Jamestown, RI STR Tourism Data: What the Island's Landmarks Actually

Jamestown sits on Conanicut Island in the middle of Narragansett Bay, and that geography is the whole marketing story most listings miss. A generic "Narragansett Bay stay" pitch could describe Newport, Little Compton, or a dozen other Rhode Island coastal towns, and every day a Jamestown listing runs that caption is a day it competes with towns that have nothing to do with the guest who actually typed "Jamestown" into a search bar. That guest is looking for Beavertail Lighthouse, Fort Wetherill State Park, East Ferry, and Mackerel Cove, not a vague water view that could belong anywhere on the coast.

The island's short-term rental market is a small one by design, and the numbers reflect that scale. AirROI's trailing-twelve-month extract through July 2026, dated 2026-08-08, towns typical Jamestown listings at about $29,691 in annual revenue across 92 active rentals, at a $440 average nightly rate and 31.4 percent occupancy. Revenue per available night runs $153, and year over year the market is down 9.6 percent even as active supply grew 9.5 percent. With a sample of just 92 listings, this is a market where a handful of standout or underperforming properties can move the average noticeably, so the figure deserves to be read as directional rather than as a precision instrument.

This piece walks through what actually drives demand on this island, how to read the calendar and the origin data without overselling it, and what Town Desk requires before a listing goes live, using only the numbers this sample actually supports. Nothing here is blended with a neighboring town's year, and nothing here treats a landmark's foot traffic as a stand-in for a booked calendar.

That distinction — between what draws a visitor to Jamestown and what actually fills a calendar — runs through every section below. Tourism data tells a host who is coming and why. Revenue and occupancy data tell a host what those visits are actually worth to a specific listing. Confusing the two, treating a landmark's popularity as proof of strong occupancy, is one of the more common mistakes in how coastal markets get pitched to buyers, and it's an easy one to avoid once the two categories are kept separate. This is not legal advice.

Beavertail Lighthouse Is the Reason Guests Book, Not a Caption to Bury

Beavertail Lighthouse is the single most recognizable landmark on Conanicut Island, sitting at the island's southern tip where Narragansett Bay meets the open water. Guests who search for Jamestown are frequently searching with this specific place in mind, and a listing description that buries it under a generic "waterfront getaway" line is leaving an obvious, free piece of search relevance on the table. Naming the lighthouse, describing the walk or drive to it, and being specific about distance and access does more for a listing's conversion rate than any amount of stock coastal-New-England language.

The same logic applies to how a host should think about photography. A sunset shot from Beavertail's rocky shoreline, or a caption that mentions the walking trail around the point, signals to a browsing guest that this listing understands the island rather than treating it as interchangeable listing stock. That specificity matters more in a market this size — with only 92 active listings on the current extract, a host isn't competing against thousands of nearly identical properties the way a guest would find in a larger coastal market. Standing out here is less about volume and more about precision.

Fort Wetherill and East Ferry Are Landscape, Not a Substitute for Occupancy Data

Fort Wetherill State Park, on the island's east side, draws hikers, divers, and picnickers to its old coastal fortifications and rocky bluffs, and East Ferry is the historic landing that anchors the village center with its shops and harbor views. Both are genuine, marketable draws, and both deserve a specific mention in listing copy for the same reason Beavertail does — they tell a guest exactly what kind of trip they're booking. But it's worth being precise about what these landmarks actually represent: they are evidence of why people visit Jamestown, not a data point that can be converted into an occupancy percentage or a revenue figure.

That distinction matters most when a host or a buyer is building a underwriting packet. It's tempting to lean on "we're five minutes from a state park" as if that alone justifies a premium rate, but the number that actually justifies pricing decisions is the market's own performance data — the $440 average night, the 31.4 percent occupancy, the seasonal pattern below. Landmarks earn their place in the marketing copy. The extract earns its place in the financial model. Keeping those two roles separate is the difference between an honest listing and an oversold one.

Mackerel Cove Rounds Out the Island's Draw

Mackerel Cove, a sheltered beach on the island's west side, is the fourth landmark worth naming specifically in Jamestown marketing copy, alongside Beavertail, Fort Wetherill, and East Ferry. It's a calmer, more family-oriented beach than the open-water spots, and a listing within reasonable distance of it should say so plainly rather than defaulting to a generic "near the beach" line. Guests planning a family trip and guests planning a lighthouse-and-hiking weekend are looking for different signals, and a listing that names the actual beach lets the right guest self-select faster.

