Pricing

Log in > My Listings > Edit > Pricing

Please be advised: We have 3 ways to set pricing; unlike most other marketplaces.

• Base price
• Seasonal Pricing
• Calendar Pricing

Seasonal Prices override Base Prices and Calendar Prices override both, Seasonal and Base Prices!

Houfy shows exact pricing calculations when guests inquire with selected dates

Pricing, as well as your Pictures, Name & Description of your listing, are THE 4 MOST IMPORTANT factors for getting bookings or not.

Have you been to a fruit market lately? Which banana do you buy? The discounted older looking one or the good looking perfect bananas for the right price? How does your property show on Houfy? Is the picture perfect or is it outdated/too small? It is the first impression guests have! How about the price? Is your place correctly priced? Or too expensive/cheap? Filter properties around your place and check your pricing.

Did you know the market across the street has great bananas for an even better price? It is the same price as going to the banana dealer direct. Houfy wants to be this new market for properties across the street.

Pricing:

A) Base price: $100 a night (You researched places around you and noticed the prices are around this price for places with similar options/amenities)

• You could consider giving a discount for a week by setting a weekly price: $630 (90$ a night)
• The same for the month (We calculate 30 days): for example: $2550 (85$/Night)

Be advised: Houfy calculates the weekly rate for stays of 7 or more nights, the same is true for monthly rates.. (A guest who wishes to stay for 32 nights will pay $85 in above example..)

B) Seasonal price: (These prices will override the base price)

• Summer season: June 15th - September 1st: $125
• Winter season: December 15th - April 15th: $150

Currently, they are set for specific years only as the calendar is used to create them. The seasons expire and you have an option to get an e-mail notification to adjust the season once expired. (Just keep the season and edit the days/price)

C) Calendar price: (These prices override both the seasonal price and the base price)

This can be useful for offering discounts or last minute specials or when there is a special event you could increase or decrease your pricing in a very simple way.

1. Please select menu > Manage Listings.
2. Select the listing you want to edit, and then click Edit.
3. Click Pricing from the left menu and click on Rates & Fees.
4. Click the Yes button and complete the required fields below:

• Pet Fee
• Taxable
• Per stay/Per pet
• Charge per night
• Maximum number of pets allowed.

You can change the minimum night requirement at:

• Menu > Manage Listings > Edit > Pricing > Rates & Fees
• Menu > Manage Listings > Edit > Pricing > Seasons if you have any seasons
• Menu > Manage Listings > Edit > Calendar > Select dates and change the min. nights.

If you are connected with PriceLabs or Host-tools, please update your minimum stay there and sync pricing to Houfy.

Please select pricing at edit listing and select or remove the checkmarks..

How to set a base changeover for check-in and check-out?

An example, If I want to allow the guest to check-in and check-out only on Saturday and Sunday. It can be set that as below. :

How to set a seasonal changeover for check-in and check-out?

Navigation: Edit listing -> Pricing -> Seasons

To set a seasonal change-over, you need to add a season and select the change-over for check-in and check-out.

How the listing calendar will look like?

As I have set the seasonal changeover of Sunday for both check-in and check-out, guests will able to select only those days for their selection.

Once your calendar starts to fill, rates/min. night stays might need to be adjusted. (It's common for owners to lift minimum night restrictions, as to minimize 1-2 night calendar gaps). To do this, you can:

1. Edit each season's beginning/end dates and/or rates.

OR

2. Override the seasonal rates with calendar pricing.

When editing one season's start/end dates, often the preceding/subsequent seasons will need to be adjusted as well. This can be time-consuming if you don't use a channel manager or dynamic pricing software.

A general (not literal) view when comparing seasonal and calendar pricing is:

• Seasonal rates = set it and forget it
• Calendar rates = manual dynamic pricing

But most hosts use a combination of the two, as they tend to overlap.

For example, in the Outer Banks, Jersey Shore, and Cape Cod it's common to require weekly reservations only, with a weekly designated changeover date. If each week was created as a separate season, then the host just edits the rate of each season as supply/demand fluctuates.

But in markets where the minimum night stay varies: reservations may range from 1 to 14 nights, calendar pricing is probably more convenient.

How do I add calendar pricing?

1. Go to the calendar view in your dashboard: Manage listings > Calendar
2. Highligh the calendar dates that need to be edited
3. Adjust rates and minimum night stay in the left pop-up window.

You can also choose to display or hide the seasonal rates table on your listing's homepage.

1. Log in
2. Menu (top right)
3. Manage Listings
4. Edit > Pricing > Rates & Fees

Members with connected payments will have two options:

• Charge through Houfy
• Collected by Host.

Members who collect payment outside of Houfy will only have the Collected by Host option. You will invoice your guest directly the same way you invoice them to collect the rental rate/cleaning fee, etc.

Owners who have Square or Stripe connected will see this option.

Note: Only members who use the Charge through Houfy option will see "At Booking" in their drop down menu.

If you prefer to collect outside of these options, you can set up the damage deposit as a fee.

1. Please select menu > Manage Listings.
2. Select the listing you want to edit, and then click Edit.
3. Click Pricing from the left menu and click on Rates & Fees.
4. To complete the security damage deposit, fill in the required details and click Continue.

