Ocean Shores Westport STR Market Report for Independent Hosts

Jul 15

13 min read

Updated: Aug 28

Grays Harbor County, Washington, doesn't show up on most short-term rental investors' radar, and that's precisely the point. While national property management brands have poured capital into the Oregon Coast and the Long Beach Peninsula to the south, the twin markets of Ocean Shores and Westport have been left largely to regional operators and independent hosts. For an investor evaluating an Ocean Shores, WA vacation rental investment, that gap is the headline story , but it isn't the only one worth understanding before writing an offer.

This report lays out the numbers a serious buyer needs: how thin the national-brand presence actually is, who's filling the space instead, what the regulatory path looks like, and , most importantly , a performance dataset that shows the real ceiling in this market has almost nothing to do with saturation and almost everything to do with how well a listing is run. We'll also address a genuine discrepancy in the available listing count data rather than papering it over, and we'll give Westport its own honest treatment rather than folding it into Ocean Shores' story.

Grays Harbor vacation rental market conditions in 2026 favor operators who treat this like the emerging, still-inefficient market it is , not a mature coastal destination where the easy gains are gone.

The Vacasa Gap: How Thin Is National Management in Ocean Shores?

Vacasa, the largest branded vacation rental manager in North America, manages fewer than 10 properties in Ocean Shores. Depending on which listing count you use as the denominator, that's somewhere between roughly 2% and under 3% of the market. Compare that to trophy-coast destinations where Vacasa, Avant Stay, or similar national brands manage 15-30% of active inventory, often bidding up owner-acquisition costs and standardizing pricing across the board. Ocean Shores has none of that consolidation.

This is the Ocean Shores Airbnb occupancy gap in its clearest form: a market with real, measurable demand and almost no national-brand presence to professionalize it. That absence isn't evidence the market is too small to bother with , total listing counts (detailed below) run into the hundreds , it's evidence that the market has been overlooked, likely because it doesn't fit the sun-and-surf profile national brands chase first.

Who's Actually Managing Ocean Shores Listings

"Vacasa versus nobody" is a lazy , and inaccurate , way to frame this market. Two regional firms have built real books of business on this stretch of coast:Bloomer Estates, headquartered on the Long Beach Peninsula side with its portfolio concentrated primarily across the Long Beach Peninsula and Westport rather than Ocean Shores specifically, andAt The Beach Rentals(operating online as Rick's Beach Houses), which manages meaningful portfolios of houses, chalets, and condos across Ocean Shores and the North Beach communities of Ocean City, Copalis Beach, and Moclips. At The Beach Rentals in particular markets a recognizable brand around ocean-view, hot-tub-equipped houses , the kind of amenity bundle that performs well in this climate.

Beyond those two named competitors, the balance of the market is a mix of smaller regional property managers and a large base of self-managed, independently listed properties. That independent-host base is the actual competitive set most new investors will be measuring themselves against , not a national brand with institutional pricing tools, but individual owners with widely varying levels of listing sophistication. That variance is exactly what shows up in the performance-bifurcation data below.

The Listing-Count Discrepancy , And What We Could (and Couldn't) Reconcile

Before getting to performance numbers, it's worth being direct about a data inconsistency rather than picking whichever figure is more convenient.

Third-party short-term rental analytics platforms (AirDNA/AirROI-style datasets) report approximately325-329 "active" Ocean Shores listings, a figure used as the basis for the occupancy, ADR, and revenue data in this report. Separately, raw platform listing counts pulled directly from search results run considerably higher: roughly451 combined listings across Airbnb and VRBO, with VRBO alone showing upward of586 propertiesin the broader Ocean Shores search area.

We attempted to reconcile these figures and can offer a partial explanation, not a confirmed one: analytics platforms typically define "active" as listings with a minimum threshold of bookable nights or recent booking activity within their trailing twelve-month window, which would exclude dormant, seasonal-only, or newly listed properties that still show up in a live platform search. The VRBO figure may also capture a wider geographic radius (including Ocean City and other North Beach communities) than the analytics dataset's Ocean Shores boundary. Both explanations are plausible and consistent with how these tools typically differ, but we were not able to fully confirm either mechanism against Ocean Shores specifically.The honest takeaway: total addressable inventory in Ocean Shores is roughly 325 to 586 properties, depending on the definition, and any investor sizing this market should treat that as a real range, not a rounding error.

