Waveland, MS STR Market Report 2026: $26,638, Not Bay St. Louis
Updated: Aug 29
Waveland sits on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in Hancock County, and it's a specific town, not an extension of its more widely known neighbor, Bay St. Louis. Guests who search for Waveland by name are looking for Waveland Beach, Bayside Park, the Ground Zero Hurricane Museum, and the fishing pier, not a generic Gulf Coast caption that could describe any of a dozen towns between Louisiana and Alabama. This report is built specifically around Waveland's own real data, 93 active listings on the extract this cluster's research used, and it will not blend that data with a neighboring town's numbers regardless of how close the two sit on the map.
On AirROI's trailing-twelve-month extract through July 2026, Waveland's typical listing earned about $26,638 in annual revenue, at an average nightly rate of $270 and 33.6 percent occupancy. Revenue per available night worked out to roughly $95. Year over year, that figure moved up 13.4 percent, while active supply held essentially flat at 0.0 percent growth overall. Those numbers describe Waveland specifically. They should never get averaged together with Bay St. Louis's own $25,594 figure, or with Port O'Connor's $21,172 across 128 listings, a different Gulf market entirely.
This report covers what the trailing data says about revenue and occupancy, what seasonality and guest origin actually look like here, what the city's own permit process requires, and how to keep this town's numbers, and its compliance obligations, separate from its neighbors on the coast. It also covers what this report deliberately does not claim, since a market report that overstates its own certainty is as much a disservice to a host or a buyer as one that omits real, confirmed data. This is not legal advice.
$26,638 Is the City's Own Year
The core headline figure for this report is straightforward: typical Waveland short-term rental listings earned about $26,638 last year, based on 93 active rentals on AirROI's trailing-twelve-month extract through July 2026. That works out to an average nightly rate of $270 and occupancy of 33.6 percent, with revenue per available night landing around $95. This is Waveland's own number, drawn from Waveland's own listings, and it shouldn't be treated as interchangeable with any neighboring Gulf Coast town's figure, no matter how geographically close that town sits.
Ninety-three active listings is a moderate but genuinely not enormous sample size, and this figure should be read as directional rather than as a guaranteed outcome for any individual specific property. Individual listings within that sample vary meaningfully based on location, photography, pricing strategy, and how specifically the listing copy speaks to Waveland itself rather than a generic Gulf Coast pitch. Use $26,638 as a benchmark to evaluate a specific property against, not as a promise every Waveland listing will hit.
Don't Blend Bay St. Louis Into This Number
Bay St. Louis sits immediately next to Waveland on the Mississippi coast, and the two towns get conflated constantly in casual conversation and, sometimes, even in careless marketing copy that ought to know better. They are entirely separate municipalities with separate governments, separate permit desks, and separate short-term rental data sets. Bay St. Louis published its own trailing figure near $25,594 annually. That's a real, distinct number belonging to a real, distinct town, and averaging it into Waveland's $26,638 to produce some blended "coastal average" figure misrepresents both markets and produces a number that describes neither one accurately.
The same discipline applies to Port O'Connor, a different Gulf Coast market entirely that published around $21,172 across 128 listings. A market report, a pricing pitch, or a lender memo that quietly blends any of these three figures together is doing a disservice to whichever specific property the numbers are meant to describe. Cite Waveland's own data for a Waveland property, full stop, and label any comparison town's figures clearly and separately if you reference them at all.
The Landmarks That Actually Drive Demand
Waveland's real tourism draw is concrete and specific: Waveland Beach, Bayside Park, the Ground Zero Hurricane Museum, and the town's own fishing pier. Each is a real reason a guest chooses this specific town over a generic Gulf Coast search result, and each deserves genuine, specific real estate in listing copy and photography, not a vague water caption that could apply to any coastal town in the region. A listing that leads with the actual walk from the property to Waveland Beach, rather than a stock sunset photo with a generic caption, is doing the specificity work that converts a browsing guest into a booking guest.
None of these landmarks translate directly into a revenue or occupancy figure on their own; they're the reason demand exists, not a substitute for the trailing booking data above. Keep the two data sets, the tourism story and the AirROI figures, doing separate jobs: the landmarks sell the stay to the guest, and the trailing revenue and occupancy numbers price the listing and inform the business decisions behind it.
