In October 2025, U.S. short-term rentals saw demand return, but occupancy slipped as supply continued to expand. Pricing strengthened, with ADR and RRI both ticking up, and forward-looking bookings showed solid momentum for the holiday season despite softer November pacing.

U.S. Review October 2025: Eyes On Occupancy as Uncertainty and High Costs Pervade Market

Demand rose 2.5% in October, but an occupancy decline of 1.5% marked the second straight month of year-over-year declines.

Supply growth remained slow at 3.2%, though new listings increased for the first time in nearly two years.

Holiday travel is pacing strongly, with Christmas and New Year’s bookings up 12–21%.

October brought a mixed set of results for the U.S. short-term rental (STR) market. Demand returned to growth after a softer September, but occupancy continued to edge down as new supply and shifting travel patterns put pressure on performance. At the same time, the prolonged government shutdown drove economic uncertainty. Delayed federal data and a complicated inflation outlook added another layer of caution for both travelers and operators.

Even with these headwinds, pricing remained resilient and forward-looking bookings for the holiday season showed notable strength. This suggests that underlying travel fundamentals remain steady as the year draws to a close.

At a Glance: Key U.S. STR Performance Metrics for October 2025

Revenue per Available Rental (RevPAR) increased 0.1% year-over-year (YoY) to $125.97.

Available listings reached 1.75 million, a 3.2% increase YoY.

Occupancy averaged 54.0%, down -1.5% YoY.

Average Daily Rates (ADR) climbed to $233.39, up 1.7% from last year

The Repeat Rent Index (RRI) rose 0.5% YoY

Total nights booked were down -2.2% from October 2024.

The U.S. government shutdown continued through October, obscuring key economic data at a time when the Federal Reserve was trying to strike a delicate balance between inflation and a weakening job market. 

Oxford Economics warns that the reduced payments and missed contracts associated with a prolonged shutdown could potentially stall U.S. GDP growth in Q4. However, recent moves by Congress to end the shutdown should limit the damage to significant, but not catastrophic.

With official federal data unavailable, analysts have turned to private sources. ADP, a major payroll processor, estimates that while overall job numbers likely increased in October, companies were shedding roughly 11,000 jobs per week during the last half of the month. 

Oxford Economics now expects the unemployment rate to rise to 4.4% by year-end, up from 4.3%. It’s expected to remain at this slightly elevated level through much of 2026. While the labor market is showing signs of softening, there is no evidence so far of a dramatic downturn.

Supply Strains Persist as High Rates Limit Growth

Inflation, measured by year-over-year changes in the Consumer Price Index, rose to 3.0% in September. This marks the fifth consecutive month of increases. Although October’s official numbers remain delayed, most economists assume inflation continued its slow upward trajectory. This puts the Federal Reserve in a difficult position: cutting rates to support the labor market risks fueling further inflation.

Normally, Fed rate cuts and mortgage rates move together. However, lowering rates too quickly could push mortgage rates higher as lenders seek returns that compensate for inflation risk over time. By the end of October, Freddie Mac reported that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate had fallen to 6.17%, the lowest level in a year. By November 6, rates had nudged back up to 6.22%. As a result, there is considerable uncertainty around how many cuts the Fed will make through the end of 2025 and into 2026.

Regardless of forthcoming Fed decisions, mortgage rates tend to lag changes in Fed policy. Lagged mortgage rates in turn slow the timeline between improved affordability and new short-term rental supply. The high-rate environment that began in 2022 remains firmly in place. 

Elevated rates, combined with record high home values, have kept supply growth subdued. Year-over-year increases are at or below 4.1% throughout 2025. October’s supply growth rate of 3.2% is slightly higher than September’s 2.2%, but still far below the 20%+ gains seen as recently as early 2023.

New listings drive supply growth along with attrition and reactivated listings. They began declining in early 2024 and have continued decreasing month over month. New listings finally broke a nearly two-year streak of year-over-year declines in October. 

The current YoY growth figure, +2.8%, represents a major improvement from September’s –3.2%. The growth rate of new listing activity reached its lowest point in late 2024 at around -18% and has been recovering since, likely in response to demand growth and the end of a long stretch of occupancy losses.

Demand Rebounds, but Occupancy Still Slips

Demand stayed solid through most of 2025, with year-over-year growth in every month except September. The September dip was mostly due to a calendar shift. One day of the Labor Day weekend landed in August this year, so the comparison was unusually tough. 

