Laredo, Texas Airbnb Market Data 2026

Laredo sits on the Rio Grande in Webb County, and it pushes more truck freight across the border than any other inland port in the United States. That single fact decides what a short-term rental here is for. The people booking a place in Laredo are mostly working, so if you're weighing a purchase, the question isn't how many tourists the city pulls in. It's what a room is worth to somebody who'd otherwise be in a motel off the interstate.

I should say up front how small this market is, because it changes what anyone can honestly tell you about it. Of the 63 markets this series covers, Laredo has the fewest measurable listings, and once you strip out the private rooms and the properties that barely trade, what's left is a couple of hundred homes. That's enough to describe the market as a whole with some confidence, and nowhere near enough to rank neighborhoods. So I've set a floor of 25 listings for every row in this article. Anything thinner than that didn't get published, even where it would've filled a nice-looking table.

What follows is what the numbers do support, current as of September 2026: what a typical Laredo listing earns, how the week and the year actually run here, which parts of town pay and which don't, and the one legal question the city has never answered.

How Much Do Laredo Airbnbs Earn in 2026?

Over the past twelve months the median measurable Laredo listing took in $16,696, on median occupancy of 29.3% and a median nightly rate of $158. Step up to the top quarter of the market and the revenue figure is $23,471. The median property is a two-bedroom, which tells you something on its own about who's buying here.

Those come from the listing-level data as medians rather than averages, which means half of Laredo's listings land above each figure and half land under it. I'm flagging that because the averages you'll see on Laredo's market page sit higher, the way averages always do once a handful of strong performers pull them up, and the two aren't interchangeable when you're modeling a purchase.

Break it out by size and the pattern gets clearer:

Bedrooms	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	Top-quartile revenue
1	$10,923	$107	31%	$18,811
2	$13,711	$142	28%	$17,869
3	$21,495	$209	28%	$27,191
4+	$33,296	$308	30%	$43,761

Medians from listing-level Laredo market data, twelve months to August 2026. Only sizes with at least 25 measurable listings appear, so studios are left out. Medians are computed separately for each measure and won't multiply out.

Now run your eye down the occupancy column, because that's where Laredo stops behaving like anywhere else. A one-bedroom runs at 31% and a four-bedroom at 30%, and the two sizes in between sit at 28%. Everything is roughly a third full, no matter how big it is. In most markets a bigger house is a harder sell and its occupancy sags, but that doesn't happen here, because the guest booking a four-bedroom in Laredo usually isn't a family on vacation. It's a crew.

So the whole revenue ladder is built out of nightly rate. Going from one bedroom to four roughly triples the median, from $10,923 to $33,296, and almost all of that comes from charging $308 a night instead of $107. Keep that in mind when you're comparing two properties, because in a market where occupancy is more or less fixed, the only lever you really control is what the room is worth.

The spread inside each size is worth a look too. Measured against its own median, the one-bedroom band is the widest of the four: its top quarter starts at $18,811 against a $10,923 median, so a mediocre one-bedroom trails a good one by more than a typical one-bedroom trails a typical two. Two-bedrooms are the tightest in dollar terms, with a little over $4,000 between the median and the top quartile, which makes them the hardest size in Laredo to win at.

Is the Laredo Airbnb Market Oversaturated?

Mildly, yes. Not in the way that word usually gets thrown around, though, so it's worth being precise about what moved.

Set January through August 2026 beside the same eight months of 2025 and you get this: Laredo added listings while occupancy slipped about 5%, the average nightly rate went up about 13%, and booking lead time came down.

Measure	January to August 2026, against the same eight months of 2025
Active listings	Up
Occupancy	Down about 5%
Average nightly rate	Up about 13%
Booking lead time	Down

Market-wide BNBCalc data covering every listing in the market, not a single performance band. Two rows carry a direction and no figure on purpose: recomputing them on a shorter, cleaner stretch of history moves the number by more than eight points, so the direction holds up and the size doesn't. The comparison runs on the eight months either side because a full twelve-month baseline would reach back past a change in how these measures are defined.

Why "mildly"? Because a 5% slip on an occupancy that was already near 30% is a small move, and rates went the other way by more. Hosts here charged more per night and stayed about as full, which isn't what a genuine glut looks like. A market drowning in new competition usually gives up rate first.

One thing to be careful about if you go digging yourself. The listing count jumps sharply between April and May of 2026, and that jump is an artifact of how the data was reloaded rather than a wave of new properties coming online that spring. Anyone reading the monthly series as a growth story will get that month badly wrong, and I'd ignore the step entirely.

