AirBNB dna site is it accurate?

Question

I am new to the Phoenix market. In New Jersey long term rental we're coming and hood cash flow. Taxes high buy houses were so cheap it worked out. Here in Phoenix the houses are more expensive so I am looking to start short term rentals. Just wanted to get everyone's advice on the Airbnb dna website, is it accurate? I haven't signed up for the paid version yet wanted to get some information first. I have input several address and it seems like all of them will work put and cash flow Pretty decent. Are theIr projections realistic? Or should I run my STR numbers in another way?

Any advice is appreciated!!

John Underwood · Answer

I have heard from multiple people that it is not that accurate.

Better to check some of your competition manually on Vrbo and Airbnb. It doesn't take long and is very accurate.

Jimmy Woodard · Answer

@Justin Sullivan I'd also recommend checking out Rabbu. They give you free access to comps so you don't have to pay for Airdna's paid version. You combine Rabbu, Airdna, and your own research on Airbnb, you'll be good to go.

Collin Hays · Answer

Not accurate. Elbow grease will be better

Mark S. · Answer

@Jimmy Woodard I agree about Rabbu. For example. I put in each of my current short-term rentals to see what its estimate for annual revenue is and it was extremely accurate. Pretty small sample group but at least it’s a positive indicator.

Dave Stokley · Answer

AirDNA’s accuracy depends a lot on the number and similarity of the properties it’s using for comps. To assess this you need to see the comps, which is what you get with the paid version. In many cases I find it’s very accurate, but in other cases it can be way off.

Just looking at other nearby places on Airbnb really isn’t going to tell you much. You don’t know if blocked dates are actually booked or just blocked, nor do you know what rate they were booked for.

For me the paid subscription to AirDNA has been the best tool I can find - you just need to dig in and verify the comps or use them to make your own projection.

Luke Carl · Answer

It’s called airdna and it’s about the only option you have. Compare it with the enemy method for accurate assessment

Adam Kindwall · Answer

Airdna is one of the best tools for analyzing markets available for STRs.  It is not perfect but it can you give you the overall feel for an area. Like any form of statistics the more data points you have the more confident you can feel about the averages and trends. So areas with more active listings will tend to have more accurate overall numbers. Using the paid version to get these averages for occupancy, ADR and revenue can really help you to hone in on more profitable areas. That being said individual Property stats that they post can be way off when they try to extrapolate the potential of STRs that are only offered for small portions of the year.

For example my first STR was my primary residence that due to local regulations I am only able to offer 30 days out of the year.  We only make it available on the most profitable weekends out of the year and when we go on vacation. Because of that our ADR is much higher than what it should be if we rented the full year and on slower weekends.

If I am looking at specific comps and not market averages I tend to trust more the property data that show more than 300 days available and more than 20 reviews. That tells me that they are running this listing as a full time STR and have been active for a full year.  Even with that I will still dig into the actual listing and try to corroborate the numbers on Airdna.

Chris K. · Answer

@Justin Sullivan

DependS on the market, my area it was generally correct for short term rentals. Enemy method best, but airdna can be a back up but use with slight grain of salt

Ryan C. · Answer

@Justin Sullivan

I found that their “analysis” was based off the “blocked” days on an Airbnb’s calendar. Where the discrepancy comes is if that owner “blocked” off days intentionally, or if it’s truly rented.

For example: I have an Airbnb at the Jersey Shore. I rent for the busy season and then block off rest of my calendar.

I found this to be the case when I did exactly what you’re doing now about a year or so ago. What I did was used the Airdna date(grain of salt), but looked closely at active listings in my target area. To see how many “blocked” days were there, as well as how many monthly reviews they got. That gave me a good sense of what I could expect.

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

I would ONLY trust my own research. It's not that hard to do, and it is real.... Why trust your financial future to a computer algorithm?

AirBNB dna site is it accurate?

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