Homer, Alaska STR Market Report 2026: A Host's Real Read

Thomas Garner
6 hours ago
15 min read

Homer Spit and Kachemak Bay from the hillside, Homer Alaska, no people

If you host a short-term rental in Homer, Alaska, you already know the town runs on a short, intense window of visitor demand bracketed by a long, quiet stretch the rest of the year. What you may not know is that the three platforms tracking that demand right now — AirROI, AirDNA, and Rabbu — are telling meaningfully different stories about how big your market actually is, how many competitors you have, and how much a typical Homer listing earns. None of the three numbers is wrong exactly. They are measuring different slices of the same halibut-and-glacier-view town, with different sample sizes, different update cadences, and different blind spots.

This report walks through what each platform is currently showing for Homer, why the gaps between them are wide enough to matter for pricing decisions, and what a host sitting on Bishop's Beach Road or up on the Homer Spit should actually take away from all three. The short version: AirROI is tracking the largest and most current sample, AirDNA is working from a much smaller and recently shrinking dataset, and Rabbu sits in between on sample size but tells a lower-revenue story than either. None of them should be averaged together. Each one is a lens, not the whole picture.

This report also flags where the City of Homer's own housing-stock estimate for short-term rental units fits into the picture, because that number is doing a different job than any of the three revenue platforms and gets confused with them constantly. Read on for the season-by-season detail, the platform-by-platform breakdown, and a set of pricing and listing takeaways you can act on before the next booking window opens.

This is not legal advice, and none of the marketing guidance on this page replaces reading your own contracts or confirming local rules with the relevant office.

The AirROI baseline: $21,102 typical, 37.9 percent occupancy

The most current, broadest read on the Homer market comes from AirROI's city page, last updated August 8, 2026, covering the trailing twelve months from August 2025 through July 2026. AirROI is tracking 503 active listings in Homer for this window — by far the largest sample of the three platforms discussed here — and it puts the typical Homer host's annual revenue at $21,102. Occupancy across that sample sits at 37.9 percent, with an average daily rate of $295 and RevPAR (revenue per available night, blending occupancy and rate into one number) of $119.

August is the peak month in this dataset, which tracks with what most Homer hosts already feel in their booking calendars: the halibut fishing season, the tail end of long daylight, and the last real push of summer travelers before the weather turns. January is the low point, which is no surprise in a town where winter travel drops off sharply and daylight hours shrink to a few hours a day.

The year-over-year trend in the AirROI data is a decline of 24.4 percent in revenue, which is a meaningful drop and worth sitting with rather than glossing over. Lead time — how far in advance guests are booking — averages 79 days, and the average stay length is 3.8 nights. Notably, this entire dataset sits under the $45,000 threshold that some hosts use as a mental benchmark for a strong Homer year; the AirROI number is well below that line, and hosts using a $45,000 figure as their planning target should treat that number as aspirational rather than typical based on this data source.

AirROI also breaks down the distribution beneath that headline number in useful ways. The median monthly revenue for a Homer listing is about $2,291, while the top 10 percent of listings pull in $6,431 or more per month. Entire-home listings make up 89.1 percent of the Homer market, meaning shared rooms and partial-unit listings are a small minority here — most guests booking Homer want the whole place to themselves, which tracks with the family-fishing-trip and multi-generational-vacation nature of a lot of Homer travel. Thirty percent of listings carry a 30-plus night minimum stay, which is a meaningful chunk of the market oriented toward longer-term or seasonal-worker style bookings rather than weekend tourism. Superhost status is held by 72.0 percent of listings, a high rate that suggests a mature, experienced host base in this market. Only 11.9 percent of listings use professional management, meaning the overwhelming majority of Homer hosts are running their properties themselves — which is worth knowing if you're benchmarking your own time investment against the market rather than assuming most of your competitors have outsourced the work.

