
How Airbnb used predictive pricing to improve user experience - pg
http://www.fastcompany.com/3026550/lessons-learned/how-airbnb-solved-the-mystery-of-predictive-pricing
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danso
So...do we flag this as blogspam even though pg posted it? (though it's a good
excerpt, I'll admit)

For reference's sake, here's the article it links to:
[http://www.fastcompany.com/3026550/lessons-learned/how-
airbn...](http://www.fastcompany.com/3026550/lessons-learned/how-airbnb-
solved-the-mystery-of-predictive-pricing)

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pg
Sorry, you're right. I replaced the url with that of the original.

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calbear81
All startups should be looking at their form conversion rates and tracking
abandonment at the field level to find usability issues like this to fix. Even
though AirBnB has helped the host set an initial price, the biggest area of
opportunity is dynamic pricing that adjusts based on forecasted demand.

I saw that one company was tackling this by trying to use local hotel pricing
as a proxy of demand and then tune prices for hosts to maximize revenue.

I wonder if AirBnB is trying to maximize occupancy or revenue when they
suggest a price point for hosts?

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nostromo
Here's a simple, generic js snippet you can use to track form abandonment in
Google Analytics:

[https://gist.github.com/arnklint/4247137](https://gist.github.com/arnklint/4247137)

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alecsmart1
Can you tell me advantage of having this metric? What can I use this data for?

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nostromo
The article has a good example: Airbnb used this to figure out that hosts
where abandoning their sign-up flow because they didn't know what to charge.
So, they gave hosts a suggested price to increase completions.

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drakaal
I have 14 properties. I have never seen Airbnb predict anything other than
$99. None of my places list for less than twice that.

When you have filled out that they get a 3 bed, 3.5 bath 2800 square foot
home, furnished, all to themselves with utilities included, $99 a night is way
off. You can't rent a home in any market furnished with utilities for that
price. (yes someone will point to a cozy place in North Dakota that is that
price) so I'll also specify, Walking distance to a Bowl Game stadium, nations
top 10 night life neighborhoods, and with a 2 car garage.

Yes. Putting a "default" price there probably helps. But their predictive
algo, sucks, and they shouldn't be bragging about it.

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jey
I bet it intentionally lowballs so you're then forced to enter a value that
makes sense. Correcting a bad estimate will probably be psychologically easier
than coming up with it from scratch.

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Houshalter
What's wrong with the comments?

