How to Choose and Use a Base Price
A base price is a property's year-round nightly reference rate, excluding cleaning fees, taxes, and platform fees. It is the starting point for date-specific prices—not a minimum price or an annual revenue estimate.
See what the three price options mean
The balanced result is the recommended base price; the alternatives shift your starting position, not a booking probability.
The alternatives change the starting point for the calendar calculation. They do not turn on conservative or aggressive pricing-rule presets. Choosing a conservative base and a balanced last-minute rule are two independent decisions.
Compare base price and nightly price
| Number | What changes it | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| Base price | Property facts and the base-price estimate, or your own chosen value | Starting point for date-specific calculations |
| Nightly price | Model effects, enabled policies, limits, and overrides | A recommendation for one property-local date |
| Minimum price | Your explicit limit, or 70% of base by default | A later-stage floor, except when a fixed override wins |
A conservative $184 starting point with an illustrative +20% seasonal factor becomes $220.80 before further effects. Balanced $200 under the same factor becomes $240. The $16 base-price difference becomes $19.20 after that multiplication.
Supply the property facts you know
Send coordinates, bedrooms, bathrooms, and maximum guest capacity. A studio uses zero bedrooms; half bathrooms are allowed. Omit optional details you do not know. Sending zero, false, or an empty amenities list supplies a value rather than leaving it unknown.
{
"location": {
"latitude": 25.7907,
"longitude": -80.13
},
"property": {
"bedrooms": 3,
"baths": 2.5,
"guests": 6
},
"currency": "USD"
}
Known room type, beds, amenities, reviews, star rating, Superhost status, photo count, and cleaning fee can refine the estimate. Cleaning fee is an input signal, not an amount added to the returned nightly rate. The base-price API reference lists exact accepted values.
Choose a starting position
For an illustrative balanced recommendation of $200:
| Option | USD per night | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 184 | A lower starting position |
| Balanced | 200 | The recommended base price |
| Aggressive | 216 | A higher starting position |
The alternatives are approximately 8% below and above the unrounded balanced estimate. They are not probabilities of a booking, guarantees of revenue, or a substitute for reviewing your property's performance.
The typical market range describes local price variation. It is neither a confidence interval nor a minimum/maximum constraint on your calendar.
Read the explanation
| Contribution | USD |
|---|---|
| Market baseline | 172 |
| 3 bedrooms | +20 |
| 2.5 bathrooms | +6 |
| Sleeps 6 | +4 |
| Current market adjustment | −2 |
| Recommended base price | 200 |
This synthetic example matches the reference response. Signed explanation amounts
sum to the final recommendation. market_baseline is the starting estimate before
property and current-market adjustments.
Pass the result to Calendar Prices
Use both recommended_base_price and the returned currency. Base-price currency input accepts either case; an unrecognized code falls back to USD. Calendar Prices instead requires a supported uppercase currency and performs no conversion.
{
"location": {
"latitude": 25.7907,
"longitude": -80.13
},
"currency": "USD",
"base_price": 200
}
A $200 base may become a higher or lower nightly rate after model effects and policies. Calendar Prices defaults the minimum to 70% of base ($140 here); set price_limits.min_price to choose a different floor. See why fixed overrides bypass that minimum.
Turn the base price into nightly rates
Treat the base price as your starting point, not your minimum rate. Pass it with the returned currency into Calendar Prices, then trace the nightly calculation. Ready to connect the calls? Use the two-call quickstart.
