How Much Can You Make on Airbnb in Houston? 2026 Revenue Data by Submarket

"How much can I make on Airbnb?" Houston hosts ask us that more than any other question, and the honest answer is a range, not a single number. Short term rentals in Houston are a real income business now, not a side hustle. The typical Houston-area listing grossed about $30,600 over the last twelve months, entire-place listings closer to $34,300, and well-run larger homes in the right submarkets clear $50,000 or more. Where your Houston property lands inside that range depends on property size, location, pricing strategy, and how well the listing is run.

This guide walks through the real numbers, pulled from AirDNA's Houston Airbnb market data in August 2026, so you can build an estimate for your property instead of guessing from a citywide average.

Quick Answer: How Much Can I Make on Airbnb Houston-Wide?

Here is the short version for short term rentals across the Houston metro market:

• Average annual revenue, all listings: about $30,600 in gross revenue across active listings
• Median annual revenue, entire-place listings: about $34,300
• Houses: about $33,200 in average revenue per year; apartments and condos: about $26,500
• Average daily rate (ADR): $164 across all listings, $187 for entire homes
• Occupancy: 56.4% market-wide
• Revenue growth: roughly +8% year over year, significant growth for a market this size

For a typical entire-place Airbnb in Houston, that works out to average monthly revenue of roughly $2,550, higher in the summer peak season and lower in January and February. Top-quartile short term rental operators, the ones with strong photos, dynamic pricing, and fast guest communication, routinely earn 1.5x to 2x the average revenue for the same property type.

One important caveat before you run the math: AirDNA measures the Houston metro, not just the city limits, so these figures blend everything from a Montrose bungalow to a Lake Conroe vacation rental. We break the submarkets apart below.

Key Airbnb Metrics: Average Annual Revenue, ADR, and Occupancy Rates

Four numbers drive every revenue projection for short term rentals. Learn them once and you can evaluate any Houston investment property, from a Midtown condo to a Katy suburban house, in ten minutes.

Average Daily Rate ADR

The average daily rate ADR is the average nightly rate a listing actually books at, not the rate you set. Houston's market ADR is $164.05 across all active listings. Entire homes book at $186.86, professionally managed listings at $193.12, and luxury-tier properties at $298.01. That last comparison matters: professionally managed listings in Houston book about $6 more per night than the entire-home average, and they tend to hold premium nightly rates in slow weeks instead of panic-discounting.

Occupancy

Occupancy rates measure the share of available nights that actually book. Houston's average Airbnb occupancy rate is 56.4%, which is strong for short term rentals in a Texas metro. Houston does not have a beach or a Hill Country view, but it has something steadier: medical travel, energy-sector projects, conventions, and one of the largest event calendars in the state. Demand here is a year-round drumbeat rather than a summer spike, which is exactly what you want if you are underwriting an investment with a mortgage attached.

Annual revenue

Median annual revenue across Houston-area Airbnb listings is about $30,600. Entire-place listings earn about $34,300, houses about $33,200, and apartments about $26,500. Note that annual revenue is a booking-weighted outcome, not simply ADR multiplied by 365 nights, because most listings are not available or booked every night.

Booking behavior

Houston guests book about 30 days ahead and stay 5.2 nights on average. That longer length of stay is a quiet profit lever: fewer turnovers means lower cleaning fees per dollar earned and less wear on the property.

Average Monthly Revenue and Seasonality in Houston

Average monthly revenue for a typical entire-place listing runs about $2,550 to $2,900, but income from short term rentals here is not flat across the year. Summer travel, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in late February and March, and the convention calendar all push demand up; January and September dip.

Plan around the swing rather than the average. A June that grosses $3,400 and a January that grosses $1,900 are both normal for the same property. Hosts who keep cash reserves for the slow months avoid the trap of slashing nightly rates in January and training the algorithm and their guests to expect discounts. A sound pricing strategy, and competitive pricing discipline in the slow weeks, uses dynamic pricing to ride event spikes like the Rodeo, when well-located listings book at 40% to 60% above their normal rates, and holds a sensible floor in the off weeks.

