Beyond vs. AirDNA [2024]: Maximize Your Short-term Rental Properties

Many real estate investors are expanding beyond traditional rental properties by converting their homes into short-term rentals. This makes sense, given that the short-term rental industry is worth $140 billion. This can be a lucrative approach for many investors, but it can be difficult finding data on occupancy, rental rates, and other important factors.

Beyond and AirDNA are meeting this need with a full suite of products to help investors make informed decisions. Learn about Beyond vs. AirDNA to see if either option can help you find that competitive edge.

Beyond vs. AirDNA

	Beyond	AirDNA
Market research tools for current properties	Yes	Yes
Dynamic, automated pricing across multiple platforms (Airbnb, Vrbo)	Yes	Yes
Website builder	Yes	No
Tools specifically designed to evaluate potential properties	No	Yes
Access to revenue management consultants	Yes	No
Pricing structure	1% to 1.49% of guest booking revenue	Flat fee of $19 to $99 per month
	Visit Beyond	Visit AirDNA

How does Beyond work?

Beyond is a suite of solutions for property managers and people investing money in short-term rentals on sites such as Vrbo and Airbnb. The solutions offered by Beyond are designed to increase occupancy, maximize rental rates, and manage properties across multiple booking websites.

The company was founded in 2013 under the name Beyond Pricing. It currently offers access to 340,000 listings in more than 7,500 cities. Customers can sign up for one or many of its multiple products to better manage their short-term rental properties.

Beyond divides its offerings into the following services:

• Pricing: Automated dynamic pricing tools that may help property owners decide on the right daily rate for their Airbnb listings. You can set a base price for your listings and automation takes care of the rest.
• Relay: This management software enables customers to maintain their short-term rental property listings across multiple websites, such as Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com. This makes it easier to update listings and can help minimize double-booking.
• Signal: This is a vacation rental website builder that uses search engine optimization to bring guests to your site based on your property type and location. Your custom site allows for direct booking to remove expensive third-party website costs, which increases your profitability.
• Insights: Beyond offers free short-term vacation rental data for your local market so you can measure your performance against similar properties in your area.
• Guidance: You have access to revenue management consultants who offer suggestions to help Airbnb hosts improve their listings.

Beyond charges a fee of 1% to 1.49% to property owners or managers on all bookings made each month while using its services. You'll pay 1% if you pay when a reservation is made or 1.49% on the day of guest check-in. There is a 30-day free trial for new customers.

For more info, read our Beyond review.

How does AirDNA work?

AirDNA is an online platform designed to give short-term rental property investors insights into their local market. It was founded in 2015 and, like Beyond, is designed to help you with short-term rental pricing. It uses market data to help you determine whether properties are worth investing in, and how to competitively price your properties.

Its MarketMinder software includes three sections:

• Research: This section of the MarketMinder platform helps you dive into the short-term rental market in your area. It includes a market grade based on factors such as rental demand, seasonality, regulation, and other factors. You can also see the number of active rentals, the average daily rates, occupancy rates, and revenues in a given area and the amenities of rentals in the area you’re targeting (pool, hot tub, air conditioning, etc.). You can also view the cancellation and minimum-stay policies of short-term rentals in your target area.
• Price: This section allows you to connect your listings. It provides pricing recommendations and why it’s making those recommendations. You can apply its suggestions to your listings across multiple platforms automatically. You can also set minimum and maximum rates and discounts. The pricing section also includes “pacing,” which is its term for analysis of future demand and rates.
• Invest: This section helps you evaluate potential markets and properties. Its “rentalizer” searches can help you evaluate potential properties to purchase based on comparable rental properties, seasonal trends, and occupancy projections. This section also shows top properties in your target area. You can compare up to four markets side by side.

On its website, you'll find pricing and investment data on 10 million active listings in 120,000 global markets. Subscriptions start at $19 per month for information on one market with less than 100 active listings.

Pricing for most plans is based on a flat monthly charge based on the size of your local market. If you want unlimited access across multiple markets, the price is considerably steeper at $999 per month or $599 per month billed annually ($7,188). AirDNA also offers customized enterprise solutions broken down by city, region, or country.

For more info, read our AirDNA review.

What both Beyond and AirDNA excel at

When you're comparing Beyond vs AirDNA, it helps to understand how these services are similar before focusing on what sets them apart.

No minimum contract length

You can cancel either service at any time. If you try it and don't like it, you are not stuck paying for a service you don't like or aren't getting value from.

Discounts for paying upfront

Both Beyond and AirDNA offer discounts if you pay for their services upfront. AirDNA offers a 40% discount when paying for an annual subscription.

By comparison, Beyond offers a 33% discount for paying when a guests books a unit (1%) versus paying after a guest checks in (1.49%). For example, if in July a couple books a stay in an apartment for August that costs $600, you would pay $6 to Beyond if you pay when they book in July. If you wait to pay until August when they check in, you could pay $8.94, which is about 33% more.

