Bay St. Louis, MS vs. Crystal Beach, TX: Two Desks, Two Years

Thomas Garner
Aug 20
11 min read

Updated: 9 hours ago

Lodging interior or exterior, Bay St. Louis stay 13

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and Crystal Beach, Texas both get pitched to guests as a generic "Gulf of Mexico stay," but that framing wastes what actually distinguishes each town. Bay St. Louis sits in Hancock County, Mississippi, built around Old Town, its historic harbor, a beachfront strip, and a working marina. Crystal Beach sits on the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas, a different state entirely with its own separate permitting desk and a meaningfully smaller listing base.

Both towns have real, independently sourced trailing-twelve-month figures worth citing on their own lines: Bay St. Louis shows 340 active listings and $25,594 typical annual revenue; Crystal Beach shows 131 active listings and $44,416 typical annual revenue. Crystal Beach's per-listing revenue is meaningfully higher on a much smaller listing base - a genuinely different market shape, not a rounding difference, and a reason on its own not to blend the two into one composite Gulf Coast number.

This page covers what each town's own numbers say, who a host calls about permitting in each town, why a 30-night-minimum-stay figure reported here belongs specifically to Bay St. Louis's listing base and isn't a measure of occupancy, and why a third town - Vermilion, Ohio - has no business showing up in either town's revenue conversation just because all three are small waterfront towns. This is not legal advice.

Bay St. Louis's Real Numbers

Bay St. Louis's short-term rental market has a specific, sourced trailing-twelve-month figure: AirROI puts typical annual revenue at $25,594 across 340 active listings for the period running August 2025 through July 2026, last updated August 8, 2026. The average daily rate over that period was $279, occupancy came in at 31.5%, and revenue per available night worked out to $92. Year over year, that revenue figure moved down 4.5%, while active listing supply held essentially flat at 0.0% growth - a mature market with a real, if modest, revenue softening rather than one being diluted by new competition.

The three strongest months in this data are June, October, and May, with January the clear slowest month - a pattern that runs longer than a pure summer season, reflecting the Gulf Coast's extended warm-weather window and its own distinct events calendar. Guests book an average of 3.8 nights, arrive booking about 60 days ahead of the stay, and the largest single origin market is New Orleans, followed by Baton Rouge. Superhost status covers 62.4% of the active listing base, a useful benchmark for a new Bay St. Louis host gauging how much guest-experience investment it takes to be competitive in this specific market.

A recurring figure in this market's research is that 28.8% of Bay St. Louis's 340 listings - 98 of them - operate with a 30-night minimum stay requirement. That's a host stay-length choice, not a measurement of occupancy or demand, and it's worth keeping that distinction clear in any packet that cites the figure: it describes how a bit under a third of Bay St. Louis's host base has chosen to structure their calendars around longer stays, not how busy the town is overall. A host reading the 31.5% occupancy figure alongside that 28.8% long-stay share should recognize these are two separate signals, not one number explaining the other.

The flat 0.0% year-over-year supply growth is worth reading alongside the 4.5% revenue decline. Unlike a market where new competition is diluting a shrinking pie, Bay St. Louis's listing count barely moved while typical revenue still slipped - meaning the softening shows up on essentially the same base of properties rather than being explained by a wave of new entrants splitting demand more ways. That distinction matters for a host trying to diagnose why revenue moved: it points toward softer per-listing demand, possibly tied to the extended June-through-October season cooling slightly, rather than toward a supply-driven squeeze.

Who Actually Answers the Phone in Bay St. Louis

Bay St. Louis's rental compliance runs through the Planning office, reachable at 228-466-5516. The permit is published as a $100 form - a specific figure worth confirming as the current live fee at the desk directly, since a published form fee can lag behind what's actually charged if the town has updated its schedule since the source was last checked.

A host should ask specifically whether the $100 figure is the full cost of compliance or just the application form fee, since some municipalities separate an application fee from a separate inspection or annual renewal charge that isn't always bundled into the headline number a host finds first. Treating a phone call to the Planning desk as the authoritative source, rather than any secondhand summary including this one, is the right default here.

Sales tax can still apply to a Bay St. Louis stay even when it runs under the 30-day mark sometimes associated with longer-term rental exemptions - a detail worth confirming directly with the relevant Mississippi tax authority rather than assuming a short stay is automatically exempt from state and local lodging tax obligations.

A host should also confirm whether the $100 permit runs on an annual cycle or covers a longer period, since that detail changes the effective yearly cost meaningfully. A $100 annual fee is a minor line item against $25,594 in typical annual revenue; a $100 fee covering a multi-year period is even less material, but a host budgeting for compliance costs should know which structure applies rather than assuming an annual renewal by default.

Crystal Beach's Real Numbers and Its Own Separate Desk

Crystal Beach's own trailing-twelve-month figure, from the same source window: $44,416 typical annual revenue across 131 active listings. That's a meaningfully higher per-listing revenue figure than Bay St. Louis's, on a listing base less than half the size - a genuinely different market shape, with fewer, higher-earning properties rather than a larger, lower-earning pool.