The Real Number That Matters: Performance Bifurcation, Not Saturation

Whichever listing count you use, the more important figure is what happens once you sort those listings by performance , because this is where the "market is too crowded" objection falls apart.

Market-wide, Ocean Shores averages approximately 30.7% occupancy, a $254 average daily rate, and around $23,894 (AirROI Ocean Shores as of 2026-07-31) per listing (broadly consistent with AirROI's reported $23,894 range; a separate AirDNA figure of $23,894 also appears in some pulls of this market, though it's not clearly labeled as an annual figure in the source and may reflect a different time window or metric , treat the AirROI range as the more reliable annual estimate). Those averages, taken alone, might read as a soft market.

They aren't the whole story. Thetop 10% of Ocean Shores listings hit leftover peak occupancy we do not published market year as the year and AirROI leftover peak ADR we do not published market year as the year , Ocean Shores year is $250s, roughly double the market-average occupancy and 45% above the market-average rate.bottom 25% of listings sit at just 18% occupancy and leftover bottom-quartile ADR we do not published market year as the year, barely a third of what top performers achieve on occupancy and nearly $200/night below them on rate. Independent analytics data corroborates the shape of this gap even where exact figures vary slightly: one dataset puts top-10% listings at 61%+ occupancy and leftover peak ADR we do not published market year nightly rates against a bottom-25% figure of leftover occupancy we do not published market year and leftover bottom ADR we do not published market year.

This is the single most important number in this report, and it points in exactly one direction:this is a management and marketing quality gap, not a demand ceiling.A market where the best-run listings out-earn the worst-run listings by 3-4x on occupancy alone is a market with room for a well-optimized, well-marketed property to meaningfully outperform its neighbors , regardless of how many total listings exist. Demand isn't the constraint in Ocean Shores. Execution is.

Think about what that gap actually implies operationally. A property earning bottom-quartile numbers , leftover occupancy we do not published market year at roughly leftover bottom ADR we do not published market year/night , is effectively vacant five days out of six, generating barely enough revenue to cover a mortgage, insurance, and maintenance on a coastal property. The same physical asset, professionally photographed, correctly priced against local comp sets, and optimized for search visibility on Airbnb and VRBO, is statistically capable of running at 3-4x that occupancy. That's not a hypothetical: it's the documented spread already present in this market today, among listings competing for the exact same guest pool. For a buyer evaluating an acquisition, that spread should function as a discount signal , a listing currently underperforming the market average, in a market this thin on professional management, is often the more attractive purchase, not the less attractive one, provided the buyer has a credible plan to close that gap after closing on the property itself.

An Event-Driven Demand Calendar That Extends Well Past Summer

Ocean Shores' shoulder-season strength is underappreciated, and it's built on real, dedicated demand drivers rather than a single festival weekend:

Razor clam season Ocean Shores rental demand runs from fall through spring as a genuine dedicated season , not just the marqueeRazor Clam & Seafood Festival(held in March, drawing crowds specifically for clamming, seafood, and coastal tourism). Local visitor guides explicitly advise booking accommodations early for festival weekends, and the underlying clamming season itself extends well beyond that single event, filling nights that would otherwise sit empty in the off-season.

Winter storm-watching season (November through March)is already marketed locally in Ocean Shores as a standalone niche , a "storm package" positioning that leans into the Pacific Northwest's dramatic winter weather rather than apologizing for it. This is a rare case of a coastal market successfully converting its off-season liability (cold, stormy weather) into a bookable amenity.

A short drive south in Westport,Half Moon Bay("The Cove") is a locally known surf spot, though current conditions there skew toward a heavier, more experienced-surfer break rather than a beginner-friendly one. Westport's own tourism resources point most surfers toward The Jetty as the area's more consistently surfable break. And theGrays Harbor Lighthouse and adjacent wildlife refuge, also on the Westport side of the harbor, offer a secondary, lower-key birdwatching and nature-tourism draw that extends the corridor's shoulder-season appeal beyond Ocean Shores itself, without requiring an Ocean Shores property to be beachfront to benefit from the broader area's calendar.

