Price Optimizer Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How can I forgo using concessions when all my competitors around me are using them?

A: The vast majority of our clients have discontinued the use of concessions. They tell us that their prospects can “do the math” and that the sales process is elevated when it becomes less about price and more about the advantages of the community. Prospects do believe, though, that they are getting a deal despite the lack of concessions, simply due to the added flexibility offered—they can have any move in date or lease term they desire, and they have the ability to reduce price by moving in sooner, staying longer, and/or ending their lease at a desirable time based on expiration management.

Q: Am I supposed to blindly follow the prices recommended by the tool? What if my operations team questions the validity of the direction or magnitude of a price change that’s being proposed?

A: Successful use of a revenue management solution depends upon the blending of statistics with your operational expertise. There will be circumstances when your operations team has insight into a condition that warrants the adjusting of a price recommendation. Based on our experience, though, successful use of Price Optimizer is directly correlated to accepting its price recommendations at least 90% of the time.

Q: What kind of results have you seen with Price Optimizer in down markets?

A: Pricing in down markets or volatile conditions is the most challenging for operators. Our clients tell us that using our product helps to curb their instincts to respond to down market conditions by either dramatically lowering price or by holding price when they are losing velocity and/or occupancy. Price Optimizer understands where it can continue pushing price and where it should yield and it will ensure that you are driving every possible opportunity to increase price even in the most downward trending or unexpected conditions. Many examples can be provided of properties using Price Optimizer in down markets across the country where revenues are holding or growing as the markets are declining.

Q: If I don’t have history for some of my properties, how can I implement your product for them?

A: Price Optimizer has access to the required historical data from thousands of OneSite and non-OneSite properties. We simply borrow the history at a unit type level from properties similar to yours in the same neighborhood, which is the process we use to implement over 50 percent of the properties using our tool.

Q: If demand in the system is based on historical experience for the subject site or its surrogate sites as well as the sub market, won’t it be skewed if market conditions have changed or if there was a period of time in the past where the site was being operated inconsistently with the current operational approach?

A: Price Optimizer uses history from your property and its submarket to set an expectation, but the system responds as soon as current experience deviates from those expectations and price is immediately adjusted to capitalize on the conditions that exist at the site and in its submarket today.

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Alan King Division Vice President, Berkshire Property Advisors

Watch Mark Juleen's presentation from the Apartment Internet Marketing Conference 2009 where he shares JC Hart's experience with YieldStar Price Optimizer.

TESTIMONIALS

Abacus: Multiple Fee Managers, One Revenue Management Solution Berkshire: A Better Way to Price Carter-Haston: Revenue Management on the Front Line

ANALYSIS & RESEARCH

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