Top Airbnb Investment Investment Locations

Real Estate Consultant · Charleston, SC · Member since 2024 · 35 posts · 9 votes

Port Arthur, TX - “Best Place to Invest in Short Term Rentals 2026"
465 active listings.
Occupancy 72%
35.8% required a 30 night minimum stay.
49.1% were full time STRs.
29.5% were private rooms in a home.
https://www.airdna.co/vacation-rental-data/app/us/texas/port...

Rockford, IL: "Best Hidden Gem Airbnb Location 2026"
389 active listings.
Occupancy 66%
36.6% 30 night minimum stay.
53.4% full time STRs.
12.7% private room in a home.
No PMs in the market
https://www.airdna.co/vacation-rental-data/app/us/illinois/r...

Solid places to invest but I can't be the only one raising my eyebrows.. Mid term rentals and pad-splits are not short term/vacation rentals.

....Right?

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John UnderwoodPro Member

Investor · Greer, SC · Member since 2014 · 13k+ posts · 17k+ votes

You can do a search and get different results on each search.

It comes down to finding a location where there is a reason for people to go to that area.

Then you need a good location in that area.

Then you need a great property with great ammenities.

Takes a lot to identify that great investment.

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John UnderwoodPro Member
Investor · Greer, SC · Member since 2014 · 13k+ posts · 17k+ votes
3d
You can do a search and get different results on each search.
It comes down to finding a location where there is a reason for people to go to that area.
Then you need a good location in that area.
Then you need a great property with great ammenities.
Takes a lot to identify that great investment.
3 Reply
- Sarah Vann
  OP
  Real Estate Consultant · Charleston, SC · Member since 2024 · 35 posts · 9 votes
  3d
  Of course... Port Arthur TX is not it (in my universe) lol
  2 Reply
- Mike GrudzienPro Member
  Lender · Eugene, OR · Member since 2019 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
  2d
  Quote from @Sarah Vann:
  Of course... Port Arthur TX is not it (in my universe) lol
  John hit it spot on!
  0 Reply
Mark Miles
Rental Property Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2016 · 541 posts · 715 votes
3d
The top locations got oversaturated with STR so now the "top STR" lists all list obscure locations that don't really have great demand for STR, but that's all that's left.
Imagine two lakes, one is filled with trout, one barely has any trout. The lake filled with trout is also filled with fishermen, but no one is at the other lake which has 3 trout. It’s so supremely difficult to catch a trout in the overcrowded lake, even though there’s tons of trout, because there’s barely any space to cast your line.
So now all of the “top Lake” lists tell you to go to the empty lake that has only three trout but no one fishing in it, and to hope for the best
1 Reply
- Sarah Vann
  OP
  Real Estate Consultant · Charleston, SC · Member since 2024 · 35 posts · 9 votes
  3d
  @Mark Miles totally get that.. the biggest thing for me Is that both of these selections (with under 500 listings) are 35% mid/longer term rentals and are deemed the top choice for STR investing.. I may be alone in this but in my opinion STRs are under 30 days. A large portion of our industry is built around the tax benefits, regulation, pricing, etc etc for true short term rentals. The causal combining of the two is just interesting .. and definitely could skew the occupancy rates
  0 Reply
Michael Eskenasy
Investor · Pacific Northwest · Member since 2026 · 538 posts · 300 votes
3d
Sarah, you’re catching the right problem.
This isn’t really about whether Port Arthur is secretly a great vacation market.
It’s a denominator problem.
If 36% of the inventory requires 30+ nights, and another big chunk is private rooms, then "72% occupancy" may be perfectly accurate while being almost useless to someone trying to buy a traditional whole-home STR.
Those are different businesses sharing one average.
Different customer.
Different length of stay.
Different turnover.
Different pricing.
Different regulation.
Different operating cost.
So before I believed any "top STR market" list, I'd split the market apart and rerun it.
Whole-home under 30 days against whole-home under 30 days.
Same bedroom count.
Same availability profile.
Same price tier.
Then look at occupancy, ADR, RevPAR and actual annual revenue inside that cohort.
If Port Arthur still looks great after that, now you’ve found something interesting.
If it falls apart, the market wasn’t great. The classification was.
We run into this constantly in property data. A number can be completely correct and still answer the wrong question.
That’s usually the first thing we try to break.
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- Sarah Vann
  OP
  Real Estate Consultant · Charleston, SC · Member since 2024 · 35 posts · 9 votes
  1d
  @Michael Eskenasy spot on.. for professionals, we know how to weed out the data that's not applicable and be wary of certain KPIs. but a lot of beginners look at "60% occupancy" + top destination for Airbnb and could easily get in trouble not realizing that it's probably much more appropriate for mid+term
  0 Reply
Andrew SteffensBusiness Member
Tampa, FL · Member since 2022 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
2d
Weekie Wachie Florida and Apollo Beach FL were named top places several years back. They are small niche areas that quickly got saturated and sunk. I would look for larger areas that can support ebbs and flow of inventory. That is one reason I like my market in Tampa FL - a growing city with a cruise port, beaches, international airport, 3 pro sports teams etc that keeps people coming and hedges against saturation a bit.
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- Sarah Vann
  OP
  Real Estate Consultant · Charleston, SC · Member since 2024 · 35 posts · 9 votes
  1d
  @Andrew Steffens couldn't agree more, but youre a professional and know not to take the bait and how to analyze a market correctly. Airdna's Tampa is another .. 60% occupancy for the market but 40% in that comp set are 30 night minimum
  0 Reply
Ashish AcharyaBusiness Member
CPA, CFP®, PFS · FL · Member since 2017 · 5k+ posts · 3k+ votes
2d
Sarah, I think your concern is fair. The data may still be useful, but I would not read “Best Place to Invest in Short-Term Rentals” as meaning every listing in that market is actually operating like a traditional vacation rental.
AirDNA currently shows Port Arthur at 465 active listings and 72% occupancy, and Rockford at 389 active listings and 66% occupancy. Those headline numbers are real within AirDNA’s dataset.
