The short term rental market is highly seasonal, and one way to ensure profitability is to adopt a dynamic pricing strategy in line with seasonal trends. Dynamic pricing helps you set the right rental rate based on the main factors that affect the vacation rental industry, including seasonality, market demand, booking history, and local events. In this article, we will compare PriceLabs vs Wheelhouse, two of the most common dynamic pricing tools available.
Dynamic pricing significantly impacts your occupancy rate as well as the overall profitability of your rental business. This pricing strategy uses algorithms to adjust rental prices in real time. With the right dynamic pricing software, short term rental owners don’t need to adjust their rental rates manually.
Unlike static pricing, where rates are set uniformly across periods, dynamic pricing ensures that rental owners maximize revenue during peak times while maintaining competitive rates during off-peak periods. Through this, you can optimize your income and ensure that you don’t miss any booking opportunities from potential guests.
PriceLabs vs Wheelhouse: Quick Overview
When it comes to Airbnb dynamic pricing tools, PriceLabs and Wheelhouse are two of the most commonly used software platforms that offer pricing strategies. These systems claim to help property owners maximize their revenues. Both platforms employ algorithms to offer dynamic pricing solutions that adapt to market demand, seasonal trends, and local events.
This comparison aims to provide a quick overview of PriceLabs vs Wheelhouse, highlighting their key features and usability. We also compare how they can enhance the pricing strategies for vacation rental properties. By understanding the pros and cons of each platform, you can make the right decision that best suits your rental management needs.
What Is PriceLabs?
PriceLabs is a known software for dynamic pricing and revenue management for vacation rentals. Since its founding in 2014, PriceLabs has grown to become one of the leading players in the market, renowned for its data-driven approach to pricing.
The platform uses a blend of real-time market data, demand forecasting, and machine learning algorithms to help property managers and owners optimize their pricing strategies. The core of the PriceLabs offering is the ability to adjust rental prices daily based on fluctuating market conditions, demand patterns, and other significant factors such as local events and holidays.
This dynamic approach is supposed to help rental owners maximize their revenue potential and maintain competitive rates while optimizing Airbnb pricing. PriceLabs offers an easy-to-use interface and analytics dashboard that allow users to gain insights into their pricing strategy and market trends. Individual property owners to large property management companies can use PriceLabs.
Its integration with property management systems and booking platforms further enhances its accessibility and utility. This is why it’s a popular choice in the vacation rental industry for leveraging dynamic pricing for business growth and efficiency.
What Is Wheelhouse?
Wheelhouse is a comprehensive vacation rental revenue management platform that was launched to empower property owners and managers to optimize their Airbnb pricing strategies.
Wheelhouse combines data analytics with market insights to provide dynamic pricing recommendations. The platform features a design that offers a range of customizable pricing tools and detailed market analysis features, helping users make informed decisions.
It prides itself on a deep understanding of the complexities involved in rental pricing, incorporating variables such as seasonal trends, local demand fluctuations, and special events into its pricing algorithm. Wheelhouse also offers several resources and support to help users understand market dynamics and optimize their revenue strategies effectively.
The platform offers several integrations with various property management systems and listing sites. This is why it is a versatile short term rental pricing optimization tool for those looking to maximize their rental income through informed, dynamic pricing adjustments.
Wheelhouse vs PriceLabs: Feature Comparison
Feature comparison between PriceLabs and Wheelhouse
When comparing Wheelhouse vs PriceLabs, it’s important to take a look at their unique features and capabilities. By focusing on their respective features, you can discern which platform best aligns with your vacation rental management needs and strategic goals.
PriceLabs Features
Here are the top PriceLab features and pricing that you need to be aware of:
Dynamic Pricing
PriceLabs’ dynamic pricing feature uses an algorithm that analyzes market data, demand trends, and seasonality to adjust rental prices in real time. This ensures that property owners can capitalize on peak demand periods by raising prices, while also attracting bookings during slower periods by lowering rates.
The flexibility of this dynamic pricing software allows for customization according to specific property rules, ensuring that pricing strategies align with owners’ goals and market positioning.
Portfolio Analytics
PriceLabs offers a portfolio analytics tool that allows property managers to oversee and analyze the performance of their entire portfolio from a single dashboard. This feature provides insights into key metrics such as Airbnb occupancy rate, revenue trends, and booking patterns. It enables users to identify areas of improvement and make data-driven decisions.
By being able to view your portfolio’s performance, you can strategize how to position your rental property in the market more effectively to maximize your overall revenue.
