Listing Tips, Part 2: The price is right

The first step to earning on Yoodlize is to create a high-quality listing that draws the interest of potential renters. The components of our most successful listings are photos, price, title and description. In the second of three articles about listing tips, let's talk about pricing your item.

Pricing your items

Pricing your item right is one of the most important factors impacting the success of your listing. The challenge is it’s probably the first time you’ve tried renting this item before. Here are some things to consider when deciding how to price your item.

How much are similar items on Yoodlize?

The easiest way to price your item is to look for similar listings on the app. If you are listing an Oculus VR headset, search for other ones on the app. You’ll see that $10-20 is a common rental price. That gives you an idea of where you’ll want to price.

Could I see myself wanting to rent at this price?

Ask yourself, “Would I want to rent this item at this price?” If you feel like you’d be getting a bargain, then you may be in the right range. If you would instead choose to buy the item, consider lowering the price.

For example, let’s say you need a drill for a project. You could buy the drill for $100. If someone is trying to rent you the drill for $25, you’d probably just end up buying it so that you can have it around for future projects. If, however, you can rent it for $5 from a neighbor, you may be more likely to rent it because it will save you time going to the hardware store, figuring out which to buy, maintaining it, storing it, etc.

Is this a better deal than rental shops?

There are often other places someone can rent the item: hardware stores, sporting goods stores, outdoor gear stores, etc. If you are charging the same or higher price than shops, you're probably priced too high. You don’t have all the overhead of a store (buildings, employees, etc.) so you should be able to price your item much lower.

Sometimes lower prices actually earn you more money. To some this may seem counterintuitive, but lower prices can actually earn you more money in the long run. Here’s an example:

You set your price at $30/day for your paddle board, but everyone else charges $15/day. At your current price, people will most likely rent the $15 boards first so you will be that last person to get a rental. 

Let’s say you get one rental every month at this price. You’d make $30.

If you lower your price to $15/day with everyone else, you may end up getting five rentals a month earning a total of $75.

Finally, if you set your price at $10/day, it’s likely that people will try to rent from you first since you have the best deal. Now you may end up with 20 rentals a month, earning yourself $200.

As you can see, by lowering the price, you got 20 rental requests instead of one. This more than made up for the decrease in your asking price. In fact your total earnings were over six times greater!