A Willow Glen host messaged me last week. Her 3BR had been hand-priced for 18 months and was running 30-40% behind comparable units on dynamic pricing. The question wasn't whether to use a tool — she'd already decided. It was which one.
I run my own portfolio across PriceLabs, Beyond, Wheelhouse, and AirDNA Smart Rates, depending on the unit, the market, and the season. Twelve years of hosting, 1,016 Airbnb reviews, 4.83-star Superhost. What follows is the head-to-head I gave her, with the actual revenue numbers from my 22 South Bay units over the last 12 months.
The four tools, briefly
PriceLabs is the market leader and the most configurable, at roughly $20-30 per unit per month. Beyond (now a Vacasa property since the 2022 acquisition) comes in cheaper at $19.99 flat, with a simpler setup and a more passive recommendation engine — best for hosts who want the tool to mostly leave them alone. Wheelhouse sits in the $10-20 range and has the friendliest UX of the four, though it trails on algorithmic aggressiveness. AirDNA Smart Rates is the newest and the priciest at $40-80 per month, but it's built on the deepest market dataset in the industry — AirDNA licenses that same data to several of its competitors.
Each integrates with Airbnb. PriceLabs and Wheelhouse also handle VRBO and Booking.com cleanly and tie into the major PMSs. Beyond is Airbnb-and-VRBO-focused. AirDNA Smart Rates is Airbnb-direct only.
Weekly cycle pricing
South Bay STR demand follows a strong weekly pattern: weekends 30-50% higher than weekdays, Fridays and Saturdays the peak. A pricing tool's job is to extract premium on the peak days without underpricing the trough days.
In my portfolio of 22 South Bay STRs over the last 12 months:
- PriceLabs: average 22% revenue lift over hand-pricing baseline. Best on units with mixed weekday and weekend demand.
- Beyond: average 18% revenue lift. More conservative on weekend premium; less aggressive on weekday discounts.
- Wheelhouse: average 16% revenue lift. Cleaner UI but less aggressive on dynamic adjustments.
- AirDNA Smart Rates: average 24% revenue lift. Strongest weekday/weekend differentiation. Best for units where the host wants to maximize peak-day premium.
The differences narrow at the high end (hosts who heavily customize PriceLabs or Wheelhouse can close the gap with AirDNA). The differences widen at the low end (hosts using default settings on any of the four are leaving 5-12 points on the table).
Event surges
South Bay STR demand spikes around tech conferences (WWDC, Google I/O, NVIDIA GTC), Levi's Stadium events, and SJSU events. Event pricing requires the tool to detect demand 30-60 days in advance and price accordingly.
PriceLabs is the strongest on event detection. Its algorithm picks up event-driven demand 45-60 days out and lifts pricing aggressively. I've seen PriceLabs price units at 2.5-3x base for WWDC weekends.
AirDNA Smart Rates is similar in detection but slightly less aggressive on the lift. It tends to settle at 2-2.5x base for the same WWDC profile.
Beyond detects events but applies a smaller lift. 1.5-2x base for major events. Some hosts prefer this because it produces more consistent booking rates; others see it as leaving money on the table.
Wheelhouse historically had weaker event detection. It improved in 2024-2025 but still trails PriceLabs and AirDNA on event-driven units.
For the WWDC, Google I/O, and 2026 tech conference playbook, event-driven pricing is where the tool selection matters most.
Mid-term stays
This is where the tools diverge sharply.
Many South Bay hosts are shifting some inventory toward 30+ day stays as part of the MTR pivot. The pricing logic for a 35-day stay is fundamentally different from a 3-day stay (no cleaning amortization, lower vacancy risk, regulatory wrapper change).
PriceLabs has the most mature MTR handling. The platform lets you set distinct pricing rules for 1-7 day stays, 8-28 day stays, and 28+ day stays. You can set monthly discounts at the 28+ day mark that pull the effective nightly rate down by 20-35% automatically.
