How to Price a New Airbnb Listing

This guide is for hosts about to publish a new Airbnb listing, and for hosts who published in the last few weeks and aren't sure the price is right. A new listing has no reviews, no booking history and no price history, so its first price has to work without any of them.

You'll leave with a price floor worked out from your own costs, a base and weekend price taken from what similar listings are booking at, a plan for Airbnb's new listing promotion and a weekly routine for your first 90 days. Every Airbnb rule here links to Airbnb's own Help Center or Resource Center, checked in October 2026. Figures marked Example are made up to show the math.

Launch Pricing in Eight Steps

Here is the whole process. The sections below explain each step and the Airbnb setting it uses.

1. Work out your price floor from your costs and Airbnb's fee, before you look at a single competitor.
2. Confirm your fee structure in the Payments section of your account settings, and set prices for the single fee.
3. Research 6 to 10 comparable listings with Airbnb's similar listings map and a search as a guest.
4. Set a base price and a weekend price near the booked middle of that set, plus a cleaning fee and a short-stay cleaning fee.
5. Turn on the new listing promotion with Smart Pricing off, instead of cutting your base price.
6. Set trip length, preparation time and advance notice so short gaps between bookings can sell.
7. Search your own listing as a guest for a 2-night and a 5-night stay, and compare the totals with your comps.
8. Review prices every week for 90 days, then choose Smart Pricing, a pricing tool or manual pricing.

How to Set Your Price Floor

Your floor is the lowest nightly price you'll accept. It sits below your launch price, and nothing should take a night under it: not a discount, not a Smart Pricing minimum, not a pricing tool's minimum. Work it out before you look at competitors, so the market can't talk you into a price that loses money.

The math has three parts:

1. Fixed costs per booked night. Add up what the home costs each month whether anyone stays or not: mortgage or rent, insurance, utilities, internet, software and HOA dues. Divide by the nights you expect to book in a month during launch. Use a cautious guess now and your own number once you have 60 days of bookings.
2. Variable costs per booked night. Supplies, laundry and a repair reserve. Leave the cleaner out if your cleaning fee covers the clean.
3. Airbnb's fee. Add the two, then divide by 0.845 (1 minus the 15.5% single fee) to get the price to list. If your account is still on the split fee, where most hosts pay 3%, divide by 0.97 instead.

Example: $2,400 a month in fixed costs over 15 booked nights is $160 a night. Add $10 for supplies and laundry and you need a $170 payout per booked night. Divide by 0.845 and round up, and your floor is $202 a night. The calculator runs the same math with your numbers and also shows how many nights a month your planned price needs to cover costs.

Two checks before you trust the number. If your floor comes out above what similar listings are booking at, the gap is in your costs and a lower price won't close it, so trim costs or add something guests will pay more for before you publish. And occupancy taxes, income tax and permit costs vary by city and state: check with your accountant and your local permit office before you lock the floor in.

Airbnb Fees and the Total Price Guests See

Airbnb has two service fee structures, and the one you're on changes the number you type into your calendar. Airbnb's service fees article describes both. It says the split fee is being phased out and will no longer be available once all hosts move to the single fee, and that a host who switches to the single fee can't switch back.

In a Resource Center post dated July 29, 2026, Airbnb said it is combining the two fees into a single 15.5% service fee paid by hosts, based on its global average service fees, with Brazil and Mexico staying at 16%. Hosts using property management software who hadn't switched move on October 13, 2026, and hosts who want to switch earlier can do it in the Payments section of account settings. The single fee applies only to reservations made after the switch. The Airbnb pages checked for this guide give no single date for every other host, so open Payments and see which structure your account shows.

For a new listing, set prices for the single fee from the start. You have no old prices to convert, so work backward from the payout you need: divide it by 0.845 and round up. A $150 payout means listing at $178, $200 means $237 and $250 means $296. Airbnb's own example shows the cost of skipping this step: a host who keeps a $100 price through the switch earns $84.50 a night while the guest sees $100.