Market Dashboards
The market dashboards feature in PriceLabs provides users with an in-depth analysis of local market conditions as well as information about their competitors. By presenting data on average prices, occupancy rates, and demand fluctuations within the vicinity, these dashboards help you understand market dynamics and adjust your pricing strategies accordingly.
APIs
PriceLabs also offers API integration, allowing property management systems and other software platforms to seamlessly connect with its dynamic pricing engine. It facilitates the automatic updating of prices across various booking channels, ensuring consistency and efficiency. Using API makes your pricing software’s channel manager more efficient.
In addition, the API feature is good for users with custom or proprietary systems. It enables them to integrate dynamic pricing capabilities directly into their existing operational workflows, thereby enhancing automation, reducing manual effort, and minimizing the risk of errors.
Wheelhouse Features
Below are the Wheelhouse features and pricing that you need to know:
Dynamic Pricing
Wheelhouse’s dynamic pricing tool is engineered to optimize rental income by adjusting prices based on real-time market data and trends. This feature takes into account billions of data points each night, such as seasonal demand, local events, and historical booking data, to set competitive rates that maximize earnings and occupancy.
Users can customize their pricing strategy with various settings to reflect their specific preferences and constraints. This helps ensure that the dynamic pricing model aligns with their business objectives and market positioning.
Comp Sets
The comp sets feature in Wheelhouse allows users to create and analyze competitive sets, offering a comparative view of similar listings in the area. This tool provides insights into how competitors are pricing their properties and how they perform in terms of occupancy and revenue.
By understanding the competitors, you can set your Airbnb pricing strategies and offerings to stay ahead in the market. It also allows you to make necessary adjustments based on direct comparisons with your peers.
Booking Insights
Wheelhouse also provides booking insights, a feature that delivers detailed analysis on booking trends and patterns for a user’s listings. This tool helps in understanding the booking behavior of guests, including lead times, stay durations, and peak booking periods. With this information, property owners and managers can fine-tune their pricing and marketing strategies for optimization.
Market Insights
This feature offers insights into the market dynamics, presenting data on average rates, occupancy levels, and demand fluctuations in the user’s locality. This macro-level view enables you to gauge your performance against the market and adjust strategies in response to market trends and shifts. These insights can help you stay competitive and make informed decisions in a constantly evolving short term rental market.
APIs
Wheelhouse’s API integration can connect its pricing engine and a user’s property management system or other rental platforms. This Wheelhouse feature ensures that dynamic pricing updates are automatically reflected across all channels, aiming to maintain price consistency and save time on manual updates.
The API functionality is ideal if you have custom tech stacks. It allows you to integrate Wheelhouse’s dynamic pricing capabilities directly into your existing operational workflows for enhanced efficiency and automation.
Based on features, our review shows that Wheelhouse offers more functionalities than PriceLabs.
PriceLabs vs Wheelhouse: Integrations
When it comes to Airbnb dynamic pricing tools, the ability to integrate with a wide array of listing websites and third-party tools is needed for operational efficiency and market reach. When comparing PriceLabs vs Wheelhouse in terms of integration capabilities, we take into account how property managers can synchronize their dynamic pricing strategies across various platforms.
This connectivity not only streamlines the management process but also ensures that pricing adjustments are consistently applied.
PriceLabs Integrations
Here are the PriceLabs integrations:
- Airbnb
- Booking.com
- VRBO
- Guesty
- Kigo
- Tokeet
- Escapia
- Lodgify
Wheelhouse Integrations
Following are the integrations available on Wheelhouse:
- Airbnb
- Jurny
- Guesty
- Hostfully
- Hostaway
- Streamline
- Escapia
- Smoobu (check out Smoobu reviews)
Based on PriceLabs vs Wheelhouse integrations, we can say that they are comparable.
Wheelhouse vs PriceLabs: Pricing Structure
The pricing structures of Wheelhouse vs PriceLabs both have flexible and scalable solutions to accommodate the diverse needs of vacation rental owners. Both platforms have transparent pricing models, with options suitable for individual property owners as well as larger property management companies.
Understanding these models is crucial to help you select the service that best fits your budget and operational scale.
PriceLabs Pricing
PriceLabs employs a per-listing pricing model, which is scalable based on the number of properties managed. The service typically offers a monthly subscription fee for each listing, with discounts available for larger portfolios. PriceLabs does not seem to have hidden fees.
