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Breaking Down the Data with John Bianchi
In this episode of the Short-Term Show, host Avery sits down with John Bianchi, the Head of Data at Tech Fester and Airbnb data consultant. They discuss John’s role in analyzing markets for short-term rentals, his expertise with Airbnb data, and how he helps investors maximize revenue through data insights.
Avery: Hey guys, welcome back to the Short-Term Show! We’ve got a really exciting guest today. I know you guys love data, and you’re always asking for more of it, so we have brought you John Bianchi, the Airbnb data guy, and he’s got a lot of cool information to share with you today. So, I’ll go ahead and introduce him so we can get started. John, how’s it going?
John: Hey Avery, good! Thanks for having me on, really appreciate it. It looks super fun, I’m looking forward to being here.
Avery: Awesome, awesome. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Let’s start there.
John: Sure! I’m the Head of Data for Tech Fester. If anyone doesn’t know, Tech Fester is a short-term rental investment fund. We pull money together and buy short-term rentals. We’ve raised $36 million in our first year and had to purchase about 75 properties. It’s my job to analyze every single market that we might be potentially going into, then figure out the best thing we can purchase within that market, and how to maximize the revenue of each individual property.
Avery: Wow!
John: We go through different amenities and features, design, and stuff like that, so that’s what I do day to day. I also have three free Airbnb data-related courses on YouTube that people can go through. Around 13,000 people have gone through them, and it’s going pretty well. They’ll teach you the basics of Airbnb data—everything you need to know about how to understand it.
Avery: That’s awesome!
John: Yeah, on top of that, I also run an Airbnb data consulting business, where I help people by providing reports that will help them do exactly what I do on a day-to-day basis. I essentially rip apart an entire market, find the most profitable location, and figure out how to maximize your revenue. I’ve been doing this for a while. Before all this, I had an Airbnb arbitrage management business in Chicago, managing about 15 locations, but when COVID hit, I sold off all the contracts.
Avery: Oh wow.
John: Yeah, it was kind of a show, but it was fun. Now, I’m the Head of Data for Tech Fester and doing the Airbnb data consulting. I also have those free courses on YouTube about Airbnb data, so I live and breathe it.
Avery: That’s amazing. I’m sure there are a lot of folks with questions about Airbnb data, especially AirDNA data.
John: Yeah, a lot of people ask about AirDNA. It throws everything at you, but doesn’t give much direction on how to look at anything or provide structure on what’s included. A big question I get is, “Does the data know the difference between a blocked night and a booked night?” There are so many different questions floating around.
Avery: For sure.
John: People are trying to figure out whether it makes sense to buy an investment property while looking at this data. It can be pretty confusing sometimes. So, let’s try to clear that up today.