This post may contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. I’m not affiliated with Airbnb in any way (other than being an Airbnb host, of course). Read my full disclosure policy here.

As an Airbnb host, one of the hardest things you’ll do is determine your pricing.

That’s because determining your nightly rate is tricky, time-consuming, and filled with uncertainty.

At the same time, your pricing on Airbnb is the single biggest factor impacting your income.

The good news?

If you use the right tool, determining the nightly rate that maximizes your Airbnb revenue can be pain-free (well…as pain-free as possible.)

That tool is AirDNA.

As an Airbnb Superhost, I use AirDNA every week. I truly don’t know what I would do without it.

AirDNA’s easy-to-use data and insights platform provides some of the best short-term rental analytics in the world at a very reasonable price.

But what do you actually get with AirDNA? How can you best use this tool to maximize your Airbnb revenue? Is AirDNA data even accurate? I’m covering all that and more, below.

Overview

Before we jump in, I want to clarify one thing: AirDNA’s analytics platform is actually called MarketMinder. So, you’ll see “MarketMinder” everywhere on the AirDNA website (that’s good, it means you’re in the right place!)

AirDNA’s MarketMinder is incredibly easy to use. Plus, AirDNA provides helpful information throughout its platform to help you understand anything potentially confusing. (And if you still have questions, their customer service team is super responsive.)

As an Airbnb host, MarketMinder is helpful in two essential ways:

1. Before you buy an Airbnb property, you can use MarketMinder to determine whether or not a property is worth investing in
2. Once your Airbnb is up and running,MarketMinder gives you all the data you need to optimize your pricing and maximize your Airbnb revenue, including:
   • Forecasted nightly rates
   • Monthly revenue projections specific to your property
   • Your competitors’ occupancy rates (booked vs. available nights)
   • Seasonality (how demand in your area changes throughout the year)
   • Average booking lead time in your area (how many days in advance the average reservation is made)

In this post, I’m walking you through exactly how to access and utilize this data to build a profitable Airbnb business.

Pro tip: AirDNA aside, one of the best things you can do to maximize your revenue is optimize your listing.

How does AirDNA get its data?

Before we jump into the platform itself, it’s worth understanding how AirDNA gets its data (because how can you trust it if you don’t know what’s behind it?)

AirDNA gets its data from two sources:

1. AirDNA “scrapes” data from vacation listing platforms (i.e. Airbnb and Vrbo)
   • This data is publicly available, but without AirDNA, it would take countless hours for you to pull this same data from the over 10 million properties on Airbnb and Vrbo (and AirDNA extracts this data every single day!)
   • Plus, AirDNA uses proprietary formulas to uncover certain insights that we as hosts don’t have access to
     • For example, AirDNA’s algorithm identifies which blocked dates are actually booked vs. just blocked by the host (which is very important for making informed pricing decisions!)
2. AirDNA also gets data directly from its partners (meaning hosts, channel managers, and property managers)
   • Without a tool like AirDNA, you won’t have access to this private data (unless, of course, you create your own partnerships with these users)
   • AirDNA updates its partner data every month (750,000+ properties worldwide!)

Is AirDNA data accurate?

Yes!

And this was recently confirmed by CBRE, a leading commercial real estate firm.

CBRE conducted a report on the accuracy of AirDNA data and found it to be 97.5% accurate in reporting the active supply of vacation rentals.

That same report found AirDNA’s revenue data to be 96.2% accurate.

What do you get with AirDNA MarketMinder?

MarketMinder breaks down data from over 10 million short-term rental properties into incredibly useful insights and easy-to-understand charts. This includes historical data and forward-looking predictions to help you make informed decisions for your Airbnb business.

Within MarketMinder, you’ll get access to suggested nightly rates and forecasted revenue for your specific property.

You’ll also get insight into your competitors’ data, including:

• Occupancy rates
• Booking lead times
• Listing availability
• Amenity popularity
• Seasonality
• And much more

To help you better understand exactly what you get with AirDNA, I’m breaking down the MarketMinder tools I use every single month, below:

Rentalizer (Revenue Forecasting)

Want to know the revenue potential of different Airbnb properties you’re considering investing in?

Or, do you already own property and need to forecast your annual revenue so you can plan accordingly?

