Moab, UT STR Market Report 2026: Two Parks, One Town Year

Moab does not behave like most of the towns that get compared to it. It sits at the gate of two national parks, Arches and Canyonlands, with the Colorado River running through the middle of it and a mountain bike and climbing economy that has nothing to do with either park's entrance line. That combination produces a short-term rental year that looks nothing like a ski town's single winter peak or a beach town's single summer run. Moab runs two peaks a year, spring and fall, with a real heat trough in between, and a host who prices this town like anywhere else is going to leave money on the table twice.

The number this report is built around is $48,387 in typical annual revenue, drawn from an AirROI extract of 1,055 active listings for the window running August 2025 through July 2026. That works out to $4,032 a month, which is the figure the underlying brief for this cluster leads with -- worth stating explicitly as a monthly-times-twelve conversion of the same annual number, not two separate data points. Occupancy on that extract sits at 45.4%, average daily rate at $329, and RevPAR at $158.

A second source shows up in the same research and deserves its own line rather than a blend. Playcation's hobby-markets extract, published in May 2026, put typical Moab revenue at $46,171 on 1,014 active listings, with 48% occupancy and a $330 ADR. That is close to the AirROI figure but not identical, and it is an older pull on a smaller listing count. This report treats $48,387 as the current headline number and files $46,171 next to it as a WATCH figure -- present, sourced, dated, and never averaged into a single blended Moab mean.

What follows is a standalone Moab profile: the headline number, the seasonal pattern behind it, the zoning desk a host actually has to clear before any of this matters, and the neighbor towns that keep getting confused with this one. None of it should be read as legal advice, and none of the fee or ordinance detail here substitutes for the host's own confirmation with the City of Moab or Grand County directly. This is not legal advice.

The Headline Number: $48,387 on 1,055 Listings

$48,387 in typical annual revenue across 1,055 active Moab rentals is the load-bearing figure in this report, pulled from an AirROI extract covering August 2025 through July 2026. The brief that anchors this cluster labels the same figure as $4,032 a month -- a monthly-times-twelve conversion of the annual number, not a second data point, and this report keeps that labeling explicit rather than letting the two numbers drift apart in later citation.

Entire home or apartment listings make up 91.8% of that 1,055-listing count, which tells you something about the shape of Moab's listing stock: this is overwhelmingly a whole-house market, not a room-share or shared-space market, consistent with a guest base traveling in family groups, climbing crews, and river trips that need a full house rather than a spare bedroom. Supply in this sample grew 15.6% over the prior period, and the typical booking window -- the lead time between a guest booking and their stay -- runs about 64 days, which is a longer runway than a lot of drive-market towns see and worth building into a pricing calendar that opens further out.

The Playcation Figure: A Second Line, Not a Blend

Playcation's May 2026 hobby-markets extract put typical Moab revenue at $46,171 on 1,014 active listings, with 48% occupancy, a $330 ADR, and RevPAR of $160. Set next to the AirROI figures above -- $48,387, 1,055 listings, 45.4% occupancy, $329 ADR, $158 RevPAR -- the two extracts are close enough to corroborate the general shape of Moab's year but different enough in listing count and pull date that averaging them would produce a number that matches neither source's actual methodology.

The practical rule for a host or buyer working from this report: cite whichever extract you are quoting, by name and date, and do not average $48,387 with $46,171 to land on some in-between figure that neither AirROI nor Playcation actually measured. A number presented to a lender, a partner, or a prospective buyer should trace back to one named source, not a townwide vibe assembled from two.

Rate, Occupancy, and the Shape of a Desert Year

The $329 ADR sitting against 45.4% occupancy describes a market that leans on rate more than raw booking volume -- a listing here does not need to be full most nights to hit a strong annual number, but it does need to command a rate that reflects what the Arches and Canyonlands gateway position is actually worth. RevPAR of $158 is the figure that ties the two together, and it is the number worth watching month to month more than either ADR or occupancy in isolation, since a host can hit similar RevPAR through very different combinations of the two.

AirROI's peak revenue month in this sample is April, with January running the lowest. The broader peak season group is April, May, and October -- spring shoulder into early summer, then a fall rebound -- while January, February, and December sit soft. That is a dual-peak desert pattern: spring climbing and hiking weather book out first, fall brings cooler temperatures and a second wave once the summer heat breaks, and the depth of winter is genuinely quiet. A host building a full-year pricing calendar should treat those three peak months as the ones worth protecting most aggressively on minimum stay and rate floor, not spread that protection evenly across the calendar.

