Tampa, Florida Airbnb Market Data 2026

How much does a Tampa Airbnb earn now, and can you legally run one? Well, the legal half is the easy half here, which surprises a lot of people. Florida bars its cities from banning vacation rentals or from limiting how long and how often you rent them. What you do need is a state vacation rental license before you start renting, and although Tampa repealed its own rental registration in 2023, it still collects a business tax on every rental property.

The money half is where Tampa got more complicated. Over the latest year occupancy across the market fell about 19%, while nightly rates rose about 18%, so listings filled a smaller share of their calendars but charged more for the nights they did fill. What this year's data can't tell you yet is whether a wave of new listings caused that, since it doesn't settle whether Tampa's listing count went up or down. If the deal in front of you was underwritten on how often this market booked a year ago, make sure to check it against how often it books today, because an occupancy drop that size can sink a deal that only ever penciled out on the old numbers.

Beyond that paperwork, two checks still sit with you: your parcel's zoning, and whatever your HOA or condo declaration says. I'm covering Tampa proper, in Hillsborough County, though you should know the market numbers I'm quoting run metro-wide, across the bay to St. Petersburg and Clearwater. What it earns now, how it's moved over the past year, when it books, which submarkets pay, and what the state wants before you list.

How Much Do Tampa Airbnbs Earn in 2026?

Start with two-bedrooms, since they're the biggest group in the metro. Even inside that one group the strongest listings earn more than five times what the weakest do, so the bedroom count tells you far less than how well the place gets run.

That gap is what I'd hang the whole decision on, and Tampa's seasonality only widens it.

If you're weighing one size against another, compare gross yield rather than revenue, because from one bedroom upward, revenue climbs with every bedroom you add while yield quietly moves the other way.

One-bedrooms run the best typical gross yield in Tampa, and it slides with each bedroom you add from there, ending about five points lower on four-bedroom-plus homes.

Who are you up against? Across this market, a large share of the listings BNBCalc tracks sit with professional hosts, and since the average stay runs close to a week, this isn't a market of spare bedrooms either. You'll be competing with plenty of people who do this full time, so I'd budget for professional photography and a pricing tool rather than treating either as optional.

It helps to know where the ceiling sits, too: the listings BNBCalc places in its top performance tier earn well over twice what the average listing in this market does.

That top band is the number a good operator chases, and it sits a long way above the typical one.

Is the Tampa Airbnb Market Oversaturated?

Today's numbers only get you halfway, though, because what you're buying is where they're heading.

Here's what moved across every listing in the market, comparing the twelve months to August 2026 with the twelve months before that.

Metric	Year-over-year change
Average nightly rate	+18%
Purchase price	−2%
Occupancy	−19%

BNBCalc data across all listings BNBCalc tracks in the market, September 2025 to August 2026 against September 2024 to August 2025, rounded to the nearest whole percent. Each line is calculated on its own, so you can't multiply them into each other, and purchase price follows home values rather than rental listings. Active listings and booking lead time are left out because this year's data doesn't settle which way either one moved.

Unfortunately, this year's data can't settle whether Tampa is oversaturated yet, and I'd rather tell you that than guess. A crowded market shows up as more listings chasing fewer bookings, and although Tampa's occupancy clearly fell, the listing figures don't show whether supply grew or shrank, so I can't tell you whether new listings are what pulled occupancy down.

What the data does show is two big moves pulling in opposite directions. Occupancy fell about 19% while the average nightly rate rose about 18%, and I don't know which of those pushed the other, but either way the average listing is booking a smaller share of its nights at a higher price.

So does that make Tampa a bad buy? I wouldn't call it one on these numbers alone, since guests who did book paid noticeably more a night, and that isn't how a market people are walking away from usually looks. Still, occupancy falling that hard is enough to break a thin deal, so you'd want to be buying for a reason other than the market carrying you.

Rather than lean on the market-wide numbers, I'd check something a lot closer to the address. Make sure to pull the occupancy of the listings most like yours in size and location, because if they're still booking well, the market-wide fall matters far less to your deal. It's also worth repeating that check every quarter or so, since the homes nearest yours will feel new competition first.