Even then, September demand looked almost identical to 2023 levels. The consistency indicates it’s always a difficult month for travel because it sits between summer and the holiday season.

Demand returned to growth in October, rising 2.5% year-over-year (YoY). While this uptick is encouraging, it wasn’t enough to prevent occupancy from declining for a second straight month. 

October occupancy fell 1.5% YoY, though this was a smaller drop than September’s –3.6%. Even with these recent declines, year-to-date occupancy for 2025 remains about one percentage point higher than during the same period in 2024. 

Slower supply growth has helped stabilize occupancy after the sharp losses that followed the 2021 peak, but softer summer demand kept occupancy gains limited.

The improvement in October demand is especially noteworthy given the drop in international travel. Since tariffs were announced in April, inbound international visits to the U.S. have fallen, particularly during the summer peak. 

Domestic travelers have filled much of that gap, likely helped by a weaker U.S. dollar that has made overseas trips more expensive. This shift does change where demand shows up, though. Destinations that rely heavily on Canadian visitors may feel the impact more than others.

Occupancy varied by location type and price tier

Mountain/Lake Resort markets were the only segment to grow occupancy. 

Small City/Rural areas saw strong demand offset by faster listing growth, which diluted occupancy. 

Mid-Size Cities saw slight demand declines paired with the second-fastest supply growth, leading to the steepest occupancy drop of all groups. 

Over the summer, only resort destinations were able to grow occupancy, highlighting the continued strength of leisure-first travel.

A similar pattern showed up across price tiers. Higher-priced properties continue to perform best. Luxury listings were the only tier to grow occupancy in October, while each lower tier saw progressively larger declines. This trend has been consistent since summer.

Market Performance Splinters Across Regions

Market results varied sharply across the country in October, shaped by weather recovery, regulatory shifts, and uneven supply growth.

Two markets saw the most dramatic occupancy drops: Sarasota, Florida and St. Petersburg, Florida. Both reported declines of more than 20% year-over-year (YoY), but this reflects last year’s hurricane-driven displacement, not a sudden fall in demand. In October 2024, both markets housed people fleeing Hurricane Milton, temporarily boosting occupancy. With a quieter hurricane season this year and fewer repeat travelers in the shoulder-season months, occupancy simply normalized.

Outside these outliers, a softer pattern was visible across the Top 50 markets: areas with the fastest listing growth tended to see weaker occupancy. This was most evident in markets still recovering from natural disasters:

Cape Coral/Fort Myers, Florida saw listings rise +18.4% YoY, while occupancy fell –8.4%. The region continues to rebuild after Hurricane Ian and inventory climbs beyond pre-storm levels.

Maui, Hawaii posted +7.7% listing growth and a –5.8% occupancy decline as it recovers from 2023’s wildfires and works to balance tourism with environmental needs.

Regulatory pressure also shaped performance. Markets with stricter STR rules saw supply shrink and existing operators benefit:

San Francisco, California had listings decline –5.8% YoY, with occupancy rising +9.8%.

Oakland, California saw listings fall –5.7% YoY, with occupancy up +6.5%.

Overall, October’s results were driven less by national trends and more by localized factors, hurricanes, wildfires, rapid new supply, and regulatory crackdowns, creating a patchwork of strong and weak performers across the country.

Without reliable rental comps, you're making pricing decisions in the dark. Use real data to compare your listing performance to similar properties and discover your true market position.

Pricing Firms Up as ADR and RRI Move in Sync

October brought a small but meaningful improvement in pricing power across the short-term rental market. After a –1.5% decline in September, ADR rose 1.7% year-over-year. Operators were once again able to lift rates heading into the end of the year. The Repeat Rent Index (RRI), which tracks nightly rates for existing operators and removes the effect of new listings, also ticked up 0.5%. This indicates that hosts were raising prices even after accounting for changes in inventory.

The relationship between ADR and RRI has shifted noticeably over the past few years. During the high-inflation period of 2022 and 2023, new listings often entered the market at lower prices to appeal to budget-conscious guests. This created a gap between newer and established properties and an accompanying gap between ADR and RRI. In 2024, that trend reversed: inflation fears cooled, and many new listings positioned themselves around premium experiences, narrowing the gap.

Throughout 2025, the two pricing measures have moved much more closely together. This suggests two things:

New listings are now more aligned with existing stock, making overall pricing more consistent.

