Airbnb Custom Promotions: Boost Revenue Without Lowering Prices

Jasper Ribbers | Freewyld Welcome back to Get Paid for Your Pad. This is an episode of RevUp where I share behind-the-scenes insights from our work managing portfolios and helping operators improve revenue performance. My name is Jasper Ribbers, Head of Revenue Management and co-founder of Freewyld Foundry.

In today’s episode I want to talk about OTA merchandising, specifically how Airbnb’s discount tools can be used to boost both conversion and visibility. If you have been following along, you know there are three main categories of improvements we often identify in our revenue reviews: pacing, minimum night stays, and merchandising. Today I will focus on that third category.

So, what is OTA merchandising? OTA stands for Online Travel Agency, the platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, or Booking.com where we list our properties. Merchandising means making discounts visible to guests in a way that helps drive bookings. Just like in a store where a big red star signals a sale, visible discounts on Airbnb catch a guest’s attention and increase the likelihood of booking.

If you silently drop your price from $200 to $79, experienced hosts might know that’s a deal. But a new guest may not. That’s why Airbnb offers tools like strike-through pricing and special offer banners that clearly show a discount. This not only improves conversion but also likely boosts your visibility in search results, because Airbnb wants to promote listings that convert.

The basic discount types are weekly and monthly, which most operators already use. But there are also shorter length-of-stay discounts, early bird discounts for advance bookings, last-minute discounts, and custom promotions. Each of these has different effects. For example, length-of-stay discounts encourage longer bookings, while early bird discounts reward guests who plan ahead.

Custom promotions are especially powerful. They allow you to create visible discounts without always lowering your net price. If Airbnb’s system calculates a higher original price based on the last 60 days of data, you can apply a discount that shows as a strike-through while keeping your actual rate the same. This creates the perception of a deal while protecting your revenue.

At Freewyld Foundry, we use a mix of these strategies. We typically set up small discounts for stays longer than two nights or for bookings made more than 30 days in advance. We also use rule sets to avoid stacking too many discounts at once, which could cut too deeply into revenue. Custom promotions are applied more selectively, usually for dates within the next week, when we know the price is stable.

The bottom line is that visible discounts work. Guests want to feel like they are getting a deal, and Airbnb rewards listings that convert. By using merchandising strategically, you can improve both occupancy and revenue without relying solely on price cuts.

If you want a free revenue report, go to freewyldfoundry.com/report. My team and I will analyze your portfolio, review your pricing strategy, and show you where the biggest opportunities are to increase revenue.

Thank you for listening and I’ll see you next week with another episode of RevUp.