How to Price an Airbnb or Short Let
The figures in the worked example are made up.
One nightly rate is too cheap at weekends and too dear midweek. How to set a minimum price, weekend and event rates, minimum stays and gap-night rules.
- Category
- Short Lets
- Who it is for
- Short-let operators
- Time to set up
- An afternoon, then half an hour a week
- Saves or earns
- About £2,900 a year per flat
01The Problem
Many operators set one nightly rate and leave it. It feels safe, but it means you are too cheap on the nights everyone wants and too dear on the nights nobody does. The signs are easy to spot:
Saturdays Sell Months Ahead
If your weekends are booked ten weeks out, they were too cheap.
Tuesdays Stay Empty
The same rate that is a bargain on a Saturday is too much on a wet Tuesday in February.
Event Weeks Sell at Normal Prices
A concert, a big match or a graduation fills every flat in town, and you sold yours at the usual rate in March.
Single Nights Get Stranded
A one-night gap between two bookings can never sell if your minimum stay is two nights.
Short Stays Lose Money
Since April 2025, UK pricing law has meant the cleaning fee shows in the headline total. A £60 cleaning fee makes a one-night stay look dear, and if you drop it, a one-night stay can cost you more to turn over than it brings in.
02The Cost
Take a two-bed flat outside London at £120 every night, booked 66 per cent of the time. That is 241 nights and about £28,920 a year.
Its Friday and Saturday nights sell out early at £120 when similar flats are getting £150 to £160. Its Sunday to Thursday nights sit empty at £120 when similar flats are selling them at £100 to £110. And about 20 single nights a year are stranded between bookings and never sell. That flat is giving away roughly £5,000 a year before costs.
03The Fix
Work Out Your Price Floor First
Add up what one turnover costs you: say £50 for the clean, £14 for laundry and £5 for consumables, £69. The platform takes about 15.5 per cent of what the guest pays. If you want at least £40 profit from any stay, the lowest total you can take for one night is £69 plus £40, divided by 0.845, which is about £129 including any cleaning fee. A three-night stay spreads that one turnover over three nights, so each night can sell for much less. Never let any tool price below your floor.
Set Your Weekend Gap from the Market
Look at what similar flats nearby get on Friday and Saturday against Sunday to Thursday, using AirDNA or a pricing tool's market dashboard. Set your own gap to match. In our example that means about £155 at weekends and £105 midweek. Sunday night is usually the cheapest night of the week.
Build an Event Calendar for the Next 12 Months
Home fixtures at the local ground, arena concerts, conferences at the exhibition centre, university graduations and open days, school half terms and bank holidays. Raise the price by 40 to 100 per cent the day the dates are announced, not the week before, and set a two or three-night minimum on those dates.
Change Minimum Stays with How Far Ahead People Book
Bookings made more than 60 days ahead: three nights minimum, so a single early booking cannot split a good week. From 15 to 60 days: two nights. Inside 14 days: one night. At weekends keep two nights until the last week, then drop to one.
Sell the Gap Nights
When a gap of one or two nights appears, set the minimum stay to match the gap and price it 10 to 20 per cent below normal, but never under your floor. PriceLabs, for example, can do this on its own, and by default takes 20 per cent off gaps of two nights or less. Also message the guests on either side and offer the extra night at the gap price. Many say yes.
Watch Your Booking Pace Every Week
For each of the next three months, compare how full you are with similar flats. If you are 15 points behind the market 30 to 60 days out, cut 5 to 8 per cent. If you are well ahead, raise 5 per cent. Small moves every week beat one big panic cut.
Discount the Last Week Carefully
Inside seven days, step the price down towards your floor, not below it. An empty night earns nothing, so a Tuesday at £90 is better than no booking, as long as £90 is above your floor for the length of stay.
Give Longer Stays a Reason to Stay
About 10 per cent off for a week and 20 to 30 per cent off for 28 nights or more. Fewer turnovers means lower costs and fewer chances for something to go wrong, and long stays fill your quiet months.
Use a Pricing Tool, but Set the Rules Yourself
PriceLabs costs about $19.99 a listing a month in the UK, and Beyond and Wheelhouse work in a similar way. Set your floor, your base price and your maximum, then check the calendar for half an hour a week. A tool with no floor will sell your nights at a loss.
04The Result
Before
£120 every night, 66 per cent booked, about £28,920 a year
After
£155 at weekends and £105 midweek, event pricing and gaps sold, 74 per cent booked, about £33,800 a year
Cost
About £190 a year for a pricing tool, plus platform fees and extra cleans on the new bookings
Better Off
About £2,900 a year per flat
The sums: weekends at £155 with 94 of 104 nights booked make £14,570. Midweek at £105 with 162 of 261 nights booked makes £17,010. Twelve event nights at £80 above normal add £960, and 14 gap nights at £90 add £1,260. That is £4,880 more in bookings. Take off about £760 in platform fees on the extra, about £1,030 for 15 extra turnovers and £190 for the tool.
The Lessons
- Work out your price floor per stay and never sell below it.
- Charge the weekend gap the market charges, and price events the day they are announced.
- Change minimum stays with how far ahead people book, and let gaps sell at the gap length.
- Check your booking pace against similar flats every week and move prices a little at a time.
- A pricing tool needs your floor, base and maximum, or it will give money away.
Need a Hand With Your Properties?
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