Columbus, Ohio Airbnb Market Data 2026

What does a Columbus Airbnb earn, and are you allowed to run one in a house you won't be living in?

Well, inside the city of Columbus the second answer is yes. The city issues short-term rental permits for homes that aren't where you live, at $150 a year plus a $20 application fee, as long as the permit's in place before the listing goes up. The catch is that the market BNBCalc tracks as Columbus reaches well past the city, through the rest of Franklin County, Ohio, and out to Hocking County, and only about two in five of its listings sit inside Columbus city limits, so whether that permit even applies depends on which side of the city line the property sits.

As for the money, I'd call 2026 a steady year for hosts so far. If you line up January through August against the same stretch of 2025, you'll find about 8% more active listings, and yet occupancy held roughly flat even as guests paid about 17% more a night on average.

How Much Do Columbus Airbnbs Earn in 2026?

Even with rates climbing like that, the typical listing here earns a fairly modest amount. Inside Columbus city limits, the median listing made $24,629 over a trailing twelve months of BNBCalc's 2026 listing data, while the median across the whole market came to $27,842.

Does a bigger place earn more? Usually, but in Columbus two listings with the same bedroom count can sit further apart than two sizes do. The best-performing one-bedrooms bring in more than the weakest four-plus-bedroom homes, so I'd put more weight on location and management than on squeezing in another bedroom.

Gross yield flattens the differences between sizes even more when I compare them. Every size from one bedroom to four-plus returns within about a point and a half of the rest, four-plus homes edge ahead, and studios manage less than half the yield of anything bigger. Unless you're looking at a studio, then, I don't think size on its own will decide your return here.

You'll also be up against people who run rentals full time, because professional hosts manage a large share of this market's listings. If you'd rather pay one of them to handle turnovers and guest messages, the Columbus property management list names local companies.

The best listings pull well away from the pack, too, since BNBCalc's high-performing group earns about double the market's average listing. That's a fair target for a well-run place, although it's not a number I'd put in front of a lender.

Is the Columbus Airbnb Market Oversaturated?

Whether that kind of income stays within reach depends on how crowded Columbus gets, and the first eight months of 2026 give a decent early read on it.

Metric	Change vs January to August 2025
Average nightly rate	+17%
Booking lead time	+9%
Active supply	+8%
Occupancy	Roughly flat

BNBCalc data for every listing it tracks in the Columbus market, comparing January through August 2026 with the same eight months of 2025, with every change rounded to a whole percent. Any measure whose direction this year's data can't pin down is left off, and occupancy is marked roughly flat because it moved less than 2% either way. Each measure has its own average, so one row can't be multiplied by another.

No, I don't think Columbus is oversaturated on this year's numbers, because the listings it added haven't dragged down how often the average listing books. Active supply in January to August 2026 ran about 8% higher than in those months of 2025, and in a crowded market that growth would show up as a slide in occupancy, whereas occupancy here held roughly flat.

So even with more listings competing, the average listing still filled roughly as many of its nights as it had in 2025, and it did that while nightly rates climbed about 17% over those months. That's what a market absorbing its new listings looks like, although it's rates that have done the climbing while bookings have only held their ground.

Keep in mind that September through December aren't in this comparison at all, since it only covers January to August. My guess is that a jump of about 17% in nightly rates won't come around every year, either, so I wouldn't buy anything here that only works if rates keep climbing while more listings keep arriving. Before you commit, check how often homes like the one you're considering get booked, and pull those same comps up again each quarter to see whether their calendars start to thin.

When Is Columbus's Peak Airbnb Season?

Those new listings are competing for a year that tilts hard toward summer. Columbus's peak Airbnb season runs from May through August, the four months in which listings fill more of their nights, and charge more for them, than at any other point in the year.

Month	Occupancy	Avg nightly rate
Sep 2025	38%	$264
Oct 2025	42%	$283
Nov 2025	36%	$273
Dec 2025	30%	$257
Jan 2026	29%	$218
Feb 2026	28%	$215
Mar 2026	38%	$254
Apr 2026	41%	$250
May 2026	45%	$311
Jun 2026	49%	$320
Jul 2026	52%	$325
Aug 2026	45%	$301

One row per month, across every listing BNBCalc tracks in the Columbus market, with occupancy and the nightly rate each averaged on its own.

July led the year, filling 52% of its nights at $325 on average, while February sat at the bottom at 28% and $215, with January only a whisker ahead of it. So if your budget spreads bookings evenly across the year, you'll run ahead through the summer and behind for most of the rest.

