Short-term rental pricing in Batumi: seasons, events and days of the week

One price for the whole summer is almost always wrong in both directions: in August the apartment is booked months ahead, while in early June nobody will pay the same money for a night. So every night in the calendar has its own calculation, and we adjust it according to how the bookings are coming in.

Short-term rental pricing in Batumi: what makes up the nightly price

We build the nightly price from several layers. Each one is set separately in the booking management software, so when we adjust the weekend premium, the seasonal grid stays as it was.

We set the starting grid by looking at similar apartments in your building, just as when listing on Airbnb and Booking.

Batumi's seasons month by month

The main flow of tourists comes in July–September, and the whole grid is built around those months. The edges of the season shift a little every year because of the weather in June and the school holidays in the guests' home countries, so we set next year's grid from the previous season and check it in spring against how the bookings are coming in.

Weekends, holidays and events

Outside the peak, weekends sell the apartment better than weekdays: people come to Batumi for two nights from Tbilisi and other Georgian cities, and from Turkey through the Sarpi border crossing. So in the off-season we put a premium on Friday and Saturday and a two-night minimum stay, and keep weekdays cheaper.

We look at two kinds of holidays. Georgian ones, such as Easter or 26 May, add extra days off, and we price them like a Saturday. Holidays in the countries the guests come from shift demand to their own dates: the New Year and May holidays, Passover and Sukkot.

Events are handled the same way, only faster. A major concert or festival is usually announced several months in advance, and we raise the prices for those nights straight away, while the neighbours' calendars are still open. In 2026, for example, Black Sea Jazz took place on 10–12 July. Festival dates change from year to year, so we put them into next summer's grid only once they have been announced, and we don't lift the minimum stay on those nights even to fill gaps. If a week goes by after a price rise without a single booking, we bring the price back closer to that of the neighbouring dates.

Minimum stay

You approve the minimum stay for each season in the contract, together with the rule for gaps between bookings, and the manager works within those limits. A one-night booking in July almost always loses out: it takes a date that could have sold for four or five nights and uses up a clean on a single night. So in the peak we usually set three nights or more, in the off-season two at weekends, and in winter sometimes just one.

For short gaps between bookings we lift the minimum stay, as described on the page about managed short-term rental. In the peak we sometimes close Sunday check-ins if they cut a week into pieces.

Weekly and monthly discounts

A long booking saves on cleaning and fills nights that might otherwise stay empty, so it gets a discount. Under Airbnb's rules at the time of publication, a weekly discount applies from 7 nights and a monthly one from 28, and the platform shows a discount of 10% or more to the guest right in the search results.

We change the size of the discount with the season. In August a week sells without one, and a large discount simply gives money away. From November to March weekly and monthly discounts are noticeably bigger: one long booking replaces several short ones, each with a clean after it. We also compare the monthly price with what a tenant for 1–3 months would pay for the apartment. If renting by the month works out better, we suggest it, and a year of both formats is analysed in our comparison of short-term and long-term rental.

How often we change prices

• in the season, every day we check new bookings, cancellations and free nights for the next two weeks;
• once a week we go through the calendar two or three months ahead;
• once a month we review the base prices for the year and the grid for next season;
• outside the schedule we adjust prices when an event is announced, a long booking is cancelled, noisy renovation work starts in the building or a bad review comes in;
• after the season we decide with you whether to change the minimum nightly price and the minimum stay.

The main thing we read in the calendar is the booking pace: how quickly the coming weeks are being booked compared with last year and with the neighbours in the building. If similar apartments are taken for the coming weekend and ours is free, the problem is the price or the photos. If it is the other way round, the price can go up. You see the average nightly price and the booked nights for the month in the owner statement.

Dynamic pricing tools and manual checks

A dynamic pricing tool connects to the listing and moves the price with demand on its own: it watches how similar apartments nearby are being booked and recalculates the calendar every day. But the tool doesn't know that a tower has started going up across the street, that the apartment's air conditioner is out of action for a week or that you are coming in August. So we check its suggestions by hand and keep them within the limits set in the contract.

The platforms have price suggestions of their own too. They can see demand across the city, but they don't know your cleaning and linen costs or the minimum price in the contract. We check the price on each platform against what will reach the apartment after that platform's commission.

How much pricing and calendar management cost

With us, pricing is part of the short-term management commission: 30–36% of the amount received for the stay after the Booking or Airbnb commission. It covers the analysis of neighbouring apartments, the seasonal grid, premiums, discounts and calendar adjustments. If the apartment is rented for 1–3 months in winter, the rate for those months is 21–24%. How the commission compares with a flat fee and subletting is covered on the page about management payment models.

If you rent out the apartment yourself, you can buy the pricing work separately. Setting up seasonal prices and the calendar costs 330–480 ₾ as a one-off, and pricing and calendar management without full property management 210–300 ₾ a month. Creating listings on Airbnb, Booking and local sites, if you don't have them yet, costs 360–540 ₾. As a guide, a subscription to a dynamic pricing tool costs around 27–54 ₾ a month per listing, but that is not our price: the tool sets its own rates.

It costs more for an apartment listed on several platforms, with short bookings and frequent gaps, or with several bedrooms, where the price depends on the number of guests. It costs less if the listing is ready and you set the price limits once a season. We name the final cost after looking at the apartment and the listing, and write it into the contract.