Airbnb Occupancy Rates by City: Know Your Market

Have you been looking for a lucrative investment opportunity? Check out Airbnb occupancy rates by city to find your next investment property.

Short term rental properties are a viable alternative for many landlords who want to maximize their return on investment. Unlike long term rentals, short term rentals generate a much higher nightly rate. The thing is, your rental must be occupied for a significant number of days per month to turn a profit.

Table of Contents

1. 10 Cities With the Highest Airbnb Occupancy Rates
2. How to Tell if a City Would Have a High Airbnb Occupancy Rate

Find out about US cities with the highest Airbnb occupancy rates by city in this article. You’ll also learn about one of the easiest ways to estimate Airbnb occupancy rates by city—Mashvisor.

10 Cities With the Highest Airbnb Occupancy Rates

Interested in finding your vacation homes for sale? The following list includes ten US cities with the highest Airbnb occupancy rate. Property prices differ quite a lot among them. So, keep your eyes on the statistics and find a city that fits your budget and offers a decent cash on cash return.

The below list of Airbnb occupancy rates by city only contains cities with at least 100 short term listings. The data is taken from Mashvisor’s February location report.

Mashvisor takes data from parsing millions of listings on Airbnb to determine statistics like occupancy rate, average daily rate, and estimated monthly rental income.

Data on property pricing is taken from ListHub, a database that contains over six million properties across the US. With the two sources of data, finding the best short term rental markets is easy.

That said, here is the list of Airbnb occupancy rates by city, as well as other real estate metrics based on Mashvisor’s database.

1. East Rutherford, NJ

• Median Property Price: $592,120
• Average Price per Square Foot: $3,263
• Number of Short Term Rental Listings: 123
• Monthly Short Term Rental Income: $3,658
• Short Term Rental Cash on Cash Return: 2.57%
• Short Term Rental Cap Rate: 2.59%
• Short Term Rental Daily Rate: $92
• Short Term Rental Occupancy Rate: 77%
• Walk Score: 90

East Rutherford is a town in New Jersey that is a part of the New York metropolitan area. It is home to large parks and the MetLife Stadium on its premises. But what makes it popular with visitors is that it’s only a nine-mile drive away from Manhattan.

Considering its prime location, the median property price is not that high, making it attractive to real estate investors.

Related: The Best Places to Buy Investment Property in New Jersey State

2. Bellingham, WA

• Median Property Price: $668,537
• Average Price per Square Foot: $427
• Number of Short Term Rental Listings: 166
• Monthly Short Term Rental Income: $3,760
• Short Term Rental Cash on Cash Return: 3.78%
• Short Term Rental Cap Rate: 3.82%
• Short Term Rental Daily Rate: $153
• Short Term Rental Occupancy Rate: 71%
• Walk Score: 48

Bellingham is a coastal town in the state of Washington that’s pretty close to the Canadian border. To many, it’s known as the best place to stay year-round in the US because of its proximity to both beautiful mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The city boasts a ton of outdoor activities for the adventurous.

Bellingham’s walkable downtown is full of restaurants and local breweries, which makes the stay good both in and around the city.

3. Madison, WI

• Median Property Price: $507,979
• Average Price per Square Foot: $265
• Number of Short Term Rental Listings: 270
• Monthly Short Term Rental Income: $4,965
• Short Term Rental Cash on Cash Return: 5.46%
• Short Term Rental Cap Rate: 5.52%
• Short Term Rental Daily Rate: $243
• Short Term Rental Occupancy Rate: 70%
• Walk Score: 45

Madison is the capital city of Wisconsin, but despite being the capital city, it’s not as expensive to live in. It’s also situated in a beautiful location, stuck between two large lakes and a couple of national parks.

In 2022, tourism in Madison sprung back up, adding over a billion dollars in tourist spending to the city’s budget.

4. Newton, MA

• Median Property Price: $945,349
• Average Price per Square Foot: $2,793
• Number of Short Term Rental Listings: 241
• Monthly Short Term Rental Income: $5,818
• Short Term Rental Cash on Cash Return: 3.40%
• Short Term Rental Cap Rate: 3.42%
• Short Term Rental Daily Rate: $202
• Short Term Rental Occupancy Rate: 70%
• Walk Score: 60

Newton is a Massachusetts town in the Boston metropolitan area, just seven miles away from Boston downtown. The town itself is a walkable green place, and staying there is much cheaper than staying in Boston proper.