Crystal Beach's own permitting desk is confirmed as a separate matter entirely from Bay St. Louis's Planning office - a different city government in a different state, Texas rather than Mississippi, with its own requirements. This page doesn't have a confirmed specific fee, ADR, or occupancy figure for Crystal Beach beyond the $44,416 revenue and 131-listing figures above, and won't guess those numbers. A host comparing the two markets on rate and occupancy specifically, rather than just typical annual revenue, needs to confirm those figures directly with Crystal Beach's own desk or a market data source before building a pricing plan around them.

The revenue-per-listing gap between the two towns is worth sitting with for a moment, because it cuts against a naive assumption that a bigger listing count automatically means a stronger market. Bay St. Louis has more than 2.5 times Crystal Beach's listing count, yet Crystal Beach's typical property earns substantially more. That combination can reflect several different underlying dynamics - a higher average ADR on the Texas beach market, a shorter but more concentrated peak season that a per-listing figure doesn't fully capture, or simply a different mix of property sizes and amenity levels between the two markets - and this page doesn't have enough confirmed detail on Crystal Beach specifically to say which explanation dominates. What's clear is that neither town's figure predicts the other's, and a buyer or host shouldn't assume a market with more total listings is automatically the stronger opportunity on a per-property basis.

Crystal Beach's known guest draw centers on its beachfront - a Bolivar Peninsula strip of Gulf-facing sand distinct from Bay St. Louis's Old Town, harbor, and marina identity. A listing description that borrows Bay St. Louis's historic-downtown language for a Crystal Beach property, or vice versa, reads as generic to a guest who actually knows the difference between a Texas beach town and a Mississippi harbor town.

The 30-Night Minimum Belongs to Bay St. Louis, Not to Occupancy

It's worth repeating this distinction on its own, separate from the general Bay St. Louis numbers section above, because it's the single most common way this comparison gets misread in a packet: 28.8% of Bay St. Louis's 340 listings using a 30-night minimum stay structure is a host-chosen calendar setting, not a measurement of how full the town's listings actually run. Occupancy - 31.5% - is measured independently and describes actual booked nights against available nights, regardless of what minimum-stay rule a given listing enforces.

A host or investor building a comparison packet across both towns should never substitute one figure for the other. Citing "28.8% occupancy" when the real figure is 31.5%, or implying that the share of 30-night-minimum listings explains the occupancy number, misstates what the data actually shows. There's no equivalent 30-night-minimum figure confirmed for Crystal Beach in the available source data, so this page won't assume Crystal Beach's listing base follows the same stay-length pattern Bay St. Louis's does.

Why Vermilion Doesn't Belong in Either Town's Revenue Line

Vermilion, Ohio shows up in some of the same research pulled for this comparison, with $29,012 typical annual revenue across 78 listings. That's a real, separately sourced figure - but it describes a different town, a different state, and a different lake-versus-Gulf market entirely from both Bay St. Louis and Crystal Beach. The fact that all three are small waterfront towns doesn't make them comparable markets any more than three towns sharing a coastline description would automatically share one revenue figure.

The specific risk here is a packet or listing description that averages Vermilion's Lake Erie figure into a "small waterfront town typical revenue" number alongside Bay St. Louis and Crystal Beach, producing a blended figure that doesn't accurately describe any of the three markets. Bay St. Louis's $25,594, Crystal Beach's $44,416, and Vermilion's $29,012 need to stay on three separate, clearly labeled lines in any document that references more than one of them - never averaged, blended, or presented as interchangeable waterfront-town benchmarks.

The same caution applies to seasonal framing. Vermilion's Lake Erie season runs on a summer-only calendar shaped by Ohio winters that effectively shut the market down for months. Bay St. Louis's extended June-through-October peak, plus a real May showing, reflects a longer Gulf Coast warm season entirely disconnected from Lake Erie's climate. Borrowing one town's seasonal pricing calendar for the other - assuming both towns go quiet at the same time of year, or peak on the same months - would misprice both markets in exactly the months where the actual data diverges most.

What Belongs in Each Town's Listing Copy

Bay St. Louis's genuine landmarks are specific and worth naming directly: Old Town, the historic harbor, the beachfront, and the marina. A listing that names these gives a guest specifically searching for Bay St. Louis a concrete reason to book it over a generic "Gulf of Mexico getaway" listing that could describe a dozen other coastal towns from Texas to the Florida Panhandle.

None of Bay St. Louis's landmark, guest-origin, or permitting detail applies to a Crystal Beach listing, and the reverse is equally true. A host running listings in both markets, or a marketing packet covering both, should keep every fee, phone number, landmark, and performance figure attributed to its own town, since the two share only a loose "Gulf Coast small town" category and comparatively little else once you get past that surface-level label.