AirDNA's smaller lens: $42.3K typical, but only 46 listings

AirDNA's Homer overview, updated September 1, 2026 with data through August 2026, tells a strikingly different story. It shows only 46 active listings — less than a tenth of AirROI's 503 — with a typical annual revenue of $42.3K, occupancy at 45 percent, an average daily rate of $404, and RevPAR of $180. Revenue is up 84.9 percent year over year in this dataset, which is close to the mirror opposite of what AirROI is showing for the same general period.

Here's where the story gets genuinely useful for a host trying to understand what's happening: AirDNA's own dashboard shows listings down 94.8 percent year over year. That is not a typo, and it is the single most important number for interpreting everything else on that page. When a dashboard's tracked listing count collapses by nearly 95 percent, every other year-over-year comparison built on top of that shrunken sample becomes close to meaningless for market-wide conclusions. A tiny, possibly non-representative pool of 46 listings that happen to still be tracked can post very different average numbers than a broad 503-listing sample, purely as a function of which specific properties remain in the dataset — not because the underlying Homer market actually got smaller or richer.

The occupancy trend inside AirDNA's own numbers reinforces this: even with revenue supposedly climbing 84.9 percent, occupancy is down 21.4 percent year over year in the same dataset. Rising revenue paired with falling occupancy is a real pattern that can happen (it usually means rate increases are outrunning demand softness), but combined with a near-total collapse in tracked listing count, it should be read as a dashboard-methodology story first and a market-fundamentals story a distant second.

It's worth pausing on why a listing-count collapse like this matters so much for interpretation. When a dataset shrinks from a broader pool down to 46 listings, the properties that remain tracked are not necessarily a random cross-section of the market — they may be the properties that stayed active on whichever booking channels AirDNA scrapes, kept consistent calendar data, or simply didn't get delisted or relisted under a new identifier during the period in question. Any of those factors could push the remaining sample's average rate and revenue upward or downward independent of what's actually happening to Homer's broader host community. That's the core reason this report treats AirDNA's Homer figures as a supplementary signal rather than a primary planning number.

The practical host takeaway: treat AirDNA's Homer figures as a small-sample signal, not a market-size benchmark. If your own listing's performance looks nothing like AirDNA's $42.3K, $404 ADR picture, you are not necessarily underperforming — you may simply not be one of the 46 listings AirDNA happened to retain in its sample after a 94.8 percent listing count drop. AirROI's broader, more current 503-listing sample is the more defensible baseline for typical-year planning in Homer right now.

Rabbu's third read: 118 listings, $44,015 annual, lower occupancy

Rabbu's Homer data, dated April 27, 2026, adds a third independent perspective with a sample size of 118 listings — larger than AirDNA's 46 but well under a quarter of AirROI's 503. Rabbu shows annual revenue of $44,015, occupancy of 30 percent, an average daily rate of $235, and RevPAN (revenue per available night, Rabbu's version of the RevPAR metric) of $69.

What's notable about the Rabbu numbers is that they combine the lowest occupancy figure of the three platforms (30 percent, versus AirROI's 37.9 percent and AirDNA's 45 percent) with the highest headline annual revenue figure ($44,015, versus AirROI's $21,102 and AirDNA's $42.3K). That combination only makes arithmetic sense if Rabbu's underlying average daily rate assumptions, sample composition, or revenue-attribution methodology differ substantially from the other two platforms — and they do. Rabbu's $235 ADR sits well below both AirROI's $295 and AirDNA's $404, meaning Rabbu is pairing a lower nightly rate with lower occupancy but still landing on a higher annual total, which points to differences in which listings Rabbu is sampling and how it's annualizing partial-year data rather than a genuinely different market reality.

