How to Vet Your Data: 5 Questions for Every Short-Term Rental Host
Summary
This article from Beyond Pricing stresses the importance of data quality when using revenue management tools. It provides five questions to ask your tool provider to ensure the data is reliable, up-to-date, and used effectively for pricing your short-term rentals.
Key Insights
- •The best revenue management tools use connected, first-party data from OTAs and PMS integrations, giving real insights based on actual behavior.
- •If your data isn’t updating in real time or near-real time, you’re always playing catch-up. Booking pace, local events, and even weather can impact pricing.
Action Items
- ✓Make sure your pricing tool can talk to your PMS—and often, with two-way, high-frequency syncing. If the sync is only one-way, or only updates once a day, you’re exposed to errors, double bookings, and missed revenue.Effort: mediumImpact: high
- ✓Make sure your tool shows you what changed your rate—whether it was a local event, surge in demand, or drop in booking pace—and why.Effort: lowImpact: medium
- ✓Ask your revenue management platform: How often is this data refreshed? Hourly? Daily? Weekly? The answer should give you confidence that you're pricing with current conditions.Effort: lowImpact: medium
- ✓Ensure your revenue management tool has direct, reliable data feeds, not just scraping that could disappear at any moment.Effort: mediumImpact: medium
Tools & Resources
- →Beyond Pricing: Beyond Pricing
Watch Out For
- ⚠Relying on scraped data from booking sites is brittle and can break overnight.
Related News
KB Home bets on built-to-order strategy amid a spec-heavy market
KB Home is shifting its focus to a built-to-order (BTO) strategy, aiming for higher margins in a challenging market. Hosts should pay attention to this trend as it may impact competition and pricing in their local markets, especially if private builders react to the changes.
![An Overview of Dynamic Pricing for Hosts [+5 Tools Included]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.igms.com%2Fcontent%2Fimages%2Fwordpress%2F2022%2F10%2FDepositphotos_dynamic_pricing.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
An Overview of Dynamic Pricing for Hosts [+5 Tools Included]
This article discusses dynamic pricing for short-term rentals, explaining how it works to optimize revenue and occupancy by adjusting rates based on market conditions. Hosts should consider implementing dynamic pricing, using tools that automatically adjust rates, to stay competitive and maximize profits.
United Real Estate CEO Dan Duffy on the roadmap for competitive advantage
This article highlights the importance of data and AI in gaining a competitive edge in the 2026 housing market, emphasizing that hosts who prioritize data-driven decisions and adapt to market changes will thrive. Hosts should focus on leveraging data and AI to make informed decisions about their STR business to capture market share.
Foreclosure Starts Fall 7.6% Nationally, But These Key Counties Show Rising Distress
Foreclosure starts are down nationally, but certain counties are seeing a rise in early-stage filings, which can indicate future pre-foreclosure opportunities. Hosts in Florida, California, Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas should monitor county-level data to anticipate potential distressed property sales and consider how this might affect their local markets.