blocking vs. increasing nightly rate to a ridiculous price

[Leon Lee]

Hi, Fellow STR investors

 I occasionally see some hosts to increase nightly rates to a ridiculous number ($1500/night vs. $150/night average nightly rates in the area), and I assume that they are trying to block certain dates on the calendar. My question is: what are pros and cons of doing so vs. simply blocking off those days? Does the Airbnb algorithm treat two scenarios differently?

Thanks in advance!

Lee

[Joseph Bafia]

Its a good time to mention that this also skews AirDNA stats as well, so those that try and model or analyze using that should be aware that it takes rates like this into account too.  A big reason why I'll just do my own research of rates in a given area by peeking at calendars of others.