What Guests See Before They Book

In the US, guests see a fee-inclusive total price before taxes on every listing, and Airbnb has disabled the setting that let US guests turn that display off (pricing display for guests in the US). Taxes Airbnb collects show before booking, and the July post says taxes are always included in the total shown before checkout.

That total is what guests weigh. Airbnb's article on how search results work says the algorithm looks at your total price and how it compares with similar listings in the area for the same dates, and that listings priced below comparable ones with similar guest capacity and amenities tend to rank higher. Your cleaning fee is part of that total, so it shapes both how your price looks and where you show up.

Put every mandatory fee in Airbnb's fee fields or in the nightly price. Airbnb's Off-Platform and Fee Transparency Policy names utility, extra guest, pet, resort, management, destination and HOA fees among the mandatory fees that belong in Airbnb's pricing fields, or in the nightly price when no field fits. Outside narrow exceptions for software-connected hosts and hotels, it also bans taking payment for a stay outside Airbnb, so a fee you planned to collect at check-in belongs in the price.

The fees you can set yourself are listed in Airbnb's guide to how pricing works for homes and its pricing tools guide: a cleaning fee, a separate short-stay cleaning fee for 1- and 2-night stays, a pet fee (per pet, per night or per stay) and an extra guest fee per night for each guest above a number you set. You can't charge a fee for a service animal. Each one lands in the total guests compare, which is why the calculator below works on a whole stay.

For the fee across a full year of bookings, try our Airbnb fee calculator.

How to Research Comparable Listings

Comparable listings, or comps, tell you what guests are paying right now for a place like yours. Use two methods together: Airbnb's own map, which shows booked averages, and a search as a guest, which shows totals, fees and minimum stays.

Airbnb's Similar Listings Map

The tool sits in your calendar. Airbnb's guide to comparing similar listings says to open the Pricing tab, select a date range of up to 31 days and choose View similar listings. A map shows nearby similar listings with each one's average booked or unbooked price for those dates, and buttons switch between the two. Airbnb picks "similar" by location, size, features, amenities, ratings, reviews and the other listings guests browse alongside yours.

Weight booked prices over unbooked ones. A booked price is what a guest agreed to pay, while an unbooked price may still be waiting for a taker. Run the map with Smart Pricing off, because Airbnb's pricing tools guide says you won't see nightly price tips or similar listings while it's on. Check three windows: the next 31 days, a month two to three months out and your area's busiest month.

Search as a Guest

1. In a private browser window, search your area for your maximum guest count.
2. Filter to your property type, bedroom count and the amenities that set your price, such as a pool or hot tub.
3. Pick 6 to 10 listings a guest would weigh against yours: same area, similar size and quality.
4. Price two stays three to five weeks out, two weeknights and a Friday-to-Sunday weekend, and record the total as well as the nightly price.
5. Note each listing's cleaning fee, minimum stay and how many of its next four weekends are already taken.

Keep the results in a sheet like this one and update it weekly for your first 90 days. The rows are made-up examples.

How to Read Your Comp Set

• Booked-out listings with many reviews show what the market pays for a proven place. Airbnb says higher quality listings with better ratings and reviews tend to rank higher, and you start with none, so price near the booked middle of your set and leave the top for later.
• New listings with open weekends show where a price stopped working. If two new listings priced like yours both have open weekends, your plan may be high for a place with no reviews yet.
• Cleaning fees and minimum stays move the total. Compare 2-night totals, since that's what a weekend guest sees.
• The weekend gap tells you how much more Friday and Saturday nights can carry. In the example table, the two listings that book most of their weekends charge $60 and $65 more on weekend nights.

For a deeper method, including how to read a competitor's calendar across a full season, see our Airbnb competitor analysis guide.

Airbnb's New Listing Promotion

Airbnb has its own launch discount for new listings, and it does the job most hosts try to do with a low base price. According to Airbnb's new listing promotion page:

• It's an optional 20% discount for guests that applies automatically to your next three bookings after you turn it on. If a listing already had two bookings, bookings three, four and five get the discount.
• Only listings with fewer than three bookings qualify, and Smart Pricing must be off.
• It doesn't stack with other discounts. When several are available for the same stay, the promotion takes their place.
• Guests see a crossed-out price in search results and on your listing, a line on the price breakdown, a message on the listing page and a mention in Airbnb's emails to guests. Airbnb notes the crossed-out styling may not appear in some regions.
• There's no commitment, and you can opt out at any time.

