You’ve set your vacation rental at $175 a night. Then you see a similar-looking place nearby asking $145.

Your first thought might be, “Am I charging too much?”

A day later, somebody books your next available weekend. Now you’re thinking, “Was I charging too little?”

That’s the trouble with pricing. One empty date can make you nervous. One quick booking can make you second-guess yourself. Neither tells you the whole story.

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Hi, I’m Gerry MacPherson. I’ve spent more than 30 years in hospitality, and I help vacation rental owners build better businesses with less stress.

Today, I want to help you answer one question: How do I know if my prices are too high, too low, or just right?

We’ll look at what guests actually compare, why a full calendar can still leave money on the table, and four things you can check before changing a rate.

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Start with the stay a guest is buying

Here’s where a lot of owners get stuck. They search their area, spot a lower nightly rate and feel they have to match it.

But the two properties may offer very different stays.

Perhaps yours sleeps six and the cheaper place sleeps four. Perhaps you have parking, allow dogs and sit within walking distance of the beach. The other property may have none of those things.

Even if both places have two bedrooms, the comparison may still be uneven. Look at the photographs, reviews, number of bathrooms, location and stay rules. A guest choosing between those rentals is weighing more than the number beside each calendar date.

Then there’s the total price.

Suppose you charge $170 a night and another owner charges $180. At first glance, yours looks cheaper. But if a guest books two nights and your cleaning fee is higher, their total may tell a different story.

That’s why I’d begin with a real trip, using dates and a length of stay somebody can actually book. Look at the total the guest would see. Then compare it with a few properties that offer a similar experience.

You’re looking for an honest answer to this question: Why would a guest choose my property at this price?

If you have a good answer, make sure your listing shows it. A guest can’t value your covered parking if it’s buried near the bottom of the description.

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Don’t let one booking judge your whole calendar

Now let’s talk about booking speed.

If a weekend books almost as soon as you open it, you might wonder whether you could have charged more. Maybe you could. But perhaps the guest needed your exact location, dates or pet policy. One booking doesn’t tell you what the next guest would have paid.

The same goes for an empty weekend. Price may be the problem. It may also be your main photograph, a three-night minimum for a weekend most people want to book for two, or a date guests in your market tend to reserve later.

That’s why booking patterns help more than single events.

Think about comparable weekends you’ve offered before. Were they usually booked by this point? Are similar properties booking now? Are you getting enquiries for these dates?

If several similar weekends remain open while comparable properties fill, that deserves a closer look. If one date is open three months ahead, you may have very little to worry about.

And before you lower the rate, check whether a guest can book the stay they want. A discount won’t help someone searching for two nights if your minimum is three.

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Check what a booking leaves behind

A full calendar can feel reassuring. It doesn’t automatically mean your vacation rental is earning what it needs to earn.

Every stay has costs. You may pay for cleaning, laundry, supplies, utilities, platform fees and repairs. Turnovers also take time, even when somebody else does the work.

Let’s use a simple example. Imagine you book 15 nights at $160. That brings in $2,400 in accommodation revenue.

If you book 14 nights at $175, that brings in $2,450.

You’ve hosted one fewer night and brought in $50 more before costs. At $190 for 12 booked nights, though, the revenue falls to $2,280.

Those are made-up figures, and your own results will differ. The point is that neither the lowest price nor the fullest calendar wins automatically.

So ask yourself, “What does this stay leave for the business?”

You don’t need an elaborate report to begin. Write down the expected booking income and the costs you can reasonably assign to that stay. Remember that some costs arrive whether anyone books or not, so your pricing also needs to support the wider business over time.

This gives you something firmer than the feeling that a rate “looks about right.”

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Give one set of dates a four-part check

If you’re unsure about your prices, don’t try to solve the whole year this afternoon. Choose one set of upcoming dates that’s been bothering you.

First, check the guest’s total price for a realistic stay. Include the fees they’ll see.