AirDNA’s Rentalizer tool will tell you just that.

With this tool, you can enter the exact address of any property to get data-driven estimates for annual and monthly revenue.

Knowing your potential revenue is essential before deciding whether or not to invest in an Airbnb property. It makes planning for your new Airbnb business super easy.

Pro Tip: If you’re serious about starting an Airbnb, knowing the expected revenue is an important first step but knowing your expected PROFIT is even more important. Be sure to use my Airbnb Profitability Calculator to understand not just your revenue, but your expected costs and profitability, too.

Market Overview

The first thing you’ll see when you log into MarketMinder is the Overview tab:

The Overview tab is where you’ll get a snapshot of the overall performance of a given area, including:

• Average daily rate
• Occupancy rate
• Monthly revenue
• Property details
• Revenue growth

And with the interactive map on the right-hand side, you can even see comparable property listings.

The best part? Most of the data on this page can be accessed for free! Try it out for yourself by entering a location here.

Smart Rates (Forecasted Nightly Rates)

In my opinion, the Smart Rates feature is by far the most helpful tool within MarketMinder.

Smart Rates alone make the monthly subscription fee worth it:

The Smart Rates feature is where you’ll find AirDNA’s suggested nightly rate (specific to your property) for every single date that’s open on your Airbnb calendar.

You can even customize these suggestions to be more or less aggressive, depending on what you think is best for your property (I change this setting month-by-month, depending on seasonality.)

When you hover over a specific date, you can even get insight into AirDNA’s calculation.

Pro tip #1: To make things simple when you’re first starting out, you can ignore all of the other features within MarketMinder and just use Smart Rates to determine your pricing on Airbnb.

Pro tip #2: Pricing is just one of the 50+ ways your listing can be optimized today to start earning you more revenue today!

Pacing Tools (Forward-Looking Data)

To inform your Airbnb pricing even more, MarketMinder has a series of Pacing tools, including:

• Future Demand Analysis: this shows you comparable booked listings, booked rates, and occupancy rates for the next six months
• Rate Analysis: a year-over-year comparison of booked vs. available rates for the next six months
• Booking Trends: this is where you can see when bookings are being made and how far in advance (this helps you understand if you’re getting booked at the same rate as your competitors; it can also help you decide how far in advance to open up your Airbnb calendar)

Seasonality

Last but not least, we have to talk about MarketMinder’s Seasonality feature. This is an absolutely essential tool that gives you a day-by-day snapshot of the demand in your area:

You can use the Seasonality feature to understand historical trends that inform your nightly rate.

And because AirDNA gives you this data for every single date, you know exactly how your weekdays should be priced vs. your weekends, holidays vs. non-holidays, the first two weeks of a given month vs. the last two, and so on.

Is AirDNA MarketMinder worth the price?

For me, 100% yes. MarketMinder is worth the price.

I use MarketMinder multiple times a month to inform my Airbnb pricing strategy.

When it comes to determining my Airbnb nightly rate, I’ve tried going it alone in the past. I’ve spent hours finding comparable properties on Airbnb and looking at each individual listing’s availability calendar and nightly rates to come up with my own Airbnb pricing.

Not only was that incredibly time-consuming, but you simply don’t have access to all of the information you need.

For example, without a tool like AirDNA, you have no idea which nights on your competitors’ calendar are actually booked by guests, as opposed to just being blocked by the host.

With AirDNA, you also get access to way more data than you ever would on your own (do you want to scrape data from 10 million properties?) and data you couldn’t get access to on your own (from AirDNA’s partners.)

How much does MarketMinder cost?

Depending on the size of your market, pricing starts at just $11.99/month. Check out their pricing page for more info.

Pro Tip: Be thoughtful about which market(s) you sign up for; you need a different subscription for each area code.

Get 40% Off Your AirDNA Subscription

Pin this post for later:

How do you determine your pricing on Airbnb? I’d love to find out in the comments.

Disclaimer: All content on this website is for informational purposes only. You are taking all provided information at your own risk. We are not financial, real estate, legal, investment or other professionals. Nothing on this website should be construed as professional advice. We will not be liable for any loss or damage of any nature. For more information, read our disclaimer.