October is the one fall month I'd single out, because it holds up. Its 42% occupancy and $283 average rate are both the highest of any month outside that May to August run.

Which nights matter most? Saturday, with Friday close behind. In BNBCalc's current figures across all listings, Saturdays book 46% more nights than an average day and Fridays 39% more, while Mondays and Tuesdays book about a quarter fewer. Rates move the same way on a smaller scale, landing 27% to 28% above average on Fridays and Saturdays and about 13% below it from Monday through Wednesday, so a flat nightly rate gives away the most on weekends, and it's the first setting I'd look at on any listing I bought here.

Where Should You Buy an Airbnb in Columbus?

Those seasonal and weekly patterns cover the whole market, so it helps to know how much of that market is Columbus itself before you start looking at streets.

Only about two in five of this market's listings sit inside Columbus city limits. The rest spread across the suburbs and small towns of central and southeastern Ohio, and nearly three in ten sit in Hocking County, home of the Hocking Hills. When I grouped every listing outside the city together, they posted a higher median revenue than the ones inside it. So I've built two tables from two different boundary sets, the city's own planning areas first and then the counties across the market, and a row in one can't be read against a row in the other.

Inside the City of Columbus

Columbus splits itself into planning and reporting areas it calls Columbus Communities, so I placed each measurable listing inside the city limits into one of them and ranked every community with enough data by its median annual revenue.

Rank	Community	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	75th-percentile revenue
1	Harrison West	$56,197	$496	34%	$66,813
2	Northwest	$32,950	$276	31%	$38,353
3	Far Northwest	$31,455	$247	36%	$35,648
4	German Village	$29,178	$224	33%	$35,128
5	Clintonville	$29,118	$220	34%	$36,885
6	Olentangy West	$29,100	$304	29%	$39,959
7	Northland	$28,733	$241	31%	$38,264
8	Fifth by Northwest	$28,554	$225	38%	$39,243
9	Victorian Village	$27,646	$235	32%	$39,253
10	Brewery District	$27,509	$192	38%	$38,949
11	Italian Village	$27,350	$195	37%	$35,268
12	University District	$25,922	$233	31%	$34,977
13	Far North	$25,374	$237	31%	$40,415
14	Mid East	$25,286	$269	29%	$38,548
15	Livingston Avenue Area	$22,668	$193	29%	$29,377
16	Near East	$21,669	$199	32%	$30,553
17	Franklinton	$20,649	$180	27%	$26,921
18	South Side	$20,456	$186	30%	$26,360
19	North Linden	$20,317	$238	28%	$26,357
20	Greater Hilltop	$19,451	$171	31%	$22,497
21	Downtown	$18,455	$165	33%	$23,087

Listings inside Columbus city limits in BNBCalc's 2026 data, grouped by the City of Columbus's Columbus Communities boundaries, over a trailing twelve months. The revenue, nightly rate and occupancy columns show medians, while the final column marks the 75th percentile, the level a community's top quarter of listings starts at. Every column is worked out independently, so they don't multiply together, and communities without enough data don't appear.

Keep in mind that those occupancy figures belong to each community's middle listing rather than to a market average, so they won't line up with the monthly table, and they're best used to compare one community with another.

I wouldn't read much into Harrison West's first place, though, since it rests on a small sample and its typical listing is a four-bedroom, which makes that $56,197 median more a measure of big houses than of the neighborhood. Far North, Brewery District, Olentangy West and Greater Hilltop sit on even smaller samples, so expect those rows to shift between refreshes.

The comparison I find more useful is between homes of a similar size. German Village, Clintonville, Fifth by Northwest, Victorian Village and Italian Village all have a two-bedroom typical listing, and their medians sit within about $2,000 of each other, from $27,350 to $29,178. What I'd look at is how they get there: German Village charges a $224 median rate and fills 33% of its nights, whereas Italian Village charges $195 and fills 37%, on one of the biggest samples in the city.

Down at the bottom, Downtown's typical listing is a one-bedroom, which probably explains a good part of its $18,455 median. The University District has the largest sample of any community and lands mid-table at $25,922, even though its typical listing has three bedrooms.

A table can't tell you what a block feels like or who'd want to stay there, and the best places to invest in Columbus covers that side.

Across the Wider Columbus Market

So does the rest of the market really earn more? To find out, I mapped the seven counties with the most listings by their Census boundaries.