But the important part is the listing mix underneath the headline. If a meaningful share of the inventory requires 30-night minimum stays, those properties are behaving much more like mid-term rentals operationally, even if the data provider groups them into a broader short-term-rental dataset. Private rooms can muddy the comparison further because their economics are very different from whole-home vacation rentals.
So before calling either market an STR "winner," I'd filter the comps down to properties that actually match the strategy: whole-home versus private room, minimum-stay requirement, bedroom count, guest profile, seasonality, ADR, and realistic operating expenses.
Port Arthur is a good example of why that matters. AirDNA reports 72% occupancy, but also only about a $95 ADR and $23K average annual revenue. That tells a different story than occupancy alone.
From the tax side, the distinction between true short stays and 30+ day stays matters too. Average guest stay can affect whether the activity is treated under the traditional rental rules or potentially outside them for passive-activity purposes. So I would not lump STR and MTR properties together when evaluating either operating returns or tax strategy.
Feel free to DM me, I'd be happy to send over a few resources that might help with comparing STR versus MTR underwriting and the tax treatment of each.
[email protected]941-914-7779
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1 Reply
- Sarah Vann
  OP
  Real Estate Consultant · Charleston, SC · Member since 2024 · 35 posts · 9 votes
  1d
  @Ashish Acharya been on this side of the industry for a while but thank you :)
  0 Reply
V.G JasonPro Member
Investor · Member since 2022 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
1d
Why the flying heck would anyone "invest" in those cities, if they are not originally from there and have some type of edge?
If Airbnb is why, we're letting the tail wag the dog.
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Henry Lazerow
Real Estate Agent · Chicago, IL · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
1d
I just sold a place in Rockford IL had violence and awful tenants I had to evict. I highly doubt anyone would want to stay in an airbnb there. I just pulled up a few of the top airbnb listings and the best ones seem to only have 3 to 5 nights for all of next month booked. Not sure where getting these numbers?
2 Reply
- Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
  Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
  1d
  ya that one I did not believe I dont see Rockford as any kind of destination .. maybe coming in for a wedding or funeral.
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  1 Reply
- V.G JasonPro Member
  Investor · Member since 2022 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
  5h
  Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:
  ya that one I did not believe I dont see Rockford as any kind of destination .. maybe coming in for a wedding or funeral.
  Rockford is where you go if you want to get to the step prior to your own funeral.
  0 Reply
Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
1d
Sarah,
I see your in charleston I built about 30 infill homes there from 500k to 2.5 mil. and I had one client buy an Airbnb there and it prints money if you have the license you have a very solid investment. those other cities is just click bait and who the heck would even go there other than local types.
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1 Reply
- Sarah Vann
  OP
  Real Estate Consultant · Charleston, SC · Member since 2024 · 35 posts · 9 votes
  1d
  @Jay Hinrichs absolutely! Charleston is high risk, high reward but will survive when other markets fall apart (IMO)
  0 Reply
- Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
  Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
  1d
  Risk ??? I dont see that at all if you have a license your going to do very well.. prices there have sky rocketed I bought my first lot on Aiken st for 25k built a new home ( was a modern) and sold it to Shep from southern charm.!! When I first started lending then building there if I could have just raised a fund to hold land we would have killed it.. lots i was buying for 20 to 30k are now 250k to 350k.. Anyway I really love that town. Would always have at least one dinner at Halls Chop house Billy Hall in front greeting everyone.. His Dad was the GM of Silverado CC in Napa before they moved there and I lived at Silverado they were leaving just when I was moving in.. Small world..
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  1 Reply
- Sarah Vann
  OP
  Real Estate Consultant · Charleston, SC · Member since 2024 · 35 posts · 9 votes
  1d
  @Jay Hinrichs I just meant high risk by relatively high entry cost for most
  0 Reply
- Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
  Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
  1d
  no doubt high priced its gone insane on value no question. my client paid 10 years ago or so, 800k for a duplex unit that was properly licensed.
  however like other markets like Pigeon what ever its called Smokies area those cabins can be big bucks just like condos at colorado utah ski areas.
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  0 Reply
- Sarah Vann
  OP
  Real Estate Consultant · Charleston, SC · Member since 2024 · 35 posts · 9 votes
  1d
  @Jay Hinrichs a property with multi units (legally licensed as such) with room for cool amenities + top management is def the golden ticket here. Have to be equally focused on boutique hospitality AND revenue mgmt to be a top dog. Side bar: if anyone is ever looking, I highly recommend YourPad (I worked with them in the past so I saw all the ins and outs haha).
  (BP don't delete me I don't work with them anymore!)
  0 Reply
Abu Nahyan Al Nuaimi
Real Estate Consultant · Dubai · Member since 2026 · 23 posts · 3 votes
14h
As per our friends in the States, they suggested this: Port Arthur and Rockford are both worth looking into, but I'd be careful with those numbers.
A 72% occupancy rate means very little if we're mixing Airbnb stays with 30-day rentals and private rooms. They're completely different businesses.
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Matthew Tregoning
Real Estate Consultant · Melbourne, FL · Member since 2019 · 225 posts · 116 votes
3h
Yep. Thirty occupied nights could be one turnover or ten. That's a completely different month for the cleaner and whoever is answering guest messages, even before you get into the rates. I'd want to see those calendars separately too.
1 Reply
Jon Martin
Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
now
Is there a decent source for midterm revenue estimates?
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