Seasonality: June Leads, September Is a Real Gap
June, May, and October are Waveland's three strongest months, with June the single busiest of the year. September is the slowest month by a clear margin, a genuine seasonal hole rather than a minor dip on the way toward fall demand. This pattern differs from the July-and-August peak a generic Gulf Coast beach-town template often assumes, and pricing decisions should follow Waveland's actual documented pattern rather than that generic assumption.
Most guests arrive from New Orleans, with Baton Rouge as the second-largest origin market, both cities within a comfortable drive of the Mississippi coast. That regional, drive-market guest base helps explain the June-led pattern: Louisiana-based travelers taking weekend trips aren't tied to a distant school-vacation calendar the way a fly-in family from farther away might be. Typical stay length across the full sample is 4.6 nights, and guests book roughly 49 days ahead of arrival on average, a planning window worth building pricing and promotional strategy around, particularly for filling the September gap.
The 30-Night Minimum Is a Strategy Choice, Not an Occupancy Signal
About a third of Waveland's active listings, 32.3 percent, or roughly 30 of the 93 tracked in this sample, run a 30-night minimum stay. That's a deliberate booking-strategy decision some hosts make, often targeting remote workers or extended-stay guests, and it should never be read as a reflection of the town's actual occupancy rate, which sits at 33.6 percent across the full sample. A listing running a 30-night minimum is opting out of the shorter-stay guest pool that makes up most of Waveland's actual booking volume, given the town's 4.6-night typical stay length.
That's a legitimate strategy for a specific property and a specific owner's goals, but it's worth being honest about the tradeoff: a property sitting empty while waiting for one monthly booking can underperform a property that fills steadily through the stronger nightly-stay months. Sales tax can still apply to stays under 30 days regardless of a listing's posted minimum, so confirm the tax treatment with the city directly rather than assuming a long minimum automatically settles that question.
Confirm the City Permit Before You Advertise
Waveland requires a city short-term rental permit, administered through the Building Department, reachable at 228-466-2549. Confirm the current live fee directly with the department before advertising a property, since fees can change and shouldn't be assumed from any outside source, including this report. Do not confuse this office with Bay St. Louis Planning, reachable at 228-466-5516, a genuinely separate municipal department serving the neighboring town.
This distinction matters more than it might seem, because the two towns' proximity leads some hosts and even some property managers to assume a single permit or a single conversation with either city covers both. It does not. A property physically located in Waveland is subject to Waveland's process regardless of how close it sits to the Bay St. Louis line, and vice versa. Confirm which municipality a specific parcel actually sits in before assuming either desk's requirements apply, since a property near the boundary between the two towns is worth double-checking directly against the county's own parcel records.
What a Buyer Should Ask Before Closing
Anyone evaluating a Waveland short-term rental purchase should ask for the property's actual trailing revenue, broken out by month if possible, rather than accepting a single annual figure on faith. Compare that trailing performance against the $26,638 typical revenue benchmark above; a property that significantly underperforms despite a strong location may reflect fixable issues, weak photography, generic copy, a mispriced calendar, while a property that significantly outperforms is worth asking about, since an unusually strong figure sometimes reflects a booking pattern, like a long-term tenant, that won't necessarily continue under new ownership.
Confirm the property's current permit status directly with Waveland's Building Department rather than accepting a seller's verbal assurance, and ask specifically whether the parcel sits within Waveland's city limits or in an area that might actually fall under Bay St. Louis's or Hancock County's separate jurisdiction. A property near either municipal boundary deserves this confirmation in writing before closing, not as an assumption carried over from the listing description.
How to Use This Report
If you already own a Waveland property, benchmark its trailing performance against the $26,638 typical figure and the 33.6 percent occupancy rate above, and evaluate the gap honestly: is underperformance a positioning problem, weak photography, generic copy, a calendar that doesn't reflect June, May, and October as the genuinely strong months, or a genuinely structural issue with the property itself. If you're buying, request a dated extract specific to Waveland, not a blended Hancock County or broader Mississippi Gulf Coast figure, and confirm the permit and tax situation directly with the city before you close.
Whichever position you're in, keep this town's data on its own line. Waveland's $26,638 typical revenue, 93 listings, and June-May-October seasonal pattern describe this specific market. Bay St. Louis's $25,594 and Port O'Connor's $21,172 describe theirs. Blending any of these together to produce a rounder, more impressive-sounding regional average serves no one, least of all the guest who searched for Waveland specifically and the host trying to price a listing against real, town-specific data.
