Struggling to set the right price for your STR? Find out how to choose the perfect pricing model that maximizes your revenue, adapts to market shifts, and drives consistent bookings.

What’s the Right STR Pricing Model? How to Choose

Most successful hosts shift between pricing strategies based on seasonality, demand, and their business goals.

Understanding your market, your competitors, and upcoming demand empowers you to make smarter pricing decisions.

You should know why you charge what you charge. Tools like AirDNA’s Rate Recommendations help you price with purpose.

When you first listed your short-term rental, pricing probably felt like a one-time decision. Maybe you set a flat rate, made a few seasonal tweaks, and called it good.

But if your business has grown—more bookings, better reviews, maybe even multiple properties—your pricing strategy should grow with it. Your nightly rate works like a signal. The model behind it shapes how much you earn, how often you book, and how your listing performs over time.

This guide walks you through the five most common STR pricing strategies and shows you how to build a flexible approach that adapts to your market, supports your goals, and helps you stay ahead as things change.

Because the only thing worse than underpricing your listing is outgrowing your pricing strategy without realizing it.

What Short-Term Pricing Models Actually Do

Let’s get one thing straight: A short-term rental pricing model isn’t just about how you choose a nightly rate—it’s about why you charge what you charge.

STR pricing models help you determine the strategy behind your numbers. It helps you answer questions like:

Am I optimizing for occupancy or maximizing revenue per night?

Should my rates flex with demand, or stay consistent across the calendar?

How do I reflect the real value of my property—location, design, amenities—in my pricing?

Whether you’re aiming for better margins, higher occupancy, or just more predictability, the right STR pricing strategy makes sure your pricing supports your business goals.

There’s no one-size-fits-all model here. Some strategies are built to scale. Others are better suited for seasonal demand, high-touch listings, or budget-friendly stays. The key is finding the model (or combination) that fits where you’re at and where you’re headed.

5 Airbnb Pricing Strategies Every Host Should Know

Let’s break down the five pricing strategies the most successful hosts rely on to lock-in their profits.

If your place offers more, your price should reflect it.

A value-based pricing strategy means setting your rates based on what your property is worth to guests, not just how big it is or what other places in your zip code charge. Guests are willing to pay more for listings that feel special or make their trip easier and more comfortable.

That might be a hot tub, a stylish living space, a stocked kitchen, or enough room for a group to stay together. Luxury amenities like these can push your rates higher, because they make your listing stand out.

For example, if most three-bedroom homes in your area rent for $250 a night, but yours has a heated pool and five-star reviews from families or groups, $300 or more may be a better fit.

Markets shift fast—and if your rates don’t keep up, you could be missing out.

Dynamic pricing means adjusting your nightly rate based on real-time demand, seasonality, and booking trends. That could look like:

Raising rates for peak weekends or local events

Slightly lowering prices on slower midweek nights

Tweaking your rate to fill a last-minute gap

The goal isn’t to change your price every day—it’s to know when a change will actually make a difference.

Inside AirDNA, you’ll see nightly rate recommendations based on local demand, seasonality, and what similar listings are earning. Unlike automated pricing tools, these rates aren’t pushed to your Airbnb account. Instead, they’re designed to give you full control. We recommend reviewing your rate recommendations once a week, then applying them directly to your listing. It’s a simple, flexible way to implement dynamic pricing tactics without giving up the steering wheel.

AirDNA’s vacation rental pricing tool uses data-driven recommendations to propose the best daily rates.

Prices affect how guests perceive value. Small changes, like pricing something at $99 instead of $100, can make a big difference. This is known as charm pricing, a powerful psychological tactic that taps into how people scan for deals across booking platforms.

But charm pricing is only the start. Here are more strategies to boost bookings:

Limited-time offers: Create urgency with a temporary discount, like 48-hour deals.

Early-bird specials: Offer a small percentage off to encourage early bookings.

Round pricing for premium stays: Whole numbers (e.g., $500/night) can signal luxury, especially for high-end properties.

When used strategically, these psychological pricing techniques can make your listing stand out without slashing your margins.

Just remember: These tactics are most effective when tied to real reasons—like filling last-minute gaps or encouraging advance bookings, not just random price drops.

The cost-plus pricing approach is as straightforward as it sounds: You calculate your total costs (think cleaning, utilities, platform fees, maintenance, mortgage) and add a set profit margin on top to determine your nightly rate.

Here’s the basic formula:
 (Total monthly expenses ÷ expected nights booked) + target profit per night = your rate

The cost-plus pricing model is often a starting point for new hosts—and it works well if your goal is simply to cover costs and ensure profitability. But for most growing operators, it’s not enough.