Where the Money Is: Houston Submarkets Ranked by Annual Revenue

AirDNA splits Houston's short term rental market into 53 submarkets, and the revenue spread for short term rentals between the top and bottom is more than 2x. Here are the leaders by median annual revenue as of August 2026:

Submarket	Annual revenue	ADR	Occupancy
Angleton	$39,210	$122	56%
The Woodlands	$36,131	$205	60%
Seabrook	$35,790	$209	58%
La Porte	$34,057	$167	63%
Rice Military	$33,766	$182	59%
Greater OST	$33,239	$201	54%
Clear Lake City	$32,774	$162	61%
Sheldon	$32,718	$200	51%
Lake Conroe	$32,610	$231	46%
Tomball	$32,535	$195	56%

At the other end, Missouri City ($19,959), Rosharon ($19,384), and Kashmere Gardens ($18,268) earn roughly half of what the leaders do, a reminder that Houston neighborhoods a few miles apart can behave like different markets.

Two patterns worth noticing. First, the top of the table is not the tourist core: Angleton, La Porte, and Seabrook win on bay access, plant and refinery project crews, and larger houses that sleep groups. Second, high ADR and high occupancy rates rarely live in the same submarket. Lake Conroe books at $231 a night but only 46% occupancy; La Porte books cheap at $167 but fills 63% of nights. Both models work. What fails is buying in a high-ADR area and underwriting it with a high-occupancy assumption.

The Texas Medical Center and Houston's Other Demand Drivers

The Texas Medical Center is the largest medical complex in the world, and it is the single most reliable source of traveler demand for short term rentals and Airbnb in Houston. Travel nurses, visiting physicians, patients in extended treatment, and their families book mid-week, stay longer, and rebook. Business travelers behave the same way in the Energy Corridor. Listings within a short drive of the Texas Medical Center that offer fast Wi-Fi, a real workspace, a full kitchen, and a washer and dryer capture medical professionals and their families year-round.

Beyond the medical corridor, consistent demand comes from:

• Downtown Houston and the convention district: business travelers and event crowds around Minute Maid Park and the George R. Brown Convention Center
• Energy Corridor and industrial east side: project crews and corporate relocations, often 2 to 8 week stays
• Montrose, the Heights, and Rice Military: weekend visitors, solo travelers, and young professionals; these Houston neighborhoods draw guests visiting friends and family
• NASA and Clear Lake: aerospace contractors plus Kemah Boardwalk leisure trips
• Family attractions: the Houston Zoo, the Museum District, and Buffalo Bayou Park anchor family weekend bookings near the core

When you set up a listing near these anchors, show guests the proximity instead of just claiming it. A simple attraction map in your photo set, with real drive times to the Texas Medical Center or the convention center, answers the question guests are actually asking. You can make a free attraction map for your listing here.

Property Type and Property Size: How the Math Changes

Property type and property size are the biggest controllable variables after location. Houston houses gross about $33,200 a year against about $26,500 for apartments and condos, a 25% gap that widens further for larger homes.

The reason is capacity: revenue scales with property size. Nightly rates scale with bedroom count much faster than operating costs do. A 4-bedroom house that sleeps ten can charge group nightly rates that no 1-bedroom condo can touch, while its cleaning fees and utilities are nowhere near 4x higher. Match property size to guest demographics and the revenue follows. In group-friendly submarkets like The Woodlands, Lake Conroe, and the bay towns, a larger vacation rental is the strongest performer in the entire market.

That said, smaller units still work when they match the demand source. A 1-bedroom condo near the Texas Medical Center with 30-day-friendly amenities can run high occupancy with very low turnover cost. Short term rentals succeed on fit. The mistake is buying a small unit in a group-travel submarket or a big house in a solo-traveler corridor.

Also check the rules before you buy a Houston property: HOA rules and deed restrictions can prohibit short term rentals entirely, and no revenue projection survives a ban. Our Houston STR investment guide covers how to screen for this.

Airbnb vs Long Term Rentals in Houston: Which Pays More?

Most Houston owners are not choosing between Airbnb and nothing; they are choosing between short term rentals and long term rentals on the same property. Here is the honest comparison.

