Pacific City, Oregon Tourism Data: What It Actually Means for STR Occupancy

Thomas Garner
Aug 21
8 min read

Updated: 18 hours ago

Empty covered deck of a Pacific City beach house, no people

Cape Kiwanda pulls a steady stream of day-trippers to Pacific City, Oregon, and it is easy to read that foot traffic as proof the town's short-term rentals are booming. They are not the same number. Visitor counts at a headland measure curiosity about a view; occupancy measures whether a guest actually paid for a bed that night. Confusing the two is how hosts and buyers end up overestimating a market.

The actual numbers, from AirROI's trailing twelve months of August 2025 through July 2026, tell a more measured story. Typical listings in Pacific City earned about $40,828 across 286 active rentals, with an average nightly rate of $363, occupancy of 35.4 percent, and revenue per available night (RevPAR) of $141. Revenue was down 4.7 percent year over year, while active supply held essentially flat at 0.0 percent change. That is a mature, seasonal market absorbing a soft patch, not a market defined by how many people photograph Cape Kiwanda on a Saturday.

Seasonality follows the coast's summer pattern: August is the busiest month, followed by June and July, while February is the slowest and January shows the weakest occupancy. Most guests arrive from Portland, with Bend the next-largest origin market. The typical stay is 3.4 nights, booked roughly 60 days in advance. On the regulatory side, Pacific City is unincorporated and falls under Tillamook County, so a county short-term rental operator license applies; Tillamook County Community Development is located at 1510-B Third Street, Tillamook, OR 97141, and hosts should confirm current license fees directly with that office rather than relying on a secondhand figure.

Cape Kiwanda Draws the Crowds , It Doesn't Set the Occupancy Rate

Cape Kiwanda is the single most photographed spot in Pacific City: a sandstone headland with a climbable dune, paragliders launching off the ridge, and the offshore sea stack known as Chief Kiwanda Rock just past the beach where Pacific City's dory fleet still launches straight into the surf. It is a legitimate, powerful reason a Portland or Bend traveler points the car toward the coast for a weekend. What it is not is a proxy for how full a listing's calendar actually is.

Use Cape Kiwanda in a listing description or a market memo to explain demand and motivation , why someone chose this town over another coastal option. Do not use it to imply the town runs near full occupancy. The real number, 35.4 percent occupancy across the trailing twelve months, includes both the July weekends when the dory fleet and the dune are packed and the February midweeks when the headland is nearly empty. A crowded overlook on a summer Saturday and a $40,828 typical annual host year are two different measurements of the same town.

Haystack Rock and the Dune Set the Scene, Not the Spreadsheet

Pacific City has its own Haystack Rock , a smaller, quieter sea stack than the famous formation up the coast in Cannon Beach, but a genuine landmark visible from the beach and from many of the town's oceanfront rentals. Paired with the dune above Cape Kiwanda, it is the image that sells the trip: wide beach, dramatic rock, a dune you can sandboard or paraglide off of. That imagery belongs in marketing copy.

It does not belong in a revenue projection. A buyer or host pricing a Pacific City property should anchor to the actual AirROI figures , $363 average nightly rate, $141 RevPAR, 35.4 percent occupancy , not to how dramatic the listing photos look against the rock formation. Write the landscape into the story a guest tells their friends; keep the $40,828 typical-year figure in the spreadsheet where it belongs.

Pelican Brewing Fills the Village, Not Your Booking Calendar

Pelican Brewing Company's oceanfront taproom at Cape Kiwanda is one of the best-known stops on the whole Oregon coast, and it draws a steady crowd of its own , day-trippers, beer tourists, and families stopping between beach walks. Combined with the handful of shops and restaurants clustered around the cape, it gives Pacific City a walkable little village core that a lot of competing coastal towns lack.

That village traffic is real and worth mentioning in a listing , walkable dining is a genuine amenity , but it does not translate directly into average daily rate. A brewery crowd is a visitor count, not a booking. Keep the two claims separate: Pelican Brewing and the village explain why a guest enjoys the stay; the $141 RevPAR figure explains what the stay is actually worth to the host.

The Nestucca River Explains the Trip, Not the Revenue Line

South of the cape, the Nestucca River winds down to meet the ocean near Bob Straub State Park, and it is a genuine draw for a different type of visitor than the Cape Kiwanda crowd , anglers after fall and winter salmon and steelhead runs, and paddlers who put in upriver and float toward the coast. It broadens who a Pacific City rental can appeal to beyond the classic beach-weekend guest.

As with the brewery and the headland, the river is a reason to book, not a revenue figure. A quiet picnic spot on the riverbank is not the same thing as revenue per available night. Mention the Nestucca River to attract anglers and paddlers who might otherwise book a different coastal town; let the $141 RevPAR and $363 ADR carry the actual financial claim.

Keep Visitor Dollars Off the Host P&L

Tourism copy , chamber-of-commerce write-ups, county visitor guides, brewery and headland write-ups , exists to explain why a guest chooses a destination. It is not built to answer what a host actually earns, and treating it as financial data is the single most common mistake in market write-ups for small coastal towns like this one.

The number that belongs in a host's file is $40,828: the typical annual revenue across 286 active listings for the trailing twelve months of August 2025 through July 2026, per AirROI. That figure , already down 4.7 percent year over year even as visitor traffic at Cape Kiwanda held steady , is exactly the kind of gap that gets missed when tourism volume and rental income are treated as interchangeable. Keep them on separate lines in any market memo or investment pitch.

