How Accurate Is AirDNA? A Complete 2022 Review

In this article, we will find out how accurate is AirDNA, explore its tools, and compare its features to Mashvisor.

A successful real estate investment requires complete and accurate data, especially when short-term rental properties are concerned. With the continuing advancements in technology, it is now a lot easier for investors to perform their due diligence and shortened the amount of time needed to come up with a feasibility study. 

One of the tools investors can easily find and access online is AirDNA’s Rentalizer. The question now is how accurate is AirDNA, especially when compared to Mashvisor?

A Complete Review of AirDNA for 2022

Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms like HomeAway and VRBO offer travelers cheaper and more affordable hotel alternatives when they are away from home. With vacation rental properties becoming such a huge industry, several US states have started putting in place specific legislation to regulate the rental platforms and protect the interests of their local communities. 

That being said, real estate investors – especially those who are looking for vacation rental properties – rely heavily on the right information for their investment decisions. One cannot just throw caution to the wind and hope that they luck out on a purchase. That’s not how business and investing work. 

Success in real estate investing significantly depends on relevant information and accurate data. Without them, an investor will feel like they are going into war blindfolded and ill-equipped. And, generally, vacation rental owners struggle to make sense of all the numbers and lack a clear idea of what kind of revenue they can generate. This is where a data analytics company like AirDNA is supposed to fill in the gap. In this article, we will find out the answer to the question, “How accurate is AirDNA?” and if there is a better option for investors concerning Airbnb analytics.

AirDNA: What Is It?

AirDNA is an online data analytics platform for short-term rental properties. It was founded by Scott Shatford in 2015 to give hosts, property managers, and investors a deeper insight into the vacation rental industry. The idea is to give Airbnb hosts the ability to make better predictions based on the available data in a specific market. 

During AirDNA’s earlier days, it focused on two products: the Market Minder and Investment Explorer. However, most recently, they have shifted the focus to Market Minder and Enterprise clients, removing the Investment Explorer tool from their main page.

How Does AirDNA Obtain Its Data?

Business is all about numbers. It’s pretty much the same with all types of investing. Numbers matter a lot in the world of real estate investing. Having the right information and statistics spells the difference between success and failure. Knowing how data is acquired helps boost investors’ confidence in the tools and sources they use for data analysis. In a world of fake news and misinformation, the sources’ data acquisition methods should be scrutinized to test their authenticity and reliability. 

How Accurate Is AirDNA Data?

When it comes to data, investors need to know how reliable the sources are, which depends a lot on data accuracy. Just how accurate is AirDNA when it comes to their data?

AirDNA updates its database based generally on information and stats shown on Airbnb’s website. They rely heavily on data available on the platform’s site and very little on vacation rental managers and hosts. Still, their partnership with the hosts and managers brings in a small amount of data needed to bring up their level of accuracy. 

However, regardless of the improvement in accuracy provided by actual hosts and operators, users find it hard to depend solely on AirDNA’s data because the site only updates its database on the first week of every month. That’s only twelve times a year. It means that if an investor decides to use the platform during the latter part of the month, the actual market numbers will most probably have already changed. While it’s not necessarily a problem, not getting updated data in real-time might be a deal-breaker for more serious investors. 

Compared to its competitors, AirDNA data has the tendency to quickly become outdated, especially with sites and platforms that update their database on an almost daily basis. 

Related: Is AirDNA Accurate? And How Does It Compare to Mashvisor?

What Is the AirDNA Rentalizer?

One of the main advantages that AirDNA has over its competitors is its Rentalizer tool. The AirDNA Rentalizer is an online analytics tool found on the platform that allows users to predict a property’s profitability if it were to be converted into a vacation rental and listed on short-term rental platforms. How accurate is AirDNA Rentalizer compared to some of the competition?

Users agree that it is a good tool to help investors come up with a revenue and ROI estimate for a property. It is a totally great feature if investors already have a specific property (read: address) in mind for analysis. The tool – and the platform itself – doesn’t allow users to randomly search for properties. One must either already know which address to analyze or use a different website to search Airbnb statistics by city to locate a prospective property for analysis. 

AirDNA will ask users to input a street name and the house specifics an investor prefers, such as the number of bathrooms or bedrooms and guest capacity. It then comes up with a list of search results from within the area according to their relevance. The tool also considers certain factors such as seasonality, revenue growth, and rental demand in its search. 

Users are usually shown a property’s annual revenue, average daily rates, average occupancy rate, an annual forecast, and other comparable rental property analyses. They are then used by the AirDNA calculator to compute its earning potential. 

What Do AirDNA Users Think of Its Services?

There are generally two types of investors who use AirDNA’s services. The first group of people are existing Airbnb hosts who want to compare their vacation rental homes with others in the area. The second group is made up of investors who wish to grow their Airbnb business and look for potentially profitable properties. 

These two main groups and others who fall under different categories have mixed reactions regarding the platform. The site has a 2.7 Trustpilot rating only, mainly because users believe they are not getting the services they paid for. Some also say that the site’s pricing is misleading. Although there is an AirDNA free trial for first-time users, many of its existing customers believe that the AirDNA cost of subscription is not worth it, leading numerous users to drop the service after about a year. 

Users who also belong to the Airbnb community have different things to say about the site. Some praise it for its user-friendliness, while others complain that its data is far from accurate when smaller markets are involved. It gives one the impression that AirDNA is only focusing on major markets that bring in bigger money and disregard smaller ones. 

