A 15-minute weekly routine in KeyBid Puls: how to adjust your short-term rental prices

For short-term rentals, prices are no longer set once a season. In cities, more than 45% of bookings are made less than 7 days before arrival, Airbnb introduced monthly base prices and last-minute settings in 2026, and events and the weather shift demand from one week to the next. You do not need hours of analysis to keep up: a 15-minute check, done on the same day every week, shows whether the prices in your calendar still match what is happening in your area. This guide walks through the routine step by step in KeyBid Puls, the decisions you can take from each signal and the limits of the data.

Why check once a week

Bookings arrive close to the arrival date. According to the Federation of the Hotel Industry of Romania (FIHR), quoted by Radio Romania International, more than 45% of bookings for urban destinations such as Bucharest, Brașov and Oradea are made less than 7 days before check-in, and more than 75% of nights are booked on mobile devices. For a city host, the prices set on Monday matter directly for the coming weekend.

Platform settings need regular attention. Since 2026, Airbnb has let hosts set a different base price for each month, a percentage weekend adjustment, a shorter minimum stay for nights still free in the last two weeks and tiered last-minute discounts. Airbnb also offers local pricing and availability insights based on searches and bookings in your area over the past month. On Booking.com, Early Booker deals are recommended for bookings made at least 30 days ahead and Last-Minute deals for bookings made 7 days or less ahead. All of them only work if you review them regularly; Airbnb’s new features are covered in detail in our guide to Airbnb’s new host features.

Market reports update slowly. AirDNA, one of the most widely used data sources for short-term rentals, updates its data monthly, with a one-month lag. Monthly reports are useful for big decisions such as a purchase, but they do not capture what changes from week to week: a newly announced event, a weather forecast or the pace at which your calendar fills. That is where the weekly check comes in.

over 45%of bookings for urban destinations are made less than 7 days before arrival (FIHR)

750 mthe radius of a hexagonal zone in KeyBid Puls

7 daysthe weather outlook in Puls, with the estimated impact on prices

15.5%Airbnb’s single service fee, paid entirely by the host

Before your first routine, check the switch to Airbnb’s single fee. Airbnb is moving all hosts to a single 15.5% fee, paid entirely by the host. For hosts in the European Economic Area and Switzerland who do not use a property management system or a channel manager, the deadline to adjust prices is 13 October 2026. If you do not adjust, the displayed price stays the same but you earn less: in Airbnb’s example, $84.50 instead of $97 for a $100 rate, before VAT on the fee. This is a one-off check; the full calculation is in our analysis of short-term rental margins.

What KeyBid Puls shows you

KeyBid Puls is KeyBid’s page dedicated to the short-term rental market. You choose the city, for example Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca or Brașov, then, on the map, the hexagonal zone closest to your property. Each zone has a radius of 750 metres, so you see data for your neighbourhood, not an average for the whole city. For the selected zone, Puls shows:

Nightly rates by property type. For each type, from studios to apartments with several bedrooms, penthouses, houses and villas, you see two price levels: “Good” and “Max”. Clicking a row selects your property type.
The weather and the 7-day forecast. For each day you see the temperature and the estimated impact on prices, which takes into account the weather, weekends and local events.
Upcoming events. Cultural events, festivals, sports competitions or business events over the next three months, with the date and the estimated impact on prices.
The KeyBid Puls assistant. With a KeyBid owner or manager account, you can ask questions about the market and request a PDF optimisation report for your property.

Just as important is what Puls does not do. It is not connected to your Airbnb or Booking.com account, it cannot see your calendar, bookings, photos or reviews, and it does not change prices for you. The levels shown are estimates for a property type in a zone, not a valuation of your flat. That is why the routine below combines the data in Puls with what only you know: how full your calendar is and how quickly bookings are coming in. How to read market data and why sources differ is explained in our guide to AirDNA and KeyBid Puls data.

The 15-minute routine, step by step

Pick a fixed day and time, for example Monday at 9 am. That way you compare the same things each time, at the same distance from the weekend. You need two windows open: KeyBid Puls and your calendar in Airbnb, Booking.com or your channel manager.

