AirDNA vs Mashvisor for Short Term Rental Data: Which is Best for Investors?

To maximize vacation rental income, hosts and property managers need key data like optimal pricing, ideal booking windows, and competitive intelligence on local rentals in their market.

AirDNA and Mashvisor are two leading providers of vacation rental data, analytics, and market research for hosts to optimize performance and make informed investment decisions.

This guide will compare AirDNA vs Mashvisor in a head-to-head matchup evaluating features, usability, accuracy, pricing, and user feedback. By understanding the key differences between these vacation rental analytics tools, you can determine the best data provider for analyzing your local rental market.

Let’s dive into AirDNA vs Mashvisor for vacation rental analytics.

AirDNA Overview

AirDNA provides data and analytics on short term vacation rentals across 75,000 cities globally. Here are some details on their offering:

Types of data provided

• Local supply and demand trends
• Nightly rate data
• Occupancy forecasts
• Optimal pricing analysis
• Competitive intelligence on nearby rentals

Data sources

• Airbnb and Vrbo listings data
• Public sources like tourism bureaus
• Proprietary renter survey panel
• Client contributed data

Analysis capabilities

• Market overview dashboard with trends
• Interactive mapping of local rentals
• Rental performance comps
• Rate and occupancy forecasting
• Financial modeling for investment analysis

Who it’s for

• Vacation rental hosts on Airbnb, Vrbo, etc
• Aspiring hosts evaluating potential markets
• Multi-unit rental managers and agencies
• Real estate and vacation rental investors

AirDNA caters to hosts of all sizes looking to understand the dynamics of their local rental market.

Mashvisor Overview

Mashvisor focuses on providing real estate investors with data-driven insights on promising Airbnb investment properties.

Types of data provided

• Identify top performing vacation rental listings and neighborhoods
• Optimal pricing and rate forecasts
• Occupancy projections
• Estimated rental income and cash flow modeling potential
• Mortgage affordability calculations

Data sources

• Airbnb listing performance insights
• Extensive public housing and market data
• Proprietary renter survey panel

Analysis capabilities

• Mashvisor Score rating potential of properties
• Rental income and cash flow calculators
• Area investment scores comparing neighborhoods
• Mapping of high-performing investment properties

Who it’s for

• Real estate investors interested in rentals as Airbnbs
• Potential Airbnb hosts evaluating markets
• Turnkey Airbnb operators and vacation rental acquisition firms
• Lenders, brokers, and agents catering to investors

Mashvisor specializes in helping real estate investors analyze buy and hold vacation rentals.

Now that we’ve provided an introduction to both platforms, let’s examine how they compare across key features.

AirDNA vs Mashvisor Feature Comparison

AirDNA and Mashvisor take slightly different approaches to vacation rental data, with Mashvisor more tailored to real estate investors. Here is an at-a-glance feature comparison:

The features are quite similar, but Mashvisor adds more purpose-built tools for vacation rental real estate investment analysis like lead gen, deal finding, and financing calculation.

Both provide robust pricing, demand, supply, performance and financial data highly useful for rental hosts and investors.

AirDNA vs. Mashvisor Data Accuracy

In terms of data accuracy, Mashvisor and AirDNA are quite comparable, with both using a mix of observed listing data from Airbnb and Vrbo along with survey panels and public data.

Each platform claims to provide:

• 90%+ accuracy on projected nightly rates
• 85%+ accuracy on occupancy rate forecasts
• 90%+ accuracy on projected rental income

No model will ever be 100% accurate – there are always market fluctuations and surprises. But both platforms leverage enormous datasets across millions of listings to generate usefully insightful projections and business intelligence.

From user reviews, Mashvisor seems to have a slight edge in providing actionable investment data tailored to identifying promising buy-and-hold Airbnbs. But for overall market dynamics, AirDNA matches Mashvisor’s reliability.

AirDNA vs Mashvisor Ease of Use

Both AirDNA and Mashvisor aim to provide an intuitive user experience and interface accessible to rental owners with limited analytics backgrounds.