The middle of the calendar deserves its own read rather than a shrug. Moab's summer months sit between the confirmed spring and fall peaks, carrying real heat that changes how guests plan a trip -- fewer full-day hikes, more river time and early starts, a different daily rhythm than the shoulder months. That is a separate topic covered in depth elsewhere in this cluster, but it belongs in this report because a host reading only the peak-month list without the trough context is missing half the calendar's actual shape.

Guest Origin and Lead Time

A 64-day typical booking window is a long enough runway that a host can reasonably expect most of a given month's demand to already be visible well before the stay itself, which is useful for anyone deciding how far out to open a calendar or how aggressively to adjust pricing as a specific week fills in. Reacting to same-week demand the way a closer drive-market listing might is less useful in a market where the guest already committed two months earlier around a park visit, a permit, or a planned climbing or biking trip.

That lead time also shapes how a listing should merchandise itself. A guest booking 64 days out is often still deciding between towns, not just between listings within Moab -- which is exactly why the guest-facing copy on a listing needs to lead with what actually distinguishes this market: Arches and Canyonlands together, the Colorado River running through town, and a mountain bike and climbing identity that neither St. George nor Park City can claim. A separate piece in this cluster works through that listing-copy angle in full.

Supply Growth and What 15.6% Actually Means Here

Supply in this sample grew 15.6% over the prior period, which matters most in context of the 1,055-listing base it is measured against -- a meaningful jump, but one landing on a market that is not yet saturated the way some faster-growing gateway towns have become. Combined with 91.8% entire-home share, the picture is a market where whole-house listing stock keeps arriving steadily rather than a sudden flood, which gives an existing host time to sharpen positioning before undifferentiated competition catches up.

The 64-day typical booking window is worth reading alongside that supply growth. Guests planning a Moab trip this far ahead are typically building a trip around Arches, Canyonlands, a river permit, or a specific climbing or biking objective -- not booking a last-minute weekend the way a closer drive-market might see. That lead time gives a host real room to adjust pricing and messaging well before the stay, rather than reacting to same-week demand.

The Zoning Desk: City of Moab vs. Grand County

Moab short-term rentals sit under two possible desks depending on the parcel, and confusing the two is one of the more consequential mistakes a host or buyer can make in this market. Inside city limits, the City of Moab regulates short-term rentals through Moab Municipal Code 17.09.700, which prohibits residential short-term rentals in a list of zones -- including R-2, R-3, R-4, and others -- where the use is not permitted, with limited exceptions such as qualifying participant accommodations and compliant bed-and-breakfast or guest-apartment setups. That is a real prohibition on a meaningful share of city residential parcels, not a background regulatory footnote, and it should be confirmed against the current code before any purchase or listing decision.

Outside city limits, unincorporated Grand County runs its own desk: an Overnight Accommodations Overlay and a Title 5 business-license process that is structurally different from the city's zoning-compliance framework. A parcel's address alone does not tell you which desk applies -- city limits and the county overlay do not follow a simple line a host can guess at and the overnight-accommodations and established-lodging maps the city maintains are the zoning-desk facts that actually govern a given address, not a general reputation that Moab is a low-regulation market.

This is not legal advice. Confirm parcel zoning, established-overnight status, and which desk -- City of Moab or Grand County -- actually governs a specific address before listing or buying, directly with the relevant office rather than from a listing platform's compliance summary or a secondhand source.

Do Not Repeat the Low-Regulation Read

Some data sources characterize Moab as a low-regulation short-term rental market, and that characterization does not hold up against the actual municipal code. MMC 17.09.700's zone-by-zone prohibition, layered against Grand County's separate overlay and business-license process outside city limits, describes a market with real, specific compliance requirements that vary meaningfully by parcel -- not a wide-open field. A host or buyer relying on a generic low-regulation label to skip zoning confirmation is working from an inaccurate premise.

The gap between that generic label and the actual code is exactly the kind of detail that separates a listing built to last from one that gets flagged and pulled a season in. Confirm the zone before committing to a purchase or a marketing plan built around a specific property.

Neighbors on Their Own Lines: Park City, Hurricane, Kanab

Three Utah towns keep getting filed against Moab's numbers, and none of them belong there. Park City's figures run around $44,604 by the labeling this cluster's research uses, sitting under Moab's headline number and carrying a different, trophy-ski-market identity entirely. Hurricane, Utah runs under Moab's figure as well, in a different guest and desk context tied to its own Zion-adjacent position. Kanab's leftover figure sits around $2,300 a month -- a fraction of Moab's monthly-equivalent number -- and belongs strictly to the separate Moab-versus-Kanab comparison this cluster covers elsewhere, never blended into a Moab-town mean.