Rank	County	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	75th-percentile revenue
1	Hocking	$39,768	$352	31%	$59,706
2	Delaware	$27,574	$283	30%	$46,680
3	Fairfield	$27,470	$263	29%	$44,321
4	Perry	$25,504	$228	29%	$35,102
5	Licking	$24,844	$241	30%	$33,475
6	Franklin	$24,779	$220	32%	$35,055
7	Athens	$21,394	$217	30%	$32,108

Listings in BNBCalc's 2026 data inside US Census county boundaries over a trailing twelve months, for the seven counties holding the most of the market's listings; all columns are medians apart from the 75th percentile, each calculated on its own. Franklin County holds nearly all of the listings inside Columbus city limits.

Mostly, yes, since five of the other six counties post a higher median than Franklin, and none comes close to Hocking, whose $39,768 median runs about $15,000 ahead of Franklin County's. I checked the bedroom mix first, and since both counties have a two-bedroom typical listing, house size doesn't explain the gap the way it did for Harrison West. The difference shows up in price instead, with a $352 median rate in Hocking against $220 in Franklin at almost the same occupancy.

Franklin County, where nearly all of the city's listings sit, finishes sixth of seven. So where would I buy? For revenue alone I'd start in Hocking County, although it sits under a different set of rules, with its own county tax and a permit the county has been writing, and if I wanted to stay under Columbus's permit instead, I'd look first at the two-bedroom communities near the top of the city table.

Which Amenities Make the Most Money in Columbus?

Whichever side of that line you choose, the one amenity figure BNBCalc shows openly for Columbus belongs to the hot tub, and it's a big one.

BNBCalc's current amenity model ties a hot tub to about 33% more revenue across Columbus listings, and the lift gets bigger as the home gets smaller: about 44% for a one-bedroom, 39% for a two-bedroom and 24% for a three-bedroom, while the four-plus-bedroom figure sits behind BNBCalc Markets. My guess is that small rentals out in Hocking County account for a good share of that signal, although the model doesn't say where the lift comes from.

Eight more amenities have enough signal for BNBCalc to track in Columbus: a sauna, a TV, internet, a barbecue, an EV charger, lake access, a pool and bicycles. Their Columbus values are gated in BNBCalc Markets, which is why I've named them without numbers. A handful of household basics are excluded from the model altogether, so their absence from that list isn't an oversight.

Is Airbnb Legal in Columbus?

Amenities are the easy call, though, next to the question of whether you can host at all. Yes, Airbnb is legal inside the city of Columbus with a permit, even for a house you don't live in.

As of September 2026, Columbus sets its short-term rental rules in the city code's Chapter 598, which covers any home with five or fewer guestrooms booked for less than 30 consecutive days. You need the permit before you list the place, not just before the first guest arrives. It's $75 a year if it's the home you live in or $150 if it isn't, on top of the $20 application fee, and a tenant who lives there can apply too, as long as the lease spells out that short-term rentals are allowed.

The part I'd budget real time for is the paperwork. Each time you apply or renew, you need a fingerprint background check from a provider approved by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and so do the host if that's a different person, the 24-hour local contact and any property manager, at $32 a head through the city's License Section. On top of that, the city wants a good-standing letter from its Income Tax Division, a bedroom count that doesn't exceed the Franklin County Auditor's record, and a maximum occupancy of three guests per bedroom or fewer. Don't let the insurance lapse either, since the code requires at least $300,000 of liability coverage and a cancelled policy revokes the permit automatically.

What happens if you skip the permit? The fine is the small part. Listing without a permit is a misdemeanor with a fine as high as $250, but the code also says the gross revenue from those bookings has to be handed over to the city. Every listing has to show your permit number, and a booking platform can't take a fee for a Columbus rental unless the host has supplied a valid one. Three or more calls for service to the property within twelve months can also be grounds to deny, suspend or revoke a permit. And with City Council's public safety committee scheduling public hearings about short-term rentals in December 2025 and again in April 2026, I wouldn't assume today's rules will stay put.

Lodging tax goes on the guest's bill, but in Columbus you're the one who collects it. The city charges a 5.1% short-term rental excise tax, and its Income Tax Division says property owners collect it from guests and pay it to the city, filing a return by the 20th of every month, even a month with no bookings. The only Ohio places Airbnb's tax page says it collects for hosts are Cuyahoga County, Cincinnati and Cleveland, so plan on handling Columbus's 5.1% yourself.

All of that stops at the city line. Ohio largely leaves short-term rental rules to its cities, counties and townships, so a suburb or a township may set terms that look nothing like Columbus's. That matters more here than in most markets, since nearly three in ten of these listings are in Hocking County, where the county charges its own 6% bed tax on guest stays, split between the county and the local township. Hocking County has also been drafting a county short-term rental permit, and the latest version I found, from January 2026, was still marked as a draft, whereas the city of Logan has had its own permit process since 2023. If a cabin there is on your list, make sure to check where that county permit stands before you buy, and the Logan short-term rental guide covers the city side.