On gross revenue, Airbnb usually wins. A 3-bedroom house that would lease for $2,100 a month as a long-term rental, about $25,200 a year as long term rentals go, might gross $33,000 to $40,000 as a well-run short term rental in a good submarket. That is the pattern across most of the metro: short term rentals out-gross long term rentals by 30% to 60% before expenses.

On net income, the gap between short term rentals and long term rentals narrows. Long term rentals carry almost no operating load: the tenant pays utilities, and there are no cleaning fees, no furnishing budget, and no platform fees or hotel occupancy tax. Airbnb revenue, by contrast, pays for all of that out of the gross and arrives with seasonality on top. After expenses, a well-managed Houston Airbnb typically nets 10% to 30% more than the same property would as a long-term lease, and a poorly managed one can net less.

The other differences matter as much as the money:

• Volatility: long term rentals pay the same every month; STR income swings with the season and the event calendar
• Effort: long term rentals need attention a few times a year; short term rentals need it daily unless you hire management
• Flexibility: a vacation rental lets you block dates for personal use and exit quickly; a lease locks the property for a year
• Wear: more turnovers mean more wear, offset by professional cleaning after every stay

If your STR projection does not beat what long term rentals would pay by at least 30% on gross, the extra work rarely justifies the switch. We ran the same comparison statewide in our guide to what Airbnb hosts make across Texas.

Gross Revenue vs What You Actually Keep

Every number above is gross revenue, and short term rentals carry real operating costs. Here is what comes out of it for a typical Houston operator:

• Platform fees: Airbnb is moving all non-EEA hosts to a host-only fee of 15.5% of the booking subtotal by September 15, 2026 (listings connected through property management software pay 15%). Budget accordingly; the old 3% split-fee model is being retired. Our breakdown of how much Airbnb takes covers the details.
• Hotel occupancy tax: stays under 30 nights inside Houston city limits carry a combined 17% hotel occupancy tax: 6% state, 7% city, 2% Harris County, and 2% sports authority, per the Texas Comptroller. Guests pay it on top of your rate, and platforms remit portions automatically, but the operator is responsible for confirming everything is filed. The state hotel occupancy tax registration is separate from city registration.
• Cleaning and turnovers: typically passed to guests as cleaning fees, but high fees suppress bookings, so many strong operators absorb part of the cost in the nightly rate.
• Utilities, internet, supplies: $250 to $450 a month for a typical house.
• Furnishing: $15,000 to $30,000 upfront for a 3-bedroom done well, amortized over several years.
• Management fees: 15% to 25% of gross if you hire a property manager.
• Registration and compliance: $308.10 a year to the city (details below).

A workable rule of thumb: self-managing owners in Houston keep roughly 60% to 70% of gross revenue after recurring operating costs, before mortgage and property taxes. On a $34,300 gross, that is about $21,000 to $24,000 in net income before debt service.

Houston's Registration Rules and What They Cost You

Houston City Council adopted the city's first ordinance regulating short term rentals on April 16, 2025, and it directly affects your revenue math.

• Every STR inside city limits needs an annual certificate of registration from the city's Administration and Regulatory Affairs department: $275 plus a $33.10 administrative fee
• Your registration number must appear on your listing, and hosts must provide it to the booking platforms
• Starting January 1, 2027, the city will begin telling platforms to remove listings that lack a certificate, per the city's official STR page
• New short term rental regulations also include a 24-hour emergency contact, human trafficking awareness training, proof of hotel occupancy tax registration for listings outside Airbnb, and owner authorization if you do not own the property
• Certificates issued on or before December 31, 2026 remain valid through December 31, 2027

The registration cost is trivial next to the risk of skipping it: the city can cite operators running without a certificate, and an unregistered listing that gets delisted in January 2027 earns exactly zero, and short term rental permits are cheap insurance against that outcome. Note the ordinance applies inside Houston city limits; unincorporated areas follow Harris County regulations instead, and separate cities like The Woodlands or Seabrook have their own rules. Always check city and county regulations for the exact address before buying. Full details, including enforcement and revocation triggers, are in our Houston short term rental laws guide.

Is Airbnb Profitable in Houston in 2026?