The honest way to keep score here isn't to watch the market-wide trend at all. It's to pull the occupancy of four or five listings that genuinely compete with yours, write the figures down, then look again a quarter later. If they're holding near 30%, you're fine. If they've drifted into the mid-twenties and fresh listings keep turning up around you, that's your answer, and you'll see it months before any market-wide figure catches up. For a wider frame, the Texas markets ranked by gross yield page shows where Laredo stands against the rest of the state.

When Is Laredo's Peak Airbnb Season?

July, with February the trough about twelve points of occupancy below it, although April runs close enough to July that I wouldn't try to separate the two.

Month	Average occupancy	Average nightly rate
September 2025	32.1%	$216
October 2025	28.5%	$199
November 2025	30.4%	$168
December 2025	28.3%	$173
January 2026	28.6%	$177
February 2026	26.1%	$183
March 2026	32.1%	$189
April 2026	35.1%	$188
May 2026	32.7%	$169
June 2026	33.4%	$176
July 2026	38.2%	$196
August 2026	30.4%	$185

Market-wide monthly figures for the twelve months to August 2026. Occupancy and nightly rate are averaged separately, so a month's two columns don't combine into anything.

The interesting part isn't the peak, it's that the two columns peak in different places. Occupancy tops out in July, while the strongest nightly rates in the whole window landed back in September and October of 2025 and haven't been matched since. November had the cheapest nights of the year and still ran fuller than December, January or February. So if you price off a seasonality chart you found somewhere, you'll be pricing Laredo backwards for at least a couple of months a year.

The week tells the same story, and more loudly. Across Laredo, the busiest night of the week runs about 25% ahead of the quietest one. That sounds unremarkable until you put it next to other Texas markets on the same measure: the gap is roughly 101% in Corpus Christi, 94% in Lubbock, 84% in San Antonio and 75% in Austin. Laredo has the flattest week of any Texas market I pulled, by a wide margin.

That's the trade market showing up in the calendar. Saturday still edges ahead and Monday still trails, but only just, because a freight broker in town for four nights doesn't care that it's a Tuesday. Practically, it means two things. Weekend-premium pricing barely works here, and a mid-week gap in your calendar is a real lost booking rather than the dead air it'd be in a beach town.

Where Should You Buy an Airbnb in Laredo?

North of the city, if you're buying inside Laredo at all. The ZIP codes with enough listings to measure split cleanly, and the split is large:

Area	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	Top-quartile revenue
78045 (north Laredo)	$18,731	$167	30%	$24,463
78041 (north-central)	$17,356	$172	28%	$23,965
78043 (east)	$10,785	$122	27%	$15,422

Median figures for listings inside the Laredo city limits, grouped by Census ZIP code tabulation area, twelve months to August 2026. Only ZIP codes with at least 25 measurable listings appear, which leaves out downtown and the far south. One boundary method throughout, and the thinner rows here will still move between refreshes.

A north Laredo listing brings in roughly 74% more than an east-side one, and it earns that entirely on rate, since the occupancy columns are within three points of each other. The northern ZIP covers the newer subdivisions out past the loop, closer to the World Trade Bridge and the commercial strip along I-35, which is exactly where somebody in town on business wants to be. The east side is older housing further from all of it.

Careful how far you push that, though. A ZIP code is a blunt instrument and these are small samples, so the ranking is a direction rather than a verdict on any particular street. Our sibling piece on the best places to invest in Laredo works at named-neighborhood level and weighs things this article doesn't, like walkability and what's actually nearby, so the two are worth reading together rather than against each other.

There's a bigger wrinkle, and it isn't about neighborhoods at all. When I mapped every listing in this market against Census boundaries, only about 74% of them turned out to sit inside the Laredo city limits. Of the quarter that don't, more than half sit in Medina County, roughly 140 miles northeast, out toward the edge of the Hill Country. Those properties are a different business entirely, and they earn differently: a median of $24,010 a year at a $223 nightly rate, against $11,206 and $110 for the scattering of small border-county listings that make up the rest of the outside group.

So if you look up a headline figure for "Laredo" anywhere, including on the market page, remember it's carrying that Hill Country tail. The city-limits medians are the ones to underwrite against, and those come in at $16,383 a year on a $158 nightly rate.

Which Amenities Make the Most Money in Laredo?

A pool, if you're going by the figure the market page publishes: +20% on revenue, from the current regression run. That's the pooled answer across every property size, though, and pooled answers hide things.

Pull the same model apart one bedroom count at a time, though, and the pool only leads at the top end. Everywhere else it's a hot tub:

Property size	Amenity with the published lift	Revenue lift
1 bedroom	Hot tub	+20%
2 bedrooms	Hot tub	+17%
3 bedrooms	Hot tub	+16%
4+ bedrooms	Pool	+20%

From the same amenity regression run as the pooled figure, requested one bedroom count at a time, September 2026. Only values BNBCalc publishes openly appear here.