AirDNA Smart Rates added MTR handling in 2024 but the controls are less granular than PriceLabs. The platform applies a single discount at the 28-day threshold but doesn't tier the discount across longer stays.
Beyond has basic monthly discount support but not separate pricing logic for MTR vs. STR. Hosts using Beyond for mixed STR/MTR units often run two tools or hand-price the MTR side.
Wheelhouse has improved MTR handling in 2024-2025 but the UI is less intuitive than PriceLabs for this use case.
If your unit is doing meaningful MTR business or you're planning to transition, PriceLabs is the clear pick.
Pricing for the tools themselves
Annualized cost on a single STR:
- PriceLabs Pro: roughly $360/year
- PriceLabs Premium: roughly $240/year
- Beyond: roughly $240/year
- Wheelhouse: roughly $120-240/year
- AirDNA Pro (includes Smart Rates): roughly $468-948/year
For a unit grossing $80,000/year, the tool cost is 0.15-1.2% of revenue. Trivial.
The real cost is the setup and tuning time. A new tool takes 4-8 hours to set up correctly and 2-3 weeks of monitoring before it settles into its routine. Switching tools every 6 months because the grass looks greener is the most common mistake I see new hosts make.
My current portfolio allocation
For transparency, here's how I have my 22 units split right now:
- 14 units on PriceLabs (the default for most South Bay STRs in my portfolio)
- 4 units on AirDNA Smart Rates (units with the strongest event-pricing dependency, particularly near Levi's Stadium)
- 3 units on Beyond (units where the owner prefers a more conservative pricing approach)
- 1 unit on Wheelhouse (a unit on a non-standard PMS where Wheelhouse's integration is cleanest)
I'm not promoting any specific tool. The right choice depends on where your unit sits in the market (premium, midmarket, or value), whether you want aggressive pricing or a steadier booking rate, whether MTR is part of the strategy, which PMS or channel manager you're already on, and how much time you can spend tuning settings.
What to do this week
For hosts still hand-pricing: pick one tool and commit to it for 90 days. The most expensive mistake new hosts make is switching at the first revenue dip, before the algorithm has finished calibrating. Default to PriceLabs for units with mixed weekday/weekend demand. For event-driven units (Santa Clara, anything within walking distance of Levi's Stadium), AirDNA Smart Rates is worth the higher subscription cost.
For hosts who already use a tool but aren't happy with it: audit your settings before you switch. A poorly-configured PriceLabs often outperforms a well-configured Wheelhouse simply because the algorithm has more headroom to work with. And document the actual revenue lift before declaring failure — the first 60 days of any new tool deployment typically show below-baseline revenue while the algorithm finds the unit's pattern.
For hosts running mixed STR/MTR, PriceLabs is the cleanest single answer. The MTR pricing logic in the other three tools isn't mature enough yet to handle both sides of the inventory. The alternative I've watched work is running two tools: PriceLabs for STR-side pricing and Furnished Finder for MTR. More setup, but it can squeeze out the last 3-5 points of margin if you're willing to manage both.
The dynamic pricing tool market has consolidated significantly since 2023. The four tools above cover roughly 90% of the South Bay STR host base. The fifth-place options (Smartbnb, Hostfully Pricing, Lodgify Pricing) are valid but with smaller user bases and less mature South Bay-specific data.
If you're trying to figure out which pricing tool fits your specific South Bay STR portfolio, request a free rental analysis and I'll walk you through what's working for comparable units in your area. Or call me at (408) 813-8001.
Sources
- PriceLabs — PriceLabs
- Beyond — Beyond (a Vacasa company)
- Wheelhouse — Wheelhouse
- AirDNA Smart Rates — AirDNA
- STR Insider Reports on Dynamic Pricing — STR Insider
- Vacasa Investor Materials (Beyond acquisition) — Vacasa, Inc.
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