Together, these four demand drivers mean an Ocean Shores listing built around more than "summer beach house" positioning has a legitimate shot at flattening its seasonality curve , directly attacking the bottom-25% occupancy problem identified above. Most listings in this market are still marketed generically, with photography and descriptions built around "beach getaway" language that says nothing about clam season, storm packages, or surf access. A listing description, photo set, and search-optimized content built specifically around these four calendar anchors , rather than a single generic summer pitch , is one of the more direct, controllable ways an owner can push a property out of the bottom-performance tier and toward the top-decile numbers described above.

Regulatory Environment: Low Licensing Cost, But Zoning Still Matters

Ocean Shores' licensing framework is genuinely simple, but that's only half the regulatory picture , and the two halves shouldn't be conflated. Grays Harbor County administers its own short-term rental ordinance (Ordinance 469, adopted 2022, amended by Ordinance 498 in December 2024) through the county's online Smart Gov portal, where hosts can submit applications, pay fees, track permit status, and request inspections without an in-person visit to a government office , but that county ordinance governs unincorporated parts of the county only, not Ocean Shores itself, which is an incorporated city with its own municipal code.

Within the city limits of Ocean Shores, the licensing costs are genuinely low , a $50 business license and a 5% lodging tax. But the city's own zoning code confines short-term rentals to its commercial zones and bans them outright in every residential zone, with only a narrow grandfather exception for pre-existing permitted rentals , a restriction that, in practice, is arguably more sweeping than the single-zone (R-1) ban that applies on the Long Beach Peninsula to the south. For an investor comparing Washington's outer coast markets, the accurate framing is: Ocean Shores is cheap and simple to license if your parcel is zoned for it, but zoning eligibility should be confirmed with the city before assuming low cost equals low friction.

Ocean Shores vs. Westport: An Honest Submarket Comparison

Ocean Shores and Westport sit less than 20 miles apart on the same stretch of coastline, but they are not interchangeable investments, and this report won't pretend otherwise.

Ocean Shores is the stronger entry point on the numbers.It carries the larger listing base under any measure of the discrepancy above, the clearer regulatory framework, the named regional competitors actively building brand recognition, and the demand-calendar diversity described above. The performance-bifurcation data , while it cuts both ways , ultimately signals a market with real upside for a well-marketed listing.

Westport tells a different, more caveated story.Available data on Westport is noticeably less consistent than Ocean Shores' , one dataset shows a $292 ADR against Washington's $393 statewide average with 30.6% occupancy, while another shows $292 ADR at 30.6% occupancy (AirROI Westport as of 2026-07-31). A third figure of 30.6% occupancy at $292 (AirROI Westport as of 2026-07-31) also appears in some pulls of this market, but it could not be independently corroborated against the other two sources and is close enough to a separate Ocean Shores figure that it may reflect a mixed-up dataset rather than a genuine third Westport estimate , treat it with skepticism rather than as confirmed. That spread itself is a signal: Westport's short-term rental market is thinner and less consistently tracked than Ocean Shores', and any investor evaluating it should expect wider uncertainty bands on projected returns. What's consistent across the better-corroborated sources is thatWestport, WA, short-term rental ADR runs meaningfully below the state average, with genuinely soft average occupancy in the low-20s to low-30s percent range, this is not a market to enter expecting Ocean Shores-level performance.

What Westport does offer on its own terms is real: a working marina and fishing/charter culture, a surf community with its own identity distinct from Half Moon Bay, and Washington's sharpest revenue seasonality on this stretch of coast , August and July can run 3-6x the revenue of winter months, with roughly 60% of annual income concentrated in the June-through-September window. That's a market for an investor who understands and can underwrite a narrower, more concentrated season, not a first-time coastal buyer looking for year-round stability. For most investors comparing the two, Ocean Shores is the more defensible primary market, with Westport better suited as an event-anchored secondary play once the operator has Ocean Shores dialed in.

the Crest & Cove intro·local SEO keywords that actually book·the five elements of a converting hero·how to compare STR marketing agencies·Asheville paddling spots worth the drive·Long Beach Peninsula against AirROI $34,834·Washington outer coast against AirROI pins·Destin against AirROI, not leftover year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Ocean Shores, WA a good short-term rental investment market in 2026?

