Tulsa STR Market Report 2026: $21,759 on 1,227 Listings, Broken Arrow

Thomas Garner
7 days ago
10 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Empty downtown Tulsa Oklahoma skyline, no people

Two numbers are circulating for Tulsa short-term rental revenue right now, and they are not the same market pull. The current Air ROI extract, covering August 2025 through July 2026, sets typical Tulsa listings at about $21,759 a year across 1,227 active rentals, with an average night of $183. An older brief, built on a different data source and a different window, printed AirDNA figures instead: roughly $19,500 across 2,005 listings, a $160 average night, and 57 percent occupancy. Those are two separate snapshots of the same city, pulled at different times from different vendors, and a host underwriting a purchase or a pricing plan needs to know which one is actually sitting in front of them before building a spreadsheet on top of it.

This report works from the current Air ROI extract as the operating figure, because it is the most recent pull available and because it carries a defined window, August 2025 through July 2026, rather than an undated historical average. The older AirDNA numbers are worth keeping on file as a reference point for how the market has shifted, not as a competing current truth. A host who quotes $19,500 today, when the live extract already says $21,759, is working from a stale file and will misjudge both revenue potential and listing count in the same conversation.

This report also keeps Tulsa's own file separate from Broken Arrow's. Broken Arrow listings earned about $22,983 last year from 172 active rentals on the same current Air ROI extract, a genuinely different number on a genuinely smaller listing stock base, and blending that satellite figure into a Tulsa city average produces a number that describes neither market accurately. The rest of this report walks through what the current Tulsa figures actually say, what the city's license file requires before any of those figures matter, and how to keep each satellite town on its own line. This is not legal advice.

The Current Number: $21,759 on 1,227 Listings

The operating figure for this report is $21,759 in typical annual revenue across 1,227 active Tulsa listings, with an average night of $183, drawn from Air ROI's current extract covering August 2025 through July 2026. That is the number to underwrite against today. It reflects a meaningfully larger active listing stock than the older AirDNA pull, 1,227 listings versus that brief's 2,005, which on its own signals the two counts are measuring the market differently rather than describing the same shrinking or growing pool.

A host comparing these two files side by side should resist the urge to average them together or to treat the gap as evidence of a market crash or boom. They are different vendors, different windows, and in the AirDNA brief's case, an older pull that has since been superseded by the current extract. The practical move is to use the current $21,759-on-1,227-listings figure for any 2026 planning conversation, and to cite the AirDNA numbers only when specifically discussing how the market has been read historically, with the source and date attached each time.

This matters most in a lender or investor conversation, where citing the wrong file can quietly undercut a host's own credibility. A pitch deck or underwriting memo that leans on the older AirDNA figures without labeling them as historical risks reading as either outdated or careless once the reader cross-checks against a more current source. Attaching the vendor name and the date range to every figure, current Air ROI extract, August 2025 through July 2026, versus the older AirDNA brief, is a small habit that keeps a market report defensible under scrutiny.

Average night pricing tells a similar story. The current extract's $183 average night sits meaningfully above the older brief's $160, which is consistent with a market where the current, smaller-looking active count is actually a more recent and more selective snapshot rather than a shrinking one. Either way, a host pricing a new Tulsa listing in 2026 should anchor to $183, not $160, and should treat the older figure as historical context rather than a current target.

The gap between the two average-night figures is also a reminder that revenue and pricing data age faster than most hosts assume. A rate strategy built on the older $160 average night is already working from a number the current market has moved past, and continuing to price against that stale figure leaves real revenue on the table in a market where the current data shows guests actually paying $183 on average. Revisiting the pricing baseline against the most current available extract, rather than the number a host happened to learn first, is a habit worth building into any annual planning cycle.

The License File Sits Underneath Every Number

Before either revenue figure means anything to a specific host, the city's own definition and license terms apply. A short-term rental in Tulsa is defined as a dwelling unit rented or offered for rent for less than 30 days, and operating one legally starts with the city's license, not with a listing going live on a booking platform. The license fee is $75 plus a $300 implementation and compliance fee, for $375 total, and that fee is non-refundable regardless of whether the unit ever books a single night.