However, since it’s pretty close to Massachusetts’s capital, the median price approaches a million dollars. The monthly rental income compensates for the high price, though.

5. Tigard, OR

• Median Property Price: $719,057
• Average Price per Square Foot: $320
• Number of Short Term Rental Listings: 146
• Monthly Short Term Rental Income: $4,602
• Short Term Rental Cash on Cash Return: 3.56%
• Short Term Rental Cap Rate: 3.59%
• Short Term Rental Daily Rate: $180
• Short Term Rental Occupancy Rate: 70%
• Walk Score: 42

Tigard is a town in Oregon in the vicinity of Portland. But visitors don’t need to go to the capital city to engage in fun activities. Tigard is home to a few theaters, a long chain of parks alongside Fanno Creek, and some of the best shopping destinations in Oregon.

Related: What Is a Good Cash on Cash Return?

6. San Pedro, CA

• Median Property Price: $930,818
• Average Price per Square Foot: $561
• Number of Short Term Rental Listings: 102
• Monthly Short Term Rental Income: $5,265
• Short Term Rental Cash on Cash Return: 3.84%
• Short Term Rental Cap Rate: 3.86%
• Short Term Rental Daily Rate: $167
• Short Term Rental Occupancy Rate: 69%
• Walk Score: 91

San Pedro is a neighborhood within Los Angeles city limits, situated far from the LA downtown right on the shore. It’s closer to the port area, but lovely beach areas are pretty close as well.

Because it’s a part of LA, even though it’s far from the city center, it’s quite popular among tourists. Short term rental estimates are rather high, but investing in the area requires high upfront costs, as well.

7. Hauula, HI

• Median Property Price: $961,609
• Average Price per Square Foot: $964
• Number of Short Term Rental Listings: 149
• Monthly Short Term Rental Income: $6,497
• Short Term Rental Cash on Cash Return: 4.87%
• Short Term Rental Cap Rate: 4.90%
• Short Term Rental Daily Rate: $295
• Short Term Rental Occupancy Rate: 69%
• Walk Score: 0

Hauula is stuck between the ocean on one side and mountain hiking trails on the other. Despite being a very remote place on the main island of Hawaii, it is quite popular with tourists. With the constant influx of tourists, the community enjoys a rather high occupancy rate.

The prices for vacation rentals for sale here are quite high, but the cap rate is approaching 5%, which is higher than average.

8. Waltham, MA

• Median Property Price: $664,397
• Average Price per Square Foot: $2,042
• Number of Short Term Rental Listings: 249
• Monthly Short Term Rental Income: $3,203
• Short Term Rental Cash on Cash Return: 1.83%
• Short Term Rental Cap Rate: 1.85%
• Short Term Rental Daily Rate: $186
• Short Term Rental Occupancy Rate: 69%
• Walk Score: 91

Waltham is a town on the outskirts of Boston, nine miles away from downtown and pretty close to an area full of lakes and water activities.

Since it’s close to Boston, the town enjoys a pretty high occupancy rate. However, the cash on cash return isn’t that great because of rather high property prices.

9. Olympia, WA

• Median Property Price: $699,357
• Average Price per Square Foot: $392
• Number of Short Term Rental Listings: 128
• Monthly Short Term Rental Income: $3,263
• Short Term Rental Cash on Cash Return: 2.45%
• Short Term Rental Cap Rate: 2.48%
• Short Term Rental Daily Rate: $122
• Short Term Rental Occupancy Rate: 69%
• Walk Score: 34

Olympia is a town north of Seattle placed near the inlet of the Salish sea. Its closeness to the sea and a huge area of national parks make it a prime destination for outdoorsy people.

10. Haiku, HI

• Median Property Price: $2,106,770
• Average Price per Square Foot: $1,213
• Number of Short Term Rental Listings: 129
• Monthly Short Term Rental Income: $11,690
• Short Term Rental Cash on Cash Return: 4.26%
• Short Term Rental Cap Rate: 4.27%
• Short Term Rental Daily Rate: $300
• Short Term Rental Occupancy Rate: 68%
• Walk Score: 40

Haiku is a Hawaiian town on Maui island, which is very popular among hikers and surfers. Even though it ranks last here in our list of Airbnb occupancy rates by city, its rental income is very substantial, estimated at $11,000 per month.

