Last updated on July 18th, 2022
Table of Contents
Why am I eligible to give an AirDNA Review?
When AirDNA was launched back in 2015, it took the market by storm. It was the only data analytics tool available during that time. I was also an avid user of AirDNA back in 2017 when I was managing 3 condos in Brighton. At that time, I didn’t have anything else to compare AirDNA with and validate the data I was seeing.
With little to no competition in the market, an AirDNA review was impossible to find. But with my experience of running a short-term rental business for 3 years & a resident of Brighton, I figured that a lot of the data is either missing, wrong, or outdated. This is because I was not seeing a complete list of all my competitors and their daily rates.
After talking to AirDNA’s support, I figured that the data was not frequently updated as I expected. This led to inaccurate predictions for my business on a short interval basis.
What did I do about it?
I did what anyone else would have done – try to find a better solution. I switched to many other data analytics tools over the next 2 years. AlltheRooms, Beyondpricing, and a few more. Some had great graphics, cheaper prices, and more regions, but the main thing was missing for me: Accurate Data!
So in 2019, I thought of finding a solution by myself — Airbtics!
This is a tool that I developed after not being able to find anything good and reliable in the market. The data is updated every single morning and custom requests are always welcomed. Support my work and give feedback to improve this tool and help me make the perfect short-term rental analytics out there for hosts/managers and investors.
What is AirDNA?
AirDNA is a short-term rental (Airbnb, VRBO) data analytics tool that was founded in 2015 by Scott and Will Shat Ford. It aims to help Airbnb hosts by providing data and helping them make better and calculated predictions. As of March 2022, AirDNA has been acquired by Alpine Investors.
In the beginning, they focused on featuring two products: Market Minder and Investment Explorer.
Recently, their main focus has shifted solely to Market Minder and Enterprise clients. AirDNA removed the Investment Explorer from their main home page. After reviewing their updated UI and website, there were many major changes. One of these is that they increased their pricing and currently have 3 tiers on their website. Their pricing starts from $19 to $99 with one separate enterprise solution.
How does AirDNA obtain its data?
AirDNA obtains data through web scraping. This is conducted by gathering data of 4 million Airbnb rentals, mostly through scraping the Airbnb website. A very small amount of their data also comes from their partnerships with vacation rental managers. This allows them to re-evaluate their data to increase accuracy.
They update their rental database every first week of the month. This is not a problem for many users, however, you have to consider the fact that the data will not be presented in real-time. AirDNA only updates its database about 12 times a year.
In comparison to other data analytics companies, they have a shorter timeline. For instance, Airbtics updates its data daily during midnight which gives the user an accurate & real-time experience.
Existing Customer’s AirDNA Review
1. Trustpilot
The majority of AirDNA reviews on Trustpilot are regarding the pricing structure and not the data. This might imply that the majority of the users might be satisfied with the data Airdna is providing, but not with the pricing structure and service.
2. Airbnb Community
The Airbnb community seems to have mixed feelings about AirDNA. Many people gave AirAirDNA a review by criticizing the data and how it is not accurate for non-major locations. AirDNA seems to be focusing more on big markets which brings a lot of high-ticket clients and neglects other regions.
Dashboard Updates and Tutorial
For new users, the user interface shouldn’t be too difficult to understand. In fact, it is designed to keep the mass market user in mind.
Let’s do a quick run-through of AirDNA’s features:
Overview Page
The overview page is a collection of the most important metrics that AirDNA provides. The top bar on the overview page gives you a quick glance at metrics including Average Daily Rate, Occupancy, Revenue, and the area’s supply/demand. You can click on these cards and do an in-depth analysis of a particular metric.
On the top left corner, you’ll find the “Market Grade” card. This refers to the rating out of 100 that Airdna gives to a particular city or an area. You can also see the parameters on which Airdna has based this rating. This includes Rental Demand, Revenue Growth, Seasonality, Regulations, and Investability (only in the USA). A score above 80 should be considered quite an attractive market. During my analysis, most of the markets are somewhere between 55 – 85.
After that, you’ll find an “Average Daily Rate” option which refers to the average daily booking price of a room in the area. You can add filters to get the ADR (Average Daily Price) of a specific type of property or rental.
