How to modify the Strategy
In this article:
The Strategies page, accessible from the navigation menu on the left, allows you to have complete control over the suggested prices, always covering 500 days from the current date and applying to the entire property or group of units. You can change the settings at any time and also create custom periods for specific dates by adjusting 4 parameters: the decreasing price, the increasing price, the starting price, and the market's influence. The prices sent to your channel manager and subsequently published online (OTAs, website, etc.) are called published prices. These correspond to the suggested prices plus any modifiers present in the Calendar.
General Strategy
By default, on the page, you will find the general strategy, set to -1, +1, and 0% (unless this has already been modified), for decrease, increase, and starting prices. This is the active strategy for all periods of the year, excluding those set in the Custom Periods, which we will see below.
By clicking on the General Strategy, you can access its Settings in a dedicated panel to its right.
Strategy Settings
Smartpricing offers two main methods for adjusting the suggested price: acting on the increasing or decreasing price, adjusting all starting prices for the various room types of a property, and modifying the influence of the reference market's occupancy.
Increasing Price
How to increase it further?
When occupancy increases, prices increase. If you wish to increase the suggested prices more than the default strategy would (which has a +1 setting), you can do so by moving the slider from e.g., +1 to +3. This way, the suggested price will be higher than that of the default strategy.
Each change can be verified before saving in the Price Trend graph on the right of the settings, by hovering the mouse over the graph at the desired date and comparing the Current Strategy (before changes) with the Strategy Preview (after changes).
How to limit the increase?
If you wish to limit the price increase more than the default strategy would (which has a +1 setting), you can do so by moving the slider from e.g., +1 to +0.5. This way, the suggested price will be lower than that of the default strategy.
Decreasing Price
How to decrease it further?
When occupancy is low, prices decrease. If you wish to decrease the suggested prices more than the default strategy would (which has a setting of -1), you can do so by moving the slider from, for example, -1 to -3. This way, the suggested price will be lower than that of the default strategy.
How to limit the decrease?
When occupancy is low, prices decrease. If you wish to decrease the suggested prices less than the default strategy would (which has a setting of -1), you can do so by moving the slider from, for example, -1 to -0.5. This way, the suggested price will be higher than that of the default strategy.
Starting Price Settings
In addition to the strategy settings, you can adjust all the starting prices of the various room types of a property by a specific percentage relative to their current values.
By moving the slider:
- to the left, the starting prices of all units of the selected property decrease, and consequently, the entire strategy shifts downwards.
- to the right, the starting prices of all units of the selected property increase, and consequently, the entire strategy shifts upwards.
Market Occupancy Influence
The last slider in the section influences the impact of market occupancy on the strategy. In other words, if your occupancy is lower than that of the market, prices go down; if it is higher, prices increase to optimize revenue. The default setting is Moderate, but you can decrease or increase the impact of market occupancy by moving the slider to the left or right; you can also decide to completely disable the influence of market occupancy with the switch shown below.
Custom Periods
As mentioned earlier, you can further customize the default strategy using custom periods. These date ranges with specific settings can override the default strategy.
You can add as many custom periods as you wish, keeping in mind that they will be applied following the chronological order in which they occur, starting from the nearest in time to the furthest. For example, with custom periods from January 7 to 20 and from January 21 to 28, the order of priority would be as follows:
- January 1 - 6 (general strategy)
- January 7 - 20 (custom period)
- January 21 - 28 (custom period)
- January 31 onwards (general strategy)
To create a new period, click on New Period
Then choose its start and end date before pressing Confirm to add it to the list.
The new strategy will now appear in the list, copying the settings of the general strategy for convenience. You can now modify it in the same way as the general strategy, by clicking on it.
After you're done with the strategy edits, always remember to press Save strategy on the top-right corner of the page to make them effective.