It's a genuinely underserved market by national-brand standards, with low regulatory burden and a wide performance gap between top and average listings, so there's real room for a well-marketed property to outperform. Underwrite off the market-average numbers, not the top-decile figures, and treat this as an emerging coastal market rather than a mature one where the easy gains are already gone.

How many vacation rental properties are actually in Ocean Shores?

Estimates range from roughly 325-329 active listings on short-term rental analytics platforms to 451-586 total listings counted directly across Airbnb and VRBO search results. The discrepancy likely reflects differing activity thresholds and possibly different geographic boundaries, and we were not able to fully confirm the exact reconciliation, so treat total inventory as a range rather than a fixed number.

Does Vacasa manage many properties in Ocean Shores?

No, fewer than 10, a small fraction of the market under any of the listing-count estimates. Regional firms Bloomer Estates and At The Beach Rentals, along with a large base of independent self-managed hosts, account for the large majority of the market. Depending on which listing count you use as the denominator, that puts national-brand management somewhere between roughly 2% and under 3% of the market.

What is Ocean Shores' average occupancy and annual revenue?

Market-wide averages run approximately 30.7% occupancy and a $254 average daily rate, generating roughly $23,894 per listing annually, per AirROI as of 2026-07-31. That average masks a wide performance gap between top and bottom listings, so it should be read as a market baseline rather than a ceiling or a promise for any specific property.

Why do the top 10% of Ocean Shores listings perform so much better than average?

The bottom 25% of listings run around 18% occupancy, well below the market average, while top-decile listings run meaningfully higher on both occupancy and rate. That gap is driven by listing quality, pricing strategy, and marketing execution rather than the market running out of demand, so it signals a management gap, not a saturation ceiling.

What drives off-season demand in Ocean Shores?

A dedicated fall-through-spring razor clam season, anchored by the March Razor Clam & Seafood Festival, and a locally marketed November-through-March winter storm-watching niche are the two Ocean Shores-specific drivers. A short drive south in Westport, the surf scene and the Grays Harbor Lighthouse's birdwatching tourism extend the broader corridor's shoulder-season appeal beyond a single summer peak.

How does Ocean Shores' regulatory environment work for short-term rentals?

Licensing cost is genuinely low within city limits: a $50 business license plus a 5% lodging tax. But the city's zoning code confines short-term rentals to commercial zones and bans them in every residential zone, a narrower restriction than what applies on the Long Beach Peninsula. Low cost and zoning eligibility are two different questions, so confirm both before buying.

Should I invest in Ocean Shores or Westport?

For most investors, Ocean Shores is the stronger primary entry point on data consistency, listing base, and demand-calendar diversity. Westport's ADR and occupancy figures run meaningfully softer and less consistently reported, with revenue heavily concentrated in a July-through-September window, making it better suited as an event-anchored secondary play than a first coastal investment.

How close are Ocean Shores and Westport to each other?

The two towns sit less than 20 miles apart on the same stretch of Washington coastline, but they are not interchangeable investments. Ocean Shores has the deeper, more consistent data and a broader demand calendar, while Westport's numbers run softer and lean heavily on a shorter peak season, so each needs its own underwriting rather than a blended average.

Does a low licensing cost mean Ocean Shores has no restrictions on where I can operate?

No. The $50 city business license and 5% lodging tax are genuinely low costs, but the city's zoning code still confines short-term rentals to commercial zones and bans them in every residential zone. Properties in unincorporated Grays Harbor County fall under a separate county framework administered through the Smart Gov portal, so confirm which jurisdiction and zone your property sits in before applying.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

An Ocean Shores listing captioned like a generic beach getaway leaves real money on the table: top-decile listings here out-earn the bottom quartile 3-4x on occupancy alone. Razor clam season and storm-watching are real demand generic copy ignores.

Crest & Cove Creative writes Ocean Shores copy around the four real demand drivers — clamming, storm packages, surf access, summer beach days — the execution gap this market's averages actually reward. Start at crestcove.co/audit or call (256) 998-7502.

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