Similar to ADR, you’ll find an “Occupancy Rate” card which is also very self-explanatory. The graph shows the average occupancy rate of the area. To see the occupancy rate of a particular size and type of rental you can click on “View Occupancy” and add filters. This is a very important metric to look at when researching an area to invest in. Having consistent high occupancy rates is very important to generate consistent long-term profits from a rental property.
Middle Section
The middle section of the “Overview Page” consists of an “Active Rentals” Section. This section describes the breakdown of Active Rentals in the area based on the rental type. In addition, there is a card that shows the breakdown of rentals that are listed on Airbnb or VRBO.
Lower Section
The lower section of the “Overview Page” consists of many useful cards. This includes the “Rental Size“, “Rental Growth“, “Amenities“, and “Airbnb Ratings“.
To find your first rental property using AirDNA, the most important parts to look at are the “Rental Size” & “Rental Growth”. These cards will help you see the breakdown of a number of properties, their particular sizes in the area & quarterly growth in the area.
Rentalizer
The Rentalizer section is a great tool to help you estimate your revenue and ROI on a property. You can add an address or a zipcode and add filters like the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and capacity of guests. You can also use the historical data Rentalizer to help you forecast the future revenue and occupancy rate of a property.
Upon testing this tool, it was able to give estimates in the ballpark of my property’s actual stats.
Seasonality
As you can see in the data below, “July” is shown as the best month with the average revenue per room and a total of $258. This monthly data can be very useful in planning out your annual strategy. This data can help you choose from “High Rent – Low Occupancy”, “Low Rent – High Occupancy” or “Hybrid” strategies to maximize your profits.
As you can see in the yearly seasonality calendar, the months of December and January are the ones the with least occupancy and revenue, while June and July are the highest.
Lead Time & Rates
“Lead Time” is the metric that tells you about the number of days before a property is booked from your guest’s arrival. It also allows you to keep track of your future occupancy & make some changes in future pricing if the occupancy rate, based on the lead time, drops below the market standard.
The “Rates” section gives you a breakdown of the Average Daily Rate of different types of rentals in the area. The top bar will show you the ADR of the entire rental, private room, or shared space. This will help you determine ADR for your own property based on its type.
Carrer de Muntaner 292 6.2
08021 Barcelona, Spain
Ph: +34 932 205 569 (Sales and Customer Success)
or chat from 11am – 11pm CET (GMT+2)
—————-
1507 Blake Street
Denver, CO 80202
United States
Ph: +1 720 372 2318 (Corporate Headquarters)
or chat from 3 am – 3 pm MST (GMT -6/7)
The customer support email is [email protected].
Is AirDNA accurate?
It’s not 100% accurate, but it is still the best way to objectively understand the market. You can try to speak with realtors or Airbnb hosts within your area, but both of them can be biased for their own reasons. The realtors are likely to give you biased numbers because they want to make transactions. The Airbnb hosts can give you their number, but it is just one data point out of thousands of different listings in the market.
They collect thousands of data points weekly without human bias, this can give you some good insights and ideas about the market. This is why I believe it is worth subscribing to analytics like AirDNA or Airbtics.
Conclusion
My final thoughts on AirDNA: “It’s a great tool that will help you a lot if you are a moderate user who has just started in the business”.
AirDNA data can be really useful in making decisions for investing in a rental property in the market. However, the post-purchase tools of Airdna lack in providing accurate data when managing a property. The data is not completely accurate when making decisions on a daily basis or at short intervals.
When AirDNA was launched, it was definitely a revolutionary tool. It gave power to the hands of hosts and gave them a medium to leverage data and increase revenue. But looking at the current market conditions, AirDNA has fallen behind in keeping up with some of the new and innovative tools that are giving hosts the ability to do a lot more with data.
There are tools in the market that provides a lot more accurate data and metrics with less work. With AirDNA, you would have to put in more work and need to have an in-depth knowledge of your target area.
Finally, my one-line Airdna Review will be: “Solely relying on AirDNA’s data will lead to making wrong decisions and inaccurate predictions”.
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