Those are Airbnb's comparisons of new listings that used the promotion against new listings that didn't, and Airbnb says results may vary by listing, location and market conditions. Hosts who opt in may differ from hosts who don't in other ways, too, so treat the figures as Airbnb's claim about its own data. They can't tell you what your home will book.

Use the Promotion Instead of a Lower Base Price

The promotion ends on its own after three bookings, and your base price stays where you set it. A base price you cut by 20% stays cut until you remember to raise it. A low launch price can also hide later price drops, because Airbnb compares each drop with a 60-day median of your past prices before it shows a crossed-out price, as the discounts section below explains.

Check Two Settings Before You Opt In

Trip length. A long stay at 20% off still uses one of your three promoted bookings, and it takes 20% off every night of it. If your goal is early reviews, three short stays give you three chances at a review and one long stay gives you one, so keep your maximum trip length modest until the third booking is in.

Your floor. Multiply your base price by 0.8. If the result is under your floor, decide up front whether to treat the gap as a launch cost or skip the promotion. The calculator shows the gap in dollars and compares the promotion with the base-price cut you'd make instead.

After the third promoted booking, the promotion ends and custom promotions become available: you choose the dates and the discount, and Airbnb requires at least three bookings first. Airbnb's pricing tools guide says guests see a callout for a new listing or custom promotion of 15% or more.

Discounts, Minimum Stays and Day-of-Week Pricing

After launch, three sets of settings decide what each booking pays: one main discount per reservation, a weekend price and your trip length rules. Airbnb's discounts article and its pricing tools guide list the discount options for homes:

Only one of the new listing promotion, a custom promotion, a length-of-stay discount, an early-bird discount and a last-minute discount applies to a reservation. The top-rated guest discount is the one exception. So a weekly discount set during your promotion does nothing for the first three bookings, because the promotion takes its place.

Airbnb's 2024 pricing guide also lists what guests see by size of discount: a line in the price breakdown at 1% or more (not for last-minute discounts), a crossed-out price in search and on the listing at 10% or more, and a chance of being featured in Airbnb emails to recent searchers at 20% or more. That guide was last updated in August 2024, so use the thresholds as a guide and check how your own listing displays.

The Crossed-Out Price Rule

Airbnb's crossed-out prices article says it only crosses out a price when the one offered is at least 10% lower than usual for that night, and it measures "usual" as the median of your prices over the previous 60 days. Airbnb's example: prices of $90, $100, $125 and $140 give a median of $112.50, so a $100 price shows with $112.50 crossed out. A 5% drop on a few dates lowers your price, but guests won't see a crossed-out price next to it. And weeks at a low launch price leave a low median behind, so a later drop from a higher price may show no crossed-out price at all. Don't raise prices for a few weeks only to cut them: Airbnb's help pages also say a custom promotion must be a true discount, lower than your typical price for those dates.

Weekend and Day-of-Week Pricing

Airbnb's weekend price adds a premium to your base price for Friday and Saturday nights. Set it from your comp sheet: the gap between comps' booked weeknight and weekend prices is the gap to start from. Smart Pricing has to be off to add weekend pricing, according to Airbnb's Smart Pricing article. For holidays and local events, put custom prices on those dates as soon as the event dates are public, priced from what comps charge for the same nights.