Spanish Valley shows up in some of the same AirROI neighbor geography and is worth naming for the same reason: if a source cites Spanish Valley figures, they belong on their own line, never folded silently into what gets called 'the Moab number.' A market report that flattens these distinctions into one regional average produces a figure that does not describe any single one of these towns accurately.

Arches, Canyonlands, and What Tourism Numbers Do Not Tell You

NPS visitation counts for Arches and Canyonlands, along with Grand County's transient room tax collections, are genuinely useful context for understanding demand direction in this market -- but neither one is occupancy, and neither should be cited as a proxy for the 45.4% figure this report leads with. Park entries measure how many people drove through a gate; they say nothing about how many of those visitors booked a short-term rental versus a hotel, a campsite, or a day trip from somewhere else entirely. A separate piece in this cluster works through the tourism-data numbers specifically and keeps those layers on their own lines.

One update worth flagging here because it affects how a host frames the park-adjacent guest experience: NPS confirmed in February 2026 that Arches will not require advance timed-entry reservations for 2026, meaning visitors can enter during normal operating hours without a pre-booked slot. Congestion, entrance-line waits, and parking-lot capacity limits remain real -- staff can and do temporarily restrict access when lots fill -- and Devils Garden Campground and the Fiery Furnace permit area still require their own reservations. A separate piece in this cluster covers that update in full; the short version for this report is that timed entry is not, as of this sample, a current gate requirement to build listing copy around.

Reading This Report Against Your Own Trailing Twelve

A townwide extract like the one this report is built on describes a typical listing, not any specific address, and the gap between the two can be wide in a market with the range of product Moab actually has -- a downtown casita a few blocks from Main Street is competing in a different lane than a river-view house out toward Kane Creek, even though both file into the same 1,055-listing count. The most useful way to use $48,387 is as a benchmark to test your own trailing-twelve-month revenue against, not as a number your specific listing is expected to hit.

If your own numbers are running meaningfully below the townwide figure, the gap is worth diagnosing before assuming the market itself is soft -- check whether your calendar is priced to the confirmed April-May-October peak pattern, whether your photos and listing copy are actually merchandising the Arches-and-Canyonlands, river, and bike-and-climb identity this town sells on, and whether your minimum-stay settings are costing you bookings during the shoulder months rather than protecting revenue during the real peaks. A separate piece in this cluster walks through the listing-copy side of that diagnosis in more depth.

What This Means for a Host Underwriting Moab

Put together, this report supports a specific underwriting posture for Moab: start from $48,387 typical annual revenue on 1,055 listings as the base case, note the $46,171 Playcation figure on its own line as a corroborating but distinct data point, and build a pricing calendar around the confirmed dual-peak pattern -- April, May, and October strong, January through December soft on the shoulders, summer heat suppressing the middle of the calendar. A listing priced flat across the year in this market is pricing against its own data.

Before any purchase or listing decision closes, confirm which desk -- City of Moab under MMC 17.09.700 or Grand County's Overnight Accommodations Overlay -- actually governs the specific parcel in question, since that answer determines whether the property can legally operate as a short-term rental at all in a meaningful share of city zones. This is not legal advice; it is a pointer to the office that has the final word.

Finally, keep Park City, Hurricane, Kanab, and Spanish Valley figures off this town's line entirely, and treat NPS visitation, Grand County TOT, and AirROI occupancy as three separate data streams rather than interchangeable proxies for each other. Revisit the underlying numbers before setting a season's pricing or presenting Moab figures to a partner or lender, and cite the extract window -- August 2025 through July 2026 -- every time, so anyone reading the numbers later knows exactly how current they are.

Related Reading

More Moab, UT STR Market Report 2026 host reading on desks, calendars, and listing clarity.

• How to Market a Moab, UT Stay Without Borrowing Kanab

• Moab, UT Short-Term Rental Rules: City vs. County Desk

• Moab, UT Shoulder Season: Price the Heat Trough Right

• Remote Work in Moab, UT: A Desk, Not a Cheap Month

• DIY vs. Hire: Moab, UT Listings That Still Read Generic

• Who Books a Moab, UT Rental: Three Real Guest Types

• Buying a Moab, UT Rental in 2026: Underwrite This Year

• Moab, UT Tourism Data: Visitor Counts Are Not Occupancy

• Complete Visitors Guide to Moab, UT for Independent Hosts

• What It Costs to Start a Legal Moab, UT Short-Term Rental

• Financing a Moab, UT Rental: DSCR as a Host-Read Guide

• Moab, UT vs. Grand County: Match the Desk to the Driveway

• Moab, UT vs. Kanab: Two Parks, Two Deserts, Two Years

• Arches Timed Entry Is Gone for 2026: What Hosts Say Now

Frequently Asked Questions

What did a typical Moab short-term rental earn last year?