The biggest downside of investing in rental property Haiku is the median price of the properties there. It’s estimated to be upwards of $2 million.

Looking for an investment property in a specific state or city? Find a profitable Airbnb rental property on Mashvisor now.

How to Tell if a City Would Have a High Airbnb Occupancy Rate

If you’re interested in investing in a particular town, how do you find out whether it has a high occupancy rate on Airbnb? That kind of statistic is not accessible directly from the Airbnb website, so you’ll need to do some research on your own.

Here are three ways to find out whether a city has a high Airbnb occupancy rate.

1. Check Tourist Traffic

The easiest way to estimate Airbnb demand in your area is to check how many tourists are visiting the area. If an area sees a high level of tourist traffic, the odds are there’s going to be demand for local Airbnbs.

If the said data isn’t available upon doing a simple Google search, try visiting the local administration website to see relevant tourist information. Another option is to check out airport traffic statistics. If the local airport attracts high traffic, the odds are cities nearby also draw a high number of visitors.

The downside of measuring short term rent like the above is that it doesn’t include business travelers who may make a high portion of Airbnb demand. Making an estimate is virtually impossible through general channels, which may produce a false negative result. A city may see a high Airbnb demand but won’t include that many tourists registered in the database.

Another downside is that not all tourist traffic goes to Airbnb. Short term rentals in most cities compete with hotels and a significant of tourist traffic will inevitably go towards the hotel industry.

2. Check Airbnb

A more direct way of doing rental analysis on Airbnb occupancy rate by city is by going on Airbnb and checking individual listings. 

You can pick a few dozen listings from the city you’re looking at and check the availability dates. If you see a similar picture, it means the occupancy rate is quite good.

When you check a few dozen properties on Airbnb, you’ll know whether the occupancy rate is good enough.

There are two main drawbacks to the said approach, though.

You will never be able to check every Airbnb listing in the city or get access to historical data. You also won’t know how the demand changes throughout the year since most properties are not booked a year ahead. So, you’ll always be working with incomplete data.

But an even more important drawback is that it takes a lot of time to check dozens of properties. Multiply it by a few cities you’re trying to gather information on, and figuring out Airbnb occupancy rate by city becomes very tedious.

Related: The Ultimate Airbnb Analysis Tool for 2023

3. Real Estate Analytics

An easier way to check Airbnb occupancy rates by city is to use Mashvisor. The platform uses Airbnb data to find occupancy rates across over two million properties. It parses Airbnb rental listings and can show average occupancy rates sorted by state, city, and zip code.

It’s the most handy way to determine the Airbnb occupancy rate by city because Mashvisor gathers information on all Airbnb properties. It gives you a full picture of occupancy rates in any given area.

Mashvisor also gives you the option to view the occupancy rate visualized on the map in the form of a heatmap.

If you pick Airbnb occupancy rate as a heatmap filter, the map highlights each zip code with a color that indicates how high the occupancy rate is. You can move the map to discover neighboring areas with decent Airbnb occupancy rates by city.

You can also see a heatmap filtered by other investment property metrics, such as cash on cash return or rental income for both short term and long term rentals.

This way, you can find a good neighborhood pretty fast and see what properties are on sale there. With Mashvisor, you can do a quick profitability estimate with an Airbnb rental calculator. 

Want to find Airbnb occupancy rates by city on Mashvisor? Claim your 7-day free trial and browse through lucrative real estate locations.

Conclusion

Knowing Airbnb occupancy rates by city is crucial to making purchasing the best investment property. Location is key to making a profit on your vacation rental. Knowing the real estate comps of the neighborhood can make or break your investment.

One of the ways to learn about Airbnb occupancy rates by city includes checking the number of visitors to a particular city or neighborhood. You can also go to the Airbnb website and sift through individual listings. The easiest and fastest way is by using Mashvisor and its real estate analytics feature.

Mashvisor can provide statistics on Airbnb occupancy rates by city and a lot more, including median property price, cash on cash return, and cap rate. 

Want to know more about Mashvisor? Book a demo now and a product specialist will walk you through the platform’s various features and tools.