Minimum Stays, Gaps and Lead Time

Trip length settings decide which bookings you can accept, and settings that are too strict leave single nights stranded between stays. Airbnb's availability guide covers the settings that matter at launch:

• Minimum and maximum nights live in your calendar under Availability, then Trip length. Lowering the minimum appeals to guests booking short stays and can fill gaps. You can allow stays longer than your maximum, but you review and approve each request.
• Customize by check-in day sets a different minimum for each arrival day. Airbnb's trip length article gives the example of a two-night minimum for Friday check-ins and one night for every other day.
• Check-in and checkout days can be blocked on up to 6 days a week.
• Custom trip length sets a shorter minimum on chosen dates. Airbnb's example: with a 5-night minimum and 4 open nights between bookings, lower the minimum for those nights.
• Preparation time blocks none, 1 or 2 nights before and after each reservation.
• Advance notice can be same day, or 1, 2, 3 or 7 days, with a same-day cutoff anywhere from 6:00 AM to 12:00 AM.
• Availability window lets guests book 3, 6, 9, 12 or 24 months ahead. Airbnb says a longer window helps your listing appear in more search results, and pairs a 12- or 24-month window with early-bird discounts to reach guests who plan early.

Lead time is the other half of pricing by date. Early-bird discounts cover bookings made 1 to 24 months ahead, and last-minute discounts cover bookings made 1 to 28 days before check-in. While the promotion runs, leave both off, since only one discount applies anyway. After it ends, use a last-minute discount on specific slow dates rather than across the whole calendar. The availability guide also tells hosts to make sure minimum and maximum trip lengths follow local rules and regulations, so check with your local permit office before you pick a number.

How the Cleaning Fee and Minimum Stay Work Together

A cleaning fee is a fixed cost per stay, so its weight per night falls as stays get longer. That makes your minimum stay and your cleaning fee one decision.

Example: a $235 nightly price and a $120 cleaning fee on the single fee. Before taxes, guests see $355 for 1 night, $590 for 2 nights ($295 a night), $825 for 3 nights ($275 a night) and $1,295 for 5 nights ($259 a night). Same listing, same nightly price, and the 2-night guest pays $36 a night more than the 5-night guest.

Three ways to handle it:

1. A 2-night minimum with a 1-night custom trip length only on gap dates, so the $355 single night appears only where it fills a hole.
2. A short-stay cleaning fee for 1- and 2-night stays, if your cleaner charges less for a light turnover. Agree on it with your cleaner first.
3. A minimum by check-in day: longer for Friday arrivals and shorter on weekdays, so weekends book as two or three nights and midweek gaps can sell as one.

Hi [Cleaner's name],

I'm setting up pricing for [Property name] before it goes live on Airbnb. Two questions so I can set the calendar right:

1. Can you do a same-day turnover (checkout at [checkout time], check-in at [check-in time])? If yes, I'll leave no blocked nights between stays.
2. What would you charge for a 1- or 2-night stay, compared with your standard clean of $[amount]? Airbnb lets me set a separate cleaning fee for short stays.

If same-day turnovers only work on some days of the week, tell me which ones and I'll block the others.

Thanks,
[Your name]

Smart Pricing, Pricing Tools or Manual Pricing

You have three ways to set nightly prices after launch: set them yourself, let Airbnb's Smart Pricing do it or connect a third-party dynamic pricing tool. Each can work. The choice depends on how much time you have, how many booking sites you list on and how much control you want over the rules.

What Smart Pricing Does

Airbnb's Smart Pricing article says it uses hundreds of factors about your listing and your area to adjust your nightly price to demand, within a minimum and maximum you set. Price changes don't affect pending or confirmed reservations, and you can override it on any night with a custom price without switching it off. It's built into your calendar, and Airbnb's article describes no charge for it. How it interacts with your other settings matters more than the feature itself:

• It must be off for the new listing promotion and for weekend pricing.
• Weekly, monthly and trip-length discounts override it.
• An early-bird discount can take a night below your Smart Pricing minimum.
• It overrides rule-sets in Airbnb's professional hosting tools, so it has to be off to apply one.
• While it's on, you won't see nightly price tips or the similar listings map.
• Airbnb may switch it off temporarily during emergencies to prevent extreme price changes and comply with local laws.

What Third-Party Tools Cost

Dynamic pricing tools such as PriceLabs, Wheelhouse and Beyond set a price for each night from market data and sync it to your Airbnb calendar, and to other booking sites if you use them. They charge a flat monthly fee per listing or a share of your bookings, and some offer both. Smart Pricing, by contrast, prices your Airbnb listing only. Here is how the options compare, with prices read from each company's own pages in October 2026:

For a single listing, flat versus percentage comes down to one number: a 1% plan costs less than a $19.99 flat plan until the bookings it counts pass $1,999 in a month.

