Welcome back to another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

I'm Annette Grant, and together we are. Thanks for Visiting. Let's start this episode like we do each and every week, and that is celebrating all of you who are listening to our episode by going to strshare.com, sharing what you can about your short-term rental so we can celebrate you here on the podcast. Annette, who are we sharing this week? This week we are sharing @norra.hem, and that's N-O-R-R-A dot HEM. Ooh, you need to check it out. The first thing I'm gonna say is when you go to their, the Instagram, you will see it is curated by, um, hand by design. Hand by design. Sorry if I pronounce that wrong, but. You can totally tell that this property was designed by an interior designer. If you need any photo inspiration.

It's good.

It is good doesn't even begin to explain the photos on this property. So if you want a little reality or a gut punch, check it out. Uh, go to go to the Instagram, but then go to the listing and check out the all of the photos. And there's just some really amazing stuff with this property. 20 windows that immerse you in the surroundings. It's um, it's in Canada, Hornby Island looks amazing. A 12 foot reading nook. Handcrafted furniture and you'll see that how it's built into the nook. But this property, I'm, I haven't seen something this aesthetically pleasing in a really long time. So if you want a little eye candy, some inspiration for your property, maybe you're due for a photo refresh or a furniture refresh, look no further than @norra.hem. And thank you for using, um, thank you for going to the website so we could highlight you.

Now let's move on to helping @norra.hem and all the other hosts of the world make more money. 'Cause if you're tired of constantly tweaking your nightly rates, wondering, you know, whether or not you should be charging last minute, or, or, or raising your rates, or how soon is too soon to be booked. Our favorite feature in our dynamic pricing software is the far out premium feature. And the great thing about this is in your travels to using this feature, you are gonna have to learn about your market, learn about your booking window, and it's going to make you a better revenue manager. But this feature has single handedly made us thousands of dollars by being strategic with whether it's far out events or repeat guests who wanna book for the next year. All of those really tough decisions that we have to make as business owners. This premium that we can set automatically within our dynamic pricing software has saved us so many tough conversations and from losing money.

And if you're not using a dynamic pricing software, you need to listen to this episode because you could do this semi manually. But this will really, if you are on the fence of wondering if it's worth it, just keep listening. Are you tired of constantly tweaking your nightly rates? Wondering if you should discount last minute or charge more for those big weekends?

We do not believe in erasing to the bottom with discounts. What we do believe in is using smart tools to protect our calendar and capture peak revenue.

Listen, today we are going to share our favorite feature Inside Price Labs. Yes. I said favorite feature and it is far out premiums and you should get excited because yes, we use the word premium because we are getting premium pricing.

Let us tell you why pricing gets messy for hosts, most hosts not you. After watching this video start manually adjusting rates, panicking, lowering their prices to chase last minute bookings, or guessing what to charge far in advance.

Or not even just guessing, forgetting that there's something happening.

And that is not only time consuming, it's also very inconsistent. It keeps you reacting instead of leading.

And we're here to sh to shake it up, to have some mindset shifts. A lot of hosts where this, I got booked first badge of honor. Mm. That should be a big loser badge because you've lost out on revenue. All right. Most likely. Likely that guest locked in a lower rate way too early before we even know what the market demand is going to be. The smartest host, the most profitable hosts hold out and capture peak revenue when demand spikes, or they have our favorite feature, far out premiums turned on. So I, I'm telling you like I have to bite my lips so hard when I hear hosts bragging during a giant event, Kentucky Derby, the, you know, the, um, whatever's big in, in their area, they're bragging that they're already booked for next season or, uh, you know, the family just came for vacation. They already booked for next year. And I'm like, ah. And they booked at the same exact rate. You are underpriced. Okay. The guest knows this. That's why they're pouncing. A lot of us think, and I know this is hard, and it's even kind of hard to say, we think we gave such an amazing stay. They wanna lock in the the dates.

And how honored do you feel? Right?

A lot of times they wanna lock in the rates, okay? And so that's why knowing what you're far out premium rates are, we'll help you. Okay? We don't wanna, we don't wanna stop repeat bookings. Hear me out there. But we also don't want you missing out on revenue that would've naturally occurred. Like the, you know, there is inflation, there are demand spikes, and you are smart, savvy business owners using the data, and you cannot be left behind.

