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Guide · UK hosts
How to price your Airbnb: five steps for UK hosts
Same price all year? Then you’re probably too cheap in August and too dear in January. Here’s how to set your Airbnb price in five steps, using tools Airbnb already gives you for free.
In short
- There's no right price in general. There's only a right price against the listings a guest sees next to yours, on the nights they want.
- Five steps: find five to eight real competitors, set a base price from what booked, add a weekend price, price seasons and events, then fill the gaps.
- Airbnb's calendar shows the average booked and unbooked prices of similar listings. Use it, then check your own shortlist.
- Check every couple of weeks. Filling much faster than your competitors probably means you're too cheap.
How guests judge your price
Since April 2025, guests on Airbnb see the total price by default, "including all fees before taxes". Your nightly price and your cleaning fee are judged together, as one number.
That number also affects where you appear. Airbnb's Help Centre says the quality, popularity, price and location of a listing heavily influence its ranking, and that search looks at your total price against other listings in the area for the same dates. In Airbnb's words: "Listings that are priced below other comparable listings… tend to rank higher."
So the useful question isn't "what is my place worth?". It's "what does my place cost next to the five or so places a guest is weighing it against, on these dates?".
Plenty of hosts don't price that way. According to AirDNA, a data company, only about 1 in 3 UK hosts (33%) had highly variable prices through 2025. Airbnb itself told shareholders in August 2026: "Effective pricing is one of the biggest drivers of host success."
The three prices Airbnb gives you
Airbnb has three types of price, and the five steps below use all of them.
| Price | What it does | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Base | The default price for every night on your calendar | A normal weeknight (step 2) |
| Weekend | Covers Friday and Saturday nights. Set from −50% to +50% of your base, and moves when your base moves | Your weekend premium (step 3) |
| Custom | Overrides the base or weekend price for the nights you choose | Seasons, school holidays and events (step 4) |
Airbnb Resource Centre, articles 370 and 707; Help Centre, article 512 (read 9 October 2026). To set your own weekend price, Airbnb says you need Smart Pricing turned off.
Step 1: find five to eight real competitors
A competitor is a listing a guest would choose between you and. Match on:
- Size: the same number of bedrooms and the same number of guests.
- The feature people filter for: a hot tub, dogs allowed, parking. If you have one, your competitors need it too.
- Distance: close enough that a guest would weigh you up side by side.
The test is one question: if they didn't book me, where would they stay? Write down five to eight listings that pass it, with their links, so you can check the same set each time.
Airbnb gives you a head start. In your calendar, pick a date range of up to 31 days and Airbnb shows the average prices of similar listings nearby on a map: the ones that got booked, and the ones that didn't. It chooses "similar" by location, size, features, amenities, ratings, reviews and the other listings guests browse.
Three limits to know:
- Airbnb picks those listings itself, so you can't choose which ones count. Check your own shortlist too.
- They're nightly prices. Airbnb says "You're not comparing trip totals", because cleaning fees and discounts change the total.
- The similar listings don't appear if Smart Pricing is on, or if there aren't enough listings to compare on those dates.
Step 2: set your base price from what booked
Start from what booked, not what's listed. Airbnb's Help Centre says booked prices "can be a good benchmark for the price guests would likely pay". Unbooked prices only tell you what hosts asked for.
- Find the booked average for a normal weeknight, outside school holidays.
- Move up or down from it. Better reviews, a better view or a hot tub than your shortlist? You can sit higher. Fewer of those? Sit lower.
- Check your costs. Airbnb's own advice is to "try to balance your costs with what guests are willing to pay". Remember Airbnb's fee comes out of your payout: see Airbnb's 15.5% host fee.
- Check the total. Airbnb reminds hosts that any fees you add, like a cleaning fee, affect the total price guests see.
Brand new, with no reviews? Airbnb says starting lower "can help you attract your first guests and reviews", and offers a new-listing promotion of 20% off your first 3 bookings. After some great reviews, Airbnb suggests you revisit your price.
Step 3: price weekends differently
Airbnb suggests charging a different price on weekdays from Friday and Saturday nights. Its weekend price covers exactly those two nights.
How much more? There's no national rule. Take your shortlist for one ordinary week and compare their Tuesday and Wednesday prices with their Friday and Saturday prices. Copy the gap.
Our maths (an illustrative example): if your competitors charge about £120 midweek and £165 on Friday and Saturday, the gap is £45, or about 38% on the weeknight price (45 ÷ 120). Set your weekend adjustment near that.
Because the weekend price is a percentage of your base, it moves when you change your base. A custom price on a Friday or Saturday always overrides it.
Step 4: price seasons and events
UK demand swings a lot through the year. Official figures from the ONS show 4,399,580 occupied (booked) nights in UK short-term lets in August 2025, against 1,666,890 in January 2025.
Our maths: 4,399,580 ÷ 1,666,890 = 2.64. August had about two and a half times as many nights booked as January.
- Summer and school holidays: price higher, using custom prices for those dates.
- Winter weeknights: price lower, but never below what a stay costs you. Our slow season guide covers winter in detail.
- Local events: look ahead for a festival, a race or a big wedding weekend that fills your area early. Raise those nights before you sell them cheaply.
Step 5: fill the gaps
With a two-night minimum, a single empty night between two bookings can't sell at all. You have three ways to fix that:
- Allow a one-night stay on that night. Airbnb lets you set a custom trip length that's shorter than your minimum for chosen dates.
