Shortlet Pricing: Set Prices for Busy Dates

To price your shortlet for busy dates, keep one sensible base price, then raise it only where demand is high. On Cabans you do that in your listing’s calendar: a price window covers a season, and a special day price covers a single night. Guests always see the right price for the dates they pick.

This guide shows how each tool works, how to handle weekends, and how to check your prices the way a guest sees them. For the wider thinking on price, read short-let pricing mistakes that cost Nigerian hosts occupancy.

Your base price

Your base price is the price on the listing itself. It is what guests pay on any night that has no special price and no price window. Get it right first, because it covers most of your year.

You set it in “Property Details” as the “Rent Price (₦)”, with a “Payment Frequency”:

• “Per Night” or “Per Day”: the guest pays that amount for each night.
• “Per Week”: the weekly price is shared over its 7 nights.

To choose a base price, look at similar homes near you on the short let page. Compare homes with the same number of bedrooms, the same power setup and a similar building. Price for an ordinary weekday, not your best night.

Changes to the listing, including its price, wait for approval by the Cabans team before guests see them. So set your base price well before busy season. The calendar, which you use for busy dates, goes live as soon as you save it.

Price windows for seasons

A price window is a price for a run of dates. Use it for anything that lasts days or weeks: December, school holidays, a long festival or a quiet rainy-season stretch where you want to charge less.

To add one, open your listing’s edit page and go to “Availability, prices and booking rules”. Then:

1. In the “Calendar”, pick a start date and an end date.
2. In “Price for a Period”, enter the “Price per night (₦)”.
3. Press “Add Price Window”.
4. Press “Review and save calendar”, check the list of changes, and press “Save and publish calendar”.

You see “Price for a Period” when “Open all dates by default” is on. If you turned that off, guests can only book the dates you open with “Add Availability Window”, so make sure every night you want to sell is inside a window.

Tips for season windows:

• Set them early. Guests who plan ahead book first. A December window added in late November may come after your best bookings were made at your normal price.
• Watch overlaps. If two windows cover the same night, the one that starts latest wins. Keep windows tidy so you know which price applies.
• Use a window to go lower too. A slightly lower price for a quiet month can fill nights that would earn nothing.
• Leave a note. Add a “Day Notes” entry, such as “Public holiday”, so your team knows why a price is there. Only your team sees notes. Guests never do.

The step-by-step help guide how to set night prices for busy days and seasons has more detail.

Special prices for single days

A special day price changes the price of one night, or a few chosen nights. Use it for a public holiday, a big concert, a wedding weekend in your area or the night before a major event.

1. Pick the date in the calendar.
2. Open “Custom Day Price” and enter the “Price per day (₦)”.
3. Press “Set Price” (or “Update Price” to change it).
4. Save the calendar as before.

For each night, Cabans picks the price in this order:

1. a special day price, if there is one;
2. otherwise, the price window covering that night (the latest-starting one if there are two);
3. otherwise, your listing’s own price.

So a special day price inside a December window beats the window for that one night. That is useful for New Year’s Eve inside a December season, for example.

Weekends without a weekend rule

There is no setting that says “charge more every Friday and Saturday”. If weekends are busier for your home, you set them by hand. It takes a few minutes a quarter:

• Once every few months, pick the Friday and Saturday nights of each weekend in the calendar, one weekend at a time, and give them a special day price.
• Save the calendar once for all the changes. Every change is listed in the review before it goes live.
• Set a reminder in your phone to add the next few months before the current ones run out.

Not every home is busier at weekends. A flat near offices may fill on weekdays with work guests and go quiet on Saturday. Look at your own bookings before you decide which nights to raise. Our guide to hosting business travellers covers weekday guests.

You can also close a weekday you never let, using the closed weekdays boxes. Guests then see those nights as “Closed”.

What stays the same on every date

Only two things change by date: the price and whether a night is open or closed. Everything else is set once for the whole listing:

• the minimum stay and the longest stay;
• the free-cancellation cut-off;
• the cleaning fee and the caution deposit;
• the time you have to accept a request, and instant book.

Your longer-stay discount and free-nights offer also apply to busy nights. The discount covers every night of a qualifying stay, and with free nights, the cheapest nights are the free ones. Keep that in mind when you set big December prices. See weekly and monthly shortlet discounts.

Checking what guests see

After you save, check your prices the way a guest would. Open your listing in a private browser window, where you are not signed in.

• The booking box shows a “From” price per night, and “Night prices vary by date” when your nights cost different amounts.
• The calendar shows each free night’s price in small blue text.
• Pick dates that cross into your busy season. The “Price Breakdown” shows one line for each run of nights at the same price, then any discount, the cleaning fee, the caution deposit and the total.

Check a night that should cost the most and one that should cost the least. If a price looks wrong, look for an overlapping window or a forgotten special price.

Nights with no price show grey and cannot be booked. If guests see “Some of those nights have no price yet”, you have an open night without a price. Add a window to cover it.

Mistakes that empty your calendar

• Forgetting to save. The listing’s Save button does not save the calendar. Look for the bar that says your calendar changes are not saved yet, and use “Review and save calendar”.
• A season price that never ends. Give every window an end date that matches the season.
• Raising prices too late. Set busy-season prices months ahead, not the week before.
• Raising every night. Keep ordinary nights at a price that sells, so you do not trade many bookings for a few expensive ones.
• Surprise fees. A high cleaning fee makes a short stay look expensive, even when the night price is fair.

The lesson Price your nights in the free Host Academy walks through all of this in about 5 minutes.

How guests pay, and how you are paid

Guests pay online through Paystack when they book, at the price worked out for their dates. Paystack’s processing fee is paid by the guest, on top of your prices, and they see it before they pay. Cabans charges you a 5% commission. You are paid within 7 days after the guest’s stay, and sooner when the guest approves the payment after their trip.

Get your prices live

Ready to set your season? Take bookings online and your calendar prices apply to every new booking. Not listed yet? List your short let, then work through the Host Academy. To see how other homes price the same dates, browse shortlets in Lekki or Abuja.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

Short-let pricing mistakes · Pricing for Detty December · Weekly and monthly discounts · Is a shortlet profitable? · A shortlet listing that gets booked