Read our updated post on the Best Places to Invest in Vacation Rentals in 2020+2021 here.

If you want to expand your vacation rental portfolio — or even purchase your very first property — knowing the best places to buy vacation rental property is the first step to growing your business.  Not all short-term rental markets are created equal, and there can even be dramatic differences across neighborhoods and zip codes within the same city.

To give you a head start, we’ve crunched the numbers to determine where the biggest investment opportunities exist with a list of the top 100 markets for vacation rental properties in the United States.

As the world’s leading provider of vacation rental data and analytics, AirDNA tracks the daily performance of 10 million Airbnb and HomeAway listings across 80,000 markets globally.

How We Determined the Best Places to Buy Vacation Rental Property

What makes for a desirable vacation rental market? To come up with this list, we looked at five different factors to provide each zip code within our Airbnb data set of 10 million short-term rentals across 80,000 regions with a score from 0-100, which we call the Market Grade.

Rental Demand

How often are rentals booked throughout the year? By using a combination of annual occupancy and listing growth rates, this score shows the relative travel demand in a market.

High Score = High Travel Demand

Revenue Growth

Did vacation rental listings in this location earn more this month than they did in the same month last year? This score is calculated by looking at the change in year-over-year RevPAR for properties that received bookings in both time periods.

High Score = Increasing Revenue per Property

Seasonality

How much does travel in this market demand differ between peak season and low season? This score is the percentage difference between the minimum and maximum monthly RevPAR in the past year.

High Score = Low Seasonality

Regulation

Can you run a short-term rental business here without getting into legal trouble? This score looks at host and property behavior to identify signs of regulation and regulation enforcement.

While some cities have levied heavy restrictions or outright banned certain types of short-term rentals, others have introduced permitting processes or have capped the total number of units allowed.  Although some might shy away from purchasing in areas with complicated or heavy regulation, savvy investors often know how to navigate the various requirements within markets that represent great investment opportunities. 

High score = Low or Unenforced Regulation

Investability

Are homes in this market a good investment? This score compares the cost of homes in the area to the average short-term rental income of full-time rental properties.

High Score = Good Investment Opportunity

The 100 Best Places to Buy a Vacation Rental Property

Click the links below to jump to the best vacation rental markets in your state.

Looking for the best vacation rental investments anywhere in the U.S.? Florida is a savvy investor’s best bet with 43 amazing vacation rental markets. Hawaii is close behind with 19 markets with minimal seasonality and strong year-round bookings.

• Alabama
• Arizona
• California
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maryland
• Michigan
• Missouri
• Nevada
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia
• Washington
• Washington D.C.

Alabama

Arizona

California

Florida

Hawaii

Indiana

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maryland

Michigan

Missouri

Nevada

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

Ohio

Pennsylvania

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Virginia

Washington

Washington D.C.