Austin Airbnb Market
Trends & Insights

Not on current data. Austin has 12,904 active entire-home listings, and revenue per listing over the last twelve months is up 0.0% year over year. A saturating market shows falling revenue per listing as supply outruns demand. Austin suits investors who want a nationally recognized destination market with a now-predictable licensing regime. The trade-offs are the highest purchase prices in Texas, the 17% combined tax burden, and heavy dependence on the festival calendar for peak revenue. The saturation signal on this page tracks the ratio of listing growth to demand growth each month.

Over the trailing twelve months Austin averaged $232 per night and 58% occupancy, with March the strongest month ($4,587 per listing) and January the weakest ($2,638). March is the peak month because SXSW, spring break, and the start of wedding season land together; January, after the holidays and before the festival calendar restarts, is the slowest. Listings with a hot tub earned about 97% more than the market baseline. The five-year charts on this page show how rate and occupancy have moved month by month.

Austin short-term rental demand comes from four segments. (1) Festivals and events: SXSW in March, Austin City Limits in October, and the Formula 1 US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas each draw hundreds of thousands of visitors and produce the year's highest nightly rates. (2) Tech and corporate travel: Tesla's Giga Texas, Apple's north Austin campus, Oracle, Dell in Round Rock, and a dense startup scene drive steady midweek demand. (3) University and government: UT Austin football weekends, graduation, and the biennial legislative session (January through May in odd years) fill the urban core. (4) Hill Country leisure: Lake Travis, Barton Springs, and the wineries and wedding venues around Dripping Springs and Wimberley support a large-home, group-travel segment with the highest revenue per listing in the metro.

When new listings grow faster than booked nights, occupancy and nightly rates compress and per-listing revenue falls. Austin's advantage is demand diversification: festivals and events, tech and corporate travel, university and government, hill country leisure do not all move together, which puts a floor under occupancy. The supply and demand chart on this page tracks active listings, available nights, and booked nights over time; treat supply growth above 20% with demand growth under 10% as a signal to be more selective on neighborhood and property type.

Three things: (1) supply growth in your target neighborhood, since above 15% a year competition intensifies; (2) nightly-rate direction, because falling rates signal oversupply while stable or rising rates (currently $232 in Austin) indicate pricing power; and (3) regulatory changes. Austin overhauled its STR rules in 2025: STRs are now a legal accessory use in every residential zone with a two-year operating license (about $836 on first application), platforms must delist unlicensed listings from July 1, 2026, and Hotel Occupancy Tax is 11% city plus 6% state. Per-site limits cap single-family sites at two STR units and require 1,000 feet between an operator's additional STRs.

In Austin, listings with a hot tub earned roughly 97% more per year than the market baseline of $44,942. The amenity performance section on this page ranks every tracked amenity by revenue, rate, and occupancy lift so you can prioritize the upgrades that pay back fastest.