About $48,387 in typical annual revenue, based on an AirROI extract of 1,055 active listings for the August 2025 through July 2026 window. The brief behind this figure also labels it as $4,032 a month -- a monthly-times-twelve conversion of the same annual number, not a separate data point. Supporting figures on the same extract show 45.4% occupancy, a $329 ADR, and RevPAR of $158.

Is there a different revenue figure floating around for Moab?

Yes. Playcation's May 2026 hobby-markets extract cited $46,171 typical revenue on 1,014 active listings, with 48% occupancy and a $330 ADR. That figure is close to the AirROI number but pulled from a different, older extract on a smaller listing count. Cite it on its own line and do not average it with the $48,387 AirROI figure.

When is Moab's peak short-term rental season?

AirROI's extract names April, May, and October as the strongest months, with January, February, and December running soft. That is a dual-peak desert pattern -- a spring peak, a summer heat trough, and a fall rebound -- rather than a single-season town. A separate piece in this cluster covers the July-August shoulder specifically.

Does Moab allow short-term rentals everywhere in city limits?

No. Moab Municipal Code 17.09.700 prohibits residential short-term rentals in a list of zones, including R-2, R-3, and R-4, with limited exceptions such as qualifying participant accommodations and compliant bed-and-breakfast or guest-apartment setups. This is not legal advice; confirm a specific parcel's zoning and established-overnight status directly with the City of Moab before listing or buying.

What is the difference between the City of Moab desk and Grand County's desk?

The City of Moab regulates short-term rentals inside city limits through MMC 17.09.700's zoning framework. Unincorporated Grand County runs a separate process, an Overnight Accommodations Overlay paired with a Title 5 business license. Which desk applies depends on the parcel's actual location, not a general assumption about Moab -- a separate piece in this cluster compares the two desks directly.

Is Moab a low-regulation short-term rental market?

That characterization does not match the actual code. MMC 17.09.700 prohibits residential short-term rentals in a meaningful list of city zones, and Grand County runs its own separate overlay and licensing process outside city limits. Treat any low-regulation label as a starting point for questions, not a substitute for confirming a specific parcel's status.

Does Arches National Park still require timed-entry reservations?

As of an NPS announcement in February 2026, Arches will not require advance timed-entry reservations for 2026 -- visitors can enter during normal operating hours. Congestion, entrance-line waits, and parking-lot capacity limits remain real, and Devils Garden Campground and the Fiery Furnace permit area still require their own separate reservations. A dedicated piece in this cluster covers this update in full.

Are NPS visitation numbers the same as Moab's occupancy rate?

No. NPS visitation counts for Arches and Canyonlands, and Grand County's transient room tax collections, measure how many people passed through a gate or how much lodging tax was collected -- neither measures how many of those visitors booked a short-term rental specifically. This report's 45.4% occupancy figure comes from the AirROI extract, not from park visitation data, and the two should not be treated as interchangeable.

How does Moab compare to Park City, Hurricane, or Kanab?

All three sit on separate lines from Moab's numbers. Park City runs around $44,604 by this cluster's labeling, under Moab's figure, with a distinct trophy-ski identity. Hurricane also runs under Moab. Kanab's leftover figure sits around $2,300 a month, a fraction of Moab's monthly-equivalent number. None should be blended into a regional average with Moab's own extract.

What is the single most important number for underwriting a Moab short-term rental?

$48,387 in typical annual revenue on 1,055 active listings, from the current AirROI extract covering August 2025 through July 2026. Build a pricing calendar around the confirmed April-May-October peak pattern, confirm which zoning desk -- City of Moab or Grand County -- governs the specific parcel, and keep the Playcation figure and neighbor-town numbers on their own separate lines rather than folding them in.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Some Moab listings still price a spring-peak, fall-rebound desert year like a flat summer town, and the townwide averages quietly absorb the difference. Name the failure mode the guest can check on the listing.

If your Moab listing needs a pricing calendar built around this town's actual dual-peak pattern instead of a generic template, we can help you rebuild it from these numbers. Name the failure mode the guest can check on the listing.

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