The Best STR Calculator: BiggerPockets vs. Mashvisor vs. AirDNA

Source: Photo by Manik Roy

Are you an STR investor trying to decide which STR calculator to use to help you find and analyze your next property? Well, look no further.

We'll compare the BiggerPockets calculator, Mashvisor calculator, and AirDNA calculator for you. Then, you'll have an idea of which calculator is suitable for you. Skip the complicated analysis that keeps you from actually investing in short-term rentals and get straight to the good part.

Here are the reviews for the 3 best STR calculators out there.

#1 - BiggerPockets Airbnb Calculator Review

Aside from its large community for recommendations and collaboration, BiggerPockets also has multiple tools for rental home investments, BRRRR investments, and short-term rental properties. The last one is what we’ll focus on here.

The BiggerPockets Airbnb calculator is powered by Rentalizer and helps you determine the profitability of your Airbnb. Simply type in your address and the calculator will provide you with a report that includes:

Forecasted annual revenue

Forecasted average daily rate

Forecasted occupancy rate

General leasing agreements

Information on becoming an Airbnb host

Helpful tips on how to optimize your revenue potential

The downside of the BiggerPockets Calculator is that you have to input most of the information manually. Also, the data it uses to analyze can be inaccurate from time to time, but this can be an issue in any calculator you use.

Finally, the subscription price is a bit steep, especially if you’re only a beginner investor. The Premium Membership charges $99 monthly with a 1-year commitment.

Who Should Use BiggerPockets Calculator

If you’re an experienced investor or even a beginner willing to shell out the money, then this calculator can help you with your STRs and more. You can use it for other parts of your rental business and not just STRs—which makes it worth every penny.

The large community and free resources are also a big selling point if you want to improve your business and learn from other experts.

#2 - AirDNA Airbnb Calculator Review

AirDNA offers various tools to help you locate the best investment homes, consider competitive analytics, see interactive dashboards, and access specialized reporting that considers more than 10 million rentals in worldwide real estate markets.

With AirDNA’s Airbnb calculator, also called AirDNA Rentalizer, you can understand and analyze the trends within the short-term industry. This tool allows you to leverage past and forecasted data for maximized monthly revenue. Plus, it can predict the possible revenue if you convert a regular home into a vacation rental as soon as you specify the address.

AirDNA Rentalizer can provide you with:

A 12-month demand forecast for seasonality, rental demands, and revenue growth

Comparable property analysis for relevance-based index

Local market’s average occupancy and earnings

All that aside, since the tool retrieves data from Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway, there is no way to verify its information. AirDNA Rentalizer also looks at median data that eliminates anomalies that can likely distort your research. This also means that AirDNA Renalizer’s results might be overly optimistic, as it does not consider taxes and other related expenses.

The platform also costs anywhere from $19.95-$99.95/mo, so it’s not exactly free. And if you’re in a metropolitan city—you’re at a disadvantage. That’s because they charge more if you’re in an area with higher density and 1000+ listings.

Lastly, AirDNA Rentalizer doesn’t allow you to search for properties. You have to know already what property you want or seek one out on a different platform beforehand. The tool is also based on what AirDNA has observed in a particular market, which isn’t the most accurate approach.

Who Should Use AirDNA Calculator

If you’re more experienced as an investor, this can be an alright choice. However, the BiggerPockets calculator is better if you’re still somewhat new and want a large community of fellow STR investors to learn from since it has a large network and more free resources.

This one is also limited since it makes it hard to search for properties and it’s more expensive for STR investors in a large city.

#3 - Mashvisor Airbnb Calculator Review

The Mashvisor Airbnb Calculator helps you find properties with long-term equity and short-term rental returns. By going through volumes of data, it can summarize them into a dashboard for clear analysis.

Unlike other tools, Mashvisor’s Property Finder can also help you search for Airbnb properties for sale in the country. This feature is programmed within the Mashvisor Airbnb profit calculator, so you can determine the potential returns if the home you like is rented out on Airbnb.

The tool provides you with the:

Estimated income and cash flow

Standard occupancy rates

Mortgage specifics

One-time and continuous operating expenses

Estimated cash-on-cash (CoC) return

Estimated cap rate (or capitalization rate)

Estimated 10-year payback balance

Additionally, you can include specific information for a more accurate result. One drawback is that Mashvisor Airbnb Calculator uses data only from Airbnb instead of other platforms such as VRBO and HomeAway. Still, it’s good to use since it prioritizes those that are rated with 3 or more in the marketplace, so your analysis is based on the best.

The greatest downside of this tool is that it’s limited to the US real estate market. If you plan on investing in other countries, you won’t find any use with the Mashvisor Airbnb Calculator. You’ll be better off with BiggerPockets or AirDNA in this case.

Who Should Use Mashvisor Calculator

If you’re just starting out and you’re only using Airbnb as your STR platform, then this is a fine choice. However, you need to keep in mind: You get what you pay for. As your STR business grows, you’ll likely not outgrow this option quickly.

Which STR Calculators to Use

With the availability of these STR and Airbnb analysis tools, investors can now research and compare short-term investment opportunities with great accuracy and speed. Try out the calculators yourself to see which one fits your needs.

Ultimately, your goal is to find the tool that can point you towards the best short-term rental property investment deals out there. Then, you can make the wisest investment decisions possible.

Do you need more help with short-term property investments? Drop a comment below!