In 2025, Manny Reyna quit his project management job and moved to Tokyo with his family.
He’d spent the last couple of years building a portfolio of cash-flowing rental properties on the side and was eager to spend more time with his young son. He and his wife, who works as a behavior analyst, determined that they had enough coming in between rental income and her earnings to sustain their lifestyle abroad.
Reyna expects his properties in San Antonio — two single-family homes and two tiny homes — to bring in about $84,000 in 2025. He lists them as short-term rentals on Airbnb and Vrbo, and mid-term rentals on Furnished Finder. He also rents to long-term tenants, though he prefers shorter stays, which require more work but are more lucrative.
Reyna and his property manager, who is in Texas, co-manage the portfolio. Two software tools ensure that the short-term rental aspect of the business runs smoothly.
1. AirDNA. Rental demand is a key metric to consider when it comes to short-term rentals in particular. Are people even visiting your market?
As Reyna was shopping for land to place his tiny homes, he used AirDNA to answer that question. The site helps investors understand specific markets by providing data such as occupancy rates and average daily rates.
“I didn’t want to have to buy land in the middle of nowhere, stick tiny homes there, and then have to create some sort of buzz to get people out there,” said Reyna. “So, using AirDNA, I looked at different metrics like booking rates and occupancy, and I threw all the data into an Excel sheet.”
He selected an area with strong rental demand that was also within a 30-minute drive of where he was living at the time, and has been rewarded with high occupancy rates for his tiny homes.
AirDNA offers a free version, which provides limited market insights. The Pro version costs $34 a month when billed annually ($400 total for the year), or $125 a month when billed monthly.
2. PriceLabs. While AirDNA helped Reyna select a strong market, PriceLabs helps him appropriately price his rentals. The software will automatically adjust your prices on sites like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com based on demand and seasonality in your area.
“It automates the pricing for you, so you don’t have to go into the apps and keep updating the prices — and it’s meant to increase booking rates,” said Reyna. “So, say, there’s some special event going on. It’ll raise the prices for you to meet that demand. Or, if nothing’s really going on in the area, it’ll lower the prices for you so that your listing stays competitive.”
After a 30-day free trial, the dynamic pricing tool costs $19.99 per listing a month.
For Reyna, the subscriptions pay for themselves and then some.
Axel Springer, Insider Inc.’s parent company, is an investor in Airbnb.
