Boston, Massachusetts Airbnb Market Data 2026

Is a Boston Airbnb still worth buying into in 2026, and would the city even let you run one?

Well, the city will, but only if the place is yours and you live there. The City of Boston, in Suffolk County, registers short-term rentals in a home its owner lives in for at least nine months of the year, plus one extra unit when that home sits in a two- or three-family house where the owner owns every unit. Unfortunately that rules out the plan a lot of investors show up with. You can't register a condo bought to rent by the night, a unit held in an LLC or an apartment you lease from someone else, and the city can fine anyone offering an ineligible unit $300 a day.

If you do qualify, the latest numbers send mixed signals. Across all listings BNBCalc tracks in the Boston market, the average nightly rate rose about 23% between September 2025 and August 2026, yet occupancy fell about 9%, even though there were about 3% fewer listings competing for guests. I'm writing about Boston, Massachusetts, but the market data stretches well past the city into places like Somerville, Cambridge, Salem and Gloucester, and each of those cities and towns can write its own rules.

How Much Do Boston Airbnbs Earn in 2026?

Sorting Boston's listings by bedroom count shows how much the spread inside one size matters. The best-earning one-bedrooms bring in more than a typical three-bedroom, and nearly twice what the weakest four-plus-bedroom homes make, which tells me location and management count for about as much as square footage here.

Gross yield flattens the sizes even more. The typical one-bedroom and the typical four-plus-bedroom home land on almost exactly the same yield, two- and three-bedrooms sit about a point behind them, and studios return roughly half. That matters more in Boston than in most cities, because the rules steer you toward a condo or house you live in, and a one-bedroom doesn't leave you behind on gross yield.

Who's running the listings you'd compete with? Professional hosts are behind a large share of them. That struck me as strange in a city that only registers owner-occupants, until I remembered that the market reaches into cities and towns with their own rules, and that Boston's ordinance doesn't cover stays of 28 days or longer. If you'd rather not handle turnovers yourself, the Boston property management roundup compares local companies, though the registration still has to sit with the owner who lives there.

At the top end, BNBCalc's top-performing tier of listings brings in more than twice what the average Boston-market listing does. I'd treat that as a stretch goal rather than a line in the budget.

Is the Boston Airbnb Market Oversaturated?

A stretch goal only makes sense if the market underneath it is healthy, so how did the whole market move over the year?

Metric	Year-over-year change
Average nightly rate	+23%
Purchase price	+1%
Booking lead time	Down
Active supply	−3%
Occupancy	−9%

BNBCalc data across all listings BNBCalc tracks in the market, comparing September 2025 to August 2026 with September 2024 to August 2025, with figures rounded to whole percents. Every line is averaged on its own and won't multiply into another, and the purchase price line reflects home values, not rentals. Booking lead time shows a direction without a number, because this year's data agrees on which way it moved but not by how much, and a measure is left off entirely when the data doesn't settle its direction.

No, I wouldn't call Boston oversaturated going by the latest year, because the market averaged about 3% fewer active listings than the year before, so there's no flood of new competition. What gives me pause is that occupancy still fell about 9% with less competition around, even as the average nightly rate rose about 23%.

Those moves can be read two ways. Either guests wanted fewer nights, which would leave even a smaller market with more listings than it can fill, or hosts pushed their rates up and accepted emptier calendars in exchange, and a year of market-wide averages can't tell you which one happened.

So before you make an offer, you'll want to look at the occupancy of the listings you'd be up against, the ones your size in the neighborhood you're weighing, and recheck it every few months. Either way, my guess is that another rise of about 23% in rates is a lot to count on, which is why I wouldn't budget on a repeat.

When Is Boston's Peak Airbnb Season?

Averages like those also flatten out a year that swings hard from season to season, so the calendar is worth its own look. Boston's peak season runs from June through August, and October belongs with it, since those four months charged the year's four highest nightly rates.

