Vacation Rentals Enjoy Record July

By Dana Gentry, Nevada Current

August 25, 2022

The addition of “hundreds of thousands of new listings online” in the last year allowed vacationers to spend more than 23 million nights in short-term rentals last month, according to AirDNA, a short-term rental data analyst. That’s up 18% from last year.

The number of vacation rentals in the U.S. reached 1.39 million in July, up 25.5% from 2021.

Overall revenue for STRs was up 22.6% from last year. Occupancy, just below 70% in July, was down 7.5% year-to-year, given the addition of new units, but average daily rates were up 3.7% from last year to $307.

By comparison, the average rate for a Las Vegas hotel room was $156.92 in June, the last month of available data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Occupancy for Las Vegas hotels was 82%.

“In the eyes of the short-term rental guest, the economy doesn’t seem to be a concern as stays in short-term rentals increased across all location types and price tiers,” says AirDNA, crediting more than half a million jobs added last month and falling gas prices for giving consumers confidence to “keep spending on travel, even with inflation eating into their incomes and real spending power.”

“The outlook for the rest of the year remains a concern, though, with rising interest rates working to slow the housing market, which should drag down overall economic growth,” says AirDNA, citing recession fears.

An estimated 10,000 to 12,000 vacation rentals are currently operating illegally in Clark County. The government, in a state-mandated effort to regulate, will begin accepting applications Sept. 1 for a lottery that will determine which properties proceed in the licensing process. The county intends to license one percent of housing stock as STRs, or about 2,900 properties.

An association of vacation rental owners is suing in an attempt to block the regulation.

Nevada Current, a nonprofit, online source of political news and commentary, documents the policies, institutions and systems that affect Nevadans’ daily lives. The Current is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.