Estimating STR vacancy rate

[Jeff Ferron]

Hello,

I am just starting out with real estate investing and am looking to get into short term vacation rentals.  I am still very much in the education phase and am having a hard time analyzing potential properties as I don't have a good way of estimating how often it will rent.  My only strategy right now is to look at the calendars of similar properties in the area on vrbo/airbnb.  This doesnt seem very effective to me however as I can't see past months and I also don't know if the property is just not available on certain dates, maybe due to the owner using it or anything else.

Does anyone have any good ideas on how to go about this?

Thanks!