Last Updated on June 16, 2023 by Rental Recon
Short-term rental hosts who are not using a dynamic pricing tool are missing out on up to 20% of rental revenue. As Airbnb hosts with multiple listings, we have reviewed and tested several different automated pricing programs to find out which program is most effective in increasing income.
Keep reading for our in-depth Wheelhouse review which includes an overview of features, costs, positives, negatives, and ways to optimize this platform to help you squeeze the most money out of your vacation rental. Let’s get started!
Is Wheelhouse the Best Automated Pricing Software?
After trying the four best automated pricing tools available for Airbnb hosts, we have determined that Wheelhouse is the best dynamic pricing tool for hosts. Using local data, machine learning, and AI to predict market trends, Wheelhouse ensures hosts that their rental is priced at the best rate every single night.
Our Wheelhouse Pricing Tool Review: Here’s How it Stacks Up:
Wheelhouse is an easy to use, comprehensive automated pricing tool that every short-term rental host should have. Wheelhouse boasts a variety of useful features that are all customizable.
Unlike other pricing programs on the market, Wheelhouse gives the hosts the option to sit back and let Wheelhouse do the work, or to be more hands on and make pricing decisions that suit their needs.
When hosts use Wheelhouse, they are sure to increase their rental revenue. Using Wheelhouse, we have increased our aggregate revenue by about 20%.
Wheelhouse Features that Set This Software Apart from Competitors
Wheelhouse is packed with impressive features that hosts can use to boost their rental income, analyze trends, and manage their rental properties.
We really like Wheelhouse’s calendar display that allows you to fully view trends over time. Wheelhouse pricing structure also caught our attention as it lets you pick from conservative, moderate, or aggressive strategies, similar to investments.
Wheelhouse is easy to use, even with little to no experience. The user interface is very clean, simple, and uncluttered which makes using it a pleasure. Wheelhouse generally “thinks for itself”, but some hosts have found that there is a need to manually regulate their own rental pricing from time to time.
Another great feature is the Raw Score feature located on your dashboard to the right of your property description. It gives a value of 1-100 aggregating your occupancy and rates into one all-encompassing number to help you establish the strength of your listing when compared to other listings in your area.
Keep reading and we’ll take you through each area of the Wheelhouse dashboard.
The Wheelhouse Dashboard
The Wheelhouse dashboard is one of the best features. It is clean, streamlined, and easy to navigate.
Check it out here:
The dashboard is your starting point to access all the useful tools that Wheelhouse has to offer. The dashboard will display all a hosts rental properties and provides links to all the programs supported by Wheelhouse for integration.
From the dashboard hosts can access their portfolio, bookings, market intel, and comp set intel. Under the portfolio tab, hosts can find their settings, calendar, and performance options.
The Wheelhouse “Calendar” Tab
The calendar on wheelhouse is easy to access, clearly displays the rates for your listing, and even shows a 52-week range of recommended prices.
Here’s a look at Wheelhouse’s calendar:
The Wheelhouse calendar also displays strategy details, your base price, and your minimum price. From this page, you can view and edit your strategy and view and edit custom rates.
The calendar also displays estimate price highs and lows for the foreseeable future. It takes several factors into account such as seasonality and even local events that may draw crowds to your area.
You can either let it use its own data to set your prices based on the “aggression” level of your choice, or you can use them to calculate rates on your own.
Seasonality & Weekend Adjustments
Wheelhouse allows hosts to adjust their seasonal rates without altering their overall pricing strategy. This allows hosts to boost their rate during the seasons they are most busy and likely to be rented.
You can also increase your weekend rates above your standard rate strategy. This feature is a must-have and we’re glad Wheelhouse allows these customizations.
Multiple Listing Adjustments
If you have multiple listings on Wheelhouse, it is easy to pick a certain selection of listings, and then change their settings in bulk so you don’t have to adjust each listing individually. This is a great feature that we utilize on our vacation rental properties.
Last Minute Discounts Feature
This feature automatically reduces your rates the closer you get to the current day. There are three automated options with each one having a different reduction percentage.
You can choose between:
- More Conservative
- Recommended
- More Aggressive
The “More Conservative” option reduces your rate a lesser percentage than the “More Aggressive” setting.
We think this feature is an essential part of the automated pricing process, and are glad Wheelhouse offers this. We typically just leave this on the Recommended setting, although it’s totally up to you. You can also use the Custom setting and apply your own desired reduction percentage.
Wheelhouse “Performance” Tab
Under the “Portfolio” tab from your Wheelhouse dashboard, you can click “Performance”. This tab is a great feature that allows hosts to analyze the performance of their various rentals. The Performance tab shows the occupancy and revenue of each listing allowing hosts to compare their rental properties.
Wheelhouse “Comps” Tab
The “Comps” tab is another great tool provided by Wheelhouse. Hosts can use Comp Sets to better understand how their rental properties are doing compared to the current market. Comp sets allows hosts to compare daily pricing, performance insights, and set custom goals for their rental property.