You can edit this setting at:

1. Log in
2. Menu (top right)
3. Manage Listings
4. Edit > Pricing > Rates & Fees
5. Scroll down to the securit deposit part and select show or hide.

You can easily show or hide the security deposit on your listing by going to:

Menu > Manage Listings > edit > pricing

Scroll down to: security deposit > edit > Show or hide from your listing.

• Go to My listings
• Select Edit
• Click on the Pricing tab: here you can include or exclude the security deposit into the total payment due.

2) At My Listings > edit > settings > Payment information you can request a reservation deposit. This can be a small amount of the total rent due and can be a fixed $ amount or a percentage of the total.

There has been a lot of interest in how I use PayPal to do security deposit authorization holds. So I am posting the instructions on how to do that. Feel free to reach out with any questions or feedback!

They are automatically is lifted (no sending it back) when a claim isn't made within 29 days. My original post has more information about the benefits of doing this. Processing fees are only collected for the specific amount that you make a claim on. If you don't make a claim and the hold expires there are no processing fees!

How to Set Up a Security Deposit Credit Card Authorization
1. Set up a JotForm account. The free version is what I use
2. Set up a business PayPal (not sure if this works with PayPal Personal)
3. On JotForm press Create Form
4. Press Start From Scratch
5. Select Classic Form
6. On the left select Add Form Element. You will need the following elements:
a. iFrame embed (under widget tab)
b. Full Name
c. Short Text
d. Paragraph
e. Email
f. PayPal Standard (under payments tab) PayPal Commerce works as well but will show Standard as it might work with PayPal Personal but PayPal Commerce only is for PayPal Business
g. Unique ID (under widgets)
7. Go to Houfy and get the link for your photos iframe. You will find this under the photo section of your listing. Click Embed Photos and copy just the https link (where it says src= in quotes). Go back to JotForm and select your iframe. Select the wizard wand (widget settings). Paste this url into Frame URL. Select the gear (properties) and adjust width and height as desired. Drag it to be above your header so it functions as a banner
8. Select the Header and change the text from Form to Security Deposit. If you have named your place add it to the subheader
9. Select Full Name. Click on the gear (properties). Change question text to Booking Name. Optional – make it a required field
10. Select Short Text. Click on the gear (properties). Change question text to Houfy Confirmation #. Optional – make it a required field
11. Select paragraph. Click on the gear (properties). Change question text to include “This will put a 29 day authorization hold in the unlikely event that damages occur during you stay. Check-in instructions will be emailed to you when the hold is authorized” and any other information they need to convey
12. Select Email. Click on the gear (properties). Change the question text to What Email Should Invoice Be Sent To? Make this field required
13. Select Payment Standard. Click on the wizard wand (Payment Settings). Input your PayPal account email. Payment type should be Sell Products. Under Additional Gateway Settings:
a. Enable Users Can Select Multiple Products
b. Enable Show Total Price on the Form
c. Enable Authorization Only
d. Change Pending Payment Email to Notifiers and Autoresponders so both you and the guest get an email stating the payment didn’t go through
e. Press continue
14. You should be redirected to the products tab. Press create new product. Change name to “Security Deposit”. Change price to what you charge for a security deposit. Enable required so it’s automatically selected and cannot be removed. Press save product. If you charge additional deposits like for events or pets add them but do not make them required. But do add in the paragraph above that if they aren’t selected then the pet may not come or the event may not take place until rectified.
15. Optional – select the invoice tab and enable the invoice creation
16. Select Unique ID. Click the gear (properties). Under prefix input “# INV-“. Either select Sequential Numbers or Random Numbers depending on how you like to see invoice numbers.
17. Change from the Build portion of the form to Settings at the top
18. Change Title to Security Deposit
19. Select Emails
a. Click Notification 1 (the emails you will receive when a guest submits)
i. Edit email subject. From the drop down list select any of the fields you set up earlier to make it easier for you to identify the booking
ii. Under recipients. Change sender name to the guest name option or leave it as JotForm
b. Click Autoresponder 1 (the emails the guest will receive when submitting)
i. Edit Email subject as desired using drop down menus of the fields you added earlier to customize and/or by manually typing
ii. Delete the default email content. Change it to your custom welcome letter. Also include that an invoice (if you opted for this) and the check-in instructions are attached
iii. Under recipients. Change sender name to your name and/or your property Name
iv. Under advanced
1. Optional – enable the PDF attachment so the guest gets a copy of their submission
2. Upload your check-in instructions under Attach a File. Now the check-in information is automatically provided but only after everything is in order with the security deposit
3. Change sender email to your email so that guests can email you back with any questions. To do this you need to select add an email in the drop down menu. Under email type select verified. Then go to the bottom and add your email. Make sure to confirm the email address with the verification code
20. Select Thank You Page
i. You have two options to choose from
1. Show a Thank You page. You can edit and change what they provide to provide them with additional information and/or to remind them to check their email for the check-in instructions
2. Redirect to External Page. You can alternatively redirect them to your guidebooks on Houfy. Just input the link
21. Select Publish at the top. Edit your link using “security-deposit”. Now you and your guest can see what it’s for just by looking at the link. Press apply then copy the link for your records so you can easily send it as part of your “I’m so excited to host you next week you can get the check-in information by authorizing the security deposit at this link” message