your path to financial freedom on fast-forward.

Let’s break it down.

Why Airbnb Pricing Isn’t Set-It-and-Forget-It

Most Airbnb hosts manually pick a nightly rate and call it a day. They look around the market, choose a number that “feels right,” and set the same rate for weekdays, weekends, and holidays. The result? Missed bookings during slow times and missed profit during busy ones.

Here’s the truth: Airbnb is a search engine. Just like Google, it uses an algorithm to decide which listings show up at the top when a guest searches. And one of the biggest ranking factors is how often your place gets booked.

So if you want more visibility, more bookings, and more money—you need to price your listing to convert.

Meet the Market Every Day with Dynamic Pricing

Instead of guessing your nightly rate, we use dynamic pricing tools like PriceLabs. These tools connect directly with Airbnb, track demand in real-time, and adjust your prices up or down automatically.

Here’s how it works:

You set a base price (we’ll show you how below).
The tool raises prices for high-demand dates like holidays or festivals.
It lowers prices for slow nights to increase occupancy.
You stay competitive without lifting a finger.

Think of it like airline pricing. Ever notice how flights to the beach spike during spring break? Airbnb operates the same way—dynamic pricing lets you capture peak profits and fill your slow nights.

How to Set the Right Base Price

PriceLabs has a built-in feature called Base Price Help. It uses real Airbnb data to analyze your market and suggest a nightly base rate for your property. You can customize this based on your location, size, and amenities.

At BNB Guardians, we typically recommend:

Start at the 50th percentile (the average base price for your comparable listings).
Track your 30-day occupancy rate inside PriceLabs.
If your occupancy exceeds 60%, slowly raise your base price.
If it drops too low, lower it slightly to stay competitive.

This kind of Airbnb optimization is at the heart of what we teach in our Airbnb coaching program. You don’t need to guess—you just need to follow the data.

Why This Strategy Works (and What to Watch Out For)

When your Airbnb listing consistently gets bookings, the algorithm rewards you with higher placement in search. That means even more visibility, more bookings, and more revenue.

It’s a flywheel.

But here’s the key: you have to let go of your ego. Just because you want to make $200 a night doesn’t mean that’s what the market will pay every single day. Some nights, $120 is what it takes to get booked—and that booking feeds the algorithm, setting you up to make $400 on a weekend.

If your Airbnb is a business (and it should be), your goal is cash flow. Not emotional pricing.

Pro Tip: Use Weekends to Drive Weekday Bookings

One smart trick we teach at BNB Guardians: price your weekends higher to make weekdays more attractive.

Here’s what happens:

Guests see your weekend is booked or too pricey.
They check weekday rates and see a deal.
They adjust their plans to stay midweek—especially remote workers.

This strategy boosts weekday occupancy and keeps your calendar balanced. We call these "shoulder nights"—and when paired with dynamic pricing, they help you maximize every square foot, every night.

Ready to Unlock Higher Occupancy and Cash Flow?

If you're serious about growing your short-term rental income, pricing for occupancy is the key. It’s how we keep our listings 90–95% booked and teach our clients to do the same—without sacrificing their time or sanity.

This is a core part of our Airbnb coaching program and something we go deep on inside our Airbnb Super Host Academy.

Need help with Airbnb?Join our Skool community Airbnb Super Host Academy or book a free strategy call with us at BNB Guardians. We'll help you launch, optimize, and scale—without burning out.