West Haven, Connecticut Short-Term Rental Market
West Haven, CT allows STRs only via discretionary zoning approval, with a 7-day minimum stay. June 2026 area ADR was $234.
Quick Answer: West Haven, Connecticut is an active short-term rental market. average occupancy in the Stamford/New Haven market area is 65%. average monthly revenue in the Stamford/New Haven market area is $4,094. average daily rate in the Stamford/New Haven market area is $234. the top operator in the Stamford/New Haven market area is Compass Furnished Apartments with 54 listings. market score is 49/100 (grade D).
Market data reflects the Stamford/New Haven regional market, which includes West Haven. Regulations, taxes, and permit details below are specific to West Haven.
Market Score Breakdown
Five dimensions StaySTRA evaluates per market.
Market Overview
West Haven treats short-term rentals as a Special Exception Use rather than an as-of-right use, adopted by the Planning & Zoning Commission in August 2019. To operate legally, an owner must apply to the Zoning Board of Appeals for case-by-case approval, and that approval is only available in two residential districts and two commercial districts, meaning STRs are prohibited outright in most of the city’s zones. The board weighs neighborhood character, property-value impact, health and safety, and traffic, and requires the applicant to show adequate off-street parking. The ordinance also sets a 7-day minimum stay, effectively banning nightly or weekend rentals shorter than a week, and caps occupancy at no more than 4 unrelated adult renters.
West Haven is a New Haven-area shoreline city, population 55,351, with the longest publicly accessible shoreline in Connecticut, nearly 4 miles of beach making up roughly 25% of the state’s public beaches, drawing mostly regional day-trippers and beachgoers rather than an overnight-lodging-focused visitor base.
StaySTRA tracks West Haven’s ADR, occupancy, and revenue at a shared regional level with Stamford, Milford, and New Haven, but it’s worth being direct about the mismatch: West Haven, Milford, and New Haven form the New Haven-Milford metro area while Stamford sits in the separate Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk metro area, two officially distinct federal metro definitions, so these performance figures describe a broader Connecticut coastal area STR market rather than West Haven’s own market specifically, and in any case reflect a mix of listings across all four cities’ very different zoning regimes. In June 2026, that coastal area STR market posted a blended ADR of $233.80 and 65.4% occupancy, with average monthly revenue of $4,094/listing.
Bedroom mix, listing-type breakdown, and the top-property-manager list are tracked at the same shared regional level rather than uniquely for West Haven, so this profile omits those breakdowns.
Seasonal Patterns
| Month | Occupancy | ADR | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 48% | $124 | $1,791 |
| Feb | 58% | $122 | $1,784 |
| Mar | 59% | $124 | $1,983 |
| Apr | 63% | $132 | $2,145 |
| May | 64% | $168 | $2,629 |
| Jun | 67% | $183 | $3,156 |
| Jul | 71% | $188 | $3,562 |
| Aug | 71% | $194 | $3,641 |
| Sep | 62% | $164 | $2,705 |
| Oct | 61% | $156 | $2,662 |
| Nov | 57% | $149 | $2,294 |
| Dec | 53% | $150 | $2,252 |
Top Short-Term Rental Operators in Stamford/New Haven market area
Ranked by total active listings. Useful for understanding the competitive landscape. Operator data is published for the Stamford/New Haven market as a whole, which includes West Haven, so these counts are not West Haven-only figures.
| # | Operator | Listings | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Compass Furnished Apartments | 54 | 51 | ★ 4.45 |
| 2 | Housing solutions | 50 | 2,034 | ★ 4.71 |
| 3 | Evolve | 29 | 774 | ★ 4.26 |
| 4 | ITrip Vacations | 17 | 302 | ★ 4.90 |
| 5 | Premium Trips | 14 | 233 | ★ 4.52 |
What Kind of STR Should I Buy in West Haven?
Revenue and pricing by property type, tier, and bedroom count.