Why? Because it doesn’t account for what your market is doing.

This kind of flat-rate pricing strategy doesn’t flex for seasonality, special events, or changes in demand. You might end up underpricing during peak weekends—or missing out on bookings during slow periods when a small drop could make a difference.

That said, cost-plus pricing can still serve a purpose. Many hosts use it to set a floor—a minimum nightly rate they’re never willing to go below, even when applying dynamic or promotional strategies. That way, you know you're always covering your baseline.

Discounts get a bad rap. But when they’re used with a clear purpose—not out of panic—they can be a smart part of your pricing strategy.

Attract longer stays with fewer turnovers

Just don’t discount blindly. The key is timing:

Early-bird specials help lock in planners

Last-minute deals can fill unexpected gaps

Off-season pricing keeps your calendar moving

Weekly/monthly discounts attract guests who stay longer (and cost less to host)

If your calendar fills too fast, your base rate might be too low. If it’s too quiet, a limited-time offer can drive bookings—without hurting your long-term pricing strategy.

Make data-driven decisions on nightly rates for your rentals and grow your revenue.

How to Choose the Right Short-Term Rental Pricing Model

The reality is, most hosts shift between STR pricing strategies all the time—raising rates during big events, lowering them midweek, offering a discount to fill a gap. The key is knowing how to adapt as your calendar, your competition, and your goals evolve.

Here’s how to stop second-guessing and start pricing with purpose—based on what’s actually happening in your market.

The best STR pricing strategies start with great context. Before adjusting anything, take a step back and ask: What’s happening around me? How are similar listings performing? What are guests paying in my area—and when?

With AirDNA, you can complete a short-term rental market analysis in minutes. The Market Dashboard gives you a high-level view of:

Average daily rates (ADR) by season and day of week

Occupancy trends across different times of year

Lead time behavior (how far in advance people are booking)

You can explore this not only for full markets, but also for submarkets—giving you a more localized look at performance. Whether you’re in a downtown core, a beach town, or a rural destination, you can narrow in on patterns that matter to your specific location.

Host tip: Noticing you’re booking out faster than your local averages? That could be a sign you’re underpriced. Time to test a higher nightly rate.

What you charge doesn’t exist in a bubble—and your guests know it. When someone’s browsing, they’re comparing your place to others nearby with similar features and price points. Whether they book with you often comes down to how your rate stacks up against the competition.

That’s why it’s important to understand how your pricing compares—and what to do with that insight. Are you underpriced for what you offer? Are similar listings charging more during high-demand weekends? Knowing where you stand in the local landscape helps you price with confidence, not guesswork.

You could try to figure it out by scrolling Airbnb in guest mode—but AirDNA does it for you.

Connect your listing to get a list of up to 100 similar properties, automatically matched based on things like size and amenities.

Or use the Explore tool to handpick listings using filters for guest capacity, property type, and features. Save your selections as a Custom Comp Set.

Once you’ve built your comp set, AirDNA can generate your rate recommendations based on what you’ve identified as your competition, not just market averages.

Use this to see where your listing stands. Are your rates too low compared to similar properties? Are other listings raising prices around local events or peak weekends? These insights help you make smarter decisions and stay competitive—without second-guessing every change.

Host tip: The more closely your comp set matches your listing, the more useful your pricing insights will be. Take a few extra minutes to get it right—you’ll make better decisions with way less second-guessing.

Some nights aren’t like the others. Local events, holidays, and seasonal travel can drive sudden demand—and if you’re not adjusting your rates, you could be leaving money on the table.

That’s where pacing data comes in. It shows how far in advance bookings are coming in and highlights periods of compressed demand—when listings are getting snapped up quickly.

Seasonal travel windows like spring break or ski season

Long weekends and holidays that bring last-minute bookings

The graph below is available in the market overview for your area, rather than in your performance dashboard. In this example, you can see that booking trends for weekends in Fort Wayne, Indiana are generally made 30-60 days in advance. You can access similar insights for your market by going to the Explore tab of your account. 

Pacing is the foundation of event-based pricing for vacation rentals: Identifying high-demand dates early and adjusting your pricing strategy to match. That might mean raising rates, increasing your minimum stay, or holding off on discounts you’d normally offer.

Host tip: Don’t just raise your rates the weekend of a big event—smart hosts adjust pricing as soon as bookings start picking up, sometimes weeks (or months) in advance. The earlier you spot demand, the more you can earn.

