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I’ve just signed up for the free AirDNA account (may do paid subscription later).
Looking at the page where we can track how we compare to the competition, there are filters to customize the data set we compare our listing to. Is it best to filter out the places that are not actually similar or to keep them in? Example: we are small 1 bed 1 bath cabin with max of 2 ppl. Should I eliminate the houses in the area that sleep 8 in 3 or 4 bedrooms with 2 baths, etc? We do kinda charge a premium price, and we sometimes, lately are at or above the rates for some of the larger places. Granted, they don’t all have the stellar reviews as we do, but still. If 200 a night gets you a tiny modern cabin for 2 with a gourmet kitchen but can also get you a 3 bed 2 bath house with a pool…
The recent downturn in bookings is giving me grief and we’re trying to adjust to get things back to “how they should be.”
Also can anyone suggest that the paid model of AirDNA is worth it?
I would think you should filter out places that sleep large numbers of guests. They really aren’t your competition, because 2 guests aren’t likely to be booking a place that is listed for 8, even if it’s comparable in price. They would tend to be looking for a place that feels intimate, not a big house to roam around in.
Never used AirDNA, so couldn’t say if a paid subsciption is worth it.
I just subscribed and so far I would say it is not worth it for me (just one property) – not at all - though I haven’t been able to spend much time with it.
If I were looking to buy another property it’d probably be worth it. You’ll see that their estimates of expenses are way off, maybe just placeholders.
I often travel alone, or just with my spouse. I have no problem staying in a larger house than I need. My recent stay for just me was a two bedroom two bath when there were one bedroom, one bath available. I wouldn’t necessarily assume two people wouldn’t consider an 8 person house.
I’m going off-topic here, but when visiting out of town elders, I often book a bigger place than I expect to use. This gives young cousins and niblings a completely optional and last-minute opportunity to swing by if their schedule permits. That way nobody feels pressured, guilty, or annoyed about booked and vacant hotel rooms.
I have found hosts amenable as long as I keep them informed and pay for extra guests if required.
@Charmed59@dpfromva I understand that sometimes guests may have reasons to book a place that has a much higher guest count than the number of guests on the booking.
But booking a home with 2 bedrooms and baths when you are only one person is a bit different than booking a 4 bedroom house that sleeps 8, and if the OP is looking for data on his competition, I think that it would be more valuable to compare to places listed for a max of 4 (his listing is for 2), rather than 4 bedroom+ places with amenities like pools, which he doesn’t have.
If he sees that places with pools that have maximum guest counts of 4, and are more or less comparable otherwise, are booked way more than he is, that tells him something. If he compares to places which are much different in many ways, you don’t know which factors may have influenced the higher booking rate.
It’s just like using filters to find a place that suits one’s needs. If you don’t use any filters, you’re going to have to read through every listing in order to compare everything. If you filter for pools and 2 guests, and pet-friendly, you are going to get results that are easier to compare.
It would be pointless for me to look for booking data for 4 bedroom entire homes as comparison, when I have a private room homeshare for 1 guest.
I understand where you are coming from @muddy, but in our market, and specifically in this moment in our market when bookings are way down, it makes sense for us to consider these outliers when setting prices, since some of these places are “nicer” than ours in some ways (maybe have a pool, or much better views, for the same or even lower rate. Of course, as I peruse some of these listings, it appears the lower rate conforms to the fact that they are rated 4.8-4.9 stars with cleanliness or accuracy being the prime deficit. So maybe we’re doing ok and I just need to pull prices down a bit more to get our occupancy back up.
Have you considered Price Labs for pricing? We set our rates as ‘aggressive.’ Price Labs rates for us were generally 15%+ higher than AirDNA, and guests have paid them.
As to the comp set I just looked at individual listings to determine which listings I thought were reasonable alternatives to our listing. Price Labs is pretty affordable (unlike AirDNA) and it has this feature that will manage the minimum stay based on calendar and your occupancy.
I’ve read anecdotally that this year guests are making reservations later. One week ago most of July and half of June were unbooked for us. Now they’re mostly booked. And this is largely true for our comp set.
We’ve been accepting VRBO suggested rates – just as an experiment. But they’re crazy high – easily twice what PriceLabs is recommending, at least on weekends here. We have just a handful of VRBO bookings this year and presumably that’s why.
