Customers frequently ask, “What cities is the best place to start a new Airbnb vacation rental.” Every city has it’s pro’s and con’s; regulation, seasonality, cost of ownership and so on. We thought we’d let the performance of the best properties speak for themselves. 4,500 of the nearly 300,000 active Airbnb listings in the United States made the list.
The interactive map below shows where the top 1% of Airbnb properties in the USA are located. We filtered every single Airbnb listings to identify only those properties that had more than 20 reviews and achieved at least a 70% occupancy rate in the last twelve months.
Zoom into the map and hover over individual properties to view their Airbnb occupancy rates, annual revenues, and number of reservations.
Some obvious cities had the largest number of high performing listings. New York City had 831 listings make the grade and San Francisco came in at a distant 2nd place with 375 properties. Here is the list of the 25 Airbnb cities with largest number of successful listings.
| Rank | Airbnb City | # of Properties | Total “Entire Home” Listings | % Top Performing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | 831 | 7854 | 11% |
| 2 | San Francisco | 375 | 2812 | 13% |
| 3 | Los Angeles | 366 | 4742 | 8% |
| 4 | Brooklyn | 312 | 3884 | 8% |
| 5 | Miami Beach | 153 | 2252 | 7% |
| 6 | Portland | 131 | 1198 | 11% |
| 7 | Venice, CA | 126 | 875 | 14% |
| 8 | Washington D.C. | 123 | 1744 | 7% |
| 9 | Seattle | 121 | 1791 | 7% |
| 10 | Chicago | 83 | 2270 | 4% |
| 11 | Santa Monica | 77 | 549 | 14% |
| 12 | San Diego | 76 | 1868 | 4% |
| 13 | New Orleans | 75 | 1491 | 5% |
| 14 | Honolulu | 74 | 828 | 9% |
| 15 | Austin | 67 | 2354 | 3% |
| 16 | Denver | 59 | 852 | 7% |
| 17 | Berkeley | 57 | 465 | 12% |
| 18 | Oakland | 40 | 522 | 8% |
| 19 | Nashville | 39 | 1132 | 3% |
| 20 | Miami | 34 | 1370 | 2% |
| 21 | Philadelphia | 30 | 900 | 3% |
| 22 | Boston | 28 | 758 | 4% |
| 23 | Astoria | 27 | 323 | 8% |
| 24 | Kihei | 26 | 613 | 4% |
| 25 | Boulder | 24 | 430 | 6% |
While many known Airbnb hotspots were at the top of the list due to the sheer number of total listings, looking at the ratio of top properties to total properties reveals some interesting insights. Austin and Miami, which are generally considered great vacation rental markets, had less than 3% of all properties achieve 70+% occupancy throughout the year while temperate California cities outperform the rest of country at over 10%.
One bedroom units seemed to dominate the list with 2452 of the 4478 of the top listings. This would indicate that smaller units are able to see more consistent bookings year round. Here is the breakdown of the number of listings that qualified based on the number of bedrooms.
| Bedrooms | # of Listings |
|---|---|
| Studio | 712 |
| 1 | 2542 |
| 2 | 948 |
| 3 | 228 |
| 4 | 40 |
| 5 | 6 |
For those of you interested in what properties are making the big bucks, below are the 25 properties and that earned the most income in the group. Surprisingly, while there are over 1,000 listings on Airbnb that charge over $1,000 per night, none of them were able to achieve high enough occupancy rates to make the cut. The most that any single listing was able to charge throughout the year was $695, with an average of $520 for the Top 25.
| Rank | Airbnb Link | City | Title | Bedrooms | Occupancy Rate | Nightly Rate | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/1663824 | Napa | A little bit of Italy in Napa! | 4 | 79.8% | $650 | $239,850 |
| 2 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/958435 | Venice | Luxury Modern by Venice Beach! | 3 | 77.4% | $695 | $221,135 |
| 3 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/1656264 | New York | THE BEST BEDS 2bd2ba View UpperWest | 2 | 79.1% | $550 | $209,375 |
| 4 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/2343208 | New York | Times Square Designr Townhouse Loft | 3 | 89.7% | $600 | $207,792 |
| 5 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/1115287 | Palo Alto | Walk to downtown Palo Alto | 3 | 72.9% | $575 | $188,675 |
| 6 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/2848187 | New York | 4Bedrooms / Roof Deck / Center NYC | 4 | 88.2% | $500 | $188,550 |
| 7 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/2371609 | New York | Sunny Top Floor Soho Loft | 2 | 71.8% | $695 | $186,433 |
| 8 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/1257035 | San Francisco | Haight Ashbury Victorian w/ Parking | 4 | 74.2% | $600 | $185,680 |
| 9 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/658474 | New York | Lux NY Views Designer Decor 2BR 2BA | 2 | 76.1% | $498 | $178,354 |
| 10 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/1115576 | New York | Quiet 3bdrm- ONE STREET TO TIMES SQ | 3 | 70.1% | $575 | $172,500 |
| 11 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/1159650 | New York | Central Park Views 2Bath 2Bed Home | 2 | 73.4% | $520 | $169,778 |
| 12 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/2619342 | New York | Big & Bright 3bed Artist Loft | 3 | 76.2% | $549 | $169,437 |
| 13 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/869573 | Marina Del Rey | Sleeps 10, Steps 2the Sand &HOT TUB | 3 | 76.7% | $500 | $169,361 |
| 14 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/1040156 | New York | Massive and Magnificent Duplex Loft | 2 | 70.5% | $499 | $163,933 |
| 15 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/2046584 | New York | Amazing 2BR overlooks Union Square | 2 | 88.1% | $455 | $163,419 |
| 16 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/594387 | San Francisco | Noe Valley 3BR/2.5 BA w/ views | 3 | 74.3% | $500 | $162,375 |
| 17 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/931579 | Los Angeles | Architectural Gem with Pool | 2 | 76.0% | $445 | $159,547 |
| 18 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/2411078 | New York | Sunny Union Square 2BR + Roof Deck | 2 | 84.8% | $459 | $159,285 |
| 19 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/1103207 | New York | Rare Duplex Loft in Prime SoHo | 2 | 72.2% | $550 | $156,575 |
| 20 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/1110708 | New York | Time Square Penthouse 2BD w Terrace | 2 | 74.7% | $450 | $148,700 |
| 21 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/1798036 | New York | It’s called the GEM of TIMES SQUARE | 2 | 80.1% | $395 | $147,565 |
| 22 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/2434435 | Berkeley | Modern Farmhouse in Berkeley | 5 | 95.2% | $360 | $145,725 |
| 23 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/3863281 | San Francisco | Modern 4BR with Garden – Mission | 4 | 74.1% | $650 | $144,846 |
| 24 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/1260093 | New York | STUNNING 2 BDRM – TIMES SQUARE | 2 | 75.3% | $450 | $144,335 |
| 25 | http://airbnb.com/rooms/3053181 | New York | World Trade Center / 4Bedrooms / NY | 4 | 79.6% | $300 | $143,975 |
Want to get the skinny on how the best Airbnb properties in your city are faring?
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