In terms of usability, Mashvisor seems a bit more user-friendly for new users. Their predefined reports, graphs, and rental analyses have helpful built-in explanations guiding analysis. AirDNA provides more open-ended data to manipulate, so assumes some proficiency interpreting rental trends.

AirDNA’s flexibility does allow more advanced modeling scenarios for experienced data users. But Mashvisor makes digesting key rentals insights faster for average hosts and investors. Their guided reporting surfaces key metrics without deep data manipulation.

For investors and landlords hungry for actionable conclusions to inform acquisitions, Mashvisor appears slightly easier to digest meaningful insights quickly.

AirDNA vs Mashvisor Pricing

AirDNA and Mashvisor both offer different subscription plans depending on needs. Here is a pricing comparison:

AirDNA’s free plan provides better glimpse of full data to trial before paid sign up.

Mashvisor’s free version only provides sample scoring – need paid for full features.

The $49 and $99 price points align closely for core features, with the Pro plans adding more advanced analysis capabilities.

In terms of value, Mashvisor may provide slightly more actionable insights on promising investments out of the box. But for custom market modeling, AirDNA has the edge for data manipulation.

Pricing is very competitive between both platforms – differentiation centers more on types of data to inform your specific vacation rental decisions.

Who is AirDNA Best Suited For?

AirDNA excels for these vacation rental user profiles:

• Existing hosts looking to optimize pricing, availability, and strategy based on local demand shifts
• Agencies and property managers overseeing multiple units across a metro area or region
• Developers and architects evaluating viability of adding rental units to projects
• Tourism boards and municipalities tracking lodging supply and demand changes over seasons
• Boutique hotels determining rates and forecasting occupancy
• Host entrepreneurs building businesses managing rentals for owners

For profiling a broad market, predicting demand shifts, and maximizing existing portfolio performance, AirDNA hits the mark.

Who is Mashvisor Best Suited For?

Mashvisor stands out as an ideal fit for:

• Real estate investors wanting data-driven insights on promising Airbnb investment properties and markets.
• Turnkey Airbnb operators looking to identify lucrative yet stable rental properties for management clients
• Lenders and brokers dealing with investor clients interested in short term rental financing and markets
• Vacation rental or hotel franchises seeking new ownership opportunities
• Airbnb management agencies evaluating potential inventory for acquisition and expansion

For vacation rental property investing, acquisitions, and management, Mashvisor provides laser-targeted buy-and-hold insights.

What Users Are Saying About AirDNA

“I’ve been an AirDNA member for years. I find the information invaluable in planning my STR business and forecasting growth and revenue.” – L., Airbnb Host

“I tried 4-5 tools before settling on AirDNA. For ease of use, visualizations, and accurate data it’s a game changer for our vacation rental management.” – M.L., Rental Agency Owner

“Couldn’t survive as a host without it. AirDNA has paid for itself 10X over through pricing tweaks and understanding demand.” – S.W., Vacation Rental Owner

What Users Are Saying About Mashvisor

“Of all STR analysis tools, Mashvisor provides the most actionable predictions – not just data. It unlocked 6-figure profits for me.” – J.L., Real Estate Investor

“Mashvisor led me to promising Airbnb investment opportunities I never would have considered otherwise based on the data.” – V.O., Airbnb Investor

“The buy-and-hold insights on neighborhood potential and cashflow analysis are beyond any competing tool out there.” – P.R., Short Term Rental Agency Owner

Both platforms enjoy overwhelmingly positive feedback from users who see strong returns from using the data to improve rental results.

AirDNA vs Mashvisor: Which is Better?

There is no definitive “better” option – it depends on your specific goals:

For existing vacation rental hosts and property managers looking to maximize performance of current properties, AirDNA has a slight edge.

The robust market data feed allows pricing units optimally based on demand forecasts and modeling rival’s supply and availability.

