Why most revenue case studies are hard to trust
Short-term rental results are easy to inflate without saying anything untrue. Three things usually do it.
Portfolio growth counted as pricing growth. If an operator goes from 20 listings to 60 during an engagement, total revenue will triple whatever the pricing did. Unless a case study separates the original listings from the new ones, the headline number tells you about acquisition, not revenue management.
A rising market counted as skill. If every comparable listing in a market earned 15% more this year because of a new event, an airline route or a supply drop, a 15% lift means you kept pace. It does not mean you outperformed. The reverse is also true: holding revenue flat in a market that fell 10% is strong work that an absolute comparison hides.
Mismatched periods. Comparing a summer quarter with the previous winter, or a year with a renovation month against a year without one, produces big percentages that mean very little.
Our Lane Property numbers are early. They compare each month with June, the month we started, and July to September is busier than June, so some of that lift is season. Forward bookings are against the same point last year, which is a fairer read. The case study says all of this on the page.
The better test: your own listings
A case study about someone else’s portfolio can only tell you so much. Your own numbers tell you everything, so we make them easy to get.
- Month 1Reset
Base prices, seasonality, stay rules and discounts rebuilt for your listings against real comparables.
- Month 2Tune
Daily checks against the market. Every change approved by a revenue manager and logged with its reason.
- Month 3Judge
Your RevPAR index against the market, month by month, on your own dashboard.
Keep going at 1.5% of accommodation revenue, no minimum.
Leave on 30 days' notice. Your PriceLabs account stays in your name, settings and all, and every change is logged with its reason. Take the strategy and run with it.
Before any of that, the free revenue audit shows where your listings sit against the market and three specific changes. They’re yours to keep whether or not you work with us.
How full case studies are measured
Lane Property is a short, demonstrated result. Full case studies need twelve months of data and follow stricter rules. If one breaks a rule, it says so and explains why.
1. Like-for-like listings first. The headline result uses only listings that were live and bookable for the full period before and after we started. Listings added during the engagement appear in a separate table, clearly labelled, and never in the headline.
2. Same stay dates, year on year. We compare the same twelve months of stay nights, for example July to June against the previous July to June. We count revenue by the night stayed, not the date it was booked, so a busy booking month does not distort the picture.
3. Market index as the headline. Our main measure is RevPAR index: a listing’s revenue per available night divided by the revenue per available night of comparable listings in the same market. An index of 1.00 means earning exactly what the market earns. 1.10 means earning 10% more. We show the index before and after, then absolute revenue alongside it, with how much the market itself moved over the same period.
4. The supporting metrics. RevPAR index tells you whether you are winning. The supporting metrics tell you why:
- ADR index: your average nightly rate compared with the market.
- MPI (market penetration index): your occupancy divided by market occupancy.
- Booking pace: how fast future nights are filling compared with the market.
- Booking window: how far ahead guests are booking, split into the next 14 days, 30 days, 31-60 days and 61-90 days.
A higher rate with an emptier calendar is not a win, and neither is a full calendar at a discount. We show both sides.
5. Clean inputs. Owner stays, maintenance blocks and long single bookings distort occupancy figures. We exclude blocked nights from available nights and flag any listing where a single reservation dominates the period. Revenue figures exclude cleaning fees and taxes. Each case study states whether figures are before or after channel commissions.
6. Numbers that recompute. Every percentage in a full case study can be recalculated from the figures shown on the same page, and a second team member checks the maths before it’s published. Demonstrated results like Lane Property show percentage change only, at the portfolio’s request, and are labelled that way.
7. Permission. Case studies are anonymised by default. We only use a name, logo or words with written permission.
What a good result looks like
Revenue management results are rarely dramatic for well-run portfolios, and anyone promising a fixed percentage before seeing your data is guessing. The gains usually come from a handful of places:
- Prices that respond faster when a date starts filling ahead of the market.
- Last-minute discounts that are gradual, not a cliff in the final week.
- Minimum stays that do not hide listings from guests filtering for short trips.
- Price floors that protect what a listing is actually worth.
- Event dates caught early.
Some portfolios have a lot of room on these. Some are already priced well and the gain is small. Our case studies will include both, because an honest small number is more useful to you than a flattering big one.
Case studies
Lane Property: ADR up 22% and RevPAR up 40% in the first month live. A Queensland short-term rental portfolio that moved from in-house pricing, to an outside revenue manager, to Airyield in June 2026. Forward bookings for the next 90 days are 255% ahead of the same point last year.
Full twelve-month case studies, measured as set out on the methodology page, will be added here as they complete.
Results vary by market, listing and season. Past results for one portfolio do not predict results for another. See How we measure results for full definitions.