With Airbnb currently operating in some 65,000 cities in more than 190 countries, there’s a good chance you’ve already stayed in at least a few of the properties listed on its site. You may even have a few properties on its site.
If you do, or if you’re considering renting a room out to earn some extra cash, there’s a new service that makes it easy to ensure you’re getting the right price for your rental.
Built by a Silicon Valley startup, the AI-powered service, which goes with the curious name Eliot&me, asks you to enter all the parameters for the property before crunching the data and spitting out a daily and weekly rate. It even offers separate rates for each month by taking into account the popularity of other rentals in the area at different times of the year, TNW reported.
The startup says its algorithm “learns from historical trends, competing services and products, supply and demand signals, and more,” while its overriding aim is “to get you a fair price.”
Airbnb does offer a calculator of its own, but it’s pretty basic. Eliot&me asks for a wider range of information, including the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, how many guests the place sleeps, and whether you’re renting the entire place or just a room.
Even if you’re not renting, it’s still fun to use the site to see what you might get if it was on Airbnb. It might even tempt you into submitting a listing.
The results also displays a map showing comparable properties in your immediate area, which, when the service comes out of beta, you’ll be able to click on to explore further. Scroll down the page and you’ll see year-round weather data for the location, with average temperatures and rainfall displayed month by month.
Finally, there’s an interesting feature showing what renting your place for a week gets you at Airbnb properties elsewhere in the world. You can then click through to reload the page with the same data for that particular destination.
Of course, an Airbnb property will also be priced according to furnishings and its general condition, but Eliot&me could certainly form a useful part of your research if you ever consider putting a room or property on the home-sharing site, or if you’re simply looking to rent privately.
