BNBCalc data and methodology updates
Last reviewed Oct 7, 2026 by Jeremy Werden
Short answer
A dated log of changes to where BNBCalc's data comes from and how its numbers are calculated, newest first. The latest, from October 2026: new property analyses take comps from BNBCalc's own nearby-listing data, open at the 70th percentile of those comps, and start with 8% cleaning and a 15.5% host platform fee.
October 2026
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A new source for comps. New property analyses now pick comps from BNBCalc's own snapshot of nearby Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com listings: entire homes with your bedroom count or one either side, searched within 5 km (about 3 miles) first and up to 16 km (about 10 miles) when needed, with 10 to 50 comps per analysis. Where fewer than 10 homes qualify, BNBCalc falls back to its backup comp source.
Related question -
BNBCalc's own full-year estimate for each comp. Revenue (Potential) is now BNBCalc's own estimate of what each comp could earn if bookable all year, with its occupancy pulled toward nearby homes, and the headline estimate is built from it.
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New analyses open at the 70th percentile. A new analysis opens at the 70th percentile of its comps' full-year revenue, then switches to the median of the top-earning half once you make your first change in the revenue section.
Related question -
"How it's calculated." A new window under the revenue estimate explains the method and shows the 10th to 90th percentile range of your comps' revenue.
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New expense defaults. New analyses start with cleaning at 8% of revenue (previously 10%) and a 15.5% host platform fee (previously 3%), or 16% for listings in Brazil and Mexico. Saved analyses keep their values.
Related question -
A 365-day year. Short-term rental calculations now use 365 days a year instead of 365.244. Figures built from a daily rate you typed in come out about 0.07% lower as a result.
August 2026
- Top 50% of comps as the default revenue basis. Revenue estimates began defaulting to the top-earning half of the comps, with AI-selected comps, a hand-picked set and manual revenue as alternatives. Whichever you choose carries into shared and printed reports.
July 2026
- AI comp selection (now called AI Underwriter). AI began grading every candidate comp on how closely it matches the property, explaining which comps it kept and why, and letting you accept or override its picks.
- AI expense estimates. The Calculator began proposing property-specific values for expense fields, each with a source and a confidence level, without overwriting anything you'd set by hand.
- Amenity revenue impact in property analyses. Markets' amenity data started appearing on property analyses, matched to the property's bedroom count.
- Housing market data for US markets. US market pages added for-sale conditions such as sale and list prices, price per square foot, inventory, days on market and sale-to-list ratio, from Redfin.
June 2026
- BNBCalc Markets became its own subscription, covering 2,300+ short-term rental markets in 157 countries, with listing-level data, comp sets, operators and amenity revenue impact.
February 2026
- Markets went worldwide. The Markets map gained a worldwide view with country pages, so markets outside the US can be ranked by annual revenue and browsed in nine currencies.
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Data & methodology
How does BNBCalc estimate revenue for a property?
BNBCalc estimates a property's annual revenue from up to 50 comparable Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com homes nearby, using what each could earn if it were bookable all year. The estimate benchmarks a well-run listing rather than the average, landing around the comps' 70th to 75th percentile, and it's gross revenue with cleaning fees included.
Data & methodology
How does BNBCalc choose comparable listings?
BNBCalc picks comps from Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com listings near your property: entire homes with your bedroom count, or one bedroom either side when it needs more. It looks within 5 km (about 3 miles) first, widens to 16 km (about 10 miles) in quieter areas, and keeps between 10 and 50 comps.
Data & methodology
How does BNBCalc estimate operating expenses?
BNBCalc starts a new US analysis with default operating expenses: $440 a month for utilities, $700 of fixed maintenance costs, cleaning at 8% of revenue and a 15.5% host platform fee. You can edit every line, save your own numbers as presets, or have AI suggest costs for the specific property.
Data & methodology
How often is BNBCalc's data updated?
BNBCalc refreshes its market data once a month, adding the most recently completed month, so the newest month on a market page is usually last month or the one before. A property analysis keeps the comps it was created with: they don't refresh with new data, and only a bedroom-count change fetches new ones.
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