What STR Hosts Are Actually Earning in 2026: Real Income Stories From Hosts in Five Different Markets

On a Tuesday evening in early April, Marcus sat at his kitchen table in southeast Houston with a spreadsheet open and a cold Modelo sweating onto the table. His three-bedroom house, ten minutes from NRG Stadium, had been listed on Airbnb for fourteen months. When he bought it, every YouTube video and every forum post told him the same thing: the World Cup is coming to Houston, and the money would be historic.

He pulled up his year-to-date numbers. Through the first four months of 2026, his gross revenue was tracking toward about $42,000 for the year. Not bad. But a long way from the $55,000 he had underlined in his pro forma.

“La expectativa era otra,” he told me. The expectation was different.

Marcus is a composite, and so are the four other hosts in this piece. But their numbers are real, anchored in StaySTRA data and in the patterns we see repeated across thousands of listings in five distinct market categories. These are not averages. Averages hide everything that matters. These are the financial realities of running an STR in 2026, market by market, dollar by dollar.

Marcus: The World Cup Bet (Houston, TX)

Marcus bought his three-bedroom house in late 2024 for $310,000, betting on World Cup demand near NRG Stadium. StaySTRA data for Houston shows an average daily rate of $218, occupancy hovering at 34%, and a market that has ballooned to 9,325 active listings. That last number is the one that keeps him up at night. Houston’s STR supply grew 34% between 2024 and early 2026, as thousands of new hosts entered the market chasing the same World Cup windfall.

His best month so far has been March, when convention season and spring break pushed his revenue to about $3,500. His weakest was January at $1,400. For the full year, he is projecting about $42,000 in gross revenue.

After Airbnb’s 3% host fee, cleaning costs ($135 per turnover), insurance ($3,000 per year), maintenance, and supplies, Marcus estimates his net income for 2026 will land around $26,000.

Deloitte projects that Houston hosts could earn an average of $3,000 during the World Cup tournament weeks alone, with Airbnb even offering a $750 bonus to new hosts in World Cup cities. Marcus is counting on those weeks to close the gap between what he expected and what he got.

Is he planning to expand? “Not yet. Maybe after I see what the summer actually looks like.”

Sofia: The Mountain High (Breckenridge, CO)

Sofia’s two-bedroom condo sits a five-minute walk from the BreckConnect gondola. This is her third winter hosting, and every February she remembers why she bought the place. StaySTRA data for Breckenridge shows that the average listing pulled in $11,000 in February alone, on a daily rate of $570 and occupancy hitting 89%.

February is magic. The rest of the year is the negotiation.

Her total gross revenue for the trailing twelve months landed at about $56,000. She expected $65,000 when she ran the numbers two years ago. The shortfall came from summer, where overnight visitation fell roughly 14% across the resort, and her shoulder-season months (May through September) averaged barely $2,500 per month.

Sofia uses a professional property manager who takes 25% of gross revenue. After management fees ($14,000), HOA dues ($4,000 per year), insurance, and maintenance, her net income settled around $33,500.

“The winters pay for everything,” she said. “But you have to survive April and May first. Those months, la propiedad cuesta dinero.” The property costs money.

She has considered switching to self-management to keep that 25%, but the logistics of coordinating guest turnovers from Denver during a February blizzard have kept her on the professional side. For now, she is holding. Not expanding. Not selling. Waiting to see if Breckenridge’s summer programming can reverse the visitation slide.

Diana: The Beach Reality Check (Myrtle Beach, SC)

Diana has owned her two-bedroom oceanfront condo in Myrtle Beach since 2021, and she will be the first to tell you that 2021 was a different world. She grossed $48,000 that first year. Occupancy was 62%. Every weekend from April through October was booked solid.

In 2025, she grossed $36,000. Occupancy had fallen to 41%.

The reason was not a collapse in demand. It was a wall of new supply. StaySTRA data shows Myrtle Beach now has 8,308 active STR listings, up 79% from roughly 4,628 in 2021. That supply growth compressed occupancy for everyone. Her average daily rate held at about $213, not far from the market median. But she went from 227 booked nights in 2021 to about 150 in 2025.

After cleaning fees ($100 per turnover, with beach sand adding to the wear), HOA dues ($5,500 per year), insurance, platform fees, and maintenance, Diana’s net income in 2025 was approximately $22,000.

For 2026, she is tracking slightly behind that pace. The peak summer months (June and July) still deliver about $5,500 in monthly revenue, with occupancy around 65%. But the off-season has gotten brutal. January brought $1,500 in monthly revenue at 31% occupancy.