There's one line working in a buyer's favor, and I don't want to bury it. Purchase prices slipped about 2% over the year, so entry costs eased slightly, though that's small next to how far occupancy fell.

When Is Tampa's Peak Airbnb Season?

When does Tampa pay best? Its peak season runs from late winter into spring, with March on top, and it's a long way down from there to September.

Month	Occupancy	Avg nightly rate
Sep 2025	26%	$231
Oct 2025	30%	$238
Nov 2025	32%	$253
Dec 2025	34%	$278
Jan 2026	38%	$270
Feb 2026	52%	$338
Mar 2026	60%	$400
Apr 2026	51%	$339
May 2026	40%	$300
Jun 2026	34%	$344
Jul 2026	45%	$336
Aug 2026	33%	$275

BNBCalc market data for every listing in the Tampa market, September 2025 through August 2026. Occupancy and nightly rate are each averaged on their own, so multiplying one by the other won't give you a month's earnings.

March filled three nights in every five at an average of $400, whereas September filled only about one in four at $231, and that spread is what I'd underwrite against, because a pro forma built on the annual average looks healthy on paper and still leaves you short every autumn.

I'd budget the real shape of the year: a climb that starts in February and peaks in March, a steady easing through June, a second, smaller lift in July, and a trough that bottoms out in September. In fact only February, March and April filled more than half their nights, while September through December never got past 34%, so if a deal only clears your hurdle at March's numbers, then it doesn't clear it.

The week has a shape here as well, though a gentler one.

Saturday runs 18% above the average day on occupancy and Friday 16%, whereas Tuesday sits 13% below. Rates barely follow that curve, peaking only about 7% above average at weekends, and that mismatch is the first thing I'd change if the listing were mine, since occupancy swings nearly three times as far across the week as the market's nightly rates do. Tampa weekends look underpriced to me.

Where Should You Buy an Airbnb in Tampa?

Metro-wide numbers stop being useful the moment you have an address, and in this market I'd say the address does more work than any other number you'll weigh.

There's a wrinkle in Tampa that you'll want before you read the tables. The market you've been reading about stretches across the bay, and only 14.8% of its listings sit inside Tampa's city limits, while about two-thirds of them are in Pinellas County. So I've split the neighborhoods in two: the ones inside Tampa first, then the surrounding metro by city and area. I built them from different boundary sets at different scales, so read them as two tables rather than one ranking, and don't compare a row in the first to a row in the second.

Inside the city of Tampa

I mapped every measurable listing inside the city to its official Tampa neighborhood, and the top 15 by what the median listing earns look like this.

Rank	Neighborhood	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	75th-percentile revenue
1	Ballast Point	$41,558	$384	30%	$87,112
2	Bayshore Beautiful	$39,128	$334	34%	$49,416
3	West Tampa Heights (Stadium Area)	$39,013	$323	36%	$57,063
4	Channel District	$36,951	$231	43%	$39,445
5	Hyde Park	$34,572	$322	33%	$48,306
6	Downtown Tampa	$34,481	$283	31%	$42,709
7	SoHo / South Howard	$33,773	$258	33%	$42,675
8	Gandy / Sun Bay South	$33,593	$294	32%	$49,022
9	Bayshore Gardens	$31,996	$268	33%	$54,085
10	North Hyde Park	$30,252	$206	38%	$57,728
11	Virginia Park	$28,587	$262	34%	$63,570
12	Carver City Lincoln Gardens	$28,364	$221	34%	$35,623
13	Riverside Heights	$27,810	$233	35%	$41,145
14	Bayside West	$27,438	$284	29%	$37,839
15	Interbay	$27,351	$238	31%	$37,756

BNBCalc 2026 listing data inside official City of Tampa neighborhood boundaries. Medians rather than averages, so a single trophy listing can't drag a neighborhood up the table, and the last column marks the point where each neighborhood's top quarter of listings begins. Neighborhoods too thin to measure reliably are excluded, and the thinnest of those that remain will still move between refreshes.

Before the surprises, one caution: the top three rows rest on thin samples, while Hyde Park, in fifth, has the biggest sample of any neighborhood in the top ten, so it's the row I'd lean on hardest.

Two things in that table surprised me.

