The average daily rate for a short term rental in Vail is $461.
But that’s a regional average, for all types of properties, all group sizes, and all seasons. Here’s some more specific detail to help you put that in context.
First, maybe you’re not an investor but a guy looking to save a buck on vacation. You want to go during off-peak season. A couple searches on Airbnb for October 16–17 for two adults were giving prices closer to $200. You can’t really ski but the fall colors are great.
Now for the rest of you: The average daily rate in winter is $530. 62% of vacation rentals are two or three bedroom units. The average length of stay is 5.2 days (which is pretty appealing, because you have fewer cleaning fees than you would in a high-turnover city). In 2017, Vail had 21,000 Airbnb visits and $5.8 million in revenue.
Here’s more good news. Nightly rates often double over holidays like the dates surrounding Christmas, New Year’s, and President’s Day weekend. If you’re booking yourself and not using a management company, you can cherry-pick dates and just rent the big ones to net the most profit with the least amount of work.
Think “guest first”. You know how people want to be on the mountain during weekends in ski season right? If you have the flexibility, keep weekends open and plan your own stays on weekdays. Amenities help a lot too. The top 25% of listings tend to have things like hot tubs, fireplaces, mountain views, proximity to ski resorts, and a location on the shuttle lines.
Vail has two great seasons, but there are low points as well. The average short-term rental doesn’t see much traction in May—in fact, even homes at the 75thpercentile might only be rented 23% of the time. But in February/March it’s close to the 80% mark, and July isn’t far off either. Interestingly, even though the AVERAGE daily rate for a 5 bedroom is $1,153, large homes make up only 5% of the inventory in the market. There’s a higher starting cost for this type of property and demand is lower, plus larger groups can be more complicated to deal with.
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Data provided courtesy of Vail Daily and Evolve