The short-term rental market offers a wealth of opportunities for real estate investors who are looking for higher returns than traditional rental properties. While investing in vacation rental properties can be very lucrative, they also come with their own risks and complications, which investors should consider before jumping in.
It helps to have reliable tools that will allow you to easily analyze properties and handle essential tasks relevant to your business. Mashvisor and Airdna are the two leading software programs investors use to analyze vacation rental data. In this guide, we’ll examine both to decide which tool offers more value for vacation rental investors.
What Mashvisor Offers
Mashvisor is a real estate analytics platform that offers investors an easier way to locate and analyze rental properties. It works for both the traditional and short-term rental market and uses data-driven insights to help investors optimize cash flow and make smarter decisions about which properties to purchase.
Mashvisor has a range of different tools designed to support these goals, including a property finder to help investors sort through available rentals based on their criteria, such as the budget, location, and strategy, by aggregating information from Zillow, Airbnb, and the MLS.
It also offers an investment property calculator to help predict costs and expected rental income, heat maps to visualize current market demand and a Mashmeter tool that helps evaluate the investment potential of a neighborhood. It even has features designed specifically for vacation rental properties, such as its dynamic pricing tool which helps real estate investors set rental rates based on seasonality and demand.
What Airdna Offers
Airdna is one of the leading tools for analyzing vacation rental data. It’s designed to offer competitive insights, customizable reports, and interactive dashboards on more than 12 million rental properties across 80,000 markets.
It has a tool called the Rentilizer, which helps investors optimize their rental income. It functions as a rental property calculator that analyzes all the available rentals in a particular area and creates a relevance-based index to estimate the profitability projections of a given property.
It also has another popular tool called the Market Minder that helps investors scout up-and-coming markets ideal for vacation rental properties. It grades certain areas based on their potential for vacation rental investors using factors such as demand, revenue growth, seasonality, location regulations, and investibility. It also offers several other innovative features, such as interactive GIS maps, daily travel demand analysis, and a currency selector, making Airdna the tool of choice for both seasoned and beginner vacation rental investors alike.
Mashvisor vs Airdna: Key Differences
| Platform | Mashvisor | AirDNA |
|---|---|---|
| Target Users | Short Term + Long Term Rental Investors | Short Term Rental Investors |
| Data Sources | Zillow, Public Listings, MLS Data, Airbnb | Airbnb, VRBO |
| Tiered Pricing | Based On Software Features Needed | Based On Number of Markets & Reports |
| Free Trial | Full Access For 7 Days | Permanent But Limited Features |
- Target users: One of the key differences between Mashadvisor and Airdna is their focus. Mashvisor is more of a general rental property software that can be used by both short-term rental investors and traditional landlords. While it has plenty of tools that can be great for vacation rentals, it also offers a range of features, not all of which will be relevant to Airbnb owners. Airdna, on the other hand, focuses specifically on the short-term vacation rental market and, therefore, offers more specialized tools and in-depth insights.
- Data Sources: Another key distinction is the sources from which they pull their data. Mashvisor pulls data from multiple different sources, including Zillow, public listings, MLS data, and AirBnB. Airdna focuses specifically on AirBnB and VRBO but offers more detailed insights and tools specifically designed to analyze short-term rental data.
- Pricing: Both platforms also offer slightly different pricing models, which may appeal to different users. Mashvisor offers a tiered, subscription-based pricing model based on access to specific features and data sets. Airdna also offers a tiered pricing system. However, it’s based on the amount of markets and the number of reports the user needs to pull. They also both offer a free trial, but with Mashadvisor, it’s only valid for 7 days, while Airdna offers a free tier with limited features.
Mashvisor vs Airdna: Key Similarities
- Data-driven insights: Both tools offer extensive data and reporting that can help investors tremendously when it comes to analyzing the short-term rental market. They both offer similar tools, such as a rental property calculator, an investment property search engine, custom reporting, and the ability to connect your own properties. They also offer powerful visualizations, including interactive charts and maps to help put the data into perspective. The exact layout and source of this data are unique to each software, but they both provide vacation rental investors with all the information they need to make better decisions about their investments.
- In-depth market analysis: In addition to the ability to analyze specific properties, they both offer powerful tools for analyzing the potential of an entire market. Investing in vacation rentals comes with unique challenges compared to the traditional rental market. Both tools offer the ability to analyze key factors that impact the earning potential of an area, including seasonality and current demand. They also offer tools to help analyze and compare cities and neighborhoods to help identify the best up-and-coming markets for vacation rentals.
- User-friendly interface: Despite the potential complexity of the subject matter, both platforms feature a user-friendly interface designed to be simple and easy to navigate. They both offer intuitive dashboards that make it easy to search for properties, automate workflows and allocate tasks. They also offer powerful visualization tools that help bring the data to life and customize reporting features, making it easy to share that data with other business partners and decision-makers. Both tools are designed to be accessible to both beginner and expert level investors, so you can benefit from the insights they offer no matter where you are on your real estate journey.
What Rental Property Analysis Software Is Best For You
Mashvisor and Airdna are two of the leading software programs when it comes to analyzing and managing vacation rentals. Either one can be beneficial to short-term rental property investors who want a comprehensive tool that allows them to make smarter decisions about their investments. However, their focus and key features make each better suited for a specific type of investor.
Mashvisor is best for landlords who want to dabble in the short-term rental market but also need a tool that can analyze traditional rental properties. Its flexibility and wide range of features make it an excellent tool for analyzing and managing any type of property, whether it’s an apartment building or an Airbnb.
However, for real estate investors who are specifically focused on the short-term rental market, Airdna is likely the better solution. It offers more in-depth data and features that cater specifically to AirBnB and VRBO owners and offers greater insights into emerging markets and investment potential. It’s the leading software for analyzing short-term rental data and, therefore, offers more depth and specialized features than anything else on the market, including Mashvisor. However, you’ll be limited to short-term rentals, which may present a challenge if you plan on diversifying your portfolio down the line.
Which rental property analysis software you ultimately choose comes down to which better supports your real estate goals. Regardless of which option you choose, you can expect high-quality data and easy-to-use features.