Oceanside Is a Different Market Entirely

Oceanside sits just a few miles north of Pacific City along the same stretch of Tillamook County coastline, and it is easy to see the two towns as one continuous market. They are not. Oceanside is a much smaller, quieter community best known for Three Arch Rocks , a National Wildlife Refuge just offshore , and its short-term rental supply is proportionally smaller too.

Typical listings in Oceanside earned about $34,813 across 97 active rentals over the same trailing-twelve-month window, a meaningfully different figure from Pacific City's $40,828 on 286 listings. A market write-up that blends the two towns' numbers, or borrows Oceanside's smaller inventory to describe Pacific City's demand, will misstate both. Keep each town's revenue and listing count on its own line.

Oceanside Runs on a Different Calendar Too

Both towns share the same broad Oregon coast summer , August as the peak month, June and July close behind, a steep drop-off into fall and winter. That shared seasonality is real, but shared summer months are not the same as a shared identity or a shared occupancy curve, and each town's shoulder-season behavior can diverge in ways a combined write-up would flatten out.

Oceanside's smaller, more residential character means it tends to draw a quieter, more repeat-visitor crowd than Pacific City's headland-and-brewery day-trip traffic, which can shift when a listing actually books relative to the peak-month calendar. A host or investor comparing the two towns should pull each town's occupancy and revenue curve separately rather than assuming one calendar describes both markets.

How Hosts Should Actually Read Tourism Copy

The practical rule is simple: file Cape Kiwanda, Haystack Rock, Pelican Brewing, and the Nestucca River as demand drivers , the reasons a guest chooses Pacific City over another coastal town. File $40,828 across 286 listings, 35.4 percent occupancy, and $141 RevPAR as the actual host-side numbers. The two categories inform each other, but neither one substitutes for the other in a listing description, a market memo, or a purchase decision.

Where a specific figure isn't confirmed , a 2026 festival date, or an exact current license fee , don't guess. Confirm it directly with Tillamook County Community Development at 1510-B Third Street, Tillamook, OR 97141, or with the venue in question, before publishing it as fact. A listing description built on the real landscape and the real numbers, kept in their own lanes, is more credible than one that blurs the two together.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Cape Kiwanda's visitor traffic the same as short-term rental occupancy in Pacific City?

No. Cape Kiwanda draws heavy day-trip visitor traffic, but Pacific City's actual short-term rental occupancy over the trailing twelve months (August 2025 through July 2026) was 35.4 percent, per AirROI. Foot traffic at a landmark measures curiosity, not paid bookings.

What does a typical Pacific City short-term rental actually earn per year?

Typical listings earned about $40,828 over the trailing twelve months from 286 active rentals, according to AirROI data covering August 2025 through July 2026. The average nightly rate was $363, and revenue per available night (RevPAR) was $141.

Does Pelican Brewing's popularity boost short-term rental rates in Pacific City?

Pelican Brewing draws significant visitor traffic to the village near Cape Kiwanda, but that foot traffic does not directly set average daily rate. It supports the case for booking a walkable, amenity-rich stay, while the actual rate data, $363 ADR, $141 RevPAR, comes from AirROI's rental performance figures, not brewery visitor counts.

Is the Nestucca River relevant to Pacific City's rental revenue numbers?

The Nestucca River is a genuine draw for anglers and paddlers and broadens who might book a Pacific City rental, but it is not a revenue metric. Revenue per available night in Pacific City was $141 over the trailing twelve months; river access is a marketing point, not a financial figure.

Why should hosts separate tourism marketing from occupancy data?

Tourism copy explains why a guest chooses a destination; it was never built to report what a host earns. Pacific City's typical annual revenue was $40,828 across 286 listings, down 4.7 percent year over year, even as visitor attractions like Cape Kiwanda continued drawing steady crowds. Blending the two overstates a market's financial performance.

Is Oceanside part of the same rental market as Pacific City?

No. Oceanside is a separate, smaller coastal community a few miles north of Pacific City. Typical listings there earned about $34,813 across 97 active rentals over the same period, compared to Pacific City's $40,828 across 286 listings. The two towns should be reported on separate lines in any market analysis.

Do Pacific City and Oceanside share the same seasonal calendar?

They share the same broad Oregon coast summer peak, August is busiest, followed by June and July, but shared summer months do not mean shared occupancy curves or shoulder-season behavior. Each town's calendar should be evaluated on its own rather than assumed identical.

What's the practical takeaway for someone marketing or buying a Pacific City rental?

Use real landmarks, Cape Kiwanda, Haystack Rock, Pelican Brewing, the Nestucca River, to explain why a guest books. Use the actual AirROI figures, $40,828 typical revenue, 286 active listings, 35.4 percent occupancy, $141 RevPAR, to describe what a host actually earns. Keep unconfirmed details, like exact 2026 license fees, verified directly with Tillamook County Community Development rather than assumed.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Cape Kiwanda's day-tripper crowds photograph well, but they do not set Pacific City's real 35.4 percent occupancy, and listings that lean only on the dune shot undersell the actual booking picture.

We help Pacific City hosts pair coastal landmark photography with pricing and copy that matches the market's actual AirROI numbers. Cape Kiwanda day-tripper shots alone do not set the booking picture.

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