Slower supply growth is reducing the room for price divergence, keeping ADR and RRI on similar trajectories.

Overall, the October data shows that, despite mixed demand signals, operators still have enough confidence (and limited enough competition) to nudge rates upward.

Holiday Pacing Strengthens Despite Short-Term Softness

Forward-looking bookings show a mixed picture heading into the holiday season. The prolonged government shutdown, along with the air travel delays and service cuts that came with it, appears to have made some travelers more cautious about planning November trips. As a result, November pacing is currently up only 1.7% compared to this time last year.

However, the outlook improves sharply for the end of the year. Because Christmas and New Year’s fall in the middle of the week in 2025, many travelers are taking advantage of longer holiday weekends. December and January pacing are both up nearly 8% year-over-year, showing strong appetite for year-end and early-winter travel.

Looking specifically at Thanksgiving, pacing remains 7–9% above last year. This is lower than the approximate 15% increase seen a month earlier, suggesting that the shutdown may have softened some near-term travel sentiment. Even so, 7–9% growth on top of an already busy 2025 season still represents solid demand. The broader travel market remains stable.

Deferred travel plans also appear to be exactly that—deferred. Holiday bookings for Christmas and New Year’s Eve are currently outperforming 2024 by a wide margin. Christmas and New Year fall on fixed dates, so comparisons are made using the same dates in 2024 and 2025 rather than days of the week. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are up 12% and 14%, respectively, while New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are up 17% and 21%, respectively.

Large markets with drive-to leisure appeal are the most popular Thanksgiving destinations  

Looking at the most popular Thanksgiving destinations reveals familiar patterns: large markets with strong drive-to leisure appeal dominate the list. All of these markets, with the exception of New York, are also showing strong pacing gains compared to last year.

Gatlinburg / Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (+15.8%)

Austin, Texas is the biggest winner for demand in the Top 10 U.S. markets by size, with the highest demand growth at +17.2% YoY. However, several markets show even larger increases driven by shifting football schedules. These include:

In third place for demand growth is Asheville, North Carolina (+62.8%), which at this time last year was still recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Helene.

Gain insights into the revenue and occupancy trends in your market.

U.S. short-term rentals in October 2025 saw steady demand, softer occupancy, and improved pricing, with strong holiday pacing pointing to resilient travel trends heading into winter.

Airbnb Occupancy Rate: Insights and Tips

Key Takeaways
The Airbnb occupancy rate is a vital metric for success and is calculated by dividing the number of booked nights by the available nights. The occupancy rate reflects how often your property is rented out compared to its availability.
Understanding and monitoring your occupancy rate is key to maximizing earnings, as it indicates property performance and influences pricing and marketing strategies.
How you interpret your occupancy rate is essential; high and low occupancy rates don’t always mean what you think.

Successful Airbnb hosts are obsessed with bookings, and for good reason—it’s the name of the vacation rental game.

When hosts talk about Airbnb bookings, they're really talking about occupancy rate: the percentage of available nights that guests book. Monitoring your occupancy rate is important because it shows how well your Airbnb stacks up against the competition. The occupancy rate can also indicate whether you need to switch up your strategy or pricing to boost your rental income.

Whether you’re new to short-term vacation rentals or an industry expert, it’s important to understand the methodology and best practices behind your occupancy rate. 

Learn about short-term rental data

What is Airbnb Occupancy Rate?

In its simplest form, the occupancy rate is the percentage of time a vacation rental property is booked compared to the time it is available for bookings. 

To make understanding occupancy rate easier, let's use a straightforward example.

Imagine you own a cabin that's available for guests all year. That means it could potentially be booked for 365 nights. Throughout the year, guests book your cabin for 90 of those nights. We can use that number to calculate the occupancy rate and see how often your property was rented out compared to its availability. 

By dividing the booked nights (90) by the total available nights (365) and multiplying by 100 to get a percentage, we find an occupancy rate of approximately 25%. This means your cabin was rented out for about a quarter of the year.