Month	Occupancy	Avg nightly rate
Sep 2025	46%	$334
Oct 2025	52%	$392
Nov 2025	36%	$304
Dec 2025	29%	$270
Jan 2026	25%	$222
Feb 2026	25%	$216
Mar 2026	33%	$264
Apr 2026	39%	$338
May 2026	41%	$360
Jun 2026	48%	$461
Jul 2026	51%	$430
Aug 2026	48%	$382

BNBCalc's month-by-month figures across the whole Boston market, September 2025 through August 2026. Occupancy and nightly rate are averaged separately.

October's $392 average even edged out August's $382, and no other month charged more than May's $360, so if your budget prices the whole year like summer, it's going to come up short.

Summer also brought the World Cup to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, where the tournament played seven matches between June 13 and July 9, right in the middle of the year's two priciest months. I can't separate the tournament from everything else in these numbers, though, so either way I wouldn't budget on June's $461 average nightly rate, the highest of any month.

The cold months sit at the other end. January and February each booked only about a quarter of their nights, at the year's two lowest nightly rates, $222 and $216, against nearly half or better in each of the summer months.

If you live in the home, the city's test of nine months out of twelve leaves room to be away for all three summer months, on my reading of the code. You'd still need someone local who can get to the unit within two hours while you're gone.

Within the week, Saturdays fill 19% more of their nights than the average day and Fridays 17% more, while Mondays fill 14% fewer. Nightly rates swing less than half as far, peaking about 9% above average on Fridays and Saturdays, which makes me think plenty of Boston hosts leave weekend money on the table.

Where Should You Buy an Airbnb in Boston?

Once you know when rates peak, the next question is where in this market you'd be charging them. If you'll live in the home, I'd start with South Boston and Charlestown, because both make the city's top seven on median revenue while booking about a third of their nights. Most of the market sits outside Boston altogether, though.

Only about three in ten of the market's measurable listings sit inside Boston's city limits. Everything else is scattered through the cities and towns around it, so I've split the listings into two tables. The first follows Boston's own neighborhoods and the second the biggest places nearby, and since they're drawn on different boundaries, I wouldn't line their rows up against each other.

Inside the City of Boston

Boston's planning department draws 26 official neighborhoods, so each listing inside the city is matched to the neighborhood it sits in, and every neighborhood with enough data gets a row.

Rank	Neighborhood	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	75th-percentile revenue
1	Downtown	$65,963	$458	45%	$96,344
2	North End	$50,294	$404	38%	$78,929
3	South Boston	$48,010	$433	33%	$64,204
4	Brighton	$46,515	$304	38%	$50,439
5	Fenway	$45,729	$368	36%	$62,733
6	Beacon Hill	$45,190	$373	37%	$59,145
7	Charlestown	$44,206	$448	32%	$57,171
8	Back Bay	$43,535	$313	34%	$55,188
9	Roxbury	$40,007	$377	35%	$61,092
10	Allston	$39,683	$289	29%	$53,638
11	East Boston	$37,576	$353	34%	$53,567
12	South End	$32,642	$305	34%	$50,031
13	Bay Village	$32,100	$320	32%	$77,113
14	Hyde Park	$30,947	$281	35%	$33,592
15	West Roxbury	$30,728	$329	33%	$43,880
16	Mission Hill	$30,408	$212	41%	$44,047
17	Jamaica Plain	$29,755	$274	34%	$43,466
18	Roslindale	$29,555	$267	32%	$39,316
19	Dorchester	$28,279	$325	29%	$48,426

BNBCalc 2026 listing data for the latest twelve months inside the City of Boston's official neighborhood boundaries, where revenue, rate and occupancy are the middle listing's figures and the 75th percentile marks where a neighborhood's top quarter of listings begins. Since each column is its own calculation, the figures don't multiply, and any neighborhood too thin to measure reliably is left out.

Each neighborhood's occupancy figure describes its median listing, so it isn't on the same footing as the monthly market averages and only works for comparing neighborhoods with each other.

Downtown leads by a distance, but it gets there by booking 45% of its nights, more than any other neighborhood manages. My guess is that's a hard pace to keep up in a home you also live in, so I'd read Downtown's $65,963 median as a ceiling rather than a target.