For a host trying to reconcile all three, the honest answer is that you can't fully reconcile them, and you shouldn't try. Averaging AirROI's $21,102 with AirDNA's $42.3K and Rabbu's $44,015 to land on some blended $35,000-ish 'true' number would be a mistake — that math treats three differently-constructed samples as if they were three independent measurements of the same underlying quantity, when in fact they're built on different listing pools, different date ranges, and different definitions of what counts as an active Homer listing. The right approach is to lead with AirROI as your primary planning reference because of its larger and more current sample, note AirDNA's figures with an explicit small-sample caveat, and hold Rabbu up as a third data point that reinforces the general theme of wide platform disagreement rather than as a number to plan a season around on its own.

The City of Homer's 326-unit estimate: a different question entirely

Separate from all three revenue platforms, the City of Homer's own short-term rental page cites an estimate of roughly 326 STR units in the community. It's tempting to look at that number next to AirROI's 503 tracked listings or AirDNA's 46 and assume one of them must be 'the' correct count of Homer short-term rentals. That's not quite the right way to read it. The city's 326 figure is a housing-stock estimate — an attempt to quantify how many housing units in Homer are being used as short-term rentals, which is a policy and planning question about local housing supply.

AirROI's 503 and AirDNA's 46 are platform-tracked listing counts — a measure of how many active listings each company's data infrastructure is currently picking up on booking platforms, which is a market-size question for pricing and demand purposes. These are genuinely different questions, built from different data collection methods, and there's no reason to expect them to match. A single physical property can also show up as multiple 'listings' across different booking sites, or a city's housing-unit count might use a stricter or looser definition of what qualifies as a short-term rental than a data aggregator does.

The practical guidance here: don't treat the 326-unit city estimate as a contradiction of AirROI's 503-listing sample, and don't blend the two into a single supply number. They're answering different questions for different audiences. Likewise, if you're comparing your Homer numbers against Kenai Peninsula neighbors, keep Homer's data separate from Soldotna, Seward, or Kenai — those are distinct municipal markets with their own regulatory environments, seasonal patterns, and city-level estimates, and mashing their reported years together with Homer's produces a blended figure that doesn't describe any single town accurately.

Vintage matters: why the February 2026 AirROI report and the August 2026 city page disagree

There's a second layer of AirROI-versus-AirROI confusion worth flagging on its own, separate from the AirROI-versus-AirDNA-versus-Rabbu story. An older AirROI report page, last updated February 1, 2026 and covering the trailing twelve months from February 2025 through January 2026, printed a median annual revenue of $27,944, occupancy of 44.4 percent, and a sample size of 484 listings. That's notably higher revenue and occupancy than the current August 8, 2026 city-page figures of $21,102 and 37.9 percent — even though both come from the same AirROI platform.

This is not a data error. It's two different vintages of the same underlying dataset, covering two different trailing twelve-month windows: February 2025 through January 2026 versus August 2025 through July 2026. Homer's market moved between those two windows — the AirROI data itself shows a 24.4 percent year-over-year revenue decline in the more recent read, so it makes sense that the earlier vintage, capturing an earlier and apparently stronger twelve-month stretch, would show higher numbers. The sample size also shifted slightly, from 484 to 503 listings, reflecting normal platform churn as listings are added and removed from tracking over time.

The host-facing lesson is straightforward: when you pull an AirROI figure for Homer, check the 'updated' date and the trailing-twelve-month window it covers before you cite it or compare it to anything else. Don't mix a February 2026 report's numbers into an August 2026 analysis, and don't assume that because a number came from the same platform, it's automatically comparable to another number from that same platform pulled six months apart. This report leads with the August 8, 2026 city-page figures ($21,102, 37.9 percent occupancy, n=503) as the current, operative AirROI read for Homer, and treats the February vintage as historical context showing the direction of the year-over-year decline, not as a competing current estimate.

Pricing and listing takeaways for Homer hosts

Pulling this together into something you can act on: your realistic planning baseline for a typical Homer listing this year is closer to AirROI's $21,102 than to AirDNA's $42.3K or Rabbu's $44,015, given AirROI's much larger and more current sample. If your own numbers are running well above that baseline, congratulations — you may be operating more like the top 10 percent of AirROI's distribution, which is pulling in $6,431 or more per month during strong stretches, or you may be one of the smaller pool of listings that AirDNA and Rabbu happen to be sampling, which skew toward stronger performance. Either way, benchmark yourself against the platform whose sample size gives you the most confidence, and don't panic if a single-platform number looks worse than what you're personally earning.