Reasons Why Your Occupancy Rate Matters
Maximize Revenue Potential: Physical products can be sold at any time if they’re not immediately purchased. However, a vacant vacation rental represents a unique challenge. If a property goes unbooked for a night, it's impossible to "sell" that night again. Each unbooked night directly translates into a tangible loss of potential income. That’s why the occupancy rate is crucial for owners looking to maximize their earnings. 
Reveal Property Performance Insights: Consider two similar properties in the same location. Property A consistently achieves an 80% occupancy rate, while Property B struggles to reach 50%. This stark difference signals that Property A might be better aligned with guest preferences or have better marketing. Analyzing occupancy rates helps identify performance gaps and areas for improvement, whether that's improving your listing or adjusting pricing strategies to meet market demand.
Determine Market Demand and Inform Pricing Strategies: High Airbnb occupancy rates indicate strong market demand, while low occupancy rates can reflect lower demand. This information informs your pricing strategy. Let’s consider an apartment near a convention center that has high occupancy during events but low occupancy rates otherwise. This trend suggests that you may want to consider adjusting your rates in relation to the convention center’s event calendar. Dynamic pricing takes into consideration trends like this and uses them to optimize revenue during peak and off-peak times.
Guide Investment and Enhancement Decisions: Evaluate occupancy rates before and after making upgrades, like installing high-speed internet or renovating the kitchen, to assess the return on investment (ROI). This analysis is crucial for prioritizing property improvements that make your listing more appealing and, subsequently, improve the occupancy rate.

Learn about Dynamic Pricing

How to Calculate the Airbnb Occupancy Rate

Understanding the occupancy rate of your Airbnb property is pivotal for optimizing your rental strategy. Yet, it all comes down to a single equation.

Airbnb Occupancy Rate Calculation

Reserved Days / Available Days x 100 = Occupancy Rate

With that in mind, here's a simple guide on how to find Airbnb occupancy rates:

Step-by-Step Calculation
Determine the Total Number of Reserved Days: Start by counting how many days guests booked your property over a specific period of time, usually 12 months. 
Identify the Total Number of Available Days: Calculate the total days your property was available for booking over the same time period, excluding any days you blocked off for personal use.
Calculate the Occupancy Rate: Divide the total number of reserved days by the total number of available days, then multiply the result by 100 to convert it into a percentage. These steps represent AirDNA’s version of an Airbnb occupancy rate calculator.

Example Calculation:

Imagine you own a house on the water in North Carolina and you're evaluating its performance on Airbnb over the last 12 months. The property was available for 340 days and booked for 240 days within this timeframe.

Reserved Days: 240

Available Days: 340

Occupancy Rate Calculation: 240/340 x 100 = 70.58%

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Interpreting Your Occupancy Rate

While a 70% occupancy rate may seem ideal, signaling guest satisfaction and consistent revenue, it's essential to delve deeper. High occupancy could indicate underpricing, meaning you might be missing out on potential income. It's crucial to balance occupancy with your average daily rates (ADRs) to maximize revenue. 

Think about it: A property with a 50% or 60% occupancy rate could earn more revenue than one that’s booked 70% of the time. It’s all relative to pricing. A property booked more often at $100 per night may not outearn a property that’s booked less often at $300 per night.

It’s important to ask yourself: Do I want higher occupancy or higher average daily rates (ADRs)? An accurate data tool can help you sort out which strategy is best for your bottom line. (Why guess when you can know exactly what you should be charging guests?)

What is a Good Airbnb Occupancy Rate?

Average Airbnb occupancy rates vary from market to market and year to year. You can see how the national average occupancy rate has fluctuated:

Trailing twelve months (TTM), March 2023 to February 2024: 55.1%
2023: 55.4%
2022: 58.6%
2021: 60.3%

The occupancy rate in 2022 reflects a recovery trend in the industry after the pandemic brought the average occupancy rate into the low fifties in 2020.

Determining a "good" rate is less about finding a universal number and more about understanding local market conditions, historical performance, and your personal goals for the property. Knowing your market's average helps inform decisions on pricing, marketing, and operations.

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Average Airbnb Occupancy Rates by City: Top 10 Highest Occupancy Rates

If you’re new to the short-term rental market, understanding the average airbnb occupancy rates by city can help you choose a location that’s likely to generate a healthy revenue.

These markets had the highest trailing twelve-month short-term occupancy rates (March 2023 to February 2024):

Kauai, Hawaii: 74.4%
Oahu, Hawaii: 73.4%
Maui, Hawaii: 72.4%
Maine DownEast/Acadia Coastal: 67.7%
Big Island, Hawaii: 67.1%
New York City: 65.5%
Denver: 65.3%
Anaheim, California: 65.2%
Boulder, Colorado: 64.3%
 Outer Banks, North Carolina: 64.3%

Many of the markets with the highest occupancy rates are located in Hawaii. However, seeing as the vacation rental market in Hawaii is subject to fairly heavy restrictions, let’s consider the markets with the highest occupancy rates in the contiguous U.S.