The first is Channel District, which posts 43% median occupancy against a $231 median rate. That's the highest occupancy and the lowest rate in the top five, and its typical listing has one bedroom, so it's filling small units cheaply and often rather than winning on price.

The second is what's missing from the top. Ybor City and Seminole Heights have more listings than any other neighborhood in the city, and they land 27th and 33rd, on medians of $23,194 and $19,102. That's the trap I watch people walk into here: the names guests recognize and the names that pay aren't the same list, and my read is that the crowded ones got crowded because everyone else read the same articles you did.

You may want the qualitative version instead: which neighborhood suits which kind of operator, and what it's like to own there. That one lives in the companion piece on the best Tampa neighborhoods for Airbnb, which covers what the medians can't.

The rest of the metro

Where did the money go, then? Not into the city as a whole, which is the part that surprised me most. The top dozen neighborhoods in that table clear the metro's median listing revenue of $27,992, yet the city as a whole doesn't, once you take the median across every listing inside it. Map the whole market by city and area and you can see where the earnings went instead.

Rank	City or area	County	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy
1	Indian Rocks Beach	Pinellas	$40,894	$398	30%
2	Belleair Beach	Pinellas	$40,452	$350	39%
3	Redington Shores	Pinellas	$37,930	$447	28%
4	Apollo Beach	Hillsborough	$35,347	$354	30%
5	Treasure Island	Pinellas	$35,144	$331	31%
6	Indian Shores	Pinellas	$33,983	$353	29%
7	Madeira Beach	Pinellas	$31,117	$326	28%
8	Largo	Pinellas	$31,025	$298	31%
9	Clearwater	Pinellas	$30,698	$279	32%
10	Palm Harbor	Pinellas	$27,897	$280	30%
11	Pinellas Park	Pinellas	$27,179	$261	31%
12	St. Pete Beach	Pinellas	$25,924	$305	28%
13	Brandon	Hillsborough	$24,528	$249	32%
14	Dunedin	Pinellas	$23,609	$233	31%
15	Tarpon Springs	Pinellas	$23,569	$245	29%
16	West Lealman	Pinellas	$23,410	$211	32%
17	Tampa	Hillsborough	$22,906	$207	32%
18	East Lake-Orient Park	Hillsborough	$22,054	$207	33%
19	Wesley Chapel	Pasco	$20,572	$194	31%
20	Gulfport	Pinellas	$19,801	$184	31%
21	St. Petersburg	Pinellas	$19,677	$204	30%
22	Ruskin	Hillsborough	$19,062	$213	26%
23	Town 'n' Country	Hillsborough	$15,956	$166	32%
24	Egypt Lake-Leto	Hillsborough	$11,752	$112	29%

Medians from BNBCalc's 2026 listings, grouped by US Census place, for the cities and unincorporated areas with the most listings. It's a different boundary set from the Tampa neighborhood table, so the two don't line up row for row.

The pattern is about as blunt as any I've mapped: six of the top seven are Pinellas beach towns, with Apollo Beach, on the Hillsborough side of the bay, the one exception, and Tampa itself sits 17th of 24 on the median.

Clearwater, the second-largest pool of listings in the metro, lands ninth, while Tampa, the largest, sits eight places lower.

⚠️ Before you read that as a buy signal, though, both the rules and the tax stack change when you cross the bay. Everything in the legal section applies to Tampa, in Hillsborough County. Those beach towns sit in Pinellas, where the combined tax guests pay runs 13.0% against Tampa's 13.5%, and their local rules are a separate question, because Florida's limit on local vacation rental rules doesn't reach anything a city or county adopted on or before June 1, 2011. Whether a particular beach town holds one of those is worth asking that city directly, so make sure to check the specific municipality rather than the metro before you bid on anything with a beach in the photos. Clearwater keeps its own regulation guide, and St. Petersburg has its own market breakdown, so read whichever one covers the parcel you're looking at.

Which Amenities Make the Most Money in Tampa?

Picking the right submarket only gets you into the running, and what's inside the unit decides where you land in that spread. So what's worth paying for?

In Tampa, one amenity separates itself from the rest, and it isn't a surprise: BNBCalc's current amenity model puts a pool at about 20% more revenue. That pooled number undersells it on three-bedrooms, though. Split by size, a pool is worth closer to 29% on a three-bedroom, so if you're buying the kind of house a family books for a week, it's the single clearest upgrade in the market.