Revenue Per Available Night: The Number That Accounts for Vacancy
Average nightly rate alone can be a genuinely misleading number to price a listing against, because it only describes the price charged on nights that actually did book, not the property's performance across the full calendar including vacant nights. Waveland's revenue per available night, roughly $95, is the more honest full-calendar figure: it spreads the $26,638 typical annual revenue across every available night in the year, occupied and vacant alike, giving a truer sense of what a specific property is likely to actually generate rather than what it charges when it does book.
This distinction matters most when comparing a specific listing's asking price or projected income against the townwide benchmark. A property advertised at a $270 nightly rate isn't automatically earning $270 times 365 nights a year; it's earning something closer to the $95-per-available-night figure once vacancy across the full calendar, including the September gap, is factored in. Use revenue per available night, not the bare nightly rate, when sanity-checking a purchase price or a revenue projection against Waveland's own actual data.
Why Year-Over-Year Growth Matters Here
Waveland's 13.4 percent year-over-year revenue growth, against essentially flat active supply, is a meaningfully positive signal distinct from the raw $26,638 figure itself. Growing revenue without a flood of new competing listings suggests demand strengthening faster than supply is expanding to absorb it, a different, more favorable market dynamic than a town where revenue is flat or declining even as new listings keep coming online. That combination is worth factoring into any forward-looking projection, separate from simply citing the trailing $26,638 figure as a static number.
It's also worth treating this growth figure with the same directional caution as the rest of this report's numbers. A single year of growth on a 93-listing sample doesn't guarantee the trend continues, and a buyer or an existing host should track this figure over successive extracts rather than treating one year's 13.4 percent increase as a permanent growth rate to underwrite indefinitely into a multi-year pro forma.
Building Listing Copy That Actually Reflects This Data
A listing description built to genuinely convert should reflect what this specific report actually confirms, not a generic Gulf Coast template simply pasted onto a Waveland address. Lead with Waveland Beach, Bayside Park, the Ground Zero Hurricane Museum, or the fishing pier, whichever the property is genuinely closest to, rather than a vague water caption. Price the calendar around June, May, and October as the genuinely strong months, with a deliberate strategy, discounted nightly rates or a targeted long-stay product, for the September gap rather than pricing flat through it.
Keep the AirROI figures, the $26,638 typical revenue, the 33.6 percent occupancy, the seasonal pattern, out of the guest-facing listing copy itself; that data belongs in pricing decisions, investment conversations, and lender packets, not in the description a guest reads while deciding whether to book. A listing that keeps the tourism story and the business data in their proper separate lanes reads as more focused and more trustworthy to a guest than one that mixes marketing language with statistics that mean nothing to a browsing vacationer.
What This Report Does Not Claim
This report does not claim every single Waveland listing earns exactly $26,638, and it does not claim the September gap is identical in severity for every property in the sample; some well-positioned, well-marketed listings likely outperform the townwide figures in every month, including September, while others genuinely underperform even during the strong month of June. The $26,638 typical revenue and 33.6 percent occupancy figures are aggregate statistics across 93 listings, useful as a benchmark, not as a promise for any single property.
It also does not claim to have a complete accounting of every short-term rental operating in Waveland; the 93-listing figure reflects what AirROI's extract captured on the date it was pulled, and a fresh extract closer to the date you're reading this may show a somewhat different count, revenue figure, or occupancy rate as this market continues to evolve month over month. Date whatever extract you use in your own analysis, and treat every figure in this report as a snapshot from a specific point in time rather than a permanently fixed number to underwrite indefinitely.
The Boundary With Bay St. Louis Deserves Extra Care
Because Waveland and Bay St. Louis sit directly adjacent on the map, properties located near the municipal boundary between the two towns deserve genuinely particular care in both marketing and compliance work. A listing photographed or described in a way that blurs which specific town the property sits in risks confusing the exact guest this report is built to help attract, someone who searched for Waveland specifically. It also risks a compliance error: a property that's actually inside Bay St. Louis city limits, or in unincorporated Hancock County outside either municipality, is subject to a different permit desk and potentially a different tax treatment than one confirmed to sit inside Waveland proper.
