Is there anywhere to see stats for an area?

Research
1

Does anyone know if there is anywhere you can research occupancy etc in an area?

We have a long-term rental which has now become vacant, but I’m unsure if the area would support airbnb.

Here in Australia, it can be difficult for 1 night whole house listing due to the high cost of cleaning (around $150 for a 3 bedroom house, plus laundry on top), so it would be great to see how often (or even the average annual income) for similar properties in the area.

2

Join Airbnb as a guest and have a look at local hosts calendars. What area are you looking at? My area has lots of infrastructure happening at the moment, so running at about 80 %. My entire homes have some unique features, so I get lots of weddings and wedding guests.

3

This is Brisbane bayside.
I had a look, there are only 2 other listings for whole house, and they seem to have a lot of vacancy, however 1 is min 5 night stay and the other is 2 night stay (but cleaning fee is $40 - which is not viable for us.)

4

And did you look at realestate.com.au to see what long term rentals are getting in Brisbane bayside? If you have done your sums and can’t do the Airbnb ( it is not just changing beds and a swish of the bathroom ) bit, Then long term might be better. Airbnb can be hard, 24 hour availability, responding to moaning, nit picking guests who want a 5 Star hotel experience for pennies
Feeling a bit jaded at the moment after my first 3 Star review from a guest who stayed twice and never said a word about his “noise” issue… can’t try to fix it if you don’t know about it

5

thanks @Debthecat, we do have several other properties, long term rentals and airbnb, so I’m familiar with what each of these entails.
The property has been long term let for 15 years, and obviously, now the economy has changed, I thought it would be interesting to see if airbnb would be viable.
We are remote hosts for all of our properties, so can’t compete with $40 cleaning!

6

I manage 10 in total, 4 short terms in my town and sometimes it is insane!

7

Does your Council have a Tourism Board or some such? That kind of group should have occupancy/vacancy rates for STRs and LTRs. Is there a Conventional Bed & Breakfast committee, group or whatever? They may have information also.

8

Maybe try www.airdna.co - I don’t know if they cover your area but they do have some data on occupancy.