Start where your question actually is
You already host or manage
Start with the operator chapters: occupancy, your Airbnb dashboard, review intelligence, pricing, and the cost stack that decides whether any of it was worth doing. Chapter 6 tends to pay for itself even if you stop there.
You are deciding whether to buy
Start with Chapter 6, then move into the investor chapters: cap rate, cash on cash, underwriting mistakes that cost real money, comp set analysis, and the returns comparison run all the way to leveraged returns.
You own it and cannot decide what to do
Short term, mid term furnished, or a standard lease. Chapter 6 was placed between the two parts on purpose, and it is free to read right now (link below).
10 chapters, front to back
Every chapter states plainly what is our own data, what is cited from someone else, and what is a constructed example. That discipline is the point.
Part I: The operator's dashboard 27 pages
- 1The three numbers every host argues aboutOccupancy, ADR, and RevPAR, and why hosts who know one number in isolation keep misdiagnosing their own listing.5p
- 2What your Airbnb dashboard is actually telling youImpressions, click through rate, conversion, review velocity, response and acceptance rate, booking lead time.5p
- 3Review intelligence: the dataset hiding in plain sight Free sample belowEvery review on your listing and your competitors' listings is public, structured text. Almost nobody treats it as data.5p
- 4Pricing intelligence: the metrics behind revenue optimizationEffective ADR, gap nights, length of stay, cleaning fee ratios, and what dynamic pricing tools can and cannot see.6p
- 5Cost metrics: what determines whether you're actually profitableGross versus net versus NOI, the five expense buckets, cost per booking, and self manage versus PM, worked in one table.6p
The bridge 7 pages
- 6STR vs. mid term vs. long term rental Read free nowThe highest search volume question in the book, run all the way to net operating income and the hourly value of your own time.7p
Part II: The investor's underwrite 20 pages
- 7The core investment metricsCap rate, cash on cash, GRM, DSCR, net yield, and break even occupancy, the most underused number in STR investing.6p
- 8How to underwrite an STR deal without getting fooledThe AirDNA problem, ramp up period, setup and furnishing costs, and why annualized revenue numbers lie.6p
- 9Market and comp set analysisComp set construction, regulatory risk assessment, and amenity supply gaps a buyer can exploit at acquisition.5p
- 10Returns comparison: STR vs. MTR vs. LTR for the same propertyThe investment side of Chapter 6's framework, run to cap rate and leveraged cash on cash, with the tax note a CPA should finish.4p
Back matter 6 pages
- The metric cheat sheetTwo tables built to be screenshotted: operator metrics and investor metrics, formula, meaning, and warning signal.
- GlossaryAround 30 terms, one sentence each.
- Methodology and about the dataWhat underlies every proprietary figure in the book: markets covered, collection cadence, and honest limitations.
- Run your own numbersA one page fill in the blank worksheet for your own gross, expenses, NOI, and break even occupancy.
- Tools referenced, and a closing noteA pointer to the companion STR Tool Directory, no affiliate links, no rankings, stated plainly.
Two chapters, free right now
We picked these two on purpose. Chapter 6 answers the single question we see argued most, and Chapter 3 is the flagship idea behind the entire book and behind our free listing teardown.
STR vs. mid term vs. long term rental: the real math on the same property
Most comparisons stop at gross revenue and get the answer wrong. This chapter runs one property through all three strategies, expenses and the owner's own time included, and shows exactly where the profit lands.
Read the full chapterReview intelligence: the dataset hiding in plain sight
Every review on your listing, and every review on your competitors' listings, is public, timestamped text. A 4.83 average compresses thousands of words into one lossy number. Read as a dataset instead, the same reviews reveal complaint clusters months before a rating actually drops, the amenities your comp set's guests keep wishing for, and the exact praise pattern a top performer is winning on. The chapter walks through a small worked example first: 25 reviews on one cabin, reduced to a theme table, with a hot tub praised over a dozen times and a handful of mattress complaints that never showed up in the star rating. Then it shows you where doing this by hand hits its ceiling: reading your own reviews is an afternoon, but tracking themes across 20 comps and every new review, every month, is a data pipeline. That ceiling is exactly why we built the paid version of this as a product.
Read the full chapterIt will not give you legal or tax advice. Talk to a CPA about depreciation and cost segregation, and check your county's actual published code before you rely on anything about regulation. It will not pick a market for you or present any market as a recommendation. And it contains no hosting how to guides: no decorating tips, no message scripts, no listing SEO tutorials, and no advice on responding to a bad review.
One line we hold throughout the book: review intelligence, what thousands of guest reviews reveal about a market, is analytics and it belongs here. Review management, how you respond to a bad review, is hosting advice and it does not.
We are analysts, not influencers
STR Intel tracks listings, reviews, amenities, and price changes across Southeast short term rental markets like the Smokies, 30A, and North Georgia, continuously, using Specrom's web scale data infrastructure. This book is the analytical framework we use to read those markets, written for the people who operate and buy in them.
Where a number in this book comes from our own dataset, it is marked and explained on the guide's methodology page. Where it comes from someone else, the source is named at the end of the chapter. Where it is a constructed example built to illustrate a formula, it says so in the same sentence. That discipline is the whole product.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Enter your email and we send the PDF straight away. No card, no trial, no hidden charge later.
Two readers. Part I is for hosts, co-hosts, and property managers who already operate short term rentals. Part II is for people evaluating whether to buy one. Chapter 6 sits between the two parts for anyone deciding between a short term rental, a mid term rental, or a standard lease on a property they already own.
No. The guide states plainly where a tax question belongs with a CPA and where a regulatory question belongs with your county's published code. It does not pick markets for you or present any market as a recommendation.
It contains no decorating tips, no message scripts, and no listing SEO tutorials. It is a metrics book: definitions, formulas, worked examples, and the analytical framework behind occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, review intelligence, pricing, cost structure, and the core investment metrics, illustrated with Southeast market examples.
No. You get the PDF and occasional Southeast market emails you can unsubscribe from at any time. STR Intel's paid audits and monitoring are a separate, clearly optional service mentioned once at the end of the guide.
A 63 page PDF, delivered to the email address you provide within a few minutes of signing up.
Platform specific details such as fee structures and Superhost thresholds are stated as of the guide's publication date and flagged for re verification, because platforms change these without notice. Every figure drawn from our own dataset is marked and explained on the guide's methodology page.
Both. Cost metrics, owner statements, and the self manage versus co host versus full property management comparison in Chapter 5 are written with property managers and multi property operators in mind, alongside the individual host material in the rest of Part I.
Get the free guide
This book is the map. If you want an analyst reading your specific market every month, that is a separate, optional service. One email gets you the PDF, nothing else.
Prefer a real answer on your own listing instead? Get a free teardown.