This matters most at the exact moment a host or agent is drafting copy under time pressure and reaches for a template that worked for a different Gulf Coast listing. A Bay St. Louis property described as having "pristine Gulf beaches" without naming Old Town, the harbor, or the marina specifically loses the local-search advantage that naming those landmarks provides, and it reads as interchangeable with any other coastal listing a guest is comparing it against. The extra ten minutes it takes to write town-specific copy, rather than reusing a generic coastal template, is exactly the kind of detail that separates a listing a guest remembers from one they scroll past.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Bay St. Louis, Mississippi's typical annual short-term rental revenue?

AirROI's trailing-twelve-month data through July 2026 puts typical annual revenue at $25,594 across 340 active listings, with a $279 average daily rate and 31.5 percent occupancy. Revenue moved down 4.5 percent year over year while active listing supply held essentially flat, pointing toward a modest, real softening in per-listing demand rather than dilution from a wave of new competition entering the market.

What is Crystal Beach, Texas's typical annual short-term rental revenue?

The same source window puts Crystal Beach's typical annual revenue at $44,416 across 131 active listings. That's a meaningfully higher per-listing figure than Bay St. Louis's on a listing base less than half the size, a smaller market with higher typical earnings per property rather than a larger, lower-earning pool. This page doesn't have a confirmed ADR or occupancy figure for Crystal Beach beyond that revenue and listing count.

Who do I call about a Bay St. Louis short-term rental permit?

Bay St. Louis's Planning office handles permitting and can be reached at 228-466-5516. The permit is published as a $100 form, a figure worth confirming as the current live fee directly with the desk, along with whether it covers full compliance or just the initial application, since some municipalities separate an application fee from a separate inspection or renewal charge.

Who do I call about a Crystal Beach short-term rental permit?

Crystal Beach's permitting runs through its own separate Texas desk, entirely distinct from Bay St. Louis's Mississippi Planning office. This page doesn't have a confirmed specific phone number or fee for that desk, so look up Crystal Beach's current local contact and confirm requirements directly before listing rather than assuming the process mirrors Bay St. Louis's.

Can Vermilion, Ohio's revenue figure be averaged into a Bay St. Louis or Crystal Beach comparison?

No. Vermilion, Ohio published $29,012 in typical annual revenue across 78 listings, a separately sourced figure describing a different town, a different state, and a lake-versus-Gulf market entirely. Bay St. Louis's $25,594 and Crystal Beach's $44,416 need to stay on their own labeled lines. All three being small waterfront towns doesn't make them one comparable market, and their seasonal calendars diverge just as much as their revenue figures.

Does a 30-night minimum stay mean Bay St. Louis has low occupancy?

No, those are two separate measurements. About 28.8 percent of Bay St. Louis's 340 listings, or 98 properties, use a 30-night minimum stay structure, which reflects a host's own calendar choice rather than a measurement of the town's overall demand. Bay St. Louis's occupancy figure of 31.5 percent is reported independently of that stay-length pattern, so the two numbers should never be substituted for each other in a comparison packet.

Does sales tax apply to short-term stays under 30 days in Bay St. Louis?

It can. Sales tax obligations don't automatically disappear just because a stay runs under the 30-day mark sometimes associated with longer-term rental exemptions. Confirm current tax treatment directly with the relevant Mississippi tax authority rather than assuming a short stay is exempt by default from state and local lodging tax obligations.

Which town has a higher typical revenue per listing, Bay St. Louis or Crystal Beach?

Crystal Beach, by a wide margin, at $44,416 typical annual revenue compared to Bay St. Louis's $25,594. Crystal Beach's smaller listing base, 131 versus Bay St. Louis's 340, means fewer properties are splitting a higher typical payout, a different market structure than Bay St. Louis's larger, lower-per-listing-revenue market. A bigger total listing count doesn't automatically mean the stronger opportunity on a per-property basis.

What actually distinguishes Bay St. Louis's and Crystal Beach's identities as travel destinations?

Bay St. Louis is built around Old Town, its historic harbor, a beachfront strip, and a working marina in Hancock County, Mississippi. Crystal Beach sits on the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas, a different state entirely, with its guest draw centered on Gulf-facing beachfront rather than a historic downtown or marina. Listing copy that borrows one town's landmark language for the other reads as generic to a guest who actually knows the difference between the two.

What are Bay St. Louis's strongest and weakest months for short-term rental revenue?

The three strongest months are June, October, and May, with January the clear slowest month, a pattern that runs longer than a pure summer season and reflects the Gulf Coast's extended warm-weather window. Guests book an average of 3.8 nights and arrive about 60 days ahead of the stay, with New Orleans as the largest single origin market followed by Baton Rouge.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Crystal Beach's typical listing earns nearly twice Bay St. Louis's on less than half the listing count - two very different Gulf Coast market shapes, not a bigger and smaller version of the same one.

We help hosts compare Gulf Coast markets like these on each town's own confirmed numbers and permitting desk, never a blended guess. Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502. Send the live listing draft and the facts you can actually cite.

Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.