So the pooled number is wrong for three of the four sizes that have data, and it's wrong in a direction that matters: it points a one-bedroom owner at a swimming pool when the model actually likes the hot tub better. If you own something small, that's a few thousand dollars of decision riding on which figure you read.

The model tracks several other amenities in Laredo where the lift is calculated but reserved for BNBCalc Markets rather than published on the page. An EV charger, lake access, a sauna, a barbecue, bicycles and a gym all show up that way. I'm naming them without numbers because inventing the numbers would be worse than leaving them out.

It's worth knowing what the model deliberately leaves alone as well, since anything close to universal across the market gets dropped from it. A feature on every property in town tells you nothing about why one of them out-earns the next, so leaving it in would only add noise. It's a sensible exclusion, and it trips up a lot of older Laredo advice, which tends to lead with exactly those basics.

Is Airbnb Legal in Laredo?

Yes, and with a caveat you won't find in most write-ups. Laredo has never adopted a short-term rental ordinance, so there's no permit, no registration, no occupancy cap and no owner-occupancy rule. That puts the city at the permissive end of Texas, a long way from Austin, Dallas or San Antonio.

I checked that rather than assumed it. Laredo publishes two codes, the Code of Ordinances and the Land Development Code, and I pulled both in full and ran the search over the complete text instead of trusting a search box. "Short-term rental" appears zero times in either. So does "vacation rental". So does "transient". The Code of Ordinances is codified through Ordinance No. 2026-O-92, adopted 4 May 2026, and none of the fifteen ordinances waiting to be codified across the two codes touches short-term rentals either.

Here's the caveat, though. Laredo's zoning works off a closed list: Land Development Code § 24-63.2 says permitted uses are the ones in its land use charts, then says plainly that "Uses not specifically permitted are prohibited", and § 24-63.1 repeats it.

Short-term rental isn't on that list, because the list was written before anyone needed it to be. What is on the list is a bed and breakfast, which the code defines as an owner-occupied detached single-family dwelling with no more than six guest rooms, and the charts permit that use in the Residential-Office district and the commercial districts only. Not in R-1, not in R-2, not in any of the city's residential zones, while a hotel or motel doesn't get into a residential zone at all.

None of that says a whole-home Airbnb is banned in R-1, and I want to be careful not to claim it does. What it says is that the city has never classified one, and its code's default for an unclassified use isn't in your favor. Since the city hasn't tested the question publicly, and our Laredo short-term rental guide goes through the permitting picture in more detail, I'd put it to Planning and Zoning in writing before you close on a house in a plainly residential zone. Do that first rather than after a neighbor complains.

Tax is the part that's unambiguous, and it's the one obligation the city genuinely administers. Texas Tax Code § 156.001(b) folds short-term rentals into the definition of "hotel" for the state tax and for the city and county taxes as well, so there's no argument to be had about whether your listing qualifies. Laredo's own ordinance gets there independently: § 30-16 defines a hotel to include apartments not occupied by permanent residents and "all other facilities where rooms or sleeping facilities or space are furnished for a consideration".

Tax	Rate	Who levies it
City of Laredo hotel occupancy tax	7%	City of Laredo, Code § 30-17(a)
Webb County hotel occupancy tax	1%	Webb County
Texas state hotel occupancy tax	6%	State of Texas, Tax Code § 156.052
Combined	14%	as published on the city's own tax rates page

Rates verified September 2026 against the enacted city ordinance, the Texas Tax Code and the City of Laredo's published tax rates page.

That 7% is the ceiling, incidentally. Texas caps a city's hotel occupancy tax at seven percent under Tax Code § 351.003(a) outside a handful of named exceptions, so Laredo charges the most a city in its position can. For the state layer on its own, there's a fuller walkthrough in our Texas lodging tax guide for hosts.

All 14% of that comes off the guest's bill rather than yours, so don't model it as a cost. Collection is the part that lands on you, though. The Texas Comptroller's office is explicit that platforms which have agreed to collect the state's 6% will do so, and just as explicit that owners should contact the city and county themselves about the local portion, which means nobody is promising to file Laredo's 8% for you.

Section 30-19 sends that report to the city tax collector by the final day of whichever month follows collection, with a copy of your state filing attached. Miss it and § 30-21 adds a 5% penalty, another 5% after thirty days, and 10% annual interest once sixty have passed.

A stay of thirty consecutive days or more is exempt from all three taxes, under both the city's definition of a permanent resident and Tax Code § 156.101. Bookings run long in a market built on work travel, so that threshold sits closer than it does in most places, and any break in payment voids the exemption.

