Newbie Research Questions

[Paul Schaefle]

Hi everyone! I'm looking to start my first STR in the Chicago suburbs near O'Hare airport, but I'm a little confused about how reliable my information is. To start, when I first started looking on Airbnb and VRBO, there weren't very many units in my area and only 4 or 5 were apartment/condo units like I am planning on renting out. The next day, the number of units had easily doubled even though I didn't change any settings on my search (I didn't select any dates either time). Now, I'm unsure about my initial research, because I don't know why so many units were missing.

Also, all the units available to rent seems to be incredibly hit or miss. They either had only four or five days booked in a month, or literally every day was blocked off on the calendar until the end of the year. Are these units actually booked? Or is there something about how the sites work that just make it look like it's booked? I'm not sure why Airbnb would want to turn away potential guests, but I also have trouble believing they could be so successful when similar units are basically empty.

Finally, I don't live next to o'hare, and I would prefer to host my STR III my neighborhood. However, there is really only one listing within 20 minutes of where I live, even though we are close to Chicago and closer to O'Hare. In your experiences, does that generally mean it's a bad location or that there is good potential?

I appreciate and advice or help anyone can give . Please let me know if you have any questions.