How Much Can You Make on Airbnb in San Antonio? 2026 Revenue Data

Most owners asking how much an Airbnb San Antonio property earns want one number, and the honest answer is a range with a clear middle. Across the San Antonio metro, the typical short term rental brought in about $34,800 in annual revenue over the last twelve months. Entire place listings did better at roughly $36,700, and entire place houses did best at about $40,100. Those are gross booking numbers, not profit, and where your property sits inside the metro moves them by a factor of three.

San Antonio falls in the middle of the big Texas Airbnb markets on revenue and near the bottom on entry price, which is why so many owners run these numbers before buying. The rest of this guide breaks that down with current market data: average daily rate, occupancy rate, submarket by submarket revenue, seasonality, and the costs and taxes that decide what you actually keep. Every figure comes from an AirDNA pull for the San Antonio market on August 30, 2026, and every rule comes from the City of San Antonio and the Texas Comptroller hotel occupancy tax rules directly.

Quick Answer: How Much an Airbnb San Antonio Property Earns

Here is the short version for a property owner running the numbers before buying or converting a home.

• Typical listing: about $34,800 per year in gross revenue across all San Antonio metro Airbnb listings.
• Entire place Airbnb listings: about $36,700 per year.
• Entire place house: about $40,100 per year, the strongest property type in the market.
• Apartment or condo property type: about $29,000 per year.
• Strong San Antonio submarkets: $38,000 to $45,000 per year in Castle Hills, the airport corridor, Hill Country Village, Canyon Lake and downtown.
• Weak submarkets: $15,000 to $22,000 per year on the far south and west edges of the metro.

San Antonio revenue grew about 1.6 percent over the past year, so this is a steady San Antonio market rather than a booming one. That matters for expectations: in San Antonio, Airbnb San Antonio income is won through occupancy, cost control and operations, not through a rising tide.

Key Airbnb Metrics: Average Daily Rate, Average Occupancy Rate and Average Annual Revenue

Three numbers drive everything a short term rental earns. Nightly rate, how many nights it sells, and how long guests stay. Here is where the San Antonio market sits right now.

Metric	All listings	Entire place only
Average annual revenue	$34,819	$36,706
Average daily rate	$188.14	$199.95
Professionally managed average daily rate	$225.90	$228.45
Luxury tier average daily rate	$411.59	$415.66
Occupancy rate	55.4%	55.1%
Average length of stay	4.11 nights	3.99 nights
Booking lead time	31.8 days	32.2 days
Active listings in the metro	14,812	-

Two things in that table deserve attention from any property owner.

First, the professionally managed average daily rate of $225.90 sits 20 percent above the $188.14 average for the metro. That is the widest professional rate premium of any Texas market we track, wider than Houston, Dallas, Austin or Galveston. Guests here will pay for a better Airbnb listing, and most Airbnb listings in this market are not built to capture it.

Second, a 55 percent occupancy rate means the average listing sells roughly 200 nights a year and sits empty for 165. An Airbnb in San Antonio at a 65 percent occupancy rate earns about 18 percent more revenue than one at 55 percent on the same nightly rate, with no extra purchase price. Occupancy is the cheapest lever in the San Antonio market, because every available night you do not sell is rental income you never get back.

Airbnb Income by San Antonio Submarket: Where San Antonio Listings Earn Most

The metro spans 37 submarkets, from Hill Country towns to inner city neighborhoods, and the spread between them is the single biggest factor in what your property will earn. AirDNA defines San Antonio as the metro area, so this list includes places well outside the city limits with very different rules.

Submarket	Annual revenue	Average daily rate	Occupancy
Castle Hill	$44,864	$240	62.5%
SAT Airport	$41,176	$214	62.6%
Hill Country Village	$40,391	$225	60.4%
Canyon Lake	$38,977	$333	39.6%
Downtown San Antonio	$37,598	$197	61.6%
New Braunfels	$37,033	$269	45.8%
Seguin	$36,412	$242	49.3%
Leon Springs	$34,094	$172	63.8%
Bulverde	$33,714	$168	62.9%
Boerne	$33,636	$234	47.6%
Southtown	$33,537	$172	59.5%
Alamo Ranch	$31,925	$174	59.1%
Dignowity Hill	$30,242	$154	61.6%
Denver Heights	$29,005	$134	65.3%
Live Oak	$27,247	$138	65.2%
Inner Westside	$21,124	$104	67.5%
Floresville	$15,645	$130	48.6%