On seasonality, the AirROI data confirms what most Homer hosts feel in their bones: August is peak, January is the trough, and the average stay of 3.8 nights combined with a 79-day average lead time means your marketing and pricing work needs to be locked in well before the summer rush, not adjusted reactively once bookings start rolling in. With 89.1 percent of the market being entire-home listings, differentiating on layout, view, or proximity to the Spit matters more than competing on shared-space amenities. And with professional management sitting at just 11.9 percent of listings, a well-run owner-operated listing is not at a structural disadvantage in this market — most of your competition is in the same boat.

The 30 percent of listings carrying 30-plus night minimums is also worth watching if you're deciding how to structure your own calendar. That's a meaningful chunk of the Homer market oriented toward longer stays — possibly seasonal workers, medical travelers, or extended-family visitors — rather than the classic weekend tourist. If your property and location suit longer stays, that segment represents real, underserved-feeling demand sitting alongside the traditional summer tourism window, and it's one way to smooth out some of the occupancy dip that shows up outside peak season.

Finally, take the three-platform disagreement itself as useful market intelligence rather than noise to filter out. A market where AirROI, AirDNA, and Rabbu diverge by more than 20 percent on nearly every core metric — sample size, occupancy, ADR, and annual revenue alike — is a market where guest demand data is still maturing and where a host who understands the discrepancy has a real information edge over one who just Googles 'Homer Alaska Airbnb income' and repeats back whatever the first result says. Cite your sources specifically when you talk pricing strategy with a co-host, a property manager, or a fellow Homer owner, and always note which platform, which sample size, and which trailing-twelve-month window a given figure came from. That habit alone will put you ahead of most casual market research being done on Homer right now.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do AirROI, AirDNA, and Rabbu show such different revenue numbers for Homer, Alaska?

Each platform samples a different number of listings and updates on a different schedule, so they're not measuring the exact same market snapshot. AirROI tracks 503 Homer listings as of its August 8, 2026 update, AirDNA tracks only 46, and Rabbu tracks 118 as of April 27, 2026. Smaller samples are more sensitive to which specific properties happen to be included, which is why AirDNA's $42.3K and Rabbu's $44,015 both run well above AirROI's broader $21,102 typical-year figure. Lead with the largest, most current sample rather than averaging all three together.

What is a realistic typical annual revenue for a Homer short-term rental?

Based on AirROI's August 8, 2026 city-page data, which covers the largest sample at 503 listings, the typical Homer host earns about $21,102 per year at 37.9 percent occupancy and a $295 average daily rate. That figure sits well below the $45,000 mark some hosts use as an informal benchmark, so treat $45,000 as an aspirational stretch goal rather than a typical outcome. The top 10 percent of listings in this same dataset earn $6,431 or more per month during strong stretches, showing real upside for well-positioned properties.

Why does AirDNA show Homer listings down 94.8 percent year over year?

AirDNA's own dashboard shows its tracked Homer listing count dropping from a larger prior-year figure to just 46 active listings as of its September 1, 2026 update. This is very likely a dataset or tracking-methodology shift on AirDNA's side rather than evidence that Homer actually lost nearly all of its short-term rentals in a single year. Because that shrinking sample also shows revenue up 84.9 percent, it's safer to read AirDNA's Homer numbers as reflecting a small, shifted subset of listings rather than the whole market.

Is Homer's short-term rental market growing or shrinking?

The honest answer is that the platforms disagree, which is itself informative. AirROI's broader, more current sample shows a 24.4 percent year-over-year revenue decline, while AirDNA's much smaller sample shows an 84.9 percent revenue increase alongside a 21.4 percent occupancy decline and a near-total collapse in tracked listing count. Given AirROI's larger and more recent sample, the revenue-decline story is the more defensible read for market-wide planning, but hosts should watch their own individual booking pace as the most reliable signal for their specific property.