Minutes	What you do	The question you answer
0–2	Open KeyBid Puls, your city and your zone, then select your property type	Am I looking at the same zone and the same property type as last week?
2–5	Compare the “Good” and “Max” levels with your prices for the next 14 nights	For which nights am I below “Good”, between the two levels or above “Max”?
5–8	Read the list of upcoming events and check the dates on the organisers’ websites	Which nights in the coming weeks deserve a higher price or a minimum stay?
8–11	Look at the 7-day forecast and the estimated impact for each day	Does the coming weekend have conditions that help or hurt demand in my area?
11–14	Check your free nights and booking pace, then apply the changes in your calendar	Which nights are still free, how close are they and what exactly do I change?
14–15	Note in your log what you changed and why	What do I check next week?

The most important step is the second. Do not compare your price with a general average, but with the levels for your property type in your zone. A price below “Good” is not automatically a mistake: it may be your choice for a flat without parking or for a period with few bookings. What matters is the combination of your price position and your booking pace, set out in the table in the next section.

You can only see your booking pace in your own calendar. Look at how many of the nights in the next 14 days have been booked since your last check. If they are filling faster than usual, the price can go up; if nothing has been booked, check your listing first, then your price.

How to turn signals into decisions

The table below is a starting point for the most common situations. Change prices in small steps, so that at your next check you can see what effect each change had.

What you see	What you can do	Watch out for
Your price is below “Good” and nights are booking quickly	Gradually raise the price of the nights still free	Confirmed bookings stay at the original price; watch whether the pace slows after the increase
Your price is above “Max” and the nights in the next 7 days are free	First check your listing, photos, reviews and minimum stay, then bring the price closer to the range shown	Do not go below the minimum rate calculated for your property
An event in your area in the coming weeks	A higher price and a 2-night minimum stay for the event nights	Confirm the date and venue on the organiser’s website
An unfavourable weekend forecast, in the mountains or by the sea	Do not cut the price early; prepare tiered last-minute discounts	Forecasts can change, so check again 2–3 days before
A free night between two bookings	On Airbnb, a shorter last-minute minimum stay; on Booking.com, a Last-Minute deal	The cost of an extra clean for a one-night stay
Airbnb’s local insights suggest lowering your price or minimum stay	Compare the suggestion with the levels in Puls and with your booking pace	They are suggestions, not obligations

If you use a channel manager, make the changes there, so that you do not end up with different prices on different platforms by mistake. If you change prices directly in Airbnb and in the Booking.com extranet, check the prices for the same nights on both platforms at the end.

What to watch depending on the destination

The steps of the routine are the same everywhere, but the signals that matter most differ from one destination to another.

Destination	What to watch first	Why
Large cities: Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara	Events, conferences and nights still free in the next 7 days	According to FIHR, urban bookings arrive close to the arrival date, and visitors increasingly include business travellers and young people coming for festivals and events
Mountains and spa resorts	Weekends, school holidays, public holidays and the weekend forecast	Demand clusters around school holidays and public holidays
The coast	In summer, events and the weather; in the off-season, long stays	AirDNA’s seasonality score is 49 for Constanța, compared with 94 for Bucharest; a lower score means bigger differences between months

On the coast, outside the season, a weekly routine focused only on weekends can miss demand for stays of several weeks; off-season options are covered in our guide to off-season offers.

Example: an autumn week in Brașov

The example below is hypothetical: the Puls levels, the forecast and the bookings are chosen only to show how decisions are made; they are not real data.

Assumptions. A one-bedroom flat in Brașov, with a usual price of 300 lei a night and a minimum rate of 180 lei, calculated from its own costs. On Monday 19 October 2026, Puls shows 320 lei for “Good” and 380 lei for “Max” for the “1 Bedroom” type in the flat’s zone. The autumn school break starts on Saturday 24 October and ends on Sunday 1 November. The forecast is for rain on Thursday and Friday, then clear weather at the weekend. In the calendar, the nights of 23 and 24 October are booked and those of 25–31 October are free.