For real estate investors and businesses pursuing new Airbnb rental acquisitions, Mashvisor is likely the better buy.

Mashvisor’s purpose-built scoring, lead-gen, and predictive modeling capabilities help efficiently identify lucrative buy-and-hold rentals and emerging neighborhoods.

Either platform will provide useful market insights to both groups. But factoring in primary objectives helps determine ideal fit.

For most hosts and investors, the platform capabilities align so closely that deciding based on ease of use, interface design, and special offers or discounts can often tilt evaluations one way or the other just as much as features.

Both AirDNA and Mashvisor aim to place equal power into the hands of rental owners, which removes information asymmetry in vacation rental markets. You can’t go wrong investing in knowledge and insight from either platform.

AirDNA and Mashvisor Alternatives

AirDNA and Mashvisor dominate the vacation rental data market. However, for certain niche use cases, alternatives exist:

AllTheRooms Analytics

Designed more for hotels, focuses on predictive pricing and benchmarking across larger accommodation markets.

Transparent

Specializes in short term rental data primarily in U.S. and European urban markets for investors and managers.

RateSpotter

Competitive pricing intelligence tool concentrating on rate averages rather than occupancy or demand trends.

STR

robust hospitality sector benchmarking and analytics more tailored to hotels and institutional investors.

HomeAway Center

Free dashboard offered by Vrbo providing basic performance insight for hosts listing on their platform.

While competitors exist, AirDNA and Mashvisor remain the most specialized, robust, and actionable data tools available for understanding short term rental market dynamics in depth.

Key Things to Know About AirDNA and Mashvisor

When evaluating AirDNA vs Mashvisor, keep these key differentiators in mind:

• AirDNA offers more flexible and open-ended data exploration for modeling hypotheticals.
• Mashvisor serves up actionable insights “out of the box” requiring less hands-on analysis.
• Mashvisor focuses specifically on buy-and-hold Airbnb investment opportunities.
• AirDNA has broader application for both hosts and hospitality professionals.
• Both enjoy positive reputations and provide accurate projections based on vast datasets.
• AirDNA seems better for optimizing existing portfolios while Mashvisor aids acquisitions.
• Their dashboards, tools, and pricing align extremely closely.
• AirDNA has a longer track record overall in the space.

No universal “winner” emerges given their highly similar capabilities – the needs of your specific business should drive the decision between these two excellent providers.

Should You Use AirDNA or Mashvisor?

You should strongly consider using AirDNA if:

• You are an existing short term rental host looking to fine tune strategy and performance.
• You manage a portfolio of units across a market and need to optimize pricing, availability, etc.
• You want very flexible dashboards to model different scenarios and projections.
• You value tools for benchmarking and forecasting broader market conditions over identifying specific investment properties.

You should strongly consider using Mashvisor if:

• You are a real estate investor seeking promising Airbnbs to purchase and rent out.
• You want targeted insights on cash flow potential and financing modeling for investment analysis.
• You prefer actionable, guided insights requiring less manual number crunching and analysis out of the box.
• You are focused squarely on opportunities and performance projections for individual rental units.

Either solution will provide tremendous value. But focusing on core goals helps determine the ideal fit.

The Bottom Line

AirDNA and Mashvisor offer robust analytics at similar price points for vacation rental hosts and investors.

The major lessons around AirDNA vs Mashvisor:

• AirDNA has broader application for existing hosts plus professionals looking to forecast entire market conditions.
• Mashvisor focuses specifically on investment-grade properties – lead gen, scoring, financing, and performance modeling.
• Both enjoy strong reputations and leverage vast datasets for accuracy and reliability.
• For new investors and acquisitions, Mashvisor likely provides more guided insights faster.
• For portfolio optimization, AirDNA’s flexibility allows more scenario testing.
• Their tools and pricing align extremely closely overall.

Carefully weigh your specific goals. But the power to tap into premium data can pay dividends whichever platform you choose. Unlock the full potential of your rentals with business intelligence.