CLIENT

Who is Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach?

Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach sits on the Florida Gulf Coast between two heavy-hitter travel destinations: Sarasota and Fort Myers. It’s a smaller destination that punches well above its weight, mostly known for its beaches, world-class fishing, independent restaurants, and an authentic “old Florida” vibe. The area draws a loyal and growing mix of leisure visitors, meetings and conventions, and amateur sports events.

CHALLENGE

A Market You Can't See is A Market You Can't Manage

With roughly 3,500 vacation rental listings, outnumbering the county’s 2,400 hotel rooms, short-term rentals are the largest segment of Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach’s accommodation inventory. And as a DMO, they were almost entirely invisible.

Before AirDNA, the county had worked with another STR data vendor for four or five years. The experience was frustrating, as the data came in spreadsheet format, metrics were limited to the basics like revenue, occupancy, and RevPAR, and the data was entirely historical.

Eventually, a dashboard replaced the spreadsheets, which was an improvement in theory. But in practice, it started breaking, and the team’s trust in the platform's reliability eroded. And with the largest portion of the local market effectively unaccounted for, it was time to find a better solution.

SOLUTION

The Switch to AirDNA: More Than Just A Vendor Change

Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach made the move to AirDNA for practical reasons: the old tool stopped working. But what they found was something far bigger than a replacement.

Because AirDNA pulls data directly from Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com in real time (the platforms where the overwhelming majority of independent STR operators list), the DMO finally had eyes on the market that had always been its blind spot. Not only could they see the big property management companies, but the individual hosts that make up the bulk of the county’s STR supply.

The result wasn’t just better data. It was a fundamentally different relationship with the future.

RESULTS

How Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach Uses AirDNA Today

1. Pacing Data: From Guessing to Seeing Ahead

Of all the features in AirDNA’s platform, forward pacing has been the most transformative for the Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach team.

Hotels have traditionally used pacing to understand booking momentum. STRs have never had that luxury…until AirDNA. For a DMO working with a market where vacation rentals dominate, seeing demand build (or soften) weeks and months in advance changed the game entirely.

Once the team got their hands on pacing data, they built a whole process around it. Every month, they pull the current pacing and compare it to the same point last year, giving them a clear read on whether demand is building or shifting. From there, they validate with two property management company owners sitting on the tourism development council, who confirm whether they're seeing the same momentum (or lack of it) in their own businesses. If pacing is strong, the marketing plan stays the course. If things are softer than expected, the contingency budget gets activated. This pacing data has become the team's monthly gut check: confirmation that what they're doing is working, or the signal that it’s time to pivot.

2. Competitive Intelligence: Knowing Where They Stand

Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach competes with bigger, better-funded neighbors. It operates with one-quarter the marketing budget of its nearby counties. So every dollar, and every data point, has to count. 

AirDNA’s market comparison tools help the DMO benchmark its performance against Sarasota, Fort Myers, and other Florida markets in real time. When seasonal softness hits, the first question is: are the neighbors seeing it too? If Sarasota is down and Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach is flat, that’s a very different story than if they were the only market underperforming. This competitive context lets the team distinguish between systemic market trends and destination-specific issues, and helps them respond accordingly.

3. Telling the Full Destination Story

Every year, Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach produces a tourism highlights report: a comprehensive look at the economic impact of travel on the community including jobs, revenue, bed tax, and spending. 

Now armed with accurate and accessible STR data from AirDNA, they tell a better story. Because when vacation rentals outnumber hotels by more than 50%, leaving them out of an economic impact report means undercounting the true value of tourism, and undervaluing the DMO’s own work.

The Bottom Line

Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach proves that you don’t need the biggest budget to make the smartest decisions. You just need the right data.