What is far out pricing? Far out means dates that extend well beyond your typical booking window. What is a booking window? The average amount of time to when a guest books your place and to when they are going to arrive. For some markets a far out from your booking window could be 90 days and others it's six to nine months. So it does depend and you do have to know a little bit about, well, a lot of it about your market to know what far out means for you. A far out premium is a markup. You apply to those dates because guests who need certainty, IE me early planners, we will pay more for peace of mind.

Mm-hmm. And again, circling back to what I said before, you are not penalizing the early bookers.

No.

Alright. You're, you're protecting your calendar and rewarding yourself for being patient and being profitable.

And I'm okay with it as the booker because I know, but like, Hey, I don't have to worry about that anymore. My dates my preferred place of staying. They're booked. I feel good about it too, as a planner. So, so many hosts have this feeling almost of guilt.

And that's the best word. We've gotta just remove it. We've gotta, we've gotta remove business owners. And here's the deal again, we, we, it's not that we can't incentivize repeat bookings. Uh, we, we know that, but again, we just wanna make sure that we understand our pricing strategy.

Yes.

The other reason we want you to have a mindset shift about this today and, and just really being thoughtful about your calendar. It's because we have, we have just coached so many hosts who have literally given out their most valuable weekends because they were not on top of their pricing. I mean, painfully, painfully, low rates, that it's the difference between being profitable and not. And, and the guest would have paid it, had the host. Not been asleep at the wheel. I'm gonna say that. Or had to set it and forget it mentality. Yeah. Okay. And that's why today we, we've partnered with Price Labs. They've helped us sponsor it because this is the tool that we trust in our own business because we too have been there. We have been there where we were giving nights away. We hadn't been on top of our calendar. Someone knew something big was coming, they booked it, and we felt that pain. We don't want you to feel that pain. And they're gonna automate these far out premiums for all of us. Okay. Those last minute adjustments and daily price updates, they're gonna do that for you. So your listing stays competitive without you doing all this manual work and staying up 24/7 every day, continuing to check your pricing.

Yeah, and it's the one piece of software that we encourage. All hosts, but a lot of new hosts ask us, Hey, there's one piece of tech that you would suggest I get first 'cause there's a lot out there. We always say, in most cases.

Yes. And it doesn't matter the amount of rooms you have.

No.

Or where you're located.

No.

We recommend this.

Yes. 'cause it's this. It's this piece of software that's going to help you make money and they make you an offer you cannot refuse. I know that sounds very whatever, but it's true because you can try it for free for 30 days. Plus get $10 off your first invoice with the link in our show notes. And I'm telling you like if you can use it for 30 days and capture revenue that you didn't even know you could make, and the data and the proof is there showing that you that you can, it's a no-brainer. So definitely give Price Labs a try.

This is why. We love far out premiums and we use that feature inside Price Labs is because it, they will, we set them, we set our far out rules once, I'm gonna say that again. We set our far out rules once and then they automatically adjust every single day.

Automatically adjust. Every day. So nice.

And we're gonna share like a we, we know some of our far out rules. Like we're gonna share. Exactly. We talk about football a lot here, but Yeah.

Well, it's, it's a big, it's a big driver of demand in our market, and we share with you what we know with our own experiences. So in Columbus, we had far out dates. Four football weekends marked up, meaning we already knew when the home games would be, but at the time we didn't know who we were playing yet.

Or what time. There's some nuances or what their rankings were going to be.

So that's gonna say all those things, right? Because all but truly the, I didn't know this, the time of day the game is.

Big change in rankings and then as the season.

To the tailgaters, like it matters.

It matters. And as the season moves on, things ebb and flow and change.

Things change.

Yep.

Anyway, so we had at least locked in the premiums for the weekends that we would, that we knew were gonna have home games. And then months later, when the games were announced, the demand skyrocketed because we had our premiums in place. We were already priced higher. And we were able to capture top rates. That is how you protect your calendar and stay a rate leader instead of a rate follower.