Second, choose a few fair comparisons. Look for properties with similar capacity, location and features. Note the differences that could matter to a guest.

Third, look at booking pace. Compare these dates with similar dates you’ve offered before, and see whether comparable places are still available.

Fourth, check what you keep. Will a booking at this rate make a useful contribution after the costs of hosting?

Now you have a clearer basis for a decision.

Your rate may be too high if comparable places are booking, your guest-facing total is much higher, and a guest can’t see a good reason for the difference. That last point matters. If your place offers more, show that value clearly.

Your rate may be too low if desirable dates repeatedly book much earlier than expected, your total sits well below fair comparisons, and the extra occupied nights aren’t improving what you earn.

Your rate may be about right if the booking pace supports your goals, the total looks reasonable beside similar stays, and the bookings leave enough for the business.

Notice that I’ve said “may” each time. Pricing isn’t a verdict you reach from one glance at a calendar. It’s a decision you improve as you learn.

This week’s Pricing Confidence Worksheet gives you a place to work through that decision for your own rental. You’ll find it through Vacation Rental Resolutions on Patreon.

Which part of pricing gives you the most doubt: the nearby listings, the empty dates, or knowing what you actually keep? Let me know in the comments.

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Change one thing, then pay attention

Once you’ve done the check, you may decide to change your price. Keep that change manageable.

Choose a defined set of dates. Write down your old rate, your new rate and why you changed it. Then watch what happens over a sensible period for your market’s booking habits.

If you change your nightly rate, cleaning fee, minimum stay and main photograph all at once, you won’t know which change made the difference.

Sometimes your four-part check will show that price needs attention. Sometimes it will point somewhere else. Perhaps your first photograph doesn’t show the best part of the rental. Perhaps your stay rule blocks the trips guests want to take.

That’s still useful. You’ve found a more likely next step than another anxious discount.

If you’re building a regular routine for your rental, start with the free 7-Day Vacation Rental Jumpstart. It helps you give decisions like pricing a place in how you run the property.

For a wider look at the decisions owners face, you can also join The 5 Biggest Mistakes Vacation Rental Owners Make and How to Fix Them Fast. Start with the pricing check here, then take the next step that fits your business.

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Here Are Your Key Takeaways

• Compare the guest’s total price.
• Choose genuinely similar rentals.
• Watch patterns, not one booking.
• Check what remains after costs.
• Change one thing and review it.

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In Conclusion

You don’t have to find one perfect nightly rate and defend it forever.

You need a way to decide whether the rate you’ve set makes sense for a particular stay. Look at what the guest pays, what similar properties offer, how your dates are booking and what remains for your business.

That gives you a calmer answer than copying the cheapest neighbour or lowering your price each time you see an empty square on the calendar.

Pick one upcoming weekend and give it the four-part check. You can use the Pricing Confidence Worksheet to work through it, and the free 7-Day Vacation Rental Jumpstart is there if you want to build a steadier routine.

You can also listen to the related podcast episode, How Guessing Your Vacation Rental Pricing Is Costing You Bookings, for more on why reacting to each calendar change can make pricing harder.

Next episode, we’ll talk about Seasonality Made Simple and ask, “How should I adjust prices throughout the year?”

If you are interested in more resources to help grow your business, visit vacationrentalresolutions.com.

And if you’d like to take what we talk about here and actually put it to work, come and join us inside Vacation Rental Resolutions on Patreon. That’s where I share practical worksheets, checklists, templates and member resources designed to help you turn these ideas into action, one step at a time. You can find a link in the show notes.

And if you’d simply like to buy us a coffee and help keep Vacation Rental Resolutions going, that’s always appreciated. I promise we’ll put the caffeine to good use creating more ideas, systems and stories to help independent hotels grow without the chaos.

Remember, you don’t need to have everything figured out. You just need to know your next right step.

Thanks for spending some time with me today. Take care of yourself, take care of your guests, and I’ll see you next time on Vacation Rental Resolutions.