That license also has a hard expiration built into it: it expires June 30 and does not renew automatically. A host who treats the license as a one-time setup cost, paid once and forgotten, will find themselves out of compliance the following July if they have not actively filed for renewal before the expiration date. Building that renewal date into a recurring calendar reminder is a simple discipline that keeps a $375 filing from becoming a compliance gap.

Two operating rules ride along with the license. The official FAQ caps occupancy at no more than 8 occupants regardless of unit size, so a larger home does not earn a higher occupancy allowance under city rules. And the same FAQ currently states that short-term rentals are allowed in all zoning districts with a license, meaning the zoning question for most Tulsa parcels is less about whether an STR is permitted at all and more about whether the license itself has been properly obtained and kept current.

The Lodging Tax Threshold Most Hosts Miss

A specific tax rule applies to larger operations rather than every single listing. Operators offering five or more total rooms, counting bedrooms, bathrooms, dining room, and kitchen together, are required to collect a 5 percent lodging tax monthly. That room count is broader than most hosts initially assume, since it counts every functional room in the unit rather than only bedrooms, so a mid-sized home can cross that five-room threshold faster than a host expects when they are only counting where guests sleep.

A host evaluating whether this tax applies to their specific Tulsa property should do the full room count, bedrooms plus bathrooms plus the dining room plus the kitchen, before assuming a smaller unit is exempt. If that count reaches five or more, the 5 percent monthly collection obligation applies, and it should be built into the pricing and remittance workflow from the first month of operation rather than discovered later during a compliance review.

This tax detail sits alongside the license fee and the occupancy cap as one of the three concrete, checkable rules this report can confirm from the current file. Anything beyond these three points, additional local fee changes or updated tax guidance for a specific parcel, should be confirmed directly with the city rather than assumed from a listing scrape or a secondhand summary, and that confirmation call is worth making before the first advertised night, not after.

Reading the Air ROI Scrape Correctly

Air ROI's current Tulsa extract carries a low-regulation label and shows 0 licensed listings, and that pairing deserves a specific caveat: it is a scrape of what is publicly visible on listing platforms, not the city's actual license file. A 0-licensed-listings read does not mean no Tulsa host has obtained a license; it means the scrape could not detect license information from the public listing data it pulled. Treating that scrape figure as proof the city has no enforcement or no licensed operators would be a misreading of what the data source actually measures.

The practical takeaway for a host underwriting a Tulsa property is to treat the revenue and listing-count figures from the Air ROI extract as reliable market-size data, since those numbers come from observable booking and pricing activity, while treating the regulation label and licensed-listing count as a separate, less reliable signal that should never substitute for a direct call to the city. The scrape is useful for sizing the market. It is not useful for judging compliance risk.

This distinction matters because a host who reads a low-regulation label and 0 licensed listings as evidence that Tulsa is lightly enforced could reasonably, but wrongly, conclude the license and tax requirements documented elsewhere in this report are optional in practice. They are not optional; they are simply not fully visible in a public listing scrape. The license fee, expiration date, occupancy cap, and lodging tax threshold all apply regardless of what a scrape shows about visible license mentions.

Visitor Demand Landmarks, Kept Separate From Revenue

Gathering Place, the Deco District, Brookside, and Cherry Street function as the visitor demand drivers behind Tulsa's short-term rental activity, the destinations and neighborhoods that actually bring guests to the city in the first place. These four names are useful shorthand for describing why a Tulsa listing draws bookings, and they belong in a listing's own marketing copy when relevant to a specific property's location.

None of these four names should be treated as revenue figures in their own right. Naming Gathering Place or Cherry Street in a pitch or an underwriting conversation explains why demand exists; it does not substitute for the actual $21,759 typical revenue and $183 average night figures this report already documents. A host who says a property is well-positioned near Cherry Street still needs to cite the current extract's actual numbers when discussing expected performance, rather than letting a landmark name imply a specific revenue outcome it was never measured against.

The practical discipline here is the same one that applies throughout this report: keep the qualitative story, which neighborhood, which landmark, which walkable district, separate from the quantitative file, the specific dollar figures tied to the current Air ROI extract. Both matter, but conflating them produces marketing copy that sounds compelling while actually obscuring the real numbers a serious underwriting conversation needs.