Example: 15 booked nights at $235 is $3,525 in nightly revenue, so 1% is $35.25 against $19.99 flat. In a slow month with 6 booked nights, 1% is $14.10. Beyond counts cleaning fees in its base, so five stays with a $120 cleaning fee add $6.00 to the 15-night month.

Use one pricing system at a time: turn Smart Pricing off before a tool takes over, and follow the tool's own Airbnb setup guide. Prices and plans change often, so check each company's current page before you sign up. For a full side-by-side of these tools and the settings that matter most, see our Airbnb dynamic pricing tools comparison.

A 90-Day Pricing Plan

Airbnb's guide to reviewing your price says a lower starting price can help you attract your first guests and reviews, and that after you get some great reviews you may want to revisit your price. The plan below puts that on a schedule. It continues the example: a two-bedroom listing with a $202 floor, comps booking around $235 on weeknights and $295 on weekend nights, and a $120 cleaning fee. Every price is an example.

1. Before you publishFloor worked out. Base price $235 and weekend price $295, taken from booked comps. Cleaning fee and short-stay cleaning fee agreed with your cleaner. Minimum stay set by check-in day, plus preparation time, advance notice and a 12-month availability window. Smart Pricing off and the new listing promotion on. Airbnb says new listings usually show up in search within 24 hours, so finish this list first.
2. Days 1 to 30The promotion runs, so promoted guests pay $188 on weeknights and $236 on weekend nights. Add no other discounts, since only one applies. Answer inquiries fast, update your comp sheet weekly and price local events as soon as their dates are public.
3. After the third bookingThe promotion ends on its own and your base and weekend prices apply. Custom promotions become available. If you want longer stays, add a weekly discount of 10% or more so guests see the callout.
4. Days 31 to 60Hold the base price while you build a booking pace. Fill gaps with custom trip lengths and custom prices near your comps' booked average, staying above $202.
5. Days 61 to 90With several strong reviews in, test a higher weekend price on dates three or more weeks out, for example $305 to $315. Then choose Smart Pricing, a pricing tool or manual pricing, with the minimum at $202 or above.
6. Day 90 and afterRecalculate your floor from your real booked nights. If your calendar is steady, move the weekly price check to every two weeks, and keep the log.

The Weekly Price Check

Once a week, spend 15 minutes on the same routine. Airbnb's 2024 pricing guide reported that listings whose prices were updated at least four times a year had over 30% more nights booked, based on Airbnb data for active listings as of July 2022. That's Airbnb's data on listings in general and it can't predict your home, but it's a good reason to put the check on your calendar.

1. Open your calendar for the next 30 days and note which nights are still open.
2. Open the similar listings map for the same dates and compare the booked average with your price.
3. Update your comp sheet for the next four weekends.
4. Find your situation in the table below, make one change, and write down what you changed and why.

These are example rules to start from. They aren't benchmarks, so adjust the steps to your market and note the result of each change before you make the next one.

PRICE CHECK, week of [date]

Floor per night: $[your floor]
Base price: $[amount]   Weekend price: $[amount]
Next 30 days: [number] of 30 nights booked
Next 4 weekends: [number] of 4 booked
Comps' booked average, next 30 days: $[amount]
Reviews so far: [number], average [rating]

Change made: [what you changed, on which dates]
Rule used: [which line of the weekly table]
Check again on: [date one week out]

When to Raise Your Prices

Raise when the evidence says so. Three signals are worth acting on:

• Weekends book out early. If your next two or three weekends fill weeks ahead while comps still have openings, your weekend price has room.
• Strong reviews arrive. Airbnb's guide suggests revisiting your price after great reviews. Its guest favorites article says a home needs at least 5 reviews in the past 4 years, with at least 1 in the past 2 years, before it's assessed for guest favorite status, so your first five reviews count toward that as well.
• Your booked comps move up. If the booked average on the similar listings map rises for your dates, follow it, staying inside your comp set.