- Use the last-minute discount. It applies to bookings made from 1 to 28 days before check-in.
- Offer weekly or monthly discounts. Discounts of 10% or more get a callout in search, with your original price crossed out.
Then check every couple of weeks
Airbnb's own advice is to "Review your price regularly to stay competitive." Every couple of weeks, open your shortlist for the next few weeks of dates and compare it with your own calendar:
- You're filling up much faster than your competitors? A general rule of thumb in pricing is that you're probably too cheap. Test a higher price on the nights that are still open.
- They're booked and you're not? It's your price or your listing. Compare your total price for the same dates first, then your photos, reviews and features.
- Everyone's empty? It may simply be a quiet period. Hold your price and look at your settings before you cut.
Doing this for every night by hand takes time. The box below shows how PeakRate can do the competitor tracking for you.
Questions hosts ask
How do I work out what to charge for my Airbnb?
Find five to eight listings a guest would choose between you and: same size, same key features, close by. Start your base price near the average booked price of similar listings for a normal weeknight, which Airbnb shows in your calendar, then move up or down for reviews, views and features.
How much more should I charge at weekends?
There’s no national rule. Compare your competitors’ Tuesday and Wednesday prices with their Friday and Saturday prices for one week, and copy the gap. Airbnb’s weekend price covers Friday and Saturday and can be set from −50% to +50% of your base price.
Should a new Airbnb listing start with a lower price?
Airbnb says starting lower can help you attract your first guests and reviews, and it offers a new-listing promotion of 20% off your first 3 bookings. Airbnb suggests revisiting your price once you have some great reviews.
Does a cheaper price help my Airbnb ranking?
Airbnb’s Help Centre says price is one of the factors that heavily influence ranking, and that listings priced below comparable listings tend to rank higher. It compares your total price, fees included, with other listings for the same dates.
How often should I change my Airbnb prices?
Airbnb advises reviewing your price regularly. Checking against your competitors every couple of weeks is a practical rhythm: if you’re filling much faster than them, you’re probably too cheap.
Check it against your real competitors
Every step above comes down to one check: your price next to your real competitors, night by night. You can do it by hand on Airbnb, or let PeakRate track it for you.
- Free listing audit (Airbnb listings). Paste your Airbnb listing link and PeakRate compares your price and listing with similar ones nearby.
- PeakRate, for the full picture. You choose the competitors that count, PeakRate tracks their prices night by night, and puts a suggested price next to the typical competitor price. Nothing changes until you approve it.
- Built for UK hosts, priced in pounds. From £49 a month for up to 3 properties, with a 14-day free trial and no card. It sends approved prices through Hospitable today, with more systems coming soon (see the latest).
More guides
- Airbnb’s 15.5% host fee
- Airbnb slow season
- Airbnb bookings down?
- Airbnb cleaning fee
- Airbnb minimum stay
- Airbnb occupancy rate
- Airbnb conversion rate
- Airbnb Smart Pricing
- PriceLabs vs Airbnb Smart Pricing
- PriceLabs alternatives
Sources
- Airbnb Newsroom, "Total price display is now standard globally" (21 April 2025): guests see the total price, including all fees before taxes, by default
- Airbnb Help Centre, "How search results work" (article 39): what heavily influences ranking, and listings priced below comparable listings tending to rank higher
- AirDNA, "European Review: A Deep Dive into 2025 Performance": 33% of UK hosts had highly variable prices in 2025 (vendor data)
- Airbnb, Q2 2026 shareholder letter (6 August 2026): “Effective pricing is one of the biggest drivers of host success.”
- Airbnb Resource Centre, "Understanding pricing on Airbnb" (article 370, updated 14 July 2025): base, weekend and custom prices; balancing costs with what guests will pay
- Airbnb Help Centre, "Weekend adjustment for home listings" (article 512, read 9 October 2026): Friday and Saturday, −50% to +50%, moves with the base price, Smart Pricing off, custom prices override
- Airbnb Resource Centre, "How to compare the average prices of similar listings" (article 583, updated 11 November 2024, re-read 9 October 2026): how similar listings are chosen; booked and unbooked averages; up to 31 days
- Airbnb Help Centre, article 3399 (re-read 9 October 2026): booked prices as a benchmark; not trip totals; hidden with Smart Pricing on
- Airbnb Resource Centre, "Review your price" (article 655, updated 14 July 2025, re-read 9 October 2026): starting lower for first reviews, 20% off the first 3 bookings, fees and the total price, last-minute discount, reviewing regularly
- Airbnb Resource Centre, "Finding success when it’s slow" (article 704, updated 19 March 2025): a different price for weekdays and weekends
- Airbnb Resource Centre, "Using Airbnb pricing tools" (article 707, updated 14 July 2025, re-read 9 October 2026): the base price as the default; 10%+ weekly and monthly discounts called out with the original price crossed out
- Airbnb Resource Centre, "Updating your availability" (article 708, updated 14 July 2025, re-read 9 October 2026): custom trip lengths shorter than your minimum
- ONS, "Guest nights, nights and stays for short-term lets, monthly, UK" dataset, Table 2a (24 June 2026): occupied nights, January and August 2025
- Our maths: 4,399,580 ÷ 1,666,890 = 2.64; illustrative weekend gap £45 ÷ £120 = 37.5%
PeakRate makes pricing and competitor-benchmarking software for hosts. Where this guide mentions it, we say so; everything else is sourced above.