Together, these four landmarks — Beavertail Lighthouse, Fort Wetherill State Park, East Ferry, and Mackerel Cove — form the core of what makes Jamestown a distinct booking search rather than an interchangeable Narragansett Bay stay. A listing description that touches all four, specifically and briefly, does more work than a paragraph of atmospheric adjectives.

Reading the Calendar: August Leads, January Is the Slow Month

Jamestown's strongest three months on the current extract are August, June, and September, with August the clear peak. That pattern tracks with a classic New England coastal calendar — a market that leans hard into summer and holds some shoulder-season strength into early fall before tapering. January is the slowest month, which is typical for an island market with limited winter draw beyond the lighthouse and a quiet village.

Typical stay length runs 4.9 nights, and guests book about 101 days ahead on average — a lead time that rewards hosts who get their summer calendar priced and published well before spring. A 101-day booking window means a host still fine-tuning July pricing in May is already behind a meaningful share of the market's actual booking activity. The practical takeaway: treat winter as a genuinely slow season rather than trying to manufacture demand that the data doesn't show, and use the long lead time to get pricing locked in early for the August-June-September stretch that does the heavy lifting.

Where Guests Come From, and What a 30-Night Minimum Actually Means

New York is the top origin market for Jamestown guests, followed by Boston — a pattern consistent with a coastal Rhode Island destination pulling from the two nearest major metros rather than drawing a genuinely national audience. Superhost share in this sample runs 52.2 percent, meaning just over half the active listings carry that designation, a reasonably high bar for a market this size.

One data point worth flagging clearly: 56.5 percent of Jamestown's 92 listings, or 52 of them, currently set a 30-night minimum stay. That's a meaningful share, but it's a platform filter, not a measure of occupancy or demand. A host shouldn't read that statistic as evidence that Jamestown has quietly become a monthly-rental market — the 31.4 percent occupancy figure and the 4.9-night typical stay length tell the actual booking story, and those two numbers describe a market still built around shorter coastal getaways rather than extended stays.

Registering a Jamestown Short-Term Rental Before You List

Jamestown requires host registration through Town Desk, reachable at 401-423-7200, with an annual fee of $125 plus additional per-bedroom fees. Hosts also need to register separately with the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation. Both of these should be confirmed as currently live before a listing goes up — municipal fee schedules and registration processes are the kind of detail that gets revised, and a host relying on secondhand information risks listing under an outdated fee structure.

It's also worth being precise about what a data provider's "low-regulation" label actually means here. That kind of label typically reflects a scrape of publicly visible active listings, not Town Desk's actual permit or registration file. Treating a listings scrape as proof that Jamestown has minimal enforcement is a mistake that can cost a host real money or a real compliance problem down the line. Newport, just across the water, is a separate municipality with its own separate rules, and its registration requirements shouldn't be assumed to carry over to a Jamestown address.

Keeping Jamestown's Year Off Neighboring Towns' Books

Two nearby markets show up often enough in broker conversations and comparison spreadsheets that they're worth naming directly, so a host or buyer knows exactly what not to do with them. Little Compton, a separate Newport County town with its own coastal identity, published about $31,744 in typical annual revenue from 71 listings on the same kind of trailing-twelve-month extract — a real, dedicated town figure, and a higher one than Jamestown's, but describing a genuinely different market with its own calendar and its own permit desk.

A second town, sometimes cited alongside Jamestown in broader regional comparisons, published about $29,110 from 189 listings — a much larger sample from a market outside Rhode Island entirely. Both of these figures belong in a comparison column, clearly labeled, if a buyer is evaluating multiple coastal markets side by side. Neither belongs blended into a Jamestown underwriting file. The $29,691 figure on 92 Jamestown listings is the number that describes this specific island market, and it should stay on its own line.

The reason this discipline matters more here than in a larger market is scale. When a town's sample is only 92 listings, a spreadsheet error that quietly averages in a neighboring town's 71 or 189 listings can shift the blended number meaningfully — enough to change a pricing decision or a purchase offer. Every comparison in a Jamestown packet should carry its own town name, its own listing count, and its own date range, so anyone reviewing the file later can trace exactly where each figure came from.

What a Buyer or Host Should Actually Do With This Data

Put together, the useful version of a Jamestown underwriting file is narrower and more specific than a generic coastal-market pitch, and that's a strength, not a limitation. It starts with the current extract — $29,691 in typical annual revenue, $440 average night, 31.4 percent occupancy, on 92 active listings — and treats that figure as directional given the modest sample size rather than as a guaranteed outcome for any individual property. It names the island's landmarks specifically in marketing copy rather than defaulting to atmospheric water-view language. It respects the actual seasonal pattern, leaning into the August-June-September stretch and treating January realistically as the slow month rather than trying to manufacture winter demand the data doesn't support.