For many of its users, it’s a matter of choosing between “How accurate is AirDNA” and “Is AirDNA worth what it is asking for?” Many individuals may argue that its accuracy is worth the monthly costs, while others may say they’re not getting enough bang for their buck. Either way, AirDNA’s worthiness is subject to what users value, whether data accuracy or subscription costs. 

Are There Better Alternatives to AirDNA?

As such, AirDNA still serves its purpose as far as many of its users are concerned. However, those looking for other – and better – AirDNA alternatives can turn to a similar platform with more to offer: Mashvisor. 

Related: 5 AirDNA Competitors That Are Worth Checking Out in 2022

What Is Mashvisor?

Just like AirDNA, Mashvisor is a website designed to help real estate investors make the most informed and confident decisions by providing property location and data analyzing services to its users, among other things. 

It gives users access to several tools and a massive up-to-date database to make real estate investing a lot easier and more efficient than other methods and sites. Its users also gain access to a very wide range of markets across the US. They can search for investment properties in virtually any city and neighborhood in the country. It allows investors to perform research remotely yet efficiently on out-of-state properties. 

The above features make Mashvisor ideal for anyone who’s searching for real estate properties, whether they are looking to buy a home to use as their residence, to resell, or to convert into rental properties. 

What Makes Mashvisor Different From AirDNA?

As far as rental property investment is concerned, Mashvisor has a clear edge on the competition. The Mashvisor vs AirDNA argument is no longer just about data accuracy. Given what was already mentioned about the latter, we already have a pretty good idea of what the answer is to how accurate is AirDNA. 

Property Search

Mashvisor’s database is updated frequently and caters to all types of markets, whether they’re major cities or smaller neighborhoods. The broad marketplace coverage allows investors to conveniently research investments all over the country and become well-informed about different markets using its real estate analysis tools.

The first tool that users will find upon going to Mashvisor’s website is its search page. Users can type in any location they want to check out in the search bar. The site will list down properties that are listed publicly on the MLS and includes important data, such as: 

• Address
• Current listing prices
• Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
• Area by square feet
• Traditional and Airbnb cash on cash returns
• Traditional and Airbnb cap rates

The search page also allows investors and users to customize their search using the appropriate filters found on the site. This way, users get to save up precious time and avoid sorting through hundreds of listings that do not line up with their investment goals and criteria. Some of the filters include: 

• Cash on cash return
• Cap rate
• Cash vs mortgage
• Budget
• Year built
• Neighborhood
• Rental income
• Property type
• Property status

Using the filters above allows users to get the job done in a matter of minutes. 

Predictive Analysis

One of its handy features is predictive analytics. It lets investors see whether a property is better off as a traditional rental or a vacation home. While some platforms are inclined to focus on one or the other, Mashvisor has sufficient and relevant data to support both traditional and vacation rental property analyses. When it comes to data and analytics, numerous Mashvisor reviews back up the site’s credibility and efficiency as an investment property tool. 

Want to give us a try? Click here to start your 7-day free trial with Mashvisor and subscribe to our services with a 15% discount after.

Real Estate Heatmap

One of the most prominent tools found on Mashvisor is the real estate heatmap. The heatmap tool allows users to quickly analyze neighborhood data in multiple areas. It is a color-coded map that shows how hot or cold a specific market or neighborhood is. If you’re one of those people wondering “How accurate is AirDNA” and are also probably asking “Is Mashvisor’s data reliable,” we can assure you that the data we use comes from a variety of highly reliable and credible sources. The data gathered from our sources are then uploaded to our database and put in the site’s heatmap analysis tool to allow users to see how each market is performing and find the best possible locations for their investments. 

Even if an investor isn’t ready to pick out a particular property for sale, they can always check out how the neighborhood is performing and see if it is worth investing in it or not. It can be done using the site’s Neighborhood Analysis page. 

Related: This Heatmap Will Show You Where to Invest in Real Estate

Rental Comps

Rental comps, or rental comparables, is a term for similar properties that investors can compare to and determine which ones are worth investing in and which ones are not. They are excellent for enhancing, organizing, and speeding up the entire search process. It helps filter the search results and takes out any of the other properties not worth your time. Aside from its other features, Mashvisor also makes it easier for users to access different types of rental comps, making investment analysis more accurate.

Investment Property Calculator

Another thing that makes Mashvisor stand out from the rest is its investment property calculator. So let’s say an investor already found the right city and neighborhood that aligns with their criteria. The next step is to conduct a property analysis to see if it aligns with their investment goals. 

Mashvisor’s investment property calculator lets users analyze the property’s profitability using several factors, such as rental income, expenses, cash flow, cash on cash return, and cap rate. 

The site also provides an Airbnb calculator, which is solely dedicated to computing how a property will fare when used as a short-term rental and listed on Airbnb and other similar platforms (instead of converting it into a traditional long-term rental). It allows investors to come up with the right rental strategy that will help them achieve what they set out to accomplish with their investment. 

If you’re still asking the question, “How accurate is AirDNA,” you may want to consider giving Mashvisor a try. Mashvisor boosts investor confidence with its highly accurate database and investment property tools, not to mention its user-friendly interface, which makes navigating the site easy. 

AirDNA vs Mashvisor: Is Mashvisor Better Than AirDNA?

For more information about the AirDNA vs Mashvisor comparison, check out the video below:

The Bottom Line

Just how accurate is AirDNA? Given what we know about it, we can say that it is a valuable tool to have, but it does fall short on several areas that can help boost investor confidence. Whether you’re a first-time investor or an experienced one, you may want to consider going with a platform that allows you to do more with your money. Mashvisor can help you make the best investment decisions today. 

To start looking for and analyzing the best investment properties in your city and neighborhood of choice, click here.