If you're buying a home you'll live in, I'd study the neighborhoods that earn well without filling the calendar, since you probably won't have every night to sell. South Boston ranks third on a $48,010 median, and it gets there with a $433 median nightly rate and about a third of its nights booked. Charlestown's median listing still clears $44,206 with slightly fewer nights booked, at a $448 median rate that trails only Downtown's.

Near the bottom, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain and Roslindale post the lowest medians, although Dorchester's 75th percentile of $48,426 shows its better listings earn far more than the median suggests. Hyde Park and West Roxbury rest on thin samples, and Bay Village's gap between a $32,100 median and a $77,113 75th percentile is too wide to lean on.

No revenue figure tells you what a neighborhood is like to live in, which matters when the rules require you to live there, and BNBCalc's Boston neighborhood guide covers attractions and transit neighborhood by neighborhood.

Around Boston

Which nearby places hold up? These are the cities and towns in the market with the most listings.

Rank	City or town	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	75th-percentile revenue
1	Somerville	$43,448	$447	31%	$61,773
2	Boston	$41,316	$340	35%	$57,154
3	Gloucester	$36,624	$397	27%	$51,974
4	Salem	$34,805	$364	29%	$48,931
5	Brookline	$34,581	$294	36%	$45,413
6	Cambridge	$34,318	$338	34%	$58,377
7	Everett	$33,841	$233	39%	$40,896
8	Rockport	$31,940	$343	29%	$43,992

BNBCalc 2026 listing data for the latest twelve months in the places with the most listings, mapped to US Census county subdivisions. In Massachusetts those boundaries follow city and town lines, and every column except the 75th percentile is a median, each worked out on its own.

Boston comes second, a little behind Somerville, but Somerville's typical listing has three bedrooms against Boston's one, so I'd put a good part of that gap down to size. Cambridge and Brookline, both right on Boston's border, land below it, while Gloucester, Salem and Rockport sit north of Boston in Essex County, so their figures describe very different places from a condo in the city.

Don't assume the rules carry across those lines, either. Massachusetts law lets each city and town license short-term rentals, limit how many operate and require inspections, so every row in that table can come with its own rulebook, and BNBCalc's Somerville short-term rental guide covers the one at the top.

Which Amenities Make the Most Money in Boston?

Once you've picked a spot, what goes inside the unit still moves revenue. In BNBCalc's current amenity model, bicycles for guests add about 19% to a Boston listing's revenue, which is the only amenity figure Boston's public market page puts on show. Why bikes? I'd guess it's about guests getting around a dense city without a car.

The answer shifts with size. Bikes lead again for two-bedroom listings at about 19%, whereas for homes with four or more bedrooms a pool comes out on top at about 16%.

The model finds a revenue signal for eight other amenities in Boston: a TV, a hot tub, a sauna, an EV charger, allowing pets, a gym, internet and a barbecue. Their Boston percentages are kept inside BNBCalc Markets, which is why they appear without numbers. A few standard fittings, washers among them, are left out of the model altogether.

In BNBCalc's latest figures, about half of Boston listings charge a cleaning fee, averaging about $124 where they do. Keep in mind that Massachusetts counts that fee as part of the taxable rent, so it picks up the same room tax as the nightly rate.

Is Airbnb Legal in Boston?

That room tax only matters if you're allowed to host in the first place, and in Boston you are, provided the home belongs to you and you live in it.

Boston's rules sit in Section 9-14 of the city code, and they took effect on January 1, 2019. The current code, updated through late 2025, still cites only the 2018 ordinance in its history notes, so the rules haven't been amended since. A short-term rental there means a stay of fewer than 28 consecutive days for a fee, and the city only allows one in an owner-occupied condo or an owner-occupied single-, two- or three-family building. The registered operator has to be an individual who owns the unit, so neither an LLC nor a tenant can fill that role, and that owner has to live there at least nine months out of twelve.