How many short-term rentals are actually operating in Homer?

It depends which number you're asking about, because different sources are answering different questions. The City of Homer's own estimate puts the housing-stock figure at roughly 326 STR units, which measures how many local housing units function as short-term rentals for planning purposes. AirROI's platform-tracked listing count is 503, and AirDNA's is 46 — both measuring active bookable listings rather than housing units. These figures aren't meant to match, and blending them into a single supply number misrepresents what each is actually measuring.

What's the difference between the February 2026 and August 2026 AirROI reports on Homer?

They cover two different trailing twelve-month windows from the same platform. The February 1, 2026 report covers February 2025 through January 2026 and shows median annual revenue of $27,944 at 44.4 percent occupancy with 484 listings. The current August 8, 2026 city page covers August 2025 through July 2026 and shows $21,102 typical revenue at 37.9 percent occupancy with 503 listings. The gap reflects real market movement between those two windows, including the 24.4 percent year-over-year decline the newer report captures, not a data inconsistency.

What time of year sees the most short-term rental demand in Homer?

August is the peak month for Homer short-term rentals according to AirROI's current city-page data, capturing the tail end of summer travel, extended daylight, and the height of the halibut fishing season. January is the lowest month, consistent with Homer's steep winter drop-off in tourism and shortened daylight hours. With an average lead time of 79 days, hosts should have pricing, photos, and calendars finalized well before spring if they want to capture peak summer demand.

Should I set my Homer listing's minimum stay length based on this data?

AirROI's data shows the average Homer stay lasts 3.8 nights, but 30 percent of listings in the market carry a 30-plus night minimum, indicating meaningful demand from longer-stay guests such as seasonal workers or extended-family visitors. If your property suits longer stays, that segment can help smooth out occupancy during shoulder and off-peak months when short-stay tourist demand drops off. A mixed approach — shorter minimums in peak summer, longer minimums in the off-season — can capture both demand types without leaving calendar gaps.

Are there Homer-specific short-term rental regulations I need to know about?

AirROI labels Homer's regulatory environment as 'low' on its platform, but that is a vendor-assigned characterization for market-comparison purposes, not an official reading of City of Homer code. Hosts should check the City of Homer's short-term rental page directly for current permitting, registration, and zoning requirements rather than relying on any data platform's regulation label. This is not legal advice, and hosts with specific compliance questions should confirm requirements directly with the City of Homer or a qualified local professional.

Does professional management improve performance in the Homer market?

AirROI's data shows only 11.9 percent of Homer listings use professional management, meaning the large majority of hosts — 72.0 percent of whom hold Superhost status — are self-managing their properties. This suggests an owner-operated listing is not structurally disadvantaged in Homer's current market, since most of the competition is also owner-run. Strong photos, accurate listing details, and responsive communication appear to matter more in this market than whether a third-party management company is involved.

Why shouldn't I average the AirROI, AirDNA, and Rabbu numbers together to get one Homer figure?

Averaging assumes all three platforms are measuring the same underlying population with equal reliability, which isn't true here — their sample sizes range from 46 to 503 listings, their date ranges don't fully align, and their methodologies for calculating occupancy, ADR, and annual revenue differ. Blending $21,102, $42.3K, and $44,015 into one number would produce a figure that doesn't accurately represent any of the three underlying samples. It's more useful to present all three labeled separately and let the size and recency of each sample guide how much weight you give it.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Three different platforms are telling three different stories about your Homer listing's potential this year. Knowing which one to trust — and why they disagree — is the first real edge you can build into your pricing and positioning.

A sharper listing starts with knowing your actual market, not a blended guess pulled from mismatched dashboards. Let's get your Homer photos, pricing, and positioning built around the demand data that actually holds up.

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