How to configure your prices so they show up the way you expect on Airbnb and Booking.com

1. From your Rental Ninja price to the platform price

Your rate in Rental Ninja is the base accommodation price per night. Before it reaches the guest, that price passes through several layers. Understanding each layer is the key to stop seeing “mysteries” in the calendar:

• Base rate (RN). The nightly price exactly as you define it in Rental Ninja.

• Channel markup. A percentage applied on top of the base rate, which you configure per channel and per listing. Typical values are moderate —around 16%, 20% or 25%—. Rental Ninja applies it and sends it to the OTAs exactly as you indicate; it adds no surcharge of its own.

• Mandatory fees and services, not included in the per-night price. Cleaning, bed linen, etc. They are defined per property and are usually per stay, not per night.

• Taxes. If you have defined a VAT or a tax to charge the guest (e.g. 10% VAT on the booking price) and you configure it in Rental Ninja, the OTA shows it in the price breakdown the guest sees. In the case of Booking.com, they usually add a VAT% included in the booking price by default, but depending on the law that applies in your area of activity you can choose whether to include or exclude it from the per-night price directly on Booking.com, or even ask them to remove it if you are not legally required to charge it. Before configuring it, check whether your activity is really obliged to pass on that VAT: if it isn’t, you’ll be raising your price for no reason.

• How each OTA displays it. The platform decides how it packages all of the above into the per-night price it shows in the calendar. This is where almost all the confusion is born.

2. Other settings that also move the final price

Beyond rate, markup, fees and taxes, several Rental Ninja settings change what the guest sees. You don’t need to master them all right now; just know they exist and that none of them acts in isolation:

• Minimum stay. How many nights you accept at minimum. Beyond filtering bookings, it decides how the cleaning fee is spread per night (the effect in the next section). Check that each channel’s derived rates don’t lower it.

• Extra guest price. A charge per additional guest per night. It means that the same date can show different prices depending on how many guests the traveler searches for — that’s not an error, it’s your occupancy-based setup.

• Minimum and maximum nightly price. These are Smart Pricing’s guardrails: it never goes below the minimum or above the maximum. Set too close together, you choke the engine; if the minimum is high, you stay expensive in low season.

• Seasonality and weekends. They adjust the base price by periods and by specific days.

• Last-minute discounts. They lower the price as the date approaches and availability remains.

• Availability window, maximum stay and gap optimization. They control which dates open up and help avoid stray unsold nights (“orphan gaps”).

• Currency. If the channel’s currency differs from your Rental Ninja currency, the price is converted on every push; small differences due to exchange rates are normal.

3. Why the number looks like a much bigger markup than you set

This is the most common misunderstanding. With an already high markup —say 80%, well above what’s advisable—, Booking can show amounts equivalent to a 130–150% markup. The explanation is that cleaning and VAT are added to the rate that already includes the markup, and the OTAs show that total, not the “clean” nightly price.

4. Real numerical examples

These two examples reconstruct, euro by euro, how you get from the Rental Ninja rate to the exact number shown on Booking. They use an 80% markup —deliberately high so the effect is visible, not as a recommended reference (see section 5)— and 10% VAT on the accommodation (cleaning varies by apartment).

5. Use the markup in moderation

The markup is a legitimate tool, but it should be used wisely. A high markup makes sense mainly as a cushion to absorb specific promotions and discounts on a channel (e.g. mobile discounts, Genius, last-minute deals on Booking): you raise the starting price so that, after the discount, the net stays where you want it. If you are not applying those promotions, a high markup does just one thing: make your final price more expensive than the competition and push your occupancy down. And if you’re in an area with plenty of supply, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

As a reference, most managers work within moderate ranges —around 16% (those who don’t use discounts and promotions), 20% or 25% (those who tend to include discounts and promotions as a sales strategy). The lower and more stable your markup, the easier it will be to understand the final price and the cleaner the data both you and the dynamic pricing tool work with.

Signs that your markup is too high:

• The final price the guest sees surprises even you when you look at it on the platform.

• You have a high markup but you’re not offsetting it with equivalent promotions or discounts on that channel.

• Your occupancy has dropped since you set that markup, with no other cause to explain it.

6. Let an intelligent system manage the price

Managing rates night by night by hand —and on top of that with high markups to “correct” what the platforms show— is exhausting and error-prone. It’s precisely the scenario where seemingly out-of-control prices appear. The alternative is to rely on Ninja Smart Pricing, Rental Ninja’s dynamic pricing engine.

Smart Pricing adjusts the price automatically based on:

• Base price and the minimum and maximum per-night limits you define.

• Weekend and seasonality strategies.

• Last-minute discounts depending on how the calendar is filling up.

• Actual occupancy and the pace of bookings.

Instead of chasing the number on a specific platform, you define a healthy range (minimum and maximum) and let the system find the optimal balance between price and occupancy. The calculated prices can be previewed before applying them, and you can always adjust a specific date by hand.

7. The system can’t rely on “tricking” the platform

An understandable temptation is to use the markup and other adjustments to “correct” or force what the OTA shows. In practice the opposite of what you want happens: the channels are designed to show the guest a transparent final price, and when the strategy consists of inflating and then discounting, or fighting with how the platform presents the fees, the result is an uncompetitive final price, calendars that are hard to interpret, and decisions made on numbers that don’t reflect reality.

Pricing systems —Rental Ninja’s and the OTAs’ own— work best when given clean and consistent information: a realistic base rate, well-defined fees, and a moderate markup. The more natural the setup, the more predictable and profitable the result.

8. Think in revenue, not just nightly price

The final shift in mindset, and the most important one: the goal is not to have the highest possible nightly price on an isolated date, but to maximize total revenue —and that very often comes through better occupancy.

Two calendars can have the same property and very different results depending on how the price is set:

A more moderate price, well placed by a dynamic system, tends to fill more nights and generate more total revenue than a high price that leaves the calendar empty. That’s the outcome we’re after.

Summary: how to read your calendar with peace of mind

• The OTA number already includes everything. Rate + markup + cleaning + taxes, shown as a final per-night price.

• Rental Ninja sends what you configure. A “strange” amount is the result of an interaction of parameters.

• Beware of cleaning over 1 night. Check that derived rates aren’t lowering your minimum stay.

• Moderate markup (16–25%). Use it to offset promotions, not as a hidden increase; and the less, the better for your pricing tool.

• Review VAT. Confirm whether your activity is really required to pass it on before adding it.

• Rely on Smart Pricing. Define a healthy range and let the system optimize price and occupancy.

• Think total revenue. Better occupancy usually beats a one-off high price.