Revenue Management Tips From Expert Revenue Manager Kyle Driskell

Presenting the latest installment in our ongoing series, where we delve into the firsthand experiences of the PriceLabs team members. They used the platform for their property and revenue management needs. This diverse team encompasses property owners, managers, revenue managers, and hosts.

PriceLabs, as a data-centric revenue management software, has the potential to enhance the pricing strategy of your vacation rental property significantly. It’s like having a secret pricing strategy to improve your vacation rental.

In this edition, we spoke to Kyle Driskell, previously a revenue manager for a large property management company. He was a PriceLabs user before joining us as a Solution Consultant. We asked for his feedback on how PriceLabs helped him in his revenue management journey.

Bonus Read: Vacation Rental Revenue Management: The Complete Guide for Hosts and Property Managers

Tips from Kyle, a revenue management expert

What should new users do when they sign up for PriceLabs?

1. Ask questions from your respective Solution Consultants
2. Attend PriceLabs training webinars to understand the software further
3. Experiment with each customization and watch closely what it means for your revenue
4. Keep patience. You have to watch the result of your Airbnb pricing strategy over time to see real correlations
5. Don’t be afraid to fail. Some customizations and strategies may not work for you, but you won’t know until you try them out
6. Use Market Dashboard to understand your market insights

The PriceLabs Market Dashboard is a powerful tool that gives you a clear and organized view of your vacation rental’s performance. It compiles Key Data like occupancy rates, pricing trends, and competitor insights. This helps you make smart decisions to optimize your rental’s pricing strategy and stay ahead.

Features that Kyle swears by:

1. Orphan Day Customizations

With PriceLabs, I can finely tune the pricing for those tricky days that are often vacant. We call them “orphan days.” This feature lets me set custom rates for these gaps in our booking calendar. This allows me to attract more guests and revenue during those periods.
Kyle Driskell, Solution Consultant, PriceLabs

Adding Orphan Gaps in PriceLabs

2. Seasonal Calendar Customizations

Being a revenue manager, I love how PriceLabs lets me adapt our pricing to match the seasons. During busy times like holidays, I can adjust the rates to capture more income, and during slower periods. I can offer attractive deals to keep a steady stream of bookings. It’s a strategic way to make sure our property stays competitive year-round.
Kyle Driskell, Solution Consultant, PriceLabs

Custom Seasonal Profile for different seasons

3. Market Dashboard

PriceLabs’ Market Dashboard is my secret weapon. It lays out all the crucial data about our property’s performance. This includes occupancy rates, how we stack up against competitors, and booking trends. Armed with this insight, I can make informed decisions to keep us ahead in the game. If our bookings lag, I can quickly adjust pricing or promotions based on the competition. It’s a game-changer for a revenue manager like me.
Kyle Driskell, Solution Consultant, PriceLabs

PriceLabs Dynamic Pricing Tool

About Kyle Driskell

Kyle Driskell handled pricing strategy in a hydraulics environment before he joined Village Realty as a Revenue Manager. As a Revenue Manager, he handled pricing for 600+ units in Colorado and Tennessee.

Kyle loves the artistic side of revenue management. He believes you can turn anything into art with the right tools. He sees revenue management as an ever-evolving puzzle. When he started using PriceLabs, his creativity was piqued as he saw the extensive customizations of PriceLabs as his artistic palette to experiment with and see what it results in.

His main challenge before implementing PriceLabs was inefficient processes and errors resulting from manual pricing. He was introduced to PriceLabs when searching for dynamic pricing software to curb the challenges of manual pricing. By implementing PriceLabs at Village Realty, Kyle helped bring dynamic pricing to one of the largest vacation rental groups in the United States.

He talked to Becca from the Solution Consultants team at PriceLabs and understood the product. He continued to have a professional relationship with Becca as a customer and learned more about how he could use PriceLabs better for his revenue management strategy.

I saw the quality of the product and the people. I’ve never dealt with a company that gave such high-quality customer service. When the time came, I knew I wanted to join the PriceLabs team, so I reached out to Becca.
Kyle Driskell

Kyle believes that PriceLabs is the best solution for revenue management in vacation rentals and gave some insight into how PriceLabs helped him as a revenue manager.

PriceLabs Enhanced Efficiency and Focus

With the integration of PriceLabs, Kyle’s approach to pricing strategy and revenue management underwent a transformative shift. Kyle was using Track then, and PriceLabs easily integrated with his PMS. PriceLabs integrates directly with over 90 Channel Managers and PMSs.

The automation provided by the platform led to a substantial reduction in manual labor, granting him more time to delve into the nitty-gritty details of his role. This newfound efficiency allowed him to refine his strategies with a keen eye for detail, a luxury he wouldn’t have had without PriceLabs.

If you use a specific channel manager, PMS, or OTA and cannot find it in our list of platforms we integrate with, let us know here, and we’ll start the conversation for an integration.

PriceLabs Market Dashboards Offer Invaluable Market Insights

The Market Dashboards offered by PriceLabs emerged as a game-changer for Kyle. It gave him a comprehensive and real-time view of the market dynamics. From occupancy rates to competitor performance and booking trends, the insights gathered from the dashboard were a guiding light for Kyle’s revenue management decisions. Armed with this information, he made well-informed adjustments to his pricing strategy, ensuring his property remained optimally positioned in a competitive landscape.

PriceLabs Market Dashboard

The Customizations Helped in Unleashing Hidden Revenue Streams

One of the most remarkable impacts of PriceLabs was its ability to uncover revenue potential that Kyle hadn’t previously tapped into. By automating the pricing process and leveraging customizations, the platform enabled him to capture income from bookings that might have been overlooked under manual pricing. This unforeseen boost in revenue highlighted the true value of PriceLabs, proving its effectiveness in optimizing existing streams and unlocking previously untapped income sources.

PriceLabs Customizations

Exceeding Revenue Expectations

PriceLabs consistently delivered outcomes that exceeded Kyle’s initial revenue expectations. The platform’s automated approach led to a consistent and sustained increase in revenue, demonstrating its capability to generate income beyond what Kyle had anticipated. The combination of time savings, data-driven insights, and enhanced revenue ultimately positioned PriceLabs as an indispensable tool in Kyle’s arsenal for successful revenue management.

Conclusion

How did PriceLabs help Kyle, a vacation rental revenue manager?

1. PriceLabs made its pricing strategy, and revenue management processes much more efficient.
2. He had more time to focus on details because he wasn’t spending much time on manual work.
3. He received great market insights from PriceLabs Market Dashboards that further helped him to refine his revenue management strategy and make informed decisions.
4. It created a lot more revenue than he had anticipated. PriceLabs was helping him pull in money that he wouldn’t have generated otherwise because of manual pricing.

PriceLabs’ features that Kyle swears by:

1. Orphan Day Customizations: He could tailor his pricing for specific days left unoccupied (orphans) using PriceLabs. This helped him ensure he maximized revenue by attracting guests during these gaps.
2. Seasonal Calendar Customizations: PriceLabs allowed him to finely adjust his pricing based on seasonal changes, ensuring he was charging the right amount at the right times to attract bookings and optimize income.
3. Market Dashboards: PriceLabs’ Market Dashboards gave Kyle an insightful overview of his rentals’ performance, including occupancy rates and competitor analysis, helping him make informed decisions for a competitive edge in the vacation rental market.