Read that table as two different businesses. Castle Hill, the airport corridor, Hill Country Village, downtown and Southtown are urban listings that win on occupancy above 59 percent at moderate nightly rates. Canyon Lake, New Braunfels, Boerne and Seguin are Hill Country and lake destinations that win on rate, with Canyon Lake pulling $333 a night at just 39.6 percent occupancy.

The trap for Airbnb hosts is buying a lake or Hill Country property and underwriting it at urban occupancy. Canyon Lake sells about 145 nights a year. If your model assumes 200, you are roughly $10,000 a year short before you take the keys.

Seasonality: What an Airbnb in San Antonio Earns Month by Month

San Antonio has one of the flatter seasonal curves in Texas, which is a real advantage for cash flow. Monthly revenue per listing over the last twelve months:

Month	Revenue per listing
July 2026	$4,589
June 2026	$3,955
March 2026	$3,342
May 2026	$3,033
August 2025	$2,901
April 2026	$2,759
October 2025	$2,665
December 2025	$2,644
November 2025	$2,499
September 2025	$2,231
February 2026	$2,218
January 2026	$1,983

Peak July runs 2.3 times trough January. Compare that with a beach market like Galveston, where the summer peak is more than four times the winter floor. Two demand engines smooth this market out across the peak season and the slow months: year round leisure travel to the River Walk and the Alamo, plus steady business, military and medical center demand that fills weekdays when tourists thin out.

The practical takeaway is that January and February set your break even risk in San Antonio. Budget so that a $2,000 month covers the mortgage, or plan to court longer stays, traveling nurses and relocating families through the slow quarter.

What You Actually Keep After Costs, Fees and Taxes

Gross revenue is a headline, not income. Here is a realistic annual model for an entire place house earning $40,100 in the San Antonio metro.

Line item	Annual	Notes
Gross booking revenue	$40,100	Entire place house average
Airbnb host service fee	-$6,216	15.5% host only fee
Cleaning cost	-$5,500	About 49 turnovers at $110, largely guest paid
Utilities, internet, streaming	-$3,600	Texas summer cooling is the swing factor
Supplies and consumables	-$1,400	Linens, paper goods, toiletries, coffee
Maintenance and repairs	-$2,400	Higher turnover means faster wear
Short term rental insurance	-$1,800	Commercial policy, not a standard homeowners policy
Permit and licensing	-$150	$450 Type 2 permit spread over three years
Property management fees	-$8,020	At a 20% management fee
Net before mortgage, property tax and insurance escrow	$11,014	Self managing adds the management fee back

Property taxes are the San Antonio line that surprises out of state investors most. Bexar County property tax rates commonly land between 2 and 2.5 percent of assessed value, so a $350,000 house can carry $7,000 to $8,750 a year in property tax before any mortgage. Look up the parcel on the Bexar Appraisal District site rather than trusting a listing estimate. Run your own numbers on the actual parcel rather than a metro average.

Short term rentals in San Antonio also collect lodging tax, which is separate from all of this and it is collected from guests rather than paid out of your revenue. In the city of San Antonio the stack is 6 percent state, 9 percent city (a 7 percent general occupancy tax plus 2 percent for Convention Center expansion) and 1.75 percent collected for Bexar County, for a combined 16.75 percent. The rates are published on the City of San Antonio hotel occupancy tax page.

