Revenue management, answered

Which filters should I use when building a comp set - star rating, review count, active nights, amenities, price?

Lead with bedroom count, location radius, and active nights, then layer in review count and property type. Star rating and amenities are secondary validators. Price is an output to compare, not an input filter. Get these wrong and your whole comp set is garbage.

By Jack Murphy, Head of Revenue Management at UpRev. Running pricing for US vacation rental managers since 2017. Last updated September 1, 2026.

Primary Filters That Define a True Comp

Bedroom count is non-negotiable since a three-bedroom rarely competes with a studio regardless of anything else. Active nights over the trailing 90 days filters out inactive or seasonal listings that skew your demand read. Location radius needs to reflect how guests actually search, which means tighter in dense urban markets and wider in rural or mountain markets where supply is thin.

Secondary Filters to Tighten the Set

Review count matters because listings with very few reviews behave differently in search ranking and guest conversion, so they price differently too. Property type and key amenities like pool, pet-friendly, or waterfront access should be used to refine, not build, the initial set. If your subject property has a pool and only two of twelve comps do, flag that as a premium driver rather than filtering out the non-pool listings entirely.

How to Use Price in Comp Analysis

Price is what you measure after the comp set is built, not how you select it. Filtering by price upfront introduces circular logic and pulls you toward comps that already match your current rate rather than your true market position. Instead, run your comp set through occupancy and revenue performance to see where your subject property should land relative to actual market behavior.