Raise in small steps on dates a few weeks out, so you can see the effect before it reaches your busiest dates. For the rest of your launch, from listing setup to first reviews, see the first 90 days launch playbook and our guide to getting your first 10 reviews.

Common Launch Pricing Mistakes

1. Cutting the base price to win the first bookings. The new listing promotion does that for three bookings, then stops on its own.
2. Pricing from asking prices. Use the booked average on Airbnb's similar listings map.
3. Forgetting the 15.5% fee. A $100 price pays you $84.50 on the single fee. Price from the payout you need.
4. Leaving Smart Pricing on at launch. It blocks the new listing promotion and weekend pricing, and it hides price tips and the similar listings map.
5. A cleaning fee that makes short stays look expensive. Compare 2-night totals with your comps and use the short-stay cleaning fee.
6. Expecting discounts to stack. Only one main discount applies per reservation, and a drop under 10% won't show a crossed-out price.
7. A minimum below your floor. Smart Pricing and tool minimums go at your floor, and an early-bird discount can still go below it.
8. Discounting every guest who asks. Your promotion or weekly discount already gives guests a reason to book. Answer in Airbnb messages with what's on offer, using the reply below.
9. Offering Airbnb guests a cheaper rate somewhere else. Airbnb's Off-Platform and Fee Transparency Policy bans asking guests to move bookings off Airbnb and offering discounts to book off Airbnb, and repeated or severe violations can lead to suspended or deactivated listings or accounts. Direct bookings come from people who find your own website, brand or social channels. Our direct booking strategy guide covers how to build that within Airbnb's rules.

Hi [Guest first name],

Thanks for your interest in [Listing name]. The price for your dates already includes [the discount that applies, for example our 20% new listing discount], so it's the lowest rate I can offer for those nights.

If your dates are flexible, [nights that cost less, for example Sunday to Thursday] come in lower. I'm happy to answer anything else here before you book.

[Your name]

What to Do This Week

Work through these in order:

1. Today: run the floor calculator with your real costs and write the floor at the top of your pricing notes.
2. Today: open Payments in your account settings, confirm your fee structure, then run one stay through the guest-total calculator.
3. This week: build a comp sheet of 6 to 10 listings from the similar listings map and a guest search, and set your base and weekend prices near the booked middle.
4. This week: send your cleaner the short-stay message, then set your cleaning fees, minimum stays by check-in day and preparation time.
5. Before you publish: turn Smart Pricing off, opt in to the new listing promotion if the cost calculator says you can carry it, and search your listing as a guest for a 2-night and a 5-night stay.
6. Every week after: run the weekly price check and fill in the log.

Price is one part of what guests judge. Photos, title, description and amenities count too, and Airbnb's search article weighs listing quality alongside price. For a quick read on those, run your listing through the listing grader. If you'd like a team to review the whole listing before launch, Cavmir™ offers listing optimization for vacation rentals.

Sources

Every figure in this guide comes from these sources, checked in October 2026.

• Airbnb Help Center, "Airbnb service fees", accessed October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Resource Center, "Simplifying Airbnb service fees", July 29, 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "How pricing works for homes", accessed October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "Pricing display for guests in the US", accessed October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "How search results work", accessed October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "Off-Platform and Fee Transparency Policy", accessed October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb, "New listing promotion", accessed October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "Discounts for homes", accessed October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "Why some prices are crossed out", accessed October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "Smart Pricing", accessed October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Resource Center, "Try our pricing tools", updated July 14, 2025: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Resource Center, "Review your price", updated July 14, 2025: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Resource Center, "Controlling your pricing", updated August 8, 2024: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Resource Center, "How to compare the average prices of similar listings", updated November 11, 2024: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "Setting minimum and maximum nights", accessed October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Resource Center, "Updating your availability", updated July 14, 2025: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "Guest favorites", accessed October 2026: airbnb.com
• PriceLabs Help Center, "How much does PriceLabs cost after the trial ends", accessed October 2026: help.pricelabs.co
• Wheelhouse, "Pricing", accessed October 2026: usewheelhouse.com
• Beyond, "Plans", accessed October 2026: beyondpricing.com