San Antonio Short Term Rental Regulations and Tax Obligations

San Antonio is a permit market with real teeth, and the short term rental compliance calendar is where absentee owners lose money. Short term rentals here are actively regulated, and tax obligations run monthly. The ordinance itself sits in Chapter 16, Article XXII of the city code. The essentials, verified on the short term rental permits page:

• A permit is required for all short term rentals inside the San Antonio limits, obtained through the city's Development Services Department.
• Two permit types for short term rentals. Type 1 is an owner or operator occupied primary residence, including an accessory dwelling unit. Type 2 is a property you do not occupy, which covers most investment purchases.
• Fees: $300 for Type 1 and $450 for Type 2, for a permit valid three years and not transferable. Renewal costs the same, and the permit type cannot be switched at renewal.
• Density limits by blockface. The ordinance counts existing short term rentals in San Antonio along one side of a street between intersections. Once the limit is hit, you need a special exception from the Board of Adjustment, which costs $400 with a homestead exemption and $600 without.
• Zoning: short term rentals in San Antonio are allowed in residential zoning districts other than C-3, L, I-1 and I-2.
• Monthly tax reporting. Every operator must report hotel occupancy tax monthly through the city portal, even for a month with zero taxable receipts.

That last point is the one owners most often get wrong. Since March 10, 2025, Airbnb and Vrbo pay the San Antonio portion of the tax on your behalf, but you still have to file San Antonio reports and you still have to report and pay the Bexar County portion yourself each month. Booking through a platform does not end your filing obligation, and the same San Antonio and county rules apply to every short term rental on the block. Direct bookings mean you owe both the San Antonio and county tax directly.

Before you underwrite a specific San Antonio address, confirm the blockface density limit for that street. A denied permit turns a short term rental pro forma into a long term rental pro forma overnight. Our full guide to San Antonio short term rental laws walks through the application in detail.

Three Realistic Scenarios for an Airbnb in San Antonio

Scenario 1: Downtown or Southtown two bedroom, self managed. Around $33,500 to $37,600 gross at roughly 60 percent occupancy and a $172 to $197 nightly rate. Self managing keeps the management fee, so net before debt service lands near $14,000 to $16,000, and you own the guest messaging, cleaning schedule and monthly tax filings yourself.

Scenario 2: Alamo Ranch or Leon Springs family house, professionally managed. Around $32,000 gross at pricing. Push the nightly rate toward the professionally managed $225.90 average with better photography, a workable floor plan for groups and daily rate automation, and $38,000 to $40,000 becomes realistic. At a 20 percent management fee the owner nets roughly $11,000 to $13,000 before debt service, with none of the day to day operations.

Scenario 3: Canyon Lake or Hill Country getaway outside San Antonio. Around $39,000 gross on a $333 nightly rate and only 145 booked nights. Higher revenue than most urban listings, but concentrated in summer weekends and holidays, which makes January through March the risk. These properties reward outdoor amenities, hot tubs and larger sleeping capacity, and they punish thin winter cash reserves.

What Separates the Top Earning San Antonio Airbnb Listings

The gap between an average San Antonio listing at $34,800 and a strong one at $50,000 or more is rarely the address. It is execution, and it shows up in a handful of places.

• Photography and listing quality. The first three photos decide click through, and click through decides how often your San Antonio listing appears in Airbnb search results at all. A meaningful share of guests never scroll past the first screen.
• Property size and layout. Three and four bedroom homes that sleep 8 to 10 capture family reunions, Fiesta groups and military graduations that a one bedroom cannot.
• Amenities that match demand. Common amenities that matter in San Antonio: pools, hot tubs and covered outdoor space in a market with brutal summers, fast internet and a real desk for weekday business travelers.
• Dynamic pricing. Nightly rates adjusted daily against real demand for Fiesta, Spurs home games, Rodeo, big conventions at the convention center and holiday weekends.
• Review velocity and guest experience. Airbnb hosts who win here answer fast, keep turnovers spotless and a clear guidebook drive the ratings, and self check in with a smart lock removes the most common friction point that let you hold a higher nightly rate.
• Minimum stay discipline. With a 4.11 night average stay and a 32 day booking lead time, aggressive minimums cost you more bookings than they save in turnovers.

If you want to see how a specific address stacks up on walkability and nearby attractions, our free Airbnb map maker builds a listing photo map with real walk and drive times to the places guests actually search for.

Is an Airbnb Profitable in San Antonio, and Is It a Good Airbnb Investment?