Here are the pricing plans of PriceLabs:
- Portfolio Analytics: Free, but there is no dynamic pricing tool included
- Dynamic Pricing: Free for 30 days, then:
- Fixed: Starts at $19.99 per month
- Percentage: 1% booking percentage
- Add-ons
- Customer API Usage Charges: $1 per listing per month
- Additional Sync Per Day: $1 per listing per month
Wheelhouse Pricing
Wheelhouse also follows a per-listing pricing strategy, with its costs structured around the level of features and support required by the user. Similar to PriceLabs, Wheelhouse provides a pricing model that seems to have no hidden fees.
They offer a tiered pricing system, including a basic free tier with limited features and premium tiers that provide more advanced functionalities and insights. Wheelhouse’s pricing structure includes:
- Pro Flex Plan
- 1% of revenue + $2.99 minimum monthly fee (excluding taxes or fees)
- Discounts are available for 100+ listings
- Pro Flat Plan
- $19.99 per listing, per month
- Available discounts: 10 to 49 listings: $16.99 (15%), 50 to 99 listings: $13.99 (30%), 100+ listings: need to contact provider
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for portfolios of 100+, users must contact the provider
Based on the pricing structures, PriceLabs is considered more affordable because it offers a free basic plan. However, for hosts and property managers with larger portfolios, Wheelhouse may be more practical.
PriceLabs vs Wheelhouse: Who Are They Best For?
PriceLabs and Wheelhouse ideal users
Both PriceLabs and Wheelhouse cater to a wide range of users within the vacation rental industry. However, each has distinct features and capabilities that may make them more suitable for specific types of users.
PriceLabs Users
PriceLabs is better suited for property managers and owners who prioritize analytics and customizable pricing strategies. Its dynamic pricing algorithm, coupled with a focus on portfolio analytics and market dashboards, makes it an ideal choice for:
- Professional property managers managing multiple listings
- Individual property owners looking for customize pricing
- Users who value a wide range of integrations with property management systems and listing platforms
Wheelhouse Users
Wheelhouse appeals to users who seek a good user interface and market insights alongside dynamic pricing. Its emphasis on comp sets and booking insights makes it a potentially good fit for:
- Property managers and owners who want to monitor and adjust their strategies based on competitor actions and market trends
- Users new to dynamic pricing who can benefit from the platform’s educational resources and user-friendly design
- Hosts looking for a balance between automated pricing adjustments and manual control, with the ability to adapt to various levels of market analysis
PriceLabs vs Wheelhouse: Pros and Cons
Evaluating the pros and cons of PriceLabs vs Wheelhouse can provide a clearer picture of how each platform aligns with different needs and preferences in the vacation rental pricing market.
PriceLabs Pros
The main advantages of using PriceLabs include:
- Dynamic pricing capabilities that adjust to market demand and seasonal trends
- Portfolio analytics offering insights into performance across multiple listings
- Market dashboards for a detailed understanding of local competition and pricing strategies
- Integration with a variety of property management systems and listing sites.
- Customizable pricing rules to fit specific property or business requirements.
PriceLabs Cons
Meanwhile, some disadvantages of using PriceLabs are:
- The multiple features and data can be overwhelming for new users or those with simpler needs.
- Pricing may become less competitive for users with a smaller number of listings due to per-listing charges.
- Vacation rental software tools are limited to dynamic pricing and revenue management.
Wheelhouse Pros
Following are the benefits of Wheelhouse:
- User-friendly interface that simplifies the complexity of dynamic pricing for new users
- The comp sets feature that allows for direct comparison with competitors, helping pricing strategies
- Booking and market insights that provide valuable data for optimizing listing performance and understanding market dynamics
- Flexible pricing structure, including a free basic option, making it accessible for users with varying budgets
- API integration that facilitates seamless synchronization with other platforms
Wheelhouse Cons
Here are the main drawbacks of Wheelhouse:
- No free trial is available.
- While user-friendly, the level of analytics might not satisfy the needs of highly data-driven property managers.
- There are no vacation rental management automation tools beyond dynamic pricing and managing revenue.
Wheelhouse vs PriceLabs: Customer Reviews
When considering a dynamic pricing tool for vacation rentals, it’s essential to gauge how each platform stands in the eyes of its users. Customer reviews offer invaluable insights into the real-world performance, reliability, and user satisfaction associated with platforms like Wheelhouse vs PriceLabs.
These reviews, collected from reputable third-party websites, reflect the experiences of a diverse range of users. By checking out PriceLabs reviews and Wheelhouse reviews, you’ll be able to determine whether any of these two platforms meets your needs or you’ll need to look for PriceLabs alternatives or Wheelhouse alternatives that better suit your requirements and preferences.
