Riding the Tokyo boom: How Licheng unlocked a 15-20% revenue uplift with PriceLabs

In a rapidly expanding hospitality market, balancing real-time pricing updates with guest communication can quickly overwhelm a lean team. For Licheng, the founder of Newimp, the right combination of automation tools became the key to scaling operations efficiently while maintaining top-tier performance across Tokyo.

Operating across Toshima, Taito, Edogawa, Sumida, Kita, and Shibuya —with the majority of his listings concentrated in Shinjuku —Licheng transitioned from manual, intuitive pricing to a highly productive system. Today, Newimp manages approximately 80 properties, including a detached family house and an apartment-style hotel, with a core team of just two staff members.

Further, since using PriceLabs, Licheng has observed 15-20% uplift in his total room revenue, about 15% uplift in the average nightly rates, and an almost 20% uplift in his Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR).

"Since using PriceLabs, the properties I manage have had among the highest occupancy rates and rental prices in the neighborhood”
— Licheng, Owner of Newimp

Capitalizing on Tokyo's Tourism Boom

Licheng launched his business to capture a massive shift in local tourism dynamics, moving quickly to accommodate the influx of global travelers entering Japan's capital.

"As the Japanese government began to actively promote Tokyo as an international tourist destination, I started running an Airbnb business there. I manage a detached family house in Tokyo, as well as an apartment-style hotel."

This strategic move aligned perfectly with an unprecedented surge in the local market. Tokyo has seen a massive boom in short-term rentals over the last couple of years, with listings on Airbnb alone growing almost 3x between January 2023 and January 2026 to around 30,000 listings—representing an incredible growth rate of more than 40% each year. In this highly competitive landscape, manual updates are no longer enough to keep pace with market velocity.

The Challenge: Manual Guesswork

Before implementing dedicated platforms, managing daily rates and distribution across online travel agencies (OTAs) relied completely on manual oversight and personal intuition.

"Before using AirHost, I hadn’t tried a PMS, but it has certainly made managing my OTA channels much easier."

Further, without data to guide decisions, adjusting prices to reflect market demand was both time-consuming and prone to missed revenue opportunities during high-demand periods.

"Before using PriceLabs, I used to adjust prices manually. I could only rely on my own judgment to raise rates slightly on weekends and public holidays. I would also manually adjust prices based on upcoming occupancy rates, and these tasks took up a lot of my time. What’s more, I found it difficult to track the dates of public holidays or major events that I wasn’t familiar with. This meant that on certain dates, I missed out on selling at a high price."

The Solution: A Seamless Integration between Airhost and PriceLabs

Seeking a dedicated pricing system built for the lodging industry, Licheng discovered PriceLabs independently online and found a seamless fit with his choice of management software.

"I’ve always wanted to try a pricing tool suitable for short-term rentals, and I came across PriceLabs online. As it happens, AirHost, which I use, also supports integration with it, so I immediately started trying it out."

The choice to use PriceLabs was based on its direct integration with Airhost. The seamless flow of data between the two platforms meant that pricing updates could be calculated dynamically and updated automatically in real-time across all active OTAs and booking channels.

Scaling Productivity with AirHost

While PriceLabs helped manage the revenue strategy, AirHost provided the operational infrastructure required to distribute Newimp's inventory across a highly competitive market. AirHost stands out to property managers in Japan because of its specialized channel coverage:

• Connections to 18+ major Japanese OTAs: Includes platforms like Rakuten Travel and Jalan that are essential in this market
• International OTA coverage: Also integrates with Airbnb, Booking.com, and other global channels to unlock global tourism

For Newimp, the platform's standalone communication features proved to be the missing link for daily operations.

"Compared to other PMS platforms, Airhhost’s multilingual automated messaging feature has been a great help to me in my management duties—a feature that I found other systems to lack."

By combining Airhost's PMS with PriceLabs' dynamic pricing, Newimp unlocked exceptional productivity, operating at a very lean staffing ratio: he manages 80 properties with just two staff members!

Results: How PriceLabs Helped Licheng Scale Fast

Implementing PriceLabs fundamentally changed Newimp's daily workflow, substituting manual tracking with automated, forward-looking market insights.

The ability to monitor and adjust property prices in real time has saved me a great deal of time.

By using seasonal forecasts to plan ahead, the business successfully minimized open dates during slow periods while maximizing returns during high-demand events.

• 15-20% Revenue uplift: The switch to automated dynamic pricing yielded immediate, tangible business results, including up to a 20% uplift in Revenue per available room (RevPAR). Licheng also observed a 15-20% uplift in revenue.
• Proactive adjustments: "By adjusting prices well in advance in line with market trends—whether during the off-peak or peak seasons—I can ensure my properties are booked earlier during the off-peak period and sold at higher prices during the peak season."
• Strong neighborhood performance: "Since using PriceLabs, the workload involved in adjusting prices has become much easier for me; indeed, the forecasts for the off-peak and peak seasons have enabled me to make decisions much earlier. The properties I manage generally have occupancy rates and rental prices that are among the highest in the neighborhood."

Advice for other Property Managers

Reflecting on his journey to 80 properties across Shinjuku and wider Tokyo, Licheng emphasizes that success with dynamic pricing comes from collaboration between human insight and software automation.

"Once you start using PriceLabs, you’ll need to keep fine-tuning your data rather than leaving it entirely to the system. Once your data is optimized, you’ll save a great deal of time."

Discover how PriceLabs and Airhost help vacation rental managers boost occupancy, increase revenue, and simplify daily operations— explore how to integrate PriceLabs and Airhost here and read more customer success stories here.