Matt Krueger is a short-term rental investor and host from Des Moines, Iowa, he currently manages eleven properties with his wife Mariah. 

In early 2021, Matt was managing nine long-term rental properties in Iowa pretty successfully. However, they weren’t generating the income he needed to achieve his goal of stepping back from his 9–5 job. Matt had heard about the potential of short-term rentals and got curious about his hometown of Des Moines. 

I was very aware that Des Moines isn’t the most desirable place to visit in the US, but was interested to see what was possible in my area.

Matt had heard about AirDNA through a number of sources and thought it could be a good way to explore short-term rentals around Des Moines. 

Matt’s initial plan was to go for what he thought would be a safe bet with a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom property, however, after looking at the market in AirDNA he quickly identified that there were many of this property type already, and competition could be stiff. He also noticed how few 4-bedroom+ listings there were in the market. 

"The ability to see listing performance by the number of bedrooms in AirDNA made it easy to see that a larger property would be the way to go, and even though that meant a larger initial investment, the long-term benefits would be greater."

Following his research on AirDNA, Matt closed on a 4-bedroom house in the downtown area of Des Moines, and, shortly after some renovation and decorating, put the property on Airbnb. 

The combination of the property’s size and proximity to bars, restaurants, and event spaces made it very appealing to larger groups of people. In the first year, Matt saw a sizeable return on his investment, leading to him buying another 4-bedroom property in the same area in 2022, which saw similar results. Thanks to his thriving business, Matt was able to leave his day job and focus on short-term rentals full-time.

Today Matt has two short-term rental properties and is using AirDNA to help him find his next, exploring the world of unique stays.  

Without AirDNA, I would have gone down the route of what I thought was best, making a decision based on my own assumptions. Thanks to AirDNA I was able to find a gap in the market and capitalize!

If you would like to share your AirDNA success story, get in touch.

The power of leveraging data in your short-term rental decisions

Unlocking success with AirDNA

Unlocking success with AirDNA