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Stay competitive with rate automation

Learn how you can use our latest vacation rental pricing insights tool to set competitive rates and boost bookings for your property.

author
Becca Glenn

April 10, 2025

Revenue performance Vacation rentals

Competitive rates can help you win bookings at the right price. Rate automation is a complimentary tool that provides pricing insights based on data and is available now in the Vrbo dashboard.

 

Read on to see how rate automation can help you increase booking potential and reach more travelers.

What is rate automation?

Rate automation is our data-backed insights tool with rate automation capabilities. When you use it, you stay in control every step of the way — choose the duration of adjustments and set pricing constraints, then the tool provides pricing insights based on your preferences. Want to change course? Update your settings or override your rates at any time.

 

Enable rate automation

Trusted insights powered by data

Stay on top of changing conditions with rate suggestions tailored to your market and property. Rate automation can quickly monitor millions of available data points like:

 

  • Supply and demand trends
  • Seasonality
  • Rates of booked vs. available properties
  • Historically booked rates
  • Property features and amenities

This results in customized rate suggestions to help you price competitively. Rate automation looks for opportunities and adjusts every 48 hours, so you always have the latest information at your fingertips.

Improve visibility and help increase bookings

Travelers look for competitive rates when searching for a vacation rental. When you set the right rate for your property and market, you help boost your bookings. Plus, when your rates are competitive, your listing may appear higher in the Vrbo search results, helping increase visibility. You can track rate automation results with playback data that shows booked nights and revenue from adjusted rates.

Hosts leveraging rate automation saw a 14% increase in booking conversions.*

Customization for added control

With rate automation, you’re in control of your rates and there are several guardrails you can set:

 

  • Add minimum and maximum rate limits.
  • Exclude certain dates you prefer to set manually.
  • Easily override rates at any time, for any reason.
  • Choose how far out the tool adjusts rates — either 90 or 180 days.

Rate automation uses your preferences to keep you in the driver’s seat — and you have the power to turn it on or off at any time. Ultimately, you decide what your pricing strategy will be. This tool just gives you a helping hand so you can spend more time delighting guests.

All the pricing insights, none of the cost.

While vacation rental pricing tools aren’t new, they can be costly. Our hosts get complimentary access to rate automation in the Vrbo dashboard.

How to get started with rate automation

Enabling rate automation is easy. Here’s how it works:

  1. From the Vrbo dashboard (on desktop), select MarketMaker.
  2. Under Your rates, click Rate automation.
  3. Set a minimum and maximum rate limit.
  4. Read and accept the terms and conditions.

 

Enable rate automation

Frequently asked questions

The data is refreshed and looks for rate opportunities every 48 hours. It is possible that rates can be adjusted at this frequency, at maximum.

You can choose between 90 or 180 days of rate adjustments. You can change this duration at any time within rate automation settings. Available dates outside this time horizon are still bookable and use the rate you set in MarketMaker.

No, our rate automation tool is a complimentary service.

Yes, you can set up to 10 date ranges to be excluded from rate changes. This functionality can be found in the rate automation settings.

Within MarketMaker, select the date(s) you wish to change and click “Change rates” in the sidebar. Click “Adjust rates” to save your changes.

 

Please note — once you override a rate, rate automation will not suggest a rate for that date again.

Rate automation works by accessing and suggesting rates directly in the Vrbo dashboard. Because of this, partners who are integrated with software will not be eligible.

Rate automation calculates rate suggestions for each individual stay date and does not factor in a property’s minimum length-of-stay requirements. If you offer discounts for longer length of stays, these discounts will be applied as normal to the overall booking amount.

Yes, this is a required step, but your limits can be updated at any time within rate automation settings. Your suggested rates will never go above or below your defined thresholds.

Yes, you have the ability to create seasonal rules where a different minimum and maximum rate limit apply for specific dates. This functionality can be found in the rate automation settings.

Go to MarketMaker on your desktop and click “Rate automation.” Under Settings within the right-side panel, select “Turn off rate automation.” Then select a reason for deactivation and click “Turn off rate automation” to save.

 

Please note — your rates will not automatically revert to the pre-automation rate; you will need to adjust them manually, if desired.

Activate rate automation

Start using our complimentary rate automation tool to stay competitively priced, help increase bookings, and stand out from competitors.

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Becca Glenn, Director of Partner Success Platform Teams, Expedia Group

Becca Glenn

Director, Partner Success Platform Teams

 

Becca Glenn leads the Partner Success team for Expedia Group’s vacation rental lodging segment. Her team is responsible for consulting vacation rental partners, from individual owners to large professional property management companies, on strategies to maximize exposure on Expedia Group’s platforms, most notably the signature vacation rental brand Vrbo. Prior to this role she held various leadership positions on Expedia’s hotel lodging teams, including Market Management, acquisitions, and the Egencia corporate travel supply team.

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