Wheelhouse Market Intel
Wheelhouse’s newest feature is Market Intel, a data analytics tool that helps hosts determine trends within their market. This feature is in direct competition with other analytics services like Alltherooms. We didn’t think it was quite as robust as Alltherooms, but a good tool, nonetheless.
Here’s a screenshot of this feature:
Favorite Features: Spy on Your Airbnb Competition
Another feature we really like is the Comparisons or Comps research area where you can enter your search criteria and find similar listings to yours. Essentially, you can spy on your competition to see their rates, occupancy, and length of stays. This has helped us dial in our own vacation rental listings to make sure we are staying competitive with the market.
Wheelhouse Tutorials
Wheelhouse is generally an easy program to use and navigate; however, there are a lot of customizable features that may take longer to learn. Keep reading for directions about settings, strategy, and custom rates.
Wheelhouse “Settings” Tab Tutorial
The settings tab is located under the “Portfolio” tab from the main dashboard and is where a host can view and edit their listings and preferences. Some of the preferences for listings that can be set on this screen include:
- Auto pricing
- Base price
- Minimum stays
- Minimum price
- Maximum price
- Last minute discounts
- Far future premiums
- Long term discounts
- Seasonality
- Weekend adjustments
To change these settings, the host just simply needs to select the property they want to adjust, then locate the setting of their choice on the upper right side of the screen.
Wheelhouse Promo Code / Coupon
Wheelhouse “Strategy” Tab Tutorial
From the “Settings” tab, hosts can navigate to the “Strategy” tab located on the upper right side of the screen. The strategy tab will display a visual graph of Wheelhouse pricing over a set time period. From this location, a host can turn Wheelhouse pricing on and off.
On the left of this screen, hosts can choose different analytics to view and see how Wheelhouse’s three strategy settings, conservative, recommended, and aggressive, change the price of the rental over the duration of a set period.
If the strategy tab feels a little overwhelming, don’t panic. When you access this page for the first time as a new Wheelhouse user, Wheelhouse will automatically provide a tour and tutorial about how to use all these features.
Wheelhouse Tutorial: “Custom Rates” Tab
Some Wheelhouse users may feel like they want to play a more hands on role for determining their rental properties nightly rate. If you want to choose a custom rate for a holiday or weekend, it is simple to make this adjustment.
Click the property you want to adjust and navigate to the calendar page. From the calendar, you can simply click the date you want to change and enter either a percent increase or a custom price on the left toolbar. Don’t forget to hit “save” to ensure your changes are activated.
How Much Does Wheelhouse Cost?
Wheelhouse is priced very competitively for its dynamic pricing software. Wheelhouse charges a flat fee of 1% of the nightly rate. If you generate over $2,000 per month for one listing, you’ll probably want to consider their $19.99 per month option.
If you have multiple vacation rental properties, you may want to opt for their flat monthly fee structure. The more listings you have, the lower the fee becomes. See the image below.
Wheelhouse does have a minimum monthly fee of $2.99 if you choose the 1% pricing option. If you don’t get any bookings for the month, you will still have to pay this fee.
Wheelhouse fees are similar to Beyond Pricing, which also charges 1% of the monthly revenue.A couple of other companies charge a flat monthly fee which can really eat away at profits over time, especially for those with lower rental volume.
Wheelhouse Pricing Plans
Wheelhouse Promo Code/Coupon Code
Which Vacation Rental Platforms are Compatible with Wheelhouse?
Wheelhouse allows users to link up with multiple platforms other than Airbnb and Booking. Here’s a list of the integrations they provide:
- Airbnb
- Booking
- Trip Advisor
- Guesty (Allows Linking to Hostaway/ VRBO- Homeaway)
- Myvr
- Rentals United
- Hostfully
- Stremline
- Hostaway (Allows Linking to Hostaway/ VRBO)
- Hosteeva
- LMPM
- Smoobu
- Your Portrer
- Track
Pros of the Wheelhouse Platform
Choose Your Wheelhouse Pricing Model
We really enjoy that Wheelhouse lets users pick from simple preset pricing models: conservative, moderate, or aggressive. This takes a portion of the guesswork out for hosts and breaks down risk management into simple and easy-to-understand terms.
Customizations
We also like that Wheelhouse has a multitude of customization options that hosts can use to dial in their own pricing strategy, for those that want to be more hands-on with the platform.
Great User Interface and Customer Service
Wheelhouse’s web design is super sleek and features coordinating colors to make for an overall great UI and UX combination. Wheelhouse lays things out in ways that are easy for anyone to interpret. Wheelhouse does most of the “heavy lifting” thinking tasks while still allowing users the control to tweak things if they so desire.
Packed with Useful Tools and Features
Wheelhouse is jam packed with tools and features that many hosts, us included, find helpful when managing a short-term rental property. From the comps where you can compare daily pricing with similar Airbnb’s in the area, to market intel, Wheelhouse has everything a host needs to accurately price their rental and increase their revenue.