Walk the parcel against the county's own records, or confirm directly with the relevant city office, before assuming either town's requirements or data apply to a specific address. This is a small but genuinely real detail that a generic Gulf Coast market report would likely miss entirely, treating the two towns as interchangeable simply because they sit a few minutes apart on the same stretch of Mississippi coastline, sharing a highway and a general sense of place without sharing a government.
Related Reading
More PLACE, STATE reading already live on Crest & Cove.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Waveland's actual typical short-term rental revenue?
AirROI's trailing-twelve-month extract through July 2026 puts typical revenue at about $26,638 across 93 active listings, with an average nightly rate near $270 and occupancy around 33.6 percent. Year over year, that figure moved up 13.4 percent while active supply held essentially flat. Treat this as directional data from a moderate sample rather than a guarantee for any individual property, and don't blend it with a neighboring town's figures, even a town as close as Bay St. Louis.
Can I average Waveland's numbers with Bay St. Louis?
No. Bay St. Louis is a separate municipality with its own government, its own permit desk, and its own trailing revenue figure, published near $25,594 annually. Despite sitting immediately next to Waveland on the coast, the two towns should never be blended into one "coastal average" figure. Cite Waveland's own $26,638 typical revenue from its own 93 listings for a Waveland property, and label Bay St. Louis's numbers separately and clearly if you reference them at all.
What permit does Waveland require, and where do I confirm it?
Waveland requires a city short-term rental permit through the Building Department, reachable at 228-466-2549. Confirm the current fee directly with the department before advertising, since fees can change. Don't confuse this office with Bay St. Louis Planning at 228-466-5516, a separate department serving the neighboring municipality. Confirm which city's jurisdiction a specific property actually falls under, especially for parcels near the boundary between the two towns.
When is Waveland's peak short-term rental season?
June is the busiest month, with May and October rounding out the three strongest months of the year. September is the slowest by a clear margin, a genuine seasonal gap rather than a minor dip. This differs from the July-and-August peak a generic Gulf Coast template often assumes, and pricing should follow Waveland's own documented pattern. Most guests arrive from New Orleans, followed by Baton Rouge, both within a comfortable drive of the coast.
Does a 30-night minimum reflect Waveland's actual occupancy rate?
No. About a third of Waveland's 93 active listings, 32.3 percent, or roughly 30 properties, run a 30-night minimum, which is a deliberate booking-strategy choice, not a reflection of the town's actual 33.6 percent occupancy. Waveland's typical stay length is 4.6 nights, meaning most real demand here is short-trip travel. A 30-night minimum opts out of that larger pool in favor of a smaller, different guest segment that has to be marketed to separately.
How does Waveland's revenue compare to Port O'Connor?
Port O'Connor, an entirely different Gulf Coast market, published a distinct figure near $21,172 across 128 listings, notably lower than Waveland's $26,638 across 93 listings and drawn from a larger, differently structured listing stock. These are separate markets with their own guest mixes, seasonality, and regulatory environments. Don't average the two figures together or assume one town's performance predicts the other's; cite each town's own data separately.
Does a 30-night minimum change my sales tax obligation in Waveland?
Not automatically. Mississippi sales tax can still apply to stays under 30 days depending on how a specific listing is structured and booked, regardless of the posted minimum stay length. Confirm the tax treatment directly with the city alongside the permit question, rather than assuming a long minimum settles the tax question on its own. This is worth confirming before advertising a property under a monthly-stay strategy, not after guests have already checked in.
What should a buyer send a lender when financing a Waveland purchase?
The property's actual trailing revenue broken out by month where possible, compared honestly against the $26,638 typical annual figure and 33.6 percent occupancy rate above, along with confirmation of current permit status directly from Waveland's Building Department. Avoid sending a blended regional figure that mixes in Bay St. Louis or Port O'Connor data, and avoid relying on a seller's verbal assurance about permit status without written confirmation from the city itself.
Work with Crest & Cove Creative
Waveland's $26,638 typical year is its own number, earned by its own 93 listings. Bay St. Louis next door has its own separate figure, and the two shouldn't share a line.
Crest & Cove builds Waveland listings around this town's own data and its own landmarks, never a blended coastal average. Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502 to get the pricing and the permit questions right before you list.
Reach out at crestcove.co or (256) 998-7502.
Comments