A pool also leads at one bedroom and at four-plus, but two-bedrooms break the pattern, since a gym shows the strongest signal there. Seven more amenities carry a measurable signal in Tampa: a hot tub, a sauna, a gym, bicycles, a barbecue, an EV charger, and allowing pets. Their Tampa figures sit inside BNBCalc Markets rather than on the public page, so I'm naming them without putting numbers on them.

Don't read that list as a verdict either way, because a gated number can be small as easily as it can be big.

Cleaning fees are the other lever I'd look at, and fewer than half of Tampa listings charge one at all, which tells me a lot of hosts are folding the cost of every turnover into the nightly rate.

In BNBCalc's figures for the twelve months to August 2026, the listings that do charge one average about $158, which comes to about $1,750 a year once you spread it across every listing, charging or not. Unlike a pool, that's something you can change this afternoon.

Then there's the pricing gap I mentioned earlier, where Saturday occupancy runs 18% above average and weekend rates only about 7%. Nothing about that requires capital either.

Is Airbnb Legal in Tampa?

None of this matters if you can't operate, so what do you need? Less than you might think.

Florida law stops cities and counties from banning vacation rentals or regulating how long or how often you rent one, and the exception that matters for Tampa covers local rules adopted on or before June 1, 2011. That statute dates to 2011 and it's still on the books in 2026, so Tampa can't write a new minimum-night rule for your listing.

The license you need is a Florida vacation rental license from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, issued by the state rather than by City Hall, and you have to have it before you start renting. Tampa's own paperwork is lighter. The city dropped its rental certificate and rental registration on May 4, 2023, but it still charges business tax on every residential rental, so you'll need a Local Business Tax Receipt, and under Florida law those run out every September 30.

That protection only binds local governments, though, so it won't help you if your HOA or condo declaration says no. It's also worth confirming your parcel's zoning with the city, and I'd want both of those cleared in writing before an offer rather than after.

Then there's tax, which your guest pays on top of the booking rather than you paying it out of revenue. Florida's 6% state tax on rentals of six months or less, Hillsborough County's 1.5% surtax and the county's 6% tourist development tax add up to 13.5% on a Tampa stay. Airbnb's Florida tax page says it collects all three on reservations of 182 nights or shorter, although Hillsborough's Tax Collector still tells owners, managers and operators to collect the tourist tax and pay it to the county, so check with that office whether you need your own account. If Vrbo is your main channel, don't assume the same and check your own dashboard, and the Florida short-term rental tax guide sets out how the state and county layers stack.

Keep in mind a 2025 state law changed the definitions, too. Your unit counts as a transient rental once you rent it more than three times in a calendar year for less than 30 days in a row, or advertise it as regularly rented that way, and a guest's stay is treated as temporary unless a written rental agreement says the place is their only home.

Tampa won't act on an anonymous code complaint, although a neighbor who gives a name can still start one, and the bigger exposure is the state license: operating without one can bring fines of up to $1,000 per offense, and it's a second-degree misdemeanor as well. Rules move, so check yours before you buy, and the Tampa short-term rental regulation guide has the licensing steps, the tax breakdown and the contacts for the zoning check.

Where Does This Tampa Airbnb Data Come From?

That guide handles the licensing and the taxes, whereas the figures you've been reading are pulled from BNBCalc Markets, BNBCalc's research platform for short-term rental markets around the world. A market page there lays out how occupancy and nightly rates rise and fall month by month through the year, which is how you'd follow Tampa's climb into its late-winter peak and its slide into the early-autumn trough. Make sure to line that curve up against any purchase price before you commit.

How Do You Estimate Airbnb Revenue for a Tampa Property?

Everything so far describes a market, and none of it underwrites a house, because a softening market can still hold addresses that print money while occupancy falls around them. In my experience that gap matters more in a market like this one than in a steady one, since falling occupancy is exactly where the difference between a good operator and an average one stops being cosmetic.

Work from the market down to the address, then: start with the Tampa market page for the current revenue, occupancy and seasonality figures, check where it ranks among the best Florida markets by gross yield if you're still open on location, then run the actual address through BNBCalc with your real purchase price, financing and expenses.