Data to assist customers in pricing their units

Hands-on real estate investors can analyze pricing trends to see how other rentals are pricing their units in your market. These tools factor in seasonality, rental demand, and competitors in their evaluation.

Dynamic pricing of your listings to maximize revenue

With both options, you can turn on an automated feature that updates the pricing of your short-term rentals to take advantage of current trends. This helps to maximize your revenue (as prices rise) and minimize occupancy (when prices dip).

Data is available for numerous markets around the world

These services offer data on hundreds of thousands of short-term rental properties around the world. They tap into data from Airbnb, Vrbo, and other services to get real-time data and analyze trends that enable you to make better business decisions. AirDNA has more than 10 million properties from 120,000 global markets. Beyond has more than 340,000 listings in more than 7,500 cities from around the world.

6 important differences between Beyond and AirDNA

When comparing Beyond vs. AirDNA, they offer many similar features and benefits. However, there are some distinct differences you should know about before deciding which platform is best for your short-term rental business.

1. Only one offers a free 30-day trial

When signing up for one of these services, you'll be able to try out Beyond free for 30 days. With AirDNA, you start paying the service fee immediately.

2. How fees are determined

AirDNA charges a flat, monthly fee for its services which is appealing to larger investors with numerous properties in the same market. The pricing is based on how many markets you want access to and how many active listings are in that market. Beyond charges a percentage of your revenue, which can be good for smaller investors.

3. Number of markets served

AirDNA has a much larger set of data available for investors. Customers have access to more than 10 million properties across 120,000 global markets. By comparison, Beyond has more than 340,000 listings in 7,500 cities worldwide.

4. Custom website

Although Beyond's fees may be higher for larger investors, it offers a feature that can save on third-party booking fees: a customized website that includes your short-term rental properties and is SEO-optimized for your local market.

By allowing your guests to book directly, you can avoid paying third-party fees, encourage repeat guests, and improve the customer experience. By eliminating these fees, you can also make your nightly rates more competitive, increase your profitability, or a combination of the two. AirDNA does not offer this feature.

5. Working with a live advisor

Beyond's service model includes the ability to speak with revenue management experts. They can develop professional pricing strategies, explain how the platform works, and help you cultivate individual listing reviews.

AirDNA's platform is a self-service model without the expense of live advisors. This helps to keep costs affordable for even the smallest short-term rental property investor.

6. Help determine potential income from a proposed property

For investors who are just getting started or are looking to expand their portfolio, AirDNA can help you identify and evaluate potential properties using its investment tools, including “Rentalizer,” which allows you to enter a specific address and view comps, seasonal trends, and occupancy projections.

Beyond focuses on helping you make the most of properties you already own, but it doesn’t have tools specifically designed to help you evaluate potential properties.

Which pricing tool should you choose?

When deciding between Beyond vs. AirDNA, there are several important factors to consider. Both have extensive databases that cover most major cities within the U.S. and around the world. This information is designed to maximize the rental income on your short-term rental property, but each company takes a different approach.

AirDNA offers a self-service solution that includes an easy-to-use dashboard. You can optimize your current property and evaluate new ones for one low monthly payment. Prices start at just $19 per month, which is appealing for even the smallest investors. However, the pricing is based on the size of your local market, not your rental property portfolio or how much money you make. This solution is best suited for investors who want a fixed-cost solution that allows them to dive deep into the data to make investing decisions.

Beyond is a more comprehensive solution that not only offers similar data as AirDNA, but also includes other features to manage your rentals. While Beyond's database is considerably smaller (340,000 properties vs. 10 million), there shouldn't be much of a difference if you're investing in a larger city. Beyond also includes the ability to consult with a live person to improve your revenue, listing, and strategy, plus it creates a personalized website that can save you money in the long run. The major downside is that it charges a 1% fee on the money you earn, which can get expensive.

If you're focused on cost, the AirDNA vs Beyond pricing models can make the decision easy for you. AirDNA has a flat fee starting at $19 per month, whereas Beyond charges 1% of the revenue you earn.

If your monthly revenue is high and you don't need the additional features from Beyond, you may be better off with AirDNA. For customers who earn less, you may save money by using Beyond's service, even if you don't use its extra features.

FAQs

Bottom line

If you're considering investing in a short-term rental property or converting your existing rental into one, these services can be a valuable tool for your business and help you get a foothold in the vacation rental industry.

They provide insights into the local short-term rental market to help you forecast the potential rents and occupancy you can expect. Each service has attractive features and pricing that appeal to different types of investors. When choosing between Beyond vs. AirDNA, you need to decide which pricing model and features fit your business best.

To learn more about investing in short-term or long-term rental property, check out our guide on how to invest in real estate.