That leaves business registration. Chapter 18, Article V of the city code makes every new business in Laredo file a registration form and pay $50, and it defines a business broadly, as "the purchase or sale of goods and services for a profit". The application has to clear zoning, building, right-of-way, environmental, historic preservation, health and fire before the city issues a certificate of occupancy. Whether the city applies that to a single rented house is, again, something it hasn't said publicly. Asking costs you a phone call.

Where Does BNBCalc Get Its Laredo Airbnb Data?

That phone call settles the paperwork; the figures came from somewhere else. All of them were built in BNBCalc Markets, where BNBCalc does its market research, and it holds more on Laredo than one article can carry. Since everything here turns on what you pay rather than on how full you stay, the part I'd open first is the housing side, which puts what homes actually sell for at each size next to what listings that size take in. In a market where the median clears $16,696, the purchase price is the whole argument.

How Do You Estimate Airbnb Revenue for a Laredo Property?

Size is what moves the number here, so begin with whichever bedroom median matches what you're buying, then adjust for the address: the north ZIP runs well ahead of the east side, and a property outside the city limits belongs to a different market than the one the city medians describe.

Then hold occupancy still. That's the Laredo-specific move, and it's the opposite of what you'd do in a seasonal market. Nothing in this data suggests you can push a Laredo property much past the low thirties in occupancy through better photos or a smarter calendar, because the ceiling is set by how much work travel the city generates, not by how good your listing is. Model 30% and vary the rate instead.

Give yourself an honest rate assumption while you're at it. Every median nightly rate in this article is what listings actually achieved over twelve months, not what they asked for, and a nightly rate on a screenshot is a headline number that ignores discounts, gaps and the slow weeks in December and February.

Then take 14% off nothing. The hotel tax rides on top of what the guest pays, so your revenue line is your revenue line. What does come out is cleaning, utilities, insurance, platform fees, and the management cut if you're not local, and in a market at these revenue levels a 20% management cut of a $16,696 median is a real share of the profit rather than a rounding error. Run your own purchase price, financing and expenses through the numbers rather than working from a market average, because a market this small will have a wider spread around any average than you'd like.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does an Airbnb make in Laredo, Texas?

The median measurable Laredo listing earned $16,696 over the twelve months to August 2026, at a median nightly rate of $158 and median occupancy of 29.3%. The top quarter of the market earned $23,471 or more. By size, medians run $10,923 for a one-bedroom, $13,711 for a two-bedroom, $21,495 for a three-bedroom and $33,296 for four bedrooms or more.

Do you need a permit to run an Airbnb in Laredo?

No. Laredo has not adopted a short-term rental ordinance, and neither the Code of Ordinances nor the Land Development Code contains a short-term rental permit, registration or license requirement as of September 2026. The city's general new-business registration under Chapter 18, Article V requires a $50 filing and a certificate of occupancy for a new business, and the city has not stated publicly whether it applies that to a rented home.

What is the hotel occupancy tax on a short-term rental in Laredo?

A combined 14% applies to stays of fewer than thirty consecutive days: 7% to the City of Laredo under Code § 30-17(a), 6% to the State of Texas under Tax Code § 156.052, and 1% to Webb County. The guest pays it. Platforms that have agreed to collect the state's 6% do so, but the local 8% is the owner's responsibility to confirm and, where it isn't being collected, to file monthly with the city.

What is the occupancy rate for Airbnbs in Laredo?

Median occupancy across measurable Laredo listings was 29.3% over the twelve months to August 2026, and it barely varies by property size, running between 28% and 31% from one bedroom to four or more. Monthly occupancy ranged from 26.1% in February 2026 to 38.2% in July 2026.

Is Laredo a good place to buy a short-term rental?

It suits an investor buying on price rather than on demand. Occupancy sits near 30% year-round and doesn't respond much to size or season, so returns are driven by purchase price and nightly rate. The market is small and its listings are concentrated in the northern ZIP codes, where medians run roughly 74% ahead of the east side.

Which amenities add the most revenue in Laredo?

The published pooled figure is a pool at +20%. Requested one bedroom count at a time, the model publishes a hot tub at +20% for one-bedrooms, +17% for two-bedrooms and +16% for three-bedrooms, with the pool leading only at four bedrooms and above. Several other amenities carry a calculated lift that BNBCalc reserves for Markets rather than publishing on the page.

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Laredo is a reminder that a market can be perfectly viable and still be nothing like the one you have in mind. There's no season to chase and no weekend to price for, and the list of things you can change about a property here is shorter than it is almost anywhere else. What's left is arithmetic: what you pay, what the room is worth, and whether the gap between them is wide enough to bother. That's less exciting than a market with a story, and it's a good deal easier to be wrong about the exciting ones.