Barrington, Illinois Short-Term Rental Market
Short-term rentals are effectively banned in Barrington, IL: a 30-day minimum applies village-wide.
Quick Answer: Barrington, Illinois is an active short-term rental market. average occupancy in the Chicago market area is 76%. average monthly revenue in the Chicago market area is $5,299. average daily rate in the Chicago market area is $260.
Market data reflects the Chicago regional market, which includes Barrington. Regulations, taxes, and permit details below are specific to Barrington.
Market Overview
Short-term rentals are effectively prohibited in the Village of Barrington. The Village Zoning Ordinance sets a 30-day minimum rental period for any residential unit; renting a home nightly, weekly, or bi-weekly is not allowed, and even advertising a residential unit for less than 30 days violates village ordinance. There is no STR registration or permit program, because there is no legal path for one: the only lawful transient-lodging options are a licensed hotel/motel or a licensed bed-and-breakfast (requiring an owner- or resident-manager on site and special-use zoning approval through a public hearing). Enforcement of the 30-day rule is characterized as strict.
Because of this, StaySTRA’s Airbnb/Vrbo performance data for this area does not describe legal activity within the Village of Barrington itself. It reflects the shared regional dataset for the greater Chicago suburbs, a 15-town cluster that includes Cary, Highland Park, Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Northbrook, Wheaton and others where nightly rentals are typically legal. In June 2026, that Chicago-suburbs area STR market averaged 76.0% occupancy and a $260 ADR, producing $5,299 in average monthly revenue per listing, up 14.6% year over year on a $198 RevPAR.
Barrington itself is an affluent historic village about 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, straddling Cook and Lake counties, with 11,077 residents. Its walkable downtown, the historic Catlow Theater, the Barrington Art Festival, and nature preserves like Baker’s Lake draw regional day-trip and event visitors rather than overnight tourism. For an STR investor, Barrington itself is not a viable nightly-rental market; the practical options are a 30-day-plus mid-term rental, or a licensed hotel/B&B operation.
Seasonal Patterns
| Month | Occupancy | ADR | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 48% | $113 | $1,612 |
| Feb | 56% | $114 | $1,623 |
| Mar | 62% | $135 | $2,234 |
| Apr | 61% | $141 | $2,344 |
| May | 69% | $169 | $3,096 |
| Jun | 73% | $190 | $3,704 |
| Jul | 72% | $174 | $3,479 |
| Aug | 68% | $176 | $3,340 |
| Sep | 66% | $162 | $2,905 |
| Oct | 64% | $158 | $2,824 |
| Nov | 56% | $142 | $2,262 |
| Dec | 55% | $133 | $2,072 |
Investment Analysis
Barrington is not an investable nightly-STR market: the Village’s 30-day minimum rental rule rules out Airbnb/Vrbo-style operation entirely, and there is no permit or registration path around it. Any investment analysis needs to start from that fact, not from the area’s STR performance numbers.
The regional Chicago-suburbs STR market that Barrington’s data is drawn from is performing strongly: 76.0% occupancy and a $260 ADR in June 2026, up 3.5 percentage points and 13.4% respectively year over year, with revenue up 14.6% to $5,299 per listing. Those numbers describe legal nightly-rental towns elsewhere in the 15-town cluster (Cary, Naperville, Wheaton, Northbrook and others), not Barrington itself, and should not be used to underwrite a Barrington property for nightly rental.
StaySTRA does not have a typical home value on file for Barrington, so a gross yield estimate is not available regardless.
The realistic path for a Barrington property is a mid-term rental (30 days or longer), which sidesteps the ordinance entirely, or pursuing a licensed bed-and-breakfast through the Village’s special-use zoning process, a longer and more involved approval requiring a public hearing and an owner- or resident-manager on site. Investors specifically seeking nightly-rental exposure in this corridor should look to a legally permissive town within the broader Chicago-suburbs cluster instead.
Revenue Trend (5 yr)
ADR & Occupancy Trends (5 yr)
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StaySTRA does not have booking lead-time or average length-of-stay data on file for the Chicago-suburbs regional STR market that Barrington’s data is pooled with, so those figures are omitted here rather than estimated. In any case, this data would describe the legal nightly-rental towns in the shared regional dataset (Cary, Naperville, Wheaton and others), not Barrington itself, where nightly booking is not a legal path to begin with. For a Barrington property, the relevant planning question is mid-term (30-day-plus) rental turnover and lease-length strategy, not nightly booking-window optimization.
Short-Term Rental Regulations
Conventional short-term rentals (Airbnb/Vrbo) are effectively prohibited in the Village of Barrington. The Village Zoning Ordinance sets a 30-day minimum rental period for any residential unit; renting a residential unit daily, weekly, or bi-weekly is not allowed, and even advertising a unit for less than 30 days violates village ordinance. There is no STR registration or permit program.
The only lawful transient-lodging paths are a duly licensed hotel or motel, or a licensed bed-and-breakfast. A B&B must be an owner- or resident-manager-occupied single-family home (guest rooms without cooking facilities), approved through the Village’s special-use/zoning process, which involves a public hearing, site and floor plans, parking review, and a Village business license. Licensed hotels and B&Bs in the village are additionally subject to a 3% local lodging tax, on top of the state hotel tax described below.
Narrow exceptions to the 30-day rule cover situations like an immediate family member staying, a house-sitter paying no rent, or a seller’s post-closing leaseback; these are not paths to running a nightly-rental business.
Effective July 1, 2025, Illinois expanded its state Hotel Operators’ Occupation Tax (6% of 94% of gross receipts) to cover short-term rentals statewide, and beginning January 6, 2026, platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo must collect and remit that tax. This is a state-level change only; it does not legalize nightly rentals in Barrington, where the 30-day minimum still applies.
Enforcement of the 30-day rule is characterized as strict. Note that the separate incorporated municipalities of Lake Barrington and South Barrington have their own STR-restrictive ordinances and should not be confused with the Village of Barrington covered here.
Market Comparison
Barrington itself cannot be compared on nightly-rental performance, since short-term rentals are not a legal operating model in the village. For context, national benchmarks put the median U.S. short-term rental market at roughly 55% occupancy and a $220 ADR; the greater Chicago-suburbs regional market that Barrington’s data is pooled with runs well above both, at 76.0% occupancy and a $260 ADR in June 2026, with revenue up 14.6% year over year, a notably strong regional trend.
StaySTRA does not have top property-manager listings, review counts, or ratings on file for this cluster; that data is tracked at a shared regional level rather than uniquely for Barrington, so this profile omits named-operator comparisons. Investors interested in nightly-rental exposure in this corridor should look at towns within the cluster where STRs are legal, rather than Barrington.
Frequently Asked Questions About Barrington, Illinois
Are short-term rentals (Airbnb/Vrbo) legal in Barrington, IL?
What is the STR performance data shown for the Barrington area based on?
What is the minimum rental period in Barrington?
Can I open a bed-and-breakfast in Barrington instead of an Airbnb?
How is the greater Chicago-suburbs STR market performing?
Did Illinois change short-term rental tax rules recently?
What are Lake Barrington and South Barrington, and do their rules differ?
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