An Airbnb in San Antonio is profitable for the right property, and multiple factors decide it: location, property size, management quality and pricing discipline. Yes, but the margin comes from operations rather than appreciation or rate growth. San Antonio Airbnb investment pairs some of the more affordable entry prices among large Texas metros with the widest professional rate premium in the state, a flat seasonal curve and steady mid week demand from the military bases, the medical center and downtown business travel. Purchase prices in the $250,000 to $400,000 range against $34,000 to $45,000 of gross revenue put gross yields in a workable band that Austin no longer offers.

The risks are equally clear. There are 14,812 active Airbnb listings in San Antonio competing for the same guests, and short term rentals keep being added, revenue is growing at only 1.6 percent, the blockface density rule can block a permit at a specific address, and the monthly tax filing obligation never pauses. Those are the four items to underwrite before you buy.

Comparing Airbnb markets? Read our vacation rental earnings breakdowns for Houston, Austin, Dallas and Galveston, or see how we work with owners in our guide to the best Airbnb management companies in San Antonio.

San Antonio Airbnb Data by Bedroom Count and Property Size

Bedroom count is the closest thing to a lever a property owner controls at purchase. Property size drives sleeping capacity, and sleeping capacity drives both nightly rates and the size of the guest pool competing for your calendar. In the San Antonio market the pattern across active Airbnb listings is consistent.

• Studio and one bedroom: the weakest revenue of any San Antonio property type, typically 60 to 70 percent of the market average, though occupancy rate often runs higher because the nightly rate is low.
• Two bedroom: the volume sweet spot for short term rentals in urban San Antonio, close to the $34,800 average annual revenue with strong weekday and weekend demand.
• Three bedroom: the best balance of purchase price and San Antonio revenue, usually landing at or above the $40,059 entire place house average.
• Four bedroom and larger: the top of the San Antonio market, where group travel, reunions and military graduations support premium nightly rates and extended stays.

Property type matters as much as property size. Entire place houses average $40,059 a year while apartment and condo units average $28,994, a gap of about 38 percent. Two properties in the same city, very different San Antonio Airbnb revenue, and the difference is mostly outdoor space, parking and privacy.

Best Neighborhoods and Best Location Considerations

The best neighborhoods for short term rentals in San Antonio are not always the most expensive ones. Castle Hill, the airport corridor and Hill Country Village lead on total revenue, while Stone Oak sits in the northern suburbs as a familiar search term for out of state buyers even though the highest earning San Antonio submarkets closer to downtown outperform much of the Stone Oak area on occupancy. Many owners assume the newest suburb wins, and in San Antonio it usually does not. Downtown San Antonio and Southtown convert on walkability to the River Walk, the Alamo, the Pearl and the convention center, which is why they hold occupancy above 59 percent all year.

A few rules of thumb on best location for Airbnb hosts in this market:

• Inside Loop 410 in San Antonio, walkability to attractions and restaurants beats square footage.
• Near the military bases and the South Texas Medical Center, extended stays from traveling staff fill the weekday gaps.
• In Canyon Lake, New Braunfels and Boerne, water access and outdoor amenities carry the nightly rate through a shorter peak season.
• Check zoning rules and the blockface count for short term rentals on that street before you write an offer.

San Antonio Airbnb Pricing Strategy, Major Events and Seasonal Peaks

Pricing strategy is where most San Antonio Airbnb revenue is left on the table. San Antonio is a military city with a convention calendar, so demand spikes are predictable if you are watching for them and invisible if you set one flat nightly rate in the spring and forget it.

The major events that create strong demand and short term rental price spikes here are Fiesta in April, the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo in February, Spurs home games, large conventions in downtown San Antonio, spring graduations and basic training graduations at Lackland, plus the summer tubing season on the Comal and Guadalupe. Seasonal peaks in June and July already lift revenue to $3,955 and $4,589 per listing, and event weekends inside those months can double a normal night.

Practical pricing strategy for this market:

• Use pricing software that reprices daily against real demand rather than a fixed weekday and weekend rate.
• Open a 30 plus night rate for extended stays in January and February so the weakest month still clears fixed costs.
• Keep minimum stays low outside event weekends, since the average length of stay is only 4.11 nights.
• Raise rates for event weekends at least three to four months out, ahead of the 32 day average booking lead time.

