Case Studies
In December 2025, one vacation rental owner was looking for a property management company for two waterfront homes in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Instead of choosing between Fairly and Triad Vacation Rentals, he decided to try both at the same time. One home went to Fairly, the other to Triad. Both launched with no prior reviews and ran for six months under their respective companies.
After six months, the owner shared his results with us. The numbers tell a clear story.
The owner shared his payout statements and booking data from both properties. He noted that both earned Guest Favorite status on Airbnb with a 5.0 overall rating — something he attributes to the quality of the properties themselves. Guests who stayed at either home left happy.
Here is what six months of real bookings produced.
Same owner. Same starting point. Same six months. $7,956 more landed in the owner's account through Triad.
Here is where the difference shows up.
Fairly booked 40 nights. Triad booked 76. That is nearly a full extra month of additional occupancy, on properties where guests were equally happy.
Guests booked through Fairly stayed 3.1 nights on average. Triad guests stayed 5.1 nights. Longer stays mean less turnover, fewer cleaning cycles, and more stable revenue through the season.
For this property, Triad's Performance Advisor tracked local demand, seasonal trends, and competitor activity throughout the season.
The owner also noted that the Fairly property received a 4.6 value rating from guests on Airbnb — the one subcategory where it dipped below a perfect score. A 4.6 value score is not a complaint about the property. It is guests saying the price was a bit more than they felt it was worth.
The Triad property held 5.0 across every subcategory, including value.
Around the same time this experiment was running, an independent writer named Laura Fischer spent a Sunday night researching both companies from the outside — comparing fee structures, management models, cleaning setups, and direct booking capabilities. Her piece, Triad Vacation Rentals vs. Fairly, reached the same conclusions from public information alone.
Fischer compared both companies across several key areas. On fees, Fairly publicly charges a flat 20% platform fee on rent. Triad charges 15% on the same plan the owner used for this comparison.
On the management side, Fairly pairs each property with one local caretaker who handles everything — cleaning, guest communication, and oversight. Triad takes a different approach: a dedicated Performance Advisor backed by a full support team, with 24/7 guest support running independently.
On distribution, Fairly lists exclusively through Airbnb and Vrbo. Triad also lists on major OTAs but additionally operates its own direct booking platform, giving owners an option to capture reservations without paying platform commissions. Understanding what each platform charges on top of management fees matters too — we broke that down here.
Her research was built entirely from public sources. The owner's six months of real data points in the same direction.
As Fischer put it:
"One local person who knows your house inside out sounds great on paper."
"If one person is unavailable, the machine keeps moving."
She framed it well: do you want one dedicated local person managing your property, or a full team with systems behind them?
Both homes were great. Both guests were happy. Both earned Guest Favorite status.
But at the end of six months, one owner's payout was nearly double the other. The owner let the numbers speak for themselves.
Weighing the same decision for your vacation rental? Get in touch with the Triad team and we will walk you through what professional management could look like for your property.
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