The weekend of 30–31 October, the second of the autumn break: the price goes up from 300 to 340 lei a night, between the two Puls levels, with a 2-night minimum stay.
The nights of 25–29 October, during the week: the price stays at 300 lei. If the nights are still not booked on Thursday 22 October, a 10% last-minute discount brings the price down to 270 lei, above the 180 lei minimum rate.
The rain on Thursday and Friday changes nothing, because the nights of 23 and 24 October are already booked.
In the log you note the three decisions, and on Monday 26 October you check whether the weekend of 30–31 October has been booked at the new price.

The result of a single week matters less than the habit: after two or three months of notes, you can see which changes brought bookings and which did not. What the rest of the cold season looks like, with New Year, the ski week and Easter 2027, is covered in our 2026–2027 cold-season pricing calendar.

When to use the assistant and the optimisation report

The weekly routine does not need the assistant. It is useful when you have a specific question about your area, for example which strategy to choose for the weekend or how to raise occupancy in a weak week. To use the assistant you need a KeyBid account, as an owner or a manager.

The PDF optimisation report is worth requesting once a season or after a significant change: a renovation, new photos, a new amenity or the switch from summer to winter. The assistant asks for your city and zone, property type, current nightly price and maximum number of guests, then details such as parking, floor, sea view, air conditioning, balcony, renovation and distance to public transport or the beach. The report costs 1 credit; you receive it by email and can download it. Treat its recommendations as hypotheses: apply changes one at a time and track the effect of each in your log.

The weekly log: what to record

Without notes, after a few weeks you no longer know why you changed a price and whether the change worked. A simple table, in a notebook or a spreadsheet, is enough:

Column	What to write
Date of the check	Your fixed day of the week
Puls levels	“Good” and “Max” for your property type
Your prices	Your weekday and weekend prices for the next 14 nights
Signals	New events, the weekend forecast, Airbnb’s suggestions
Decisions	What you changed: the price, the minimum stay, a discount
Result	How many nights were booked by the next check, and at what price

After two or three months you can see patterns that no external source can show you: how many days ahead your guests book, which nights are hard to sell and how much events matter in your area. If you are only preparing your first listing and have no history yet, start with our complete guide to starting a rental business in Romania. If you want to automate adjustments, the pros and cons of dynamic pricing tools are analysed in our guide to dynamic pricing and AI.

Common mistakes

You check prices only when the calendar is empty. By then it is too late: the nights that guests book a few days ahead have gone to other hosts.
You change prices every day. If you change everything often, you can no longer tell which change brought a booking. A weekly check, plus last-minute discounts set up in advance, keeps you in control.
You compare your price with a different property type or zone. A studio in the centre and a three-bedroom flat on the edge of the city have different prices; use the right row and the right hexagon.
You copy the “Max” level without a listing to match. A peak price needs good photos, good reviews and an accurate description.
You go below your minimum rate. A night sold below cost raises your occupancy but loses you money.
You forget the minimum stay for events. A one-night booking can block exactly the most sought-after nights.
You write nothing down. Without a log, the routine comes down to impressions.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I change my short-term rental prices?

A full check once a week, on the same day, is a pace that is easy to keep. Between checks, let the settings you prepared in advance do the work, such as Airbnb’s tiered last-minute discounts or Booking.com’s Last-Minute deals, and change manually only what they do not cover.

What do the “Good” and “Max” levels in KeyBid Puls mean?

They are two estimated nightly price levels for a property type in the selected zone. “Good” is the reference level, and “Max” is the level you can move towards when demand allows, for example during an event or at the weekend. They are not guaranteed prices and they do not take into account the quality of your listing.

Do I need an account or credits for KeyBid Puls?

You can see the map, the rates by property type, events and the forecast directly on the KeyBid Puls page. For the AI assistant you need a KeyBid owner or manager account, and the PDF optimisation report costs 1 credit.

Can KeyBid Puls change my prices on Airbnb or Booking.com automatically?

No. Puls is not connected to your platform accounts and does not change prices. You make the adjustments yourself, in Airbnb, in the Booking.com extranet or in your channel manager. If you want automatic adjustments, there are dynamic pricing tools connected to your calendar, each with its own pros and cons.