The application steps, documents and contacts for Columbus itself are all in the Columbus short-term rental regulation guide.

How Does BNBCalc Track the Columbus Airbnb Market?

Getting a permit is only half of it, though, since you'll be pricing against every host already operating in this market. BNBCalc Markets sets short-term rental markets side by side, and it also shows who operates the listings in Columbus and how those listings perform. With professional hosts managing a large share of the listings, I'd want to know who they are and how well their listings do before setting a nightly rate against theirs.

How Do You Estimate Airbnb Revenue for a Columbus Property?

An average can't tell you what one particular address will earn, so how do you get from a market figure to a number you'd borrow against?

Start with the Columbus market page, which keeps revenue, occupancy and seasonality current, and if you haven't settled on Columbus over other Ohio cities, the best Ohio Airbnb markets by gross yield shows where it ranks. When a specific property comes up, run its price, financing and operating costs through BNBCalc to see how the deal holds up.

Before I'd trust the result, I'd check it against a few things that trip up a Columbus pro forma. Confirm which jurisdiction the property is in first, because the Columbus permit, the Hocking County tax and a suburb's own rules are different answers to the same question. January and February need a plan of their own, since they filled just 29% and 28% of their nights at $218 and $215, against 52% at $325 in July. You'll also be collecting and filing the lodging tax yourself, so set the listing up to charge it from the first booking.

When a market's average blends a city with a vacation region under different rules, it doesn't describe either one very well, so the first thing to ask about any market figure is which places it was built from.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Average Airbnb Income in Columbus?

Inside Columbus city limits, the median listing made $24,629 in BNBCalc's 2026 listing data, looking back a trailing twelve months. Listings outside the city post a higher median, led by Hocking County at $39,768. The range within each bedroom count is wide: the best-performing one-bedrooms out-earn the weakest four-plus-bedroom homes, and BNBCalc's high-performing group earns about double the market's average listing.

Is Airbnb Still Profitable in Columbus in 2026?

It can be, and the first eight months of 2026 held up well for hosts. Across all listings in the Columbus market, active supply grew about 8% in January through August 2026 compared with the same eight months of 2025. Occupancy stayed roughly flat over those months, whereas the average nightly rate went up by about 17%. Whether a particular property profits depends on what it's bought for and what it costs to operate.

What Is the Best Month for Airbnb in Columbus?

July 2026 was the strongest month across all listings in the Columbus market, with 52% occupancy and a $325 average nightly rate. February was the low point at 28% occupancy and a $215 rate. May through August each filled more of their nights at a higher average rate than any other month, and Saturday is the strongest night of the week.

Do You Need a Permit to Run an Airbnb in Columbus?

Yes. Columbus City Code Chapter 598 requires a short-term rental permit before a home with five or fewer guestrooms is listed for stays under 30 consecutive days. The permit is $75 a year when it's the host's primary residence and $150 otherwise, plus a $20 application fee. Hosts need fingerprint background checks at every application and renewal, $300,000 or more in liability insurance, and the permit number on every listing.

Can You Run an Airbnb in Columbus if You Don't Live There?

Yes, inside the city of Columbus. The city issues non-primary-residence short-term rental permits for $150 a year, and a tenant who lives in the home can hold a permit if the lease explicitly allows short-term rentals. The permit covers Columbus city limits and nothing beyond them. Other municipalities, counties and townships in the market set their own rules, and Hocking County has been drafting a county permit of its own.

How Much Is the Airbnb Tax in Columbus?

Columbus charges a 5.1% short-term rental excise tax, added to the guest's bill. The city's Income Tax Division says property owners collect it from guests and file monthly by the 20th, including months with no bookings, and Airbnb's Ohio tax page doesn't list Columbus among the places it collects. In Hocking County, stays carry a 6% county bed tax.

Which Columbus Neighborhood Is Best for Short-Term Rentals?

It depends on the size of home. Harrison West has the city's highest median revenue, $56,197, on a small sample whose typical listing is a four-bedroom. Among communities with a two-bedroom typical listing, German Village, Clintonville, Fifth by Northwest, Victorian Village and Italian Village sit between $27,350 and $29,178. The figures are 2026 medians for listings inside the City of Columbus's Columbus Communities boundaries, from BNBCalc data.