Airbnb Analytics

A Crowded Market: Recognizing need for smart Airbnb analytics

Over the last decade, Airbnb analytics show that vacation rentals have skyrocketed from a booking alternative to a sector that is now growing nearly twice as fast as traditional hotels. With increased competition, hosts and property managers are now faced with a much more crowded ecosystem. This is where smart Airbnb analytics comes into place. Rental data and Airbnb statistics that go beyond price and occupancy will now be a norm throughout society. Even though traditional approaches to Airbnb host analytics still ring true, Airbnb data now encompasses everything from seasonality to minimum night stays, booking lead times, amenity analysis, platform distribution, and much more. Here’s your go-to rundown on how to leverage Airbnb analytics to increase rental revenue in any given market.

The Traditional approach to Airbnb Analytics: occupancy rates and average daily rates

Much of the focus surrounding Airbnb analysis revolved around dynamic pricing: lower rates when there’s limited demand and higher rates during demand spikes. Before the presence of modern Airbnb analytics, traditional pricing strategies were a bit of a guessing game. Mid-summer weekends and end-of-year holidays were obvious times to increase rates, but beyond that, it was mainly trial and error.

Taking Airbnb analytics to the next level

Modern rental analytics requires a much more detailed approach that goes beyond pricing and occupancy rates. Here are some ways you can leverage Market Minder, the industry's leading Airbnb analytics tool, to increase Airbnb revenue.

RevPAR

To refine Airbnb data analytics strategy, hone in on RevPAR, the industry's most important. In context of vacation rentals, RevPAR can be thought as revenue per available rental. RevPAR is simply a factor of average daily rates and occupancy rates and is calculated by multiplying the two together.

For example, below are examples of two Airbnb in Nashville.

The listing on top maintains an average daily rate of $106.48 and is booked, on average, 77.9% of available days. As a result, RevPAR for this property is $82.95 per night or $2,488.44 per month.

Meanwhile, the second property has an average daily rate of $201.14 and is booked 52.1% of the time. RevPAR for this property is $104.79 per night or $3,143.81 per month.

Despite the fact that property #1 is booked significantly more often, property #2’s higher rates make up for vacancies and end up earning 26.3% more revenue. RevPAR is a metric that evens the playing field and allows hosts to find the perfect balance between price and occupancy.

Channel Management: Where to publish vacation rental

How do you know whether it’s best to publish your listing on Airbnb, HomeAway, or any other booking platform? The Overview tab from AirDNA’s MarketMinder tool provides data on the percentage of listings across various platforms.

Generally, traditional resort-style destinations tend to lean towards HomeAway, much like Alabama's gulf shore market displayed on the top. Nearly half of all listings are published exclusively on HomeAway while additional 33% are listed on both Homeway and Airbnb.

Meanwhile, urban markets like Toronto shown on the bottom tend to favor Airbnb. That being said, there are some interesting outlier markets where hosts need to be on their toes.