Profitable? Yes, and the short term rental market trend is favorable: Houston Airbnb revenue is up roughly 8% over the past year, occupancy rates are healthy at 56% across active Airbnb listings, and the new rules for short term rentals are squeezing casual short term rental operators out of the pool of active Airbnb listings. For property owners who register, price well, and run a tight operation, less sloppy competition is good news.

But profitable is not the same as passive. The listings earning $45,000+ in this market share four traits:

1. Bought right: the purchase price works at realistic occupancy, not best-case occupancy
2. Matched to demand: property type fits the submarket's actual guest, whether that is a project crew in La Porte or a family group on Lake Conroe
3. Priced dynamically: rates move with the Rodeo, conventions, and summer, instead of sitting at one number from peak season through the slow months
4. Operated professionally: management quality shows up as fast responses, spotless turnovers, and reviews above 4.8

Property quality and management quality compound. Miss on two or more of those and the same house that should gross $40,000 does $24,000. The market average is not a floor; it is the midpoint between operators who treat this as a business and those who do not.

Professional Management vs Self-Managing

A professional property manager in Houston typically costs 15% to 25% of gross revenue. For short term rentals, whether it pays for itself depends on the gap between your performance and a good manager's.

The AirDNA data offers one clue: professionally managed listings in Houston book at $193 a night against $187 for the average entire home, and management typically lifts occupancy rates as well through faster response times, better listing optimization, and smarter nightly rates across the calendar. If a property manager lifts your revenue 20% and costs 20%, you broke even on money and bought back all of your time. Professional management is not free, but neither is underperformance. If you live out of state, own multiple investment properties, or simply do not want 11pm lockout calls, the math tilts further toward hiring help.

Self managing owners do best with one nearby property, a flexible schedule, and genuine interest in hospitality. It stops making sense the moment slow responses and generic pricing start costing more than a manager would. If you want to see what full-service vacation rental management looks like in this market, here is our Houston Airbnb management page, and an independent comparison of the best Houston Airbnb management companies.

How Real Estate Investors Should Estimate a Specific Property

Citywide averages for short term rentals are a starting point. Here is the five-step estimate we recommend for any specific property:

1. Pull the submarket, not the metro. Use the table above as a first cut, then study 8 to 10 comparable Airbnb listings within a mile: their nightly rates, review counts, and calendar fill.
2. Estimate conservatively. Take comp ADR times realistic occupancy times 365. For a Rice Military 3-bedroom at a $195 ADR and 55% occupancy: $195 x 365 x 0.55 = about $39,100 gross.
3. Haircut year one. New listings ramp for 3 to 6 months while reviews accumulate. Underwrite year one at 80% of stabilized revenue.
4. Subtract your full cost structure. Platform fees, the 17% hotel occupancy tax structure, cleaning, utilities, registration, insurance, and management fees if you will not self-manage.
5. Compare against the lease. If net STR income does not clearly beat the long-term rental alternative, take the long-term lease and skip the work; long term rentals are the right answer for plenty of owners.

Run those five steps honestly and you will land within 15% of reality, which is close enough to make a good buy or walk away from a bad one.

FAQ: Airbnb Income in Houston

How much can I make on Airbnb in Houston with a 3-bedroom house?

In a solid submarket with good management, a 3-bedroom Houston property typically grosses $33,000 to $45,000 a year, and property size pushes that higher for 4+ bedrooms. The metro-wide median for houses is about $33,200 in Airbnb income, and top-quartile operators beat it comfortably.

What is the average Airbnb occupancy rate in Houston?

About 56% market-wide as of August 2026. Well-run listings near steady demand drivers like the Texas Medical Center run meaningfully higher; seasonal leisure submarkets like Lake Conroe run lower with higher nightly rates.

Do I need a permit to run an Airbnb in Houston?

Yes, inside city limits. Houston requires an annual certificate of registration ($275 plus a $33.10 admin fee), and beginning in January 2027 platforms will be told to remove unregistered listings.

Is Houston better than Austin or Dallas for Airbnb?

The Houston Airbnb market has lower median revenue than Austin's, but home prices are lower too, and Houston's demand is unusually diversified across medical, energy, convention, and leisure travel. For cash-flow investors in the short term rental market, the revenue-to-price ratio in the right Houston submarket often beats the flashier markets.