There are four thresholds I hold to here, and I'd hold you to them too. Confirm zoning and the HOA before anything else, because I'd say those are the two checks most likely to end a deal outright. Underwrite the full year rather than the peak, since September's occupancy runs at less than half of March's. Price on the typical band and treat the top band as upside rather than as the plan. And set your rate knowing guests pay another 13.5% in tax on the listing price and cleaning fee, which makes a Tampa booking look pricier to them than your nightly figure suggests.

Markets that are still climbing forgive a lot of sloppy underwriting, which is why so much of it survives. The ones pulling in two directions at once hand the returns to whoever did the arithmetic properly, and quietly take them off everybody else.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Average Airbnb Income in Tampa?

Income depends more on how a listing is run than on its size. Among Tampa-area two-bedrooms, the largest group in BNBCalc market data, the strongest listings earn more than five times what the weakest do, and the listings BNBCalc places in its top performance tier earn well over twice the market's average listing. In 2026 listing data, the median listing inside the city of Tampa earned $22,906, against $27,992 across the whole metro market.

Is Airbnb Still Profitable in Tampa in 2026?

It can be, though the latest year sent mixed signals. Across every listing BNBCalc tracks in Tampa, occupancy over the latest year fell about 19% from the year before, while the average nightly rate rose about 18%, and because the two are averaged separately, they can't be combined into a revenue figure. The same data also doesn't settle whether the number of Tampa listings grew or shrank. Whether a particular property makes money comes down to its price, its costs and how often comparable listings nearby get booked.

What Is the Best Month for Airbnb in Tampa?

Across every listing in the market, March 2026 came out on top, with 60% occupancy and a $400 average nightly rate, and no other month in the latest year beat it on either measure. September 2025 was the low point on both, at 26% occupancy and $231 a night. February, March and April were the only months above 50% occupancy, and Saturday and Friday book best across the week.

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

Yes, a state one. Florida requires a vacation rental license from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation's Division of Hotels and Restaurants before a unit starts operating. The City of Tampa repealed its rental certificate requirement effective May 4, 2023, but business taxes are still due on every residential rental property, so hosts need a Local Business Tax Receipt, which expires each September 30. Zoning and HOA or condo rules are separate checks.

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

Generally yes, as far as local government goes. Florida law bars local governments from prohibiting vacation rentals or regulating how long or how often they're rented, with an exception for local rules adopted on or before June 1, 2011, and the state's vacation rental license covers condominium and cooperative units as well as single-family to four-family homes. That protection doesn't extend to private HOA or condominium restrictions, and the parcel's zoning should be confirmed with the city before an offer.

Which Tampa Neighborhood Is Best for Short-Term Rentals?

By median annual revenue inside the city, Ballast Point leads at $41,558, followed by Bayshore Beautiful at $39,128 and West Tampa Heights at $39,013, though all three rest on thin samples. Channel District at $36,951 and Hyde Park at $34,572 come next, and Hyde Park has the largest sample in the top ten. Ybor City and Seminole Heights have the most listings but rank 27th and 33rd. These medians come from BNBCalc's 2026 listings, placed within the City of Tampa's official neighborhood boundaries.

Where in the Tampa Bay Area Do Airbnbs Earn the Most?

The Pinellas County beach towns lead the metro. Indian Rocks Beach has the highest median annual revenue at $40,894, ahead of Belleair Beach at $40,452, Redington Shores at $37,930 and Apollo Beach, in Hillsborough County, at $35,347. The city of Tampa has the most listings of any single place but a median of $22,906, 17th of 24. Pinellas stays carry 13.0% in combined tax against Tampa's 13.5%, and each beach town's rules should be checked individually.

How Much Is the Airbnb Tax in Tampa?

A Tampa booking carries 13.5% in tax, paid by the guest: Florida's 6% state tax on rentals of six months or less, Hillsborough County's 1.5% discretionary sales surtax and the county's 6% tourist development tax. Airbnb's Florida tax page says guests pay these on the listing price including any cleaning fee, and that Airbnb collects them on reservations of 182 nights and shorter. The Hillsborough County Tax Collector administers the tourist development tax, and Pinellas County's combined rate is 13.0%.