Below, we’ve summarized the customer feedback for both PriceLabs vs Wheelhouse, providing a snapshot of their rankings on various review platforms:
PriceLabs Reviews
Vacation rental property hosts and managers can check out PriceLabs customer reviews on:
- Capterra: 4.9/5 stars from 189 reviews
- GetApp: 4.9/5 stars from 189 reviews
- Trustpilot: 4.6/5 stars from 59 reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 stars from 7 reviews
Wheelhouse Reviews
Some Wheelhouse customer reviews are available on:
- Capterra: 4.8/5 stars from 159 reviews
- GetApp: 4.8/5 stars from 159 reviews
- Trustpilot: 4.3/5 stars from 123 reviews
- G2: 5/5 stars from 49 reviews
Both Airbnb dynamic pricing tools have generally positive reviews by customers. Nevertheless, it’s helpful to check out some of those to learn more about what hosts and property managers like and don’t like about PriceLabs vs Wheelhouse.
What Is the Best Alternative to PriceLabs and Wheelhouse?
When it comes to finding the best Airbnb dynamic pricing tool, you need to consider Mashvisor. The Mashvisor Dynamic Pricing Software Tool is different from other competitors available in the market, including the Airbnb Smart Pricing feature. While most other tools focus on maximizing bookings and occupancy rate, the Mashvisor tool works towards enhancing revenue and ROI.
Mashvisor uses reliable data on the pricing and performance of rental comps as well as market insights to set up the optimal daily rate for each day for which your vacation rental is available for guests. Importantly, you can decide whether to review suggested rates manually or to set your vacation rental pricing strategy on autopilot, while maximizing Airbnb profit.
Some important functionalities of the Mashvisor pricing tool include:
- Market Insights: This lets you assess your competition by providing valuable insights about the market conditions within your neighborhood. It lets you check how similar properties in your area perform so you can better position your property in the market to make it stand out.
- Dynamic Pricing: It allows you to set your rental rates manually or let the AI-powered technology do this for you. It uses historical data like market demand, seasonality, local events, and booking history in setting the right prices.
- Smart Calendar: This smart multi-calendar feature automates your pricing directly on your calendar, ensuring that prices are in sync and avoiding unnecessary errors.
- Flexible Configuration: With this, you have full control over your Airbnb property’s pricing, booking settings, and availability. You can set the base price, minimum price, and maximum price, so that the automated prices do not go lower or higher than what you prefer.
A major difference between Mashvisor, on the one hand, and PriceLabs and Wheelhouse, on the other hand, is the availability of additional features. While the latter two focus on dynamic pricing, Mashvisor offers a comprehensive vacation rental property management software that features a channel manager, a multi-calendar, a unified inbox, a vacation rental website builder, an Airbnb calculator, comprehensive short term rental data, and even Airbnb insurance.
Furthermore, the Mashvisor platform allows hosts not only to streamline, automate, and improve the management of their already existing properties, but also to grow their investment portfolio.
Whether you are buying your first rental or expanding your portfolio, Mashvisor has all the tools you need to find profitable markets, locate the best vacation rentals for sale, and analyze the investment potential of properties before buying them.
Once you’ve purchased a vacation rental, you can continue using Mashvisor to manage all aspects of owning and renting out a short term rental. Moreover, you can continue adding more and more investments to your portfolio.
PriceLabs vs Wheelhouse: Which Is Better for Your Vacation Rental Business?
Choosing between PriceLabs and Wheelhouse for your vacation rental business depends on your specific needs and operational scale.
PriceLabs is better for those requiring data analysis and customizable pricing strategies, particularly suited for managers of multiple properties who need detailed control over pricing. Its strength lies in dynamic pricing, available analytics, and a range of integrations, catering to users who demand granular insights into their rental operations.
In contrast, Wheelhouse is more accessible for newcomers to dynamic pricing and those who value simplicity and user-friendly interfaces. It offers market insights and analysis tools, such as comp sets and booking insights, making it a fair choice for users seeking straightforward, actionable market data without the complexity of deep analytics.
However, for a more holistic platform that includes all aspects of vacation rental management and investment analysis, Mashvisor stands out as the superior option. Its dynamic pricing tool outperforms competitors as it boosts income and return on investment by striking the right balance between nightly rates and occupancy. It helps vacation rental owners maximize their Airbnb ROI by ensuring that they set the right rental rates at all times.
Further, Mashvisor offers a wide array of tools on top of dynamic pricing, both for investing in profitable vacation rental properties and managing them. These tools make it the go-to choice for a comprehensive overview of your vacation rental investment.