Set your baseline pricing and flex from there

Before you can adjust prices with confidence, you need a solid starting point. That’s your base rate—the nightly rate that reflects your overall pricing approach, whether you’re aiming to fill your calendar or maximize nightly revenue.

In AirDNA, you can choose between three base pricing styles:

Conservative: Lower rates to encourage steady bookings

Balanced: Mid-range rates that align to prioritize a mix of occupancy and revenue. 

Aggressive: Higher rates to capture more value during peak periods or for standout listings

Optimize your rates with our Airbnb pricing tool

Once your base rate is set, AirDNA adjusts it using real booking data and market signals like:

Booking demand and how far in advance guests are reserving (lead time)

The result is a suggested nightly rate—with a transparent breakdown of what’s influencing it. You can also set minimum and maximum price limits to stay within your comfort zone and protect your margins.

And since rates aren’t applied automatically, you stay fully in control. You can review your AirDNA rate recommendations, decide what to adjust, and keep your calendar aligned with your strategy.

Host tip: We recommend checking your AirDNA rate recommendations once a week. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps you stay ahead of demand without second-guessing your pricing.

Discounts get a bad rap—but when used with purpose, they’re one of your most effective tools for filling gaps. The key is knowing when to offer one, and why.

Drive early bookings with limited-time offers

Fill last-minute availability on slower nights

Encourage longer stays with weekly or monthly deals

AirDNA helps you spot when a discount might make sense. Take a look at the example chart below. Here’s what you’re seeing:

Dark blue line = your current nightly rate

Pink line = the median booked rate for similar listings

Light purple bars = occupancy rates for your comp set (when you’re available)

Dark purple bars = comp set occupancy when you’re already booked

In the upcoming weeks, your rate is sitting well above the pink line—and your comps are starting to get booked (those rising bars). If your calendar is still open while others are filling up, that’s a sign your price might be too high for current demand.

This is where a targeted discount can help. Not across the board—but for a few nights where bookings are picking up and your rate isn’t competitive. A slight drop could bring in a reservation you’d otherwise miss.

With AirDNA’s Pricing Tool that gives you your Rate Recommendations, you can also apply pricing rules like 1-day and 2-day booking window adjustments to automatically reduce rates closer to check-in. And soon, early-bird and last-minute discount rules will let you automate even more—without losing control.

Host tip: If bookings are slow and comps are filling up, it’s not about panicking—it’s about adjusting with intention. A small discount on the right night can make all the difference.

Good pricing is managed over time. The more in tune you are with your performance and your market, the more confident you’ll be in the rates you set.

Here’s a simple rhythm to stay in control of your pricing:

Weekly: Review your rate recommendations and pacing data. Are certain nights booking up faster than expected? Do any gaps need a quick rate adjustment? 

Monthly: Compare your performance to your comp set. If your occupancy is strong but your nightly rate is lower than similar listings, it might be time to raise prices.

Seasonally: Revisit your pricing strategy. Update your minimum stays, reset your floor rates, or shift between baseline and aggressive pricing based on upcoming demand.

AirDNA makes it easy to spot trends early so you can adjust before your calendar fills. Whether that means holding firm or making a move, the goal is to price with clarity—not guesswork.

Host tip: The best pricing decisions aren’t rushed. Give yourself time each week to check in, make small tweaks, and stay ahead—your future self (and your revenue) will thank you.

How do I decide what to charge for my Airbnb?

Start by looking at what similar listings are actually earning—not just what they list for. From there, consider your amenities, location, and seasonality. AirDNA’s Rate Recommendations give you a data-backed base rate that adjusts with demand, so you’re not pricing blind.

How can I get more bookings without undercutting my rates?

By optimising occupancy rates through timing and strategy. Adjust your minimum stay for slower periods, watch for gaps in pacing, and only use discounts when there’s a specific reason, like filling a midweek gap or responding to soft demand.

The best tools help you understand your market, track demand, and adjust your rates with confidence. Traditional revenue management tools offer automation, but that’s not the only way to stay competitive.

If you prefer to stay in control, AirDNA gives you the data to make smart pricing decisions yourself—like rate recommendations based on real demand, insights from your comp set, and pacing trends that help you stay ahead.

How do I know if an event is worth adjusting my pricing for?

Not every event will move the needle—but some absolutely will. Look at pacing trends: if bookings are picking up earlier than usual, it’s a sign that local events impact STR demand for those dates. Big festivals, concerts, and even regional events can drive premium pricing—if you catch the demand early enough.

Don’t settle for flat rates. Learn how to choose the right STR pricing model to optimize your earnings and stay ahead of the competition.

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What’s the Right STR Pricing Model? How to Choose

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