Which registration you need depends on how much of the place you rent. A Limited Share is a room in your home while you're there, capped at three bedrooms or six guests with one bedroom kept for you, and it costs $25 a year. A Home Share is the whole home you live in, capped at five bedrooms or ten guests, for $200 a year. An Owner-Adjacent unit is one more apartment in a two- or three-family house where you own every unit and live in one of them, also for $200 a year. All three can run 365 days a year, but you can only offer one whole unit at a time, so you can't be away and rent out your own apartment and the one next door together.

Registrations run from January 1 through December 31 and don't pass to a buyer if you sell. Every listing has to show your registration number, you'll name a local contact who can respond in person within two hours, and within 30 days of approval you notify every residential building within 300 feet. After the city reviews your application and you've paid for the registration, you'll also need a business certificate from the City Clerk. Some units can't be registered at all, including income-restricted units, units on a designated problem property and units with three or more violations in six months. An open code violation holds up or suspends a registration until it's fixed, and if you're in a condo, you'll also certify that the association's documents allow short-term rentals.

So where does that leave an investor who'd never move in? Boston doesn't count stays of 28 days or longer as short-term rentals, and it also carves out hospital stays and corporate or institutional stays of at least ten days that run under a formal contract. The state's room tax still reaches short-term rentals of 31 days or less, though, so a 28-night booking falls outside the city's short-term registry but still carries tax. Boston also keeps a separate registration for long-term rental units, and you'll want to look into it before furnishing a place for month-long stays.

The fines add up by the day: $300 a day for offering an ineligible unit, $100 a day for running an eligible unit without registering, and another $100 a day for ignoring a notice of violation. Booking sites carry risk too. The code bars any platform from doing business in the city unless it agrees to remove ineligible listings and listings without a valid registration number, and it requires platforms to report their Boston listings to the city every month.

On the ground, enforcement has been patchier than that sounds. A November 2025 Boston University Initiative on Cities brief found that only 41% of listings showed a license that matched the city's registry. It also found that a large share of entire-home short-term rentals were run by hosts with several entire-home listings in Boston, even though investor-owned units are largely prohibited. I wouldn't read that as permission, since a $300 daily fine on a single unit reaches $9,000 in 30 days.

Massachusetts layers its own requirements on top. Every operator has to register with the Department of Revenue through MassTaxConnect, and each rental needs at least $1 million in liability insurance unless the platform you book through carries equal or greater coverage. You also have to tell your home insurer before you start, and post where the fire extinguishers, gas shut-off valves, fire exits and fire alarms are.

Boston's room tax is paid by the guest on top of the booking price, never taken from what you charge. It adds up to 14.95%: the 5.7% state excise, Boston's 6.5% local excise and a 2.75% convention center financing fee, the same total Boston's FY27 budget gives. Airbnb says it collects Massachusetts occupancy taxes on bookings made through its platform and pays them to the state for you. You'll still file your own returns for anything booked directly, and the Massachusetts short-term rental tax guide works through an example. If you rent for 14 days or fewer in a calendar year, no room tax applies, as long as you've registered and filed that declaration by January 15.

The application, its paperwork and the offices to call are all covered in BNBCalc's Boston short-term rental rules guide.

Where Does This Boston Airbnb Data Come From?

That guide walks you through registering, whereas this article's numbers all come from BNBCalc Markets, BNBCalc's research tool for judging whole markets rather than pricing one property. It keeps more than three years of history for each market, so you can look back at how Boston's months have behaved from one season to the next. If you're planning to spend your three months away from home during the busy season, make sure to go through that history before you lock in your dates.

How Do You Estimate Airbnb Revenue for a Boston Property?

Once you know you're allowed to register, the harder question is what one particular home would earn, and no market median can answer that for you.

The Boston market page follows Boston's revenue, occupancy and seasonal swings one month at a time, and if you're still weighing where to buy, the best Massachusetts markets by gross yield ranks Boston among its in-state peers. When a real address is in play, run that home's price, financing and monthly costs through BNBCalc for an estimate built on it.