It also keeps the compliance side current rather than assumed. Town Desk's $125 annual registration fee plus per-bedroom charges, and the separate Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation filing, are both the kind of requirement that should be reconfirmed directly before a listing goes live, not taken on faith from an older post or a broker's secondhand summary. A market this size rewards precision — in the marketing copy, in the financial model, and in the permit file — more than it rewards a broad, blended pitch borrowed from a bigger neighboring town.

Related Reading

More PLACE, STATE reading already live on Crest & Cove.

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• Complete Visitor's Guide to Jamestown — Jamestown Rhode Island Town

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a typical Jamestown STR year on the current extract?

AirROI's trailing-twelve-month extract through July 2026, dated 2026-08-08, lists typical Jamestown listings at about $29,691 in annual revenue from 92 active rentals. Average nightly rate runs $440 with occupancy at 31.4 percent, and year over year the market is down 9.6 percent even as supply grew 9.5 percent. With only 92 listings in the sample, treat this as a small, directional figure rather than a precision benchmark.

Can I average a neighboring town's numbers into this Jamestown year?

No. Little Compton published about $31,744 from 71 listings, and a separate outside-Rhode-Island market published about $29,110 from 189 listings — both real, dedicated figures for their own towns, but neither belongs blended into Jamestown's $29,691. Keep every town's revenue figure on its own labeled line in any underwriting packet or comparison spreadsheet.

Which months are strongest in Jamestown?

August, June, and September are the three strongest months on the current extract, with August the clear peak. January is the slowest month. Price the shoulder months and the winter stretch against this specific pattern rather than assuming a generic coastal New England calendar applies evenly across the year.

Where do most Jamestown guests come from?

New York is the top origin market, followed by Boston, which tracks with a coastal Rhode Island destination pulling from the two nearest major metros. Typical stay length is 4.9 nights, guests book about 101 days ahead on average, and Superhost share in this sample runs 52.2 percent.

Does a low-regulation label mean Jamestown has no permit requirement?

No. A low-regulation label from a data provider typically reflects a scrape of publicly visible listings, not the town's actual registration file. Jamestown requires Town Desk registration at 401-423-7200, with a $125 annual fee plus per-bedroom fees, and separate registration with the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation. Confirm both are still current before listing.

Is a 30-night minimum the same as occupancy?

No. About 56.5 percent of Jamestown's 92 listings, or 52 of them, currently set a 30-night minimum, but that's a platform filter rather than a measure of how full the calendar actually runs. Occupancy for the year sits at 31.4 percent and typical stay length is 4.9 nights — those two figures describe the actual booking pattern.

What landmarks should a Jamestown listing actually name?

Beavertail Lighthouse, Fort Wetherill State Park, East Ferry, and Mackerel Cove are the island's four defining draws, and naming them specifically in listing copy helps the guest who searched for Jamestown by name self-select faster than a generic waterfront caption ever could. Each landmark also signals a slightly different kind of trip, from lighthouse-and-hiking weekends to a calmer family beach day.

Is Newport the same market as Jamestown?

No. Newport is a separate municipality across the water with its own registration requirements and its own tourism identity. Jamestown's island geography, its Conanicut Island landmarks, and its own $29,691 figure on 92 listings describe a distinct, smaller market that shouldn't be marketed or underwritten as a Newport extension.

What should a buyer packet carry for a Jamestown STR purchase?

Cite the $29,691 typical year on 92 listings, the August-June-September strong months, January as the slow month, New York as the top origin market, a 4.9-night average stay, and the roughly 101-day booking lead time. Include the Town Desk registration line at 401-423-7200, and label any neighboring town's figures separately rather than folding them into the Jamestown number.

How reliable is the $29,691 figure given the small listing count?

Treat it as directional. Ninety-two active listings is a modest sample for a trailing-twelve-month figure, and a handful of standout or underperforming properties can move that average more than they would in a larger market. Keep it on its own line, confirm current permit and fee details directly with Town Desk, and don't lean on this single figure as a precision revenue projection for a specific property.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

A generic Narragansett Bay caption is costing this island its bookings. Guests who typed Jamestown want Beavertail Lighthouse, not a coastal placeholder.

We help Jamestown hosts write listings that name the actual landmarks and price against the real 92-listing extract, not a blended bay-area guess. Reach out at crestcove.co/audit or (256) 998-7502 to get started. Send the live listing draft and the facts you can actually cite.

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