Which short-term rental comps does BNBCalc use for the estimate? (Select comps)

What is Select comps?

Every BNBCalc property analysis has a revenue section, and if the analysis is yours, it asks you to Choose your underwriting style under the headline figure. There are two options, Select comps and AI Underwriter, and new analyses open on Select comps.

Select comps builds the estimate from the comps, the comparable listings BNBCalc found near your address, and you choose which of them count. To start with, that's the top-earning half, because the Top 50% of comps box is ticked by default. Keep in mind that Select comps doesn't change which listings count as comps in the first place, since that search happens before the analysis opens.

How does Select comps turn the comps into an estimate?

BNBCalc ranks the comps by revenue, keeps the top-earning half and takes the median of what's left after your filters and unticks, which lands near the 75th percentile of all the comps. The occupancy is the average of those same comps. The daily rate, on the other hand, is worked out from the revenue so that daily rate × occupancy × 365 equals the estimate, which means it won't match any one comp's posted price.

The full formula, a worked example and what each comp's revenue includes are on their own page.

Why does BNBCalc start from the top 50% of comps?

The comp search already drops part-time listings, but the homes left near any address still include ones that are priced by hand or managed casually. Those pull a plain average down without telling you much about what your property could earn. So BNBCalc benchmarks what a home earns when it's set up properly: priced with software, open year-round and well managed. That makes the estimate a baseline for your home run well, and a figure you can build your plan on, rather than a picture of the typical comp.

If you'd like to see the spread, click How it's calculated under the figure. It lists the 10th, 25th, 50th, 70th and 90th percentiles of all your comps' revenue, for comparison only. Without filters, the estimate usually sits between the 70th and 90th marks, while the 50th shows what the typical comp earns.

How do I narrow the comps behind the estimate?

You don't have to take the comps as they come. As the analysis's owner, you have four controls that change which comps the median is taken from:

The top half is always ranked across all your comps. So when a filter or an untick removes a top-half comp, it drops out, and BNBCalc doesn't pull a lower earner in to take its place.

Each filter option also shows a number in brackets. With Top 50% of comps ticked, that's how many of the top-earning half have the feature, and with it unticked, how many of the comps you've kept do. Since changing a filter clears any revenue range you've dragged, make sure to set the filters first and drag the range last.

What does the line under the estimate mean?

The short line under the headline figure tells you which comps the number comes from. With Select comps it reads "Median of your selected comps.", and once you've set filters it names them, such as "Median of your selected houses with pools and 4.8+ stars." AI Underwriter changes it to "Median of the most similar comps selected by AI", and typing your own numbers changes it to "Manual override".

The Filters button also carries a small dot. It's grey while manual revenue input is on. Otherwise it's blue whenever Top 50% of comps or any filter is on, which it is on a new analysis, and it only turns red when you've hidden comps by hand with Top 50% of comps and every filter switched off. Once you've unticked comps, the Filters panel also shows "Manually hidden" with a count, and Include all next to it brings every one of them back.

Select comps, AI Underwriter or manual input: which should I use?

Each of the three routes answers a slightly different question, so the right one depends on what you know about the property:

You can move between them at any time. Clicking Select comps or AI Underwriter while manual input is on switches manual input off and selects that option, and switching between the two styles resets the revenue range.

Does my comp selection carry into shared and printed reports?

It does. When you share an analysis, viewers see the saved estimate built from the comps you selected, with a line saying how many comps you picked, and they can't change the selection. A printed report's comparable listing cards show the same set: your selected comps after filters and any you've unticked, or the AI-picked set when AI Underwriter is in use.

The BNBCalc API works differently, though. Unless you ask for AI comps, an analysis created through the API returns the starting estimate BNBCalc saves when the analysis is created, so its revenue can come in lower than the app's headline for the same address.