What Is a Comp Set?
A comp set (competitive set) is a group of properties similar to yours that you benchmark against. Hotels have used comp sets for decades to make pricing and investment decisions. The concept is the same for short-term rentals: you can’t know if your rates are too high, your occupancy is too low, or your amenities are falling short without a reference point.
Futurestay builds your comp set automatically based on your property’s location, size, type, and amenity profile. Each comp gets a similarity score (0-100) based on how closely it matches yours across bedrooms, bathrooms, distance, and property class.
The goal isn’t to copy your competitors. It’s to understand where you’re ahead, where you’re behind, and where the market gives you room to move.
The Four Dimensions of Competitive Analysis
Futurestay’s comp set breaks the comparison into four areas. Each one tells you something different about your position.
Revenue: Are You Leaving Money on the Table?
The Revenue tab shows four metrics side by side: your property vs. the comp set average.
- RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room): Your total revenue divided by total available nights. This is the single best performance metric because it accounts for both rate and occupancy. If your RevPAR is below your comp set average, something needs to change.
- 12-Month Revenue: Total revenue over the trailing year. Useful for big-picture comparison.
- 12-Month Occupancy: How full your calendar has been vs. your comps.
- ADR (Average Daily Rate): What you’re actually charging per booked night.
How to read it: The most common mistake is looking at only one metric. High occupancy with low ADR usually means you’re underpricing. Low occupancy with high ADR means you’re overpricing or your listing isn’t competitive enough to justify the rate. The sweet spot is where your RevPAR exceeds the comp set average, regardless of whether you get there through rate or occupancy.
Policies: Are Your Settings Helping or Hurting?
The Policies tab compares your cancellation policy, instant book status, pet policy, and self check-in against what your comps do.
- Cancellation Policy: Shows the most common policy among your comps. If 65% of your comps use Moderate and you’re on Strict, you’re adding friction that your competitors don’t have.
- Instant Book: What percentage of your comps have instant book enabled. Airbnb’s own data shows that enabling instant book improves search ranking.
- Allow Pets: Whether your comps accept pets. Hostaway’s 2025 data shows pet-friendly rentals earn $17+ more per night in ADR.
- Self Check-In: What percentage offer it. If 80% of your comps do and you don’t, that’s a guest experience gap.
How to read it: Policies are low-effort, high-impact changes. If you’re the only property in your comp set without self check-in or with a strict cancellation policy, those are quick wins you can implement today.
Amenities: Where Should You Invest?
The Amenities tab (coming soon) will show which amenities your comps have that you don’t, and which ones you have that they lack. Combined with the amenity tier data on your property’s Amenities page, this tells you where investments will have the biggest impact.
The key insight: not all amenities are equal. A hot tub in a market where none of your comps have one is a major differentiator. A hot tub in a market where every comp already has one is just table stakes. Your comp set data helps you tell the difference.
Similarity: How Good Are Your Comps?
The Similarity tab shows how closely your comp set actually matches your property: average bedroom/bathroom ratio, square footage, estimated value, and amenity score.
How to read it: If the similarity scores are low (below 60), your comp set may not be a great reference point. A 2-bedroom condo being compared against 5-bedroom houses will produce misleading data. As Futurestay refines the comp selection algorithm, this tab helps you gauge how much to trust the other metrics.
Turning Data Into Decisions
Competitive data is only useful if it changes what you do. Here’s a framework:
If your RevPAR is below comp average:
- Check if it’s a rate problem (ADR too low) or an occupancy problem (calendar too empty)
- If rate: look at your comps’ amenities and photos. Are they offering more for the same price?
- If occupancy: check your policies tab. Strict cancellation, no instant book, or no self check-in could be suppressing demand.
If your RevPAR is above comp average: You’re outperforming your market. Consider whether you can push rates higher, especially in peak periods. Your comp set data validates that there’s room.
If your policies are out of step: Make the easy changes first. Enabling self check-in, loosening your cancellation policy, or turning on instant book are zero-cost changes that can meaningfully improve conversion.
If your amenity score is low: Focus on the amenities that appear most often in your top-performing comps. The amenity tier system on your property page tells you which ones have the biggest revenue impact.
How Often to Check
Check your comp set monthly during stable periods and weekly when you’re making changes (adjusting rates, adding amenities, changing policies). After a change, give it 2-4 weeks before evaluating the impact in your comp set data. Shorter windows are too noisy to draw conclusions from.
Don’t obsess over daily fluctuations. The comp set is a strategic tool for directional decisions, not a real-time trading dashboard.