Want to look at more automatic pricing programs like Wheelhouse? Check out our Best Airbnb Pricing Tools article.
The Cons of Wheelhouse
Getting Wheelhouse Set Up
We found Wheelhouse’s onboarding process a bit clunky. Airbnb linkage to Wheelhouse involved going through a Captcha screen and logging into your Airbnb account and then returning to Wheelhouse. When we tried to do this, the linkage dial continued spinning and we had to hit refresh again. At this point, Wheelhouse informed us that the linkage was complete.
This was not a great experience for new users, but it wasn’t a deal breaker either. Make sure you remove your browser shields before linking. This may help with the process.
Web-Based Only, No Wheelhouse Apps
Wheelhouse is a great tool, but it would be even greater if you could carry it around with you in your pocket! In order to use it, you’ll need to be logged in on a regular computer. This isn’t ideal, especially considering that market trends can change quickly and drastically in the vacation rental arena.
While the Wheelhouse software is designed to take the hard work out of human hands, some people like to have more control over their listings and would like the ability to change them on the go. It doesn’t seem like it would be terribly difficult to implement some sort of app functionality, so hopefully, we’ll see it coming soon!
No Direct VRBO or HomeAway Integration
Many Airbnb hosts cross-list their vacation rentals on other vacation rental sites such as HomeAway and VRBO. Unfortunately for these hosts, Wheelhouse currently only works with Airbnb and TripAdvisor.
Wheelhouse does offer a third-party workaround using a partner company such as Guesty or Hostaway, but this means spending extra time and money syncing listings across multiple (paid) platforms.
Wheelhouse’s website says that they hope to bring more platforms aboard in the future, but until then hosts will be limited in where and how they can manage their properties.
Automatic Pricing Accuracy Varies
We really liked the automatic price setting that Wheelhouse offers, but it can miss the mark drastically from time to time. While infrequent, an unexpected rate change that inadvertently prices you out of the market is the last thing a host needs from software designed to make their lives easier.
We experienced the issue when using the “aggressive” pricing strategy. While it theoretically could happen with the other two strategies as well, it seems that the program sometimes gets a little too aggressive for its own good.
Since Wheelhouse uses machine learning to get “better” at its job over time, these kinks should iron out as more and more users give the program data to work with. For now, be sure to keep a close eye on your listing prices.
Wheelhouse Vs. Beyond Pricing: Which One Is Better?
Wheelhouse and its competitor, Beyond Pricing (renamed to just “Beyond” recently), charge the exact same amount for their services.One difference is that Beyond does not offer the discount that Wheelhouse does for having more than 10 listings. The other difference is that Beyond is a simpler dynamic pricing software with fewer customization options.
Wheelhouse offers more customizations to really dial in your desired rates. With more options, there is a bigger learning curve. After using both platforms, I can tell you that Wheelhouse is not hard to learn and is rather intuitive.
Wheelhouse and Beyond also use very similar algorithms and data when determining price suggestions for your rental. Some smaller differences include that Beyond is supported in more countries and that it gives users a “Unique Health Score” that helps them understand how well their listing is doing.
Some unique features of Wheelhouse are that they have better pricing strategy personalization options as well as an overall cleaner user experience.
Do you want to learn more about Beyond Pricing? Check out our Beyond Pricing review here.
Wheelhouse Vs. Beyond Comparison Table
| Program | Price | Minimum Monthly Fee | Free Trial | Sign-up Discounts |
| Wheelhouse | 1% of revenue | $2.99 if you choose the 1% fee structure | No | 75% off the first month |
| Beyond Pricing | 1% of revenue | None | 30 Days | None |
How Do I Sign Up for Wheelhouse?
Signing up is simple and easy, just go to Wheelhouse’s website to get started!
Wheelhouse Review: Referral Program
If you use Wheelhouse and love it, spreading the news about Wheelhouse will earn you free Wheelhouse credit. Wheelhouse has a referral program that rewards you when you recommend the platform to other hosts.
Under the “Rental” tab on the right side of the screen click “Your Profile”. On the left toolbar you will see a tab called “Your Referral Code”. If another host signs up and uses your code, not only will the new user receive $10 in Wheelhouse Booking credit, but you will enjoy the benefit of 50% revenue share from each new user you bring in for three months.
That means, you get to keep half of what Wheelhouse bills them for the first three months as a user!
Wheelhouse Review Conclusion
Overall, we are happy to endorse Wheelhouse as our dynamic pricing service of choice. We love how many other hosts have had great experiences with Wheelhouse, and we have found very few negative aspects of this software.
Unfortunately for some, Wheelhouse is still working on integrating with other short-term rental sites such as VRBO and HomeAway. There is the capability to integrate via a third-party service, but this isn’t as simple to use. This is probably the biggest drawback to their current service.
For those hots that use Wheelhouse, their cost cannot be beaten, especially considering how much more overall revenue you’re likely to earn on your vacation rentals.
If you’re ready to create a profile and start using Wheelhouse, apply your Wheelhouse promo code here!