This is how you are gonna use the far out premium feature strategically inside Price Labs. Number one, you have to identify your true booking window, but you have to use that using Price Lab's analytics. So you're gonna have to dig in there, look at the data, it's worth it. You are gonna set premiums for the dates beyond that window. And if, if I'm saying things like booking window and you don't know what those are, we've got a lot of homework to do. All right? After you've set the premium for the dates beyond your booking window, then we're gonna customize the percentages for your property. And I know you wanna know right now, what's that percentage. We can't tell, we, we don't have your property. We can't see your analytics inside, um, inside Price Labs right now. That that's something that we hold for our insider, strategic host inside our coaching program 'cause then we have to work hand in hand with you to look at, look at your analytics to find that sweet spot because there is a sweet spot. And then last but not least, you're gonna wanna layer in your local knowledge. So as events get announced, the market change, you know, Price Labs is catching the data, but you also need to bring your human insight into your pricing. You're the driver of the car. Okay? And, and here's the deal too. The other thing is just understanding your historicals, understanding, you know, your referral business, your repeat business. And the one thing I wanna share at all of this. You have got to keep a five star stay. You cannot skimp on your cleaning, on your amenities, on your inspections, on your details. When we're talking about premium pricing, you also have to give a premium stay, so don't get so focused on your pricing that you forget about the operations. They do have to go hand in hand.

Far out premiums. I wanna make sure that you're truly understanding what we're saying to you right now because the way I've heard really prominent, experienced hosts brag about being booked ahead of everyone else. It it's just like we have to stop looking at those vanity metrics. We have to stop trying to speak or be a part of a conversation when I don't even know it. It's like, it's just you're leaving so much money on the table. Well, well, it's, and the different angles that we're trying to share with hosts that there has not been a host we've met yet, Annette, who we've started coaching, whose pricing has been spot on.

No. And, and we, we know, like it is a mindset thing. People wanna look at their calendar and they wanna see it booked up.

Yeah.

And whenever we see that. It. We know that they've left so much money on the table and so for some reason we're really still trying to analyze this. Truthfully, there is this weird, we see hosts finding peace of mind over a book calendar. We need you to find peace of mind in your profitability. There is something really, really off there and trust me, we know psychologically there are a lot of psychological things happening. We know you like the ding. On your, on your apps. We know you like the deposits in your bank account, but we have to make sure they're all profitable because then you're not gonna have a business at all. And it is it, and I'm not gonna say it's gonna be easy, but this really is becoming the CEO, like managing your asset the way that you would want your asset manager managing your asset. So, so I really. Want you to focus on. And these things are not easy to learn too. I don't want you to think, like this far out premium you're gonna get it overnight. This is gonna take work, it's gonna take, um, really looking at the data. But the best part is this is gonna compound for you. Over time with each and every reservation.

If you do nothing else, the next time a guest asks you to rebook with you. And it's more than farther out than your booking window, and you're not confident about about rates yet. I want you to pause. The next time your town becomes a hotspot for some concert or event and you wanna get your place listed and open for bookings, I want you to pause. Okay. And if you are not dialed in on your strategy for that event. That is your sign to dig in and understand the analytics and your, and your strategy and, and all the, the booking windows that go into it. What other people are getting when they get it. Just because they're booked does not mean that you're not going to get booked. There are times when we are literally waiting till last minute, but it's because it's kind of like.

It's worth it.

It's worth it because it's worth, worth it. We, we know there are more people coming in that we haven't reached occupancy in our market yet. They gotta book somewhere, so they're gonna book with us.

And that's the key to not only understanding your pricing, it's understanding all of the numbers in your business. And that's the other thing that we see is people do not know all of their financials and they are buffering by messing with the pricing instead of looking at the books. So this becomes easier, this becomes easier when you know your numbers, when you understand your high season, your low season, you understand, um, the, the exact number that you're bringing in, not only for the month, for the quarter, but for the year. That's also what kind, what stirs up this panicking and this panic pricing and, and it's really, it's a bigger symptom of not knowing your numbers.

So if this doesn't inspire you to get far out pricing set up in your dynamic pricing software, I don't know what will and stop bragging about being the first one booked 'cause it probably just means. That you left money on the table, and we don't want that to be your truth. We don't want that to be your story. What we want you to do is email us, reach out to us, dm us, and tell us the rates that you are getting by being more strategic with your pricing. That's what we wanna start hearing. We want you to be focused on revenue and not just a calendar that looks booked. And with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

I'm Annette Grant, and together we are. Thanks for Visiting.

Talk to you next time.