Self Managing Versus Professional Management

The $225.90 professionally managed average daily rate versus the $188.14 market average is the clearest argument for professional management in any Texas market, and it comes with a real cost, so treat it as arithmetic rather than a matter of preference. On roughly 200 booked nights that rate gap is about $7,600 of additional revenue a year, which is close to a 20 percent management fee on this level of total revenue. The decision comes down to whether management quality also lifts your occupancy rate, and to the operating costs and hours you are absorbing today.

What a property manager takes over in this market: guest communication and 24 hour response, cleaning and turnover scheduling, dynamic pricing, maintenance coordination, permit renewals for short term rentals and monthly hotel occupancy tax filings, review management and listing optimization across Airbnb, Vrbo and direct bookings. Owners who enjoy the day to day operations and live locally often do fine self managing. Owners who are out of state, own multiple properties, or keep missing the monthly filing usually net more with a vacation rental management company even after fees, because the operating costs of doing it badly are higher than the fee.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much can you make on Airbnb San Antonio in the first year?

Expect below market performance in San Antonio for the first six to nine months while you build reviews. A realistic first year for a San Antonio Airbnb house is 70 to 85 percent of the $40,100 average, so roughly $28,000 to $34,000, with the gap closing as your review count and search ranking improve.

What is a good occupancy rate for a San Antonio short term rental?

The average Airbnb occupancy rate in San Antonio is 55.4 percent, which works out to roughly 200 nights sold and 165 unsold. Anything above 62 percent puts an Airbnb in San Antonio with the top urban submarkets like Denver Heights, Live Oak and Leon Springs. Lake and Hill Country properties run lower occupancy by design and make it back on nightly rate.

Do I need a permit to run an Airbnb in San Antonio?

Yes, short term rentals inside the San Antonio city limits need one. Type 1 costs $300 and Type 2 costs $450, each valid for three years and not transferable. Density limits are calculated by blockface, so check your street before you buy.

How many Airbnbs are there in San Antonio?

There are 14,812 active listings across the San Antonio metro, spread over 37 submarkets. Active listings are plentiful, so how your property performs depends far more on execution than on the market average.

What is the average revenue for a San Antonio based Airbnb?

Average revenue is $34,819 a year across all San Antonio listings and $36,706 for entire place listings. Average annual revenue for an entire place house reaches $40,059, and rental income at the top of the market runs well past $50,000.

How much tax does a San Antonio Airbnb pay?

A San Antonio Airbnb collects 16.75 percent in lodging tax from guests: 6 percent state, 9 percent city and 1.75 percent for Bexar County. Airbnb and Vrbo remit the state portion and, since March 2025, the city portion, but you must still file monthly reports and pay the county portion yourself.

Is San Antonio or Austin better for Airbnb income?

Austin has higher gross revenue at about $41,300 for a typical listing, but it also has higher purchase prices, a stricter licensing regime and a 17 percent tax stack. San Antonio trades some top line for cheaper entry into a popular destination, flatter seasonality and a larger professional rate premium to capture.

Should I self manage or hire a property management company?

Run the math on the rate uplift. If a management company moves you from a $188 to a $226 nightly rate at the same occupancy, that is roughly $7,600 more revenue across the same available nights, against about $8,000 in management fees at 20 percent, and you stop doing guest messaging, turnovers and monthly tax filings. In practice the decision hinges on how far below market your current listing performs and how much of your own time the day to day operations consume.

Quick Answers

• Typical annual revenue: $34,819 across all listings, $36,706 entire place, $40,059 entire place house, $28,994 apartment or condo.
• Average daily rate: $188.14 market, $225.90 professionally managed, $411.59 luxury.
• Average occupancy rate: 55.4 percent, about 200 booked nights out of every available night on the calendar.
• Best San Antonio submarkets: Castle Hill $44,864, SAT Airport $41,176, Hill Country Village $40,391.
• Seasonality: July $4,589 versus January $1,983.
• Lodging tax: 16.75 percent combined, filed monthly.
• San Antonio permit: $300 Type 1 or $450 Type 2, three year term, blockface density limits apply.

Want a property specific projection for your San Antonio address rather than a metro average? Talk to our San Antonio team and we will pull the comparable set for your street, model realistic occupancy and nightly rates, and show you what full service management would change.