How to File the Map: City, License, and Each Satellite on Its Own Line

The single organizing principle for this report is straightforward: file the city's year, the city's license terms, and each surrounding satellite town on its own separate line, rather than blending them into one combined Tulsa-area narrative. Tulsa's own current figures, $21,759 typical revenue on 1,227 listings at a $183 average night, describe Tulsa city limits specifically. They do not describe Broken Arrow, and they should not be quoted as if they do.

Hosts underwriting Oklahoma City-area stays more broadly should keep this same discipline: hold $21,759 on 1,227 city listings as the Tulsa figure, keep the city's STR Hotline at 918-221-5078 as the contact point for Tulsa-specific license and compliance questions, and leave Broken Arrow's $22,983 on 172 listings on its own separate line rather than averaging the two towns together. A combined figure would misrepresent both markets at once.

This report closes on the same note it opened with: two different revenue snapshots exist for Tulsa right now, one current and one dated, and one neighboring satellite town has its own separate figure entirely. Confirming remaining 2026 license and tax questions directly with the city, rather than relying on a scrape or an outdated brief, is the step that turns this report's numbers into a usable underwriting file for a specific Tulsa property.

A host managing more than one property across this broader area should build this filing habit into a standing checklist rather than a one-time exercise. Every quarter, or at minimum before any new listing goes live, revisit which extract each cited figure came from, confirm the license and its June 30 expiration are current, and re-verify that any satellite-town number quoted alongside Tulsa's own figures is still labeled correctly. A market report is only as useful as the discipline behind keeping its underlying files straight, and that discipline doesn't end once this specific report is read; it's the ongoing practice this report is arguing for, one line per market, refreshed on a set schedule rather than left to memory.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much did typical Tulsa listings earn last year?

The current Air ROI extract, covering August 2025 through July 2026, puts typical Tulsa listings at about $21,759 a year across 1,227 active rentals.

Why do some sources show a different Tulsa revenue figure?

An older brief cited AirDNA figures of about $19,500 across 2,005 listings, a $160 average night, and 57 percent occupancy. That is a different vendor and an older window than the current $21,759-on-1,227-listings Air ROI extract.

What was the average nightly rate in the current extract?

$183 on 1,227 listings.

Should Broken Arrow's revenue be blended into a Tulsa average?

No. Broken Arrow earned about $22,983 last year from 172 active rentals on the current Air ROI extract, and that figure should stay on its own line rather than being averaged into Tulsa's city total.

What does a Tulsa short-term rental license cost?

$75 plus a $300 implementation and compliance fee, for $375 total, and the fee is non-refundable.

Does the Tulsa STR license renew automatically?

No. It expires June 30 and does not renew automatically, so a host needs to actively file for renewal before that date.

What is the maximum occupancy allowed under Tulsa's rules?

No more than 8 occupants regardless of unit size, per the official FAQ.

Are short-term rentals allowed in every Tulsa zoning district?

Yes, according to the official FAQ, short-term rentals are allowed in all zoning districts with a license.

When does the 5 percent lodging tax apply?

Operators offering five or more total rooms, counting bedrooms, bathrooms, the dining room, and the kitchen, collect 5 percent lodging tax monthly.

Does Air ROI's 0 licensed listings figure mean Tulsa has no licensed hosts?

No. That figure is a scrape of publicly visible listing data, not the city's actual license file, and should not be read as an enforcement or compliance measure.

Which Tulsa landmarks are cited as visitor demand drivers?

Gathering Place, the Deco District, Brookside, and Cherry Street.

Who should a Tulsa host call with license or compliance questions?

The Tulsa STR Hotline at 918-221-5078.

Work with Crest & Cove Creative

Two different revenue figures are circulating for Tulsa short-term rentals right now, and Broken Arrow's number is not one of them. Name the failure mode the guest can check on the listing.

Underwrite against the current extract, $21,759 on 1,227 listings at $183 a night, confirm the $375 license and June 30 expiration directly with the city, and keep Broken Arrow's $22,983 on its own separate line. Name the failure mode the guest can check on the listing.

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