Reviews indicative of occupancy?

[Jeremy Dockendorf]

I’m pretty new to real estate investing in general and I’m trying to get a feel for what kind of occupancy rates are going on in my area with AirBNB. Is it reasonable to summize that the number of reviews left per month for a host would be an accurate indication of the number of bookings? (I realize that can’t give true occupancy since I don’t know the length of stay and of course there could be some guests that don’t leave reviews)

I just don't think the demand is real high here. The free report on AirDNA suggested about 50% occupancy for a property I'm interested in for STR potential. A local super host with a very comparable property that only requires a 1 night minimum has 38 reviews in the last 12 months (3.17/mo. avg.). Could that really come close to 50% occupancy? Guests would have to avg. a 4+ night stay.

[John Underwood]

A review does equal a stay. Not everyone leaves a review. There is no way of knowing how long each stay is for. If this persons minimum stay is one night then you could say that he at least booked 38 of the last 365. That isn't saying much. Look at this persons calendar and see what the average blocked time is for and use that to get a better guess of days he may have booked for the previous year. You could also send him a message and ask him, he might be honest and tell you.