Benchmark Your Airbnb Listings Against Comparable Properties

The more data you have, the less likely it’s going to be relevant to  your unique rental property. While analyzing all of the 400+ rentals in  your area will provide a high-level understanding of how your market  behaves, there are probably only 40 properties that really matter.  The  rest tend to introduce noise that can make it difficult to determine  what information is personally relevant and actionable.

Should a downtown penthouse with a pool and ocean view take into  account the budget-friendly listings nearby?  Is the new Airbnb host  with zero reviews really competing for your same guests?

AirDNA has released the first tool in the world that allows vacation  rental operators to narrow their focus and curate a comp set from nearby  listings. Leverage comp sets for rate recommendations, revenue  management insights, and forecasting — all for your specific property.

The best part? It’s all included within your subscription to MarketMinder.

A competitive set (commonly known as a comp set) is a list of  properties with features and characteristics similar to your own. Hosts  and property managers use comp sets to benchmark their listings against  the true competition in addition to the market as a whole.

Comp sets are an invaluable tool for sizing up the competition and  extracting personalized insights for your specific properties.

Here are the 6 major components to consider when creating a comp set for your property.


Amenities: Amenities  comprise the true makeup of a vacation rental. Hone in on properties  that offer similar features as yours (and find out which to consider  adding).

Size and Guest Capacity: Conduct an apples-to-apples comparison by aligning your property with others of a similar size.

Distance and Location:  Location is the #1 factor guests consider when booking a vacation  rental. The closer the property, the more competitive it may be.

Performance Metrics: Revenue, average daily rate, occupancy rate — these metrics are paramount to finding an accurate comp set.

Experience: How professional is your competition? Factoring in the number of reviews for a competitive property is key

Property Quality: The  final aspects of a comp set are property ratings and Superhost status.  Use these metrics to filter out properties that don’t compete with  yours.

Now that we know the major components of a comp set, here’s how to create one for your property.

Connecting your property to MarketMinder is easy. Simply navigate to “My Properties,” copy the URL from your Airbnb listing, and paste it into the box.

Next, verify your listing by exporting your Airbnb iCal.

That’s it! You’ll now see your property as an active listing within the “My Properties” tab.

The next step is to leverage AirDNA data to create a list of  properties that accurately match your own. Hover over your listing and  click on “Customize Comp Set.” The following screen is your new comp set  dashboard.

You’ll  start off with an auto-generated list of up to 100 potential comps.  These are nearby properties that best match your listing’s attributes  all within a 50km (31 mile) radius.

AirDNA  will automatically recommend up to 20 comps as the most comparable to  your property. Those properties will be pre-selected on the column on  the right — meaning they are currently part of your comp set. They also  have a small AirDNA logo on the listing photo to remind you which  properties we originally suggested.

The Comp Set Metrics  banner along the top displays the average metrics for your selected  comp set. Note that this data is dynamic — as you check and uncheck  properties, the averages will change accordingly.

Comparison Score  is AirDNA’s proprietary metric that provides a quick glance into the  comparability of other listings. The higher the score, the more similar  it is to your property.

The next step is to hand-pick the properties that you’d like to  include in your comp set. Sort the columns for distance, occupancy, ADR,  revenue, and comparison score to find the properties you see best fit. 

Need more information on a specific  property? Simply click its title and you’ll be directed to their live  listing on Airbnb. Here you can swipe through photos, read their  descriptions, reviews, and more.

Once you’ve found a property that will serve as a reliable benchmark, check the box to add it to your comp set.

Pro Tip:  The larger the comp set, the better the data. While only 5 properties  are required to save a comp set, we recommend including at least 20  properties. A large, diversified sample size will help minimize any  erratic outliers and provide spot-on analytics.

Another powerful way to identify your comp set is by introducing  filters. Click the “Filters” button towards the top right to prompt the  pop-up.

Here you’ll be able to narrow your  comp set by adjusting sliders for bedrooms, bathrooms, guests, max  distance, host rating, and # of reviews. You can also use the drop-downs  on the right to choose properties based on important amenities that are  relevant to your market. The minimum and maximum values for each slider  are pre-populated based on the list of comp properties.

Note that excluding amenities is just as important as including them.  Are pets not allowed in your property? Add that to the section for  “Without these amenities.”

Once you’re done applying filters and finalizing your comp set, click “Save Comp Set” in the bottom right.

Custom  Comps allows you to analyze listings across multiple markets for the  price of one. Do you see a property located outside your subscribed  market? No problem.

Data refreshes daily — so check back frequently to make tweaks

Our suggested comps include both professionally-managed and privately-managed properties

Step 4. See your Booking Performance Score

Once you’ve created your comp set, your My Properties dashboard  displays three metrics that help gauge the health of your property’s  future performance. These metrics are updated weekly, and they each  measure the future performance of your properties.

Future Occupancy: How many nights is your property  booked over the next 6 months — and how does that compare to the average  of your comp set? Future Occupancy measures the difference.

Booked Rate: Are your listings getting booked at  higher or lower rates than those of your neighbors? ‘Booked Rate’ shows  the percentage difference in ADR between your properties and your comp  set average.

Lead Time: Do you tend to pick up last-minute  reservations or get booked months in advance? And how does that trend  compare to your neighbors? ‘Lead Time’ is the number of days between  when a guest makes a reservation, and when they check-in.

Now that your comp set is saved and you’ve seen your property  comparison metrics, it’s time to take action. The first place your comp  set data will appear is the “Smart Rates” section within MarketMinder’s  “Price” tab.

For those unfamiliar with MarketMinder’s dynamic pricing feature, the first tab for Market Rates compares your rentals’ current rates to actual real-time market demand. The “Smart Rates” calendar suggests daily pricing tips based on essential attributes to deliver the most accurate pricing data available.

Smart Rates’ integration with Futurestay  makes pricing your property even simpler — and personalized. You can  easily automate your pricing to set minimum and maximum rates to  optimize occupancy or maximize your ADRs. 

Today, we’re going one step further with Comp Set Rates. Here you’ll find highly personalized rate recommendations based on your pre-saved comp set. For each day throughout the next 6 months, here’s what you’ll see:  Your listed price and availability The median booked and available prices of your custom comp set. The current occupancy rate of your comp set The number of listings already booked and still available within your comp set. The difference between your price and your competition’s price. 

Pacing is a category of analytics that looks at future trends for your vacation rental market. Earlier this year we released pacing as a new tab within MarketMinder to analyze your market up to 6 months in the future.

Today we’ve unlocked Comp Set Pacing — the ability to analyze the pacing of your specific comp set. Here are the 3 charts where it will appear.

The first chart within Comp Set Pacing allows you to hover over any  date in the future and analyze major KPIs such as occupancy rate, the #  of booked listings, and the median booked rate of your competition.  There’s also a slider at the bottom that allows you to zoom into  specific time frames.

Compare booked rates vs. available rates to uncover the pricing strategies and successes of your direct competition. You can also compare the previous year’s booked rate for benchmarking and to understand where potential opportunities for greater yield may exist.

Are your competitors getting booked for a certain time frame, but  your property isn’t? Now you can know with certainty. With the Booking  Trends chart, hover over any date in the future to find out how many  reservations your competition received in the last 7 days, the last 30  days, the last 60 days, and all time.

Gain market share by benchmarking your Airbnb listings against comparable vacation rental properties using the My Properties tool in MarketMinder.