Revenue by Bedroom Count
| 1 bed | 1,816 |
| 2 bed | 774 |
| 3 bed | 590 |
| 4 bed | 318 |
| 5 bed | 221 |
ADR by Property Tier
| Entire Home | $291 |
| Luxury | $476 |
| Professionally Managed | $194 |
Revenue by Dwelling Type
| Apartment | $3,030 |
| Entire Place | $4,927 |
| House | $4,899 |
Booking Channel Mix
Distribution of bookings across major STR platforms.
| Channel | Share |
|---|---|
| airbnb | 63.1% |
| vrbo | 5.1% |
| both | 31.8% |
Investment Analysis
West Haven’s zoning approach is one of the more restrictive-entry STR markets in this batch: discretionary Zoning Board of Appeals approval, available in only two residential and two commercial districts, plus a 7-day minimum stay that rules out the classic nightly-rental model entirely. Traditional weekend or short-stay Airbnb-style operation is effectively not viable here; this market suits week-plus vacation rentals more than nightly turnover. Investors should confirm zoning district eligibility and expect a genuine approval process, not a rubber-stamp permit, before purchasing.
Listing-tier ADR for the shared coastal cluster shows a wide spread: blended $233.80, entire-home $291.03, professionally-managed $194.22, and luxury $475.61. Using StaySTRA’s seasonal-sum method, a typical listing in this cluster generates roughly $30,604/year in revenue; against West Haven’s own typical home value of $371,947, meaningfully lower than Stamford’s, that works out to a gross yield of about 8.2%, before financing, operating costs, and taxes, though the 7-day minimum and discretionary approval process make this figure more theoretical than actionable for a typical nightly-rental buyer.
Housing moves quickly: median sale price is $376,500 against a $373,450 median list price (a 1.008 sale-to-list ratio, homes trading at or above asking), 90 homes for sale, and a median 8 days to pending.
Revenue Trend (5 yr)
ADR & Occupancy Trends (5 yr)
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Booking Insights
This coastal Connecticut market’s bookings average a 49.63-day lead time and a 5.27-night length of stay, close to West Haven’s own 7-day statutory minimum stay.
Given the summer peak (71.34% occupancy in July versus 48.04% in January) and West Haven’s week-plus rental structure, operators here should think in terms of weekly bookings during the June-through-August peak season rather than nightly rate optimization.
Short-Term Rental Regulations
West Haven adopted a short-term rental zoning regulation in August 2019 that treats STRs as a Special Exception Use rather than an as-of-right use. The regulation was adopted by the Planning & Zoning Commission, but individual applications are approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals, so to operate legally an owner must apply to the ZBA for a special use exception, available only in two residential districts and two commercial districts, meaning STRs are prohibited outright in most of the city’s zones. Approval is discretionary: the board evaluates neighborhood character, property-value impact, health and safety, and traffic, and the owner must show adequate off-street parking.
The regulation defines a short-term rental as a rental of 7 or more days, effectively banning nightly or weekend stays shorter than a week, and caps occupancy at no more than 4 unrelated adult renters. There is no separately published annual night cap or explicit owner-occupancy requirement in the ordinance itself.
On taxes, Connecticut levies a statewide 15% Room Occupancy Tax on short-term lodging of 30 days or less (no additional West Haven local lodging tax); platforms may collect and remit this. Enforcement is rated moderate; non-conforming rentals can be reported to the zoning office. For investors, the practical takeaway is that West Haven is a restrictive-entry market: the 7-day minimum, 4-adult cap, and discretionary special-exception approval limited to a handful of districts make traditional nightly STRs difficult.
Market Comparison
This Connecticut coastal area STR market’s June 2026 occupancy of 65.4% runs above the commonly cited US STR median of roughly 55%, while its $233.80 blended ADR sits above the roughly $220 US median as well.
Top-property-manager data is not currently published uniquely for West Haven in this snapshot (tracked at a shared regional level with Stamford, Milford, and New Haven instead), so this profile omits a named-operator comparison. West Haven’s own regulatory structure, a 7-day minimum and discretionary district-limited approval, is the standout comparison point against most other markets StaySTRA tracks, which allow nightly rentals as of right in at least some residential zones.
Frequently Asked Questions About West Haven, Connecticut
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Can I rent my West Haven property for a weekend on Airbnb?
What is the average daily rate for short-term rentals near West Haven, CT?
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When was West Haven's short-term rental ordinance adopted?
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