Dynamic Pricing 101: Maximizing Your STR Revenue

What Is Dynamic Pricing?

Dynamic pricing is a revenue management strategy that adjusts your nightly rental rate based on real-time market conditions. Instead of setting one fixed rate year-round, a dynamic pricing tool continuously analyzes supply and demand signals — comparable listings, booking patterns, seasonal trends, day-of-week effects, and local events — to recommend the optimal price for each night.

The concept isn't new. Airlines, hotels, and ride-sharing companies have used dynamic pricing for decades. What's changed is that powerful, affordable tools are now available to individual vacation rental owners — and they work remarkably well.

Why Static Pricing Fails in Point Roberts

Point Roberts has one of the most pronounced seasonal demand curves of any STR market in the Pacific Northwest. The difference between a peak July weekend and a quiet January Tuesday can be enormous. A static price that works in August will leave your calendar empty in November. A static price that fills winter weeks will dramatically underprice your summer.

1. 1Peak season (July–August): Demand surges from Canadian families and US vacationers. A well-positioned 3-bedroom can command $300–$400+ per night.
2. 2Shoulder season (May–June, September–October): Solid demand, especially weekends and holidays. Rates typically 20–30% below peak.
3. 3Off-peak (November–April): Lower demand, but not zero. Extended-stay guests, remote workers, and snowbirds book at 40–60% below peak rates with longer minimum stays.

Beyond seasonality, Point Roberts demand is heavily influenced by border conditions, Canadian holidays (which differ from US holidays), weather patterns, and even gas prices. Static pricing ignores all of these signals. Dynamic pricing captures them automatically.

"The owners who resist dynamic pricing are almost always the ones who say 'my property is worth $X per night.' Your property is worth what the market will pay on that specific night. Some nights that's more than you expect. Some nights it's less. The math works in your favor over a full year."

— Alexander Henn, STAY49

How Dynamic Pricing Tools Work

Modern dynamic pricing platforms connect directly to your booking channels (Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com) and pull market data continuously. They analyze dozens of variables to produce a recommended rate for each night on your calendar. Here's what they look at:

• Comparable listings in your market — their rates, availability, and booking patterns
• Historical booking data for your property and similar properties
• Day-of-week demand patterns (Friday and Saturday nights command higher rates)
• Seasonal demand curves specific to your market
• Lead time — how far in advance the booking is being made
• Orphan days — gaps between bookings that are hard to fill
• Local events, holidays, and weather forecasts
• Your specific minimum and maximum price boundaries

The three most popular tools for vacation rental pricing are PriceLabs, Beyond (formerly Beyond Pricing), and Wheelhouse. Each has slightly different algorithms and interfaces, but all deliver similar value. At STAY49, we use PriceLabs for its granular customization options and strong performance in smaller, seasonal markets like Point Roberts.

Minimum Stays, Discounts & Fee Strategy

Dynamic pricing isn't just about the nightly rate. Your minimum-stay requirements, discount structures, and cleaning fee strategy all interact to determine your total revenue and profitability.

1. 1Peak season minimum stays: 3–4 nights reduces turnover costs and maximizes revenue per booking. Back-to-back 1-night bookings mean double the cleaning, double the linen costs, and double the operational complexity.
2. 2Shoulder season: Drop to 2-night minimums to capture more bookings when demand is moderate.
3. 3Off-peak: Consider weekly (7-night) and monthly (28-night) minimums with significant discounts — 15–20% weekly, 30–40% monthly. This attracts remote workers and extended-stay guests who are ideal winter tenants.
4. 4Last-minute gaps: Many tools can automatically lower your minimum stay for nights that are 3–7 days away and still unbooked — capturing revenue that would otherwise be lost.

Weekly and monthly discounts are particularly effective in Point Roberts' off-peak season. A property that might sit empty at $200/night in January can generate consistent revenue at $120/night with a monthly discount — that's still $3,600/month, far better than $0.

Common Pricing Mistakes to Avoid

Even with dynamic pricing tools, owners make mistakes that cost them revenue. Here are the most common ones we see:

1. 1Setting your minimum price too high: Your floor price should be the lowest rate you'd accept rather than let the night go unbooked. For most Point Roberts properties, that's $100–$150/night. An overly high floor keeps you empty during slow periods.
2. 2Setting your maximum price too low: Don't cap your peak-season rates out of fear of pricing yourself out. Let the tool test higher rates — you might be surprised at what the market will bear during a July long weekend.
3. 3Ignoring Canadian holidays: Victoria Day (late May), Canada Day (July 1), BC Day (early August), and Thanksgiving (mid-October) drive significant demand in Point Roberts. Make sure your pricing tool accounts for these — many default to US holidays only.
4. 4Not adjusting for property improvements: Upgraded your kitchen? Added a hot tub? Got professional photos? Raise your base rates to reflect the improved product. The tool optimizes relative to your base — if your base is stale, your optimized rate will be too.
5. 5Micromanaging the tool: The biggest mistake is overriding the algorithm too frequently. Trust the data. If your tool recommends $180 on a Tuesday in October, that's probably right — even if it feels low. Manual overrides should be rare and strategic, not habitual.

How STAY49 Handles Pricing

At STAY49, pricing optimization is a core part of every management package — not an add-on. Here's our approach:

• We set up and manage PriceLabs for every property, calibrated to Point Roberts' specific market dynamics
• Custom minimum-stay rules that shift automatically between peak, shoulder, and off-peak seasons
• Canadian holiday overlays — because our primary demand driver is Greater Vancouver, not Seattle
• Monthly pricing reviews with data-driven adjustments based on actual booking performance
• Quarterly competitive analysis — we track every comparable listing in Point Roberts to ensure our properties are positioned correctly
• Transparent reporting so you always know your average rate, occupancy, and revenue trends

The result: our managed properties consistently outperform self-managed comparable listings in both average daily rate and annual revenue. Not because we have a magic formula, but because we combine automated tools with deep local market knowledge and relentless optimization.