For a long time, we separated the content and pricing roles at Onera:

• The social team would post the content
• The revenue team would set rates

They were in different workflows, looking at different dashboards.

And honestly, it never occurred to me that those two things should be connected in real time. Content was content. Pricing was pricing.

Turns out, that disconnect was costing us revenue on all of our top performing posts.

THE WRONG WAY

We used to adjust rates the same way most operators do.

We’d look at:

• Booking pace
• Comp set data
• Seasonal trends

Every week, we checked the numbers, made adjustments, and moved on.

Then we realized a huge problem with those metrics:

They’re lagging indicators.

By the time your booking pace tells you demand is spiking, the spike already started days ago on your Instagram feed.

We just weren’t looking there.

THE PLAY

Last year, a reel at Onera Wimberley hit 25,000+ views in the first few hours.

For context:

At Wimberley, the average impressions in that 2-3 hour window was typically 2,000-5,000 for a post, so we knew we had a winner on our hands.

But instead of just watching it go viral, we decided to be proactive and treat the impression spike for what it is:

A demand signal.

The revenue team raised the rates on available dates that same day.

Here’s the thinking behind this…

Guests who find you through a viral post are not the same as OTA shoppers.

Why?

Because they just watched a video of your property and want to recreate that experience. They’re booking on emotion, not comparison shopping on Booking.com or Airbnb.

So the pricing tolerance is higher—way higher.

This is a play you can start running today.

Here’s a 3-step process to get you started:

1. Know your baseline. Track how your posts perform in the first 2-3 hours. That 2-3 hour window tells you whether the algorithm is pushing a post before anyone else can see it in the numbers.
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2. Set a trigger. When a post hits 3-5x your normal impressions in that 2-3 hour window, that’s a signal that more eyeballs are heading toward your booking link than usual.
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3. Move on pricing before the post peaks. Don’t wait for the views to flatten out. Adjust rates while the wave is still building.

Bonus pro tip: You can set up an automation to slack, email or text you the minute a post hits your 3-5x benchmark so you can immediately adjust your rates (even while you’re walking around your property!).

THE PROOF

The Wimberley post ended up going mega viral:

• 1.7M+ views on Instagram
• 7,596 link taps into our booking funnel (319% above prior weeks)

But those are just vanity metrics…

So, here’s the revenue numbers:

The increased demand led to 184 nights booked at a $426 daily rate (compared to $387 the month before).

That’s $78,400+ in direct bookings and a $39/night lift just from connecting two things that were already happening inside our business.

We run this playbook for every property we partner with, and now you can too.

THE TAKEAWAY

Ben Wolff

Founder, Oasi & Modern Hospitality Accelerator

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