Whatever number you get, check it against a few things particular to Boston. If the unit can't be registered, price it as a rental of 28 days or longer rather than by the night. If the projection leans on summer, remember that the market's average nightly rate in January and February was less than half of June's, and only about a quarter of those winter nights booked. Guests see the 14.95% room tax added to your rate and cleaning fee, which shapes what they'll pay even though that money isn't yours. And if a two-family house is the plan, you'll need to own both units and live in one before the second can earn a night.

In any city that only lets residents host, the best-looking averages tend to come from operators whose setup you'd never be allowed to copy, so the listings worth measuring yourself against are the ones run the way the rules would let you run yours.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Average Airbnb Income in Boston?

Inside the City of Boston, the median listing earned $41,316 in BNBCalc's 2026 listing data, measured over the most recent twelve months. Neighborhood medians run from $28,279 in Dorchester to $65,963 in Downtown. Across the wider market, BNBCalc's top performance tier earns more than twice the average listing, and the best-earning one-bedrooms make more than a typical three-bedroom.

Is Airbnb Still Profitable in Boston in 2026?

It can be for hosts who qualify, since Boston only registers owner-occupants. From September 2025 to August 2026, across all listings, active supply averaged about 3% lower and occupancy about 9% lower, against an average nightly rate about 23% higher. Whether one home turns a profit depends on its purchase price, running costs and how many nights it books.

What Is the Best Month for Airbnb in Boston?

Across all listings, June and July 2026 were the best months on price: June averaged $461 a night with 48% occupancy, and July $430 with 51%. October charged the next-highest rate, $392, with 52% of its nights booked. January and February were the low points, each with about a quarter of nights booked and the year's two lowest nightly rates. Saturdays and Fridays book best across the week.

Do You Need a License to Run an Airbnb in Boston?

Yes. Boston requires every short-term rental, meaning a stay of fewer than 28 consecutive days, to be registered with the Inspectional Services Department each calendar year: $25 for a Limited Share, or $200 for a Home Share or an Owner-Adjacent unit. The registration number must appear on every listing, and a business certificate from the City Clerk follows approval. Massachusetts also requires Department of Revenue registration and at least $1 million of liability insurance for each rental, unless the booking platform's coverage is equal or greater.

Can You Buy an Investment Property in Boston and Run It as an Airbnb?

Not as a short-term rental. The registered operator must be an individual who owns the unit and lives there at least nine months out of twelve. The only second-unit option is an Owner-Adjacent rental: one more unit in a two- or three-family building where the owner-occupant owns every unit. Stays of 28 days or longer are not short-term rentals under Boston's ordinance, and offering an ineligible unit carries a fine of $300 a day.

Which Boston Neighborhood Is Best for Short-Term Rentals?

On median revenue, Downtown leads at $65,963, followed by the North End at $50,294 and South Boston at $48,010, in 2026 BNBCalc listing data within Boston's official neighborhood lines. Downtown also has the highest median occupancy, at 45%, while South Boston and Charlestown reach top-seven medians with about a third of their nights booked, a pace that's easier to match in a home the owner lives in.

How Much Is the Airbnb Tax in Boston?

Guests on a Boston short-term rental pay 14.95% on the rent, cleaning fees included: the 5.7% Massachusetts room occupancy excise, Boston's 6.5% local excise and a 2.75% convention center financing fee. Airbnb says it collects Massachusetts occupancy taxes on bookings made through its platform and pays them to the state. The excise covers short-term rentals of 31 days or less, and a property rented 14 days or fewer in a calendar year is exempt if the operator registers and files a declaration by January 15.

Can a Renter Run an Airbnb in Boston?

No. Boston's code defines the operator as a natural person who owns the residential unit, and it makes offering the unit unlawful for anyone else, so a tenant can't register the apartment they live in, even with the landlord's blessing. Stays of 28 consecutive days or longer fall outside the short-term rental ordinance, although the state's room tax still applies to rentals of 31 days or less.