Maine DownEast/Acadia Coastal: 67.7%
New York City: 65.5%
Denver: 65.3%
Anaheim, California: 65.2%
Boulder, Colorado: 64.3%
Outer Banks, North Carolina: 64.3%
San Diego: 64.2%
Sarasota, Florida: 64.1%
Lincoln City/Newport, Oregon: 64%
Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, Tennessee: 63.9%

Average Occupancy Rates by City: Top 10 Lowest Occupancy Rates

The average Airbnb occupancy rates by city in the following areas leave hosts wanting more. These markets currently have the lowest trailing twelve-month occupancy rates:

Oxford, MS: 34.9%
Big Bear, CA: 39.6%
Southbend, Indiana: 40.4%
Texas East Area: 41.4%
College Station, Texas: 41.8%
Mississippi area: 42.1%
Augusta, Georgia/South Carolina: 42.8%
Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania: 43.2%
California South area: 43.7%
 Louisiana area: 43.9%

If you’re looking to invest in vacation properties, avoid these markets because you likely won't get a good ROI. Property managers and hosts in these markets may need to lower their rates to encourage guests to book with them rather than other Airbnbs.

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Why Airbnb Occupancy Rates Differ from Hotels 

Hotels offer a consistent product and pricing strategy, but STRs vary widely in terms of property type, location, amenities, and host engagement. It’s crucial to assess STR occupancy differently than traditional hotel occupancy in order to accurately reflect performance in the vacation rental market.

AirDNA only considers active listings in its occupancy rate calculations, whether it’s for a specific market or when someone uses our Airbnb calculator. We define active as having at least one calendar day classified as reserved or available during the reporting period. If we included every available night from every available listing in our occupancy calculation, it would return a falsely low occupancy rate. This is due to variations in vacation rental host behaviors and motivations. We’re talking about host attentiveness in managing listing calendars and their responsiveness to reservation requests.

Here are three host cases that would falsely skew occupancy downward if we included them in the occupancy rate calculation: 

Event-Based Hosts: Hosts who list properties temporarily to take advantage of specific events, causing temporary market fluctuations that don’t reflect regular hosting activity.

"Make Me Move" Hosts: Hosts who set their prices significantly above the market rate, using Airbnb as an opportunistic platform rather than a committed hosting venue.

Dormant Listings: Properties that appear available but haven't seen a booking for months, often due to a shift in host priorities or property usage.

AirDNA ensures that its occupancy rate calculations reflect genuine market activity and trends by focusing on active listings. We stand by the accuracy of our data and use this methodology to help stakeholders understand the true dynamics of the STR market. Our insights are distinct from those that can be gleaned from hotel occupancy data.

How to Get High Occupancy on Airbnb

Occupancy rate may not be a complete picture of your property’s performance, but it’s still important. After all, you’re only making money if guests are staying at your property. If your occupancy rate is falling short of expectations, take these data-driven steps to learn how to increase occupancy rate on Airbnb. 

Increase Your Airbnb Occupancy Rate

Occupancy Rate is Just the Beginning  

According to ou annual best places to invest report, most of the destinations at the top of the list have occupancy rates of 60-70%. If you're interested to learn more about a market's occupancy rate, visit the AirDNA app.

While Airbnb occupancy rates are important, you need to track a range of metrics to assess how your Airbnb is performing overall. Our insights can help you optimize your properties for the best possible occupancy rate, average daily rate (ADR), revenue per available rental (RevPAR), and overall profitability.

Frequently Asked Questions:
What is a good occupancy rate for an Airbnb?

There is no universal “good" occupancy rate. Determining whether your occupancy rate is optimized requires understanding local market conditions, historical performance, and your personal goals for the property. Keep in mind that lower occupancy rates don’t necessarily indicate lost revenue. If you are charging a higher average daily rate, you might not need as many bookings to make as much money as a competitor with higher occupancy but a lower nightly rate.

Where can you see Airbnb occupancy rates?

You can see the occupancy rate for your listing as well as that of competitors in the area on your AirDNA dashboard. 

Find out what “Airbnb occupancy rate” refers to, how to calculate it, and tips for improving your occupancy rate and increasing your STR income.

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U.S. Review October 2025: Eyes On Occupancy as Uncertainty and High Costs Pervade Market

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