Diana is weighing three options: sell the condo, convert to a 30-day minimum for snowbird season, or hold and wait for weaker operators to exit the market. “I am not losing money,” she said. “But I am not making what I planned for, either.”

Raj: The Quiet Performer (Charlotte Suburb, NC)

Not every STR story involves a beachfront sunset or a mountain panorama. Raj’s three-bedroom house sits in a Charlotte suburb, about 25 minutes from uptown, in a neighborhood where the loudest sound on a weekday morning is a sprinkler system clicking on.

He bought the property for $285,000 in early 2025. His average nightly rate is $165, and his occupancy runs between 55% and 60% year-round. No dramatic peaks. No dramatic valleys. His projected gross revenue for 2026 is about $30,000.

What surprised Raj was who his guests turned out to be. About 60% are traveling nurses and contractors on multi-week work assignments. They book 7 to 21 nights at a time, which means fewer turnovers, lower cleaning costs, and less wear on the property.

After platform fees, cleaning ($75 per turnover, but far fewer turnovers than a beach property), insurance, property taxes, and a small maintenance reserve, Raj expects to net about $19,500 in 2026. His mortgage payment is $1,780 per month. The STR income covers the mortgage and then some.

He expected $25,000 in gross revenue when he bought. He exceeded that number by $5,000. “I looked at the flashy markets,” Raj said. “But the math worked better here.” He is actively searching for a second property within 30 minutes of his first one.

Walking through a neighborhood like Raj’s, I could not help but think about how the quietest STR market might be the smartest one. No one is making a YouTube video about hosting in suburban Charlotte. And for Raj, that is the point.

Elena: The Lake Season (Finger Lakes, NY)

On the eastern shore of Seneca Lake, Elena’s two-bedroom cottage has the kind of view that makes guests leave five-star reviews before they unpack. She bought the place for $195,000 in 2022. It was a vacation home first. The STR income came second.

But the income surprised her.

Industry data shows the Finger Lakes region offers an average annual gross yield around 19.6%, one of the highest in the country relative to property prices averaging $184,000. Elena’s gross revenue for 2025 was $35,500, well above the $30,000 she initially projected.

The catch is seasonality. Her peak months (June through August) average $4,500 in monthly revenue, driven by lake vacationers and wine country tourists. Her lowest months (January through March) bring in about $800 each. The average guest stay runs close to four days, which keeps turnover manageable even during busy weekends.

After cleaning costs, winter maintenance (the lake effect does not spare vacation homes), insurance, and platform fees, her net income for 2025 was approximately $23,000.

Elena is already renovating a second cottage on a neighboring lot. Her plan is to have it listed by Memorial Day 2026. “The summer pays for the year,” she said. “Two cottages, same summer, double the income. Esa es la idea.” That is the idea.

What the Numbers Tell Us

Five hosts. Five markets. Five very different financial realities. And yet a few patterns cut across all of them.

Expectations matter as much as outcomes. Marcus and Diana both undershot their projections, not because they did anything wrong, but because supply shifts changed the equation after they bought. Sofia hit closer to her target but learned that a mountain property lives and dies by its winter performance. Raj and Elena both exceeded expectations, in large part because they bought in markets where fewer people were looking.

Net income is the only number that counts. Gross revenue tells a story. Net income pays the bills. Across these five profiles, net income ranged from roughly $19,500 (Raj) to $33,500 (Sofia), representing 55% to 65% of gross depending on the host’s expense structure and whether they self-manage. If you are evaluating a property, the StaySTRA DSCR financing guide breaks down how lenders look at these same numbers.

Supply growth is the single biggest variable reshaping host income in 2026. Houston’s 34% supply expansion and Myrtle Beach’s 79% growth since 2021 are compressing returns for everyone in those markets. The hosts who are still winning tend to be in markets where supply is constrained by geography, regulation, or both. StaySTRA’s Q1 2026 market performance report breaks this down market by market.

If you are evaluating a market for your first STR purchase, the most important question is not “how much can I charge per night.” It is “how fast is supply growing, and can demand keep up.”

We do our best to keep our content accurate and up to date, but things change and we are only human. Always verify details directly with local sources before making decisions.

Run the Numbers for Your Market

Before you buy, before you list, before you make any decisions based on someone else’s income story, run the numbers for your specific market. The StaySTRA analyzer pulls real revenue, occupancy, and ADR data so you can see what properties like yours actually earn in the market you are considering.