Washington, District of Columbia Airbnb Market Data 2026

How much does a Washington, DC Airbnb make, and can you run one in a place you've bought as an investment?

Well, for most investors the second answer settles the first, so I'll start there. DC will only license a short-term rental in the home the host lives in, and it defines that home through its homestead deduction, which in practice means you have to own the place and live there yourself. A company can't hold the license, a renter can't under the current law, and there's no route to licensing a second address. If you'd pictured buying a one-bedroom in Navy Yard and renting it by the night without ever moving in, then unfortunately DC won't license it, and I'd much rather you learn that now than after you close.

If you do live there, you can host with no yearly cap while you're home and for up to 90 nights a year while you're away. Over the past year the market lost about 6% of its listings, and although that left the hosts who stayed with less competition, occupancy still slid about 10%, even as nightly rates across the market went up by about 16%. I'm covering the District of Columbia itself here, though BNBCalc's market data for it also runs into the Virginia and Maryland suburbs, and each of those jurisdictions sets its own rules.

How Much Do Washington, DC Airbnbs Earn in 2026?

Since the home you license has to be the one you live in, the size you pick has to suit your life as well as your budget, so I'd start with how much each size earns for what it costs.

Gross yield sets a year's revenue against the price of the home. On that measure one-bedrooms come out narrowly on top in BNBCalc's typical-listing figures for this market, roughly a point ahead of two-bedrooms, and they also fill more of their nights than any other size. Studios manage well under half the one-bedroom yield, so I wouldn't count on a small unit to carry the numbers just because it's cheaper to get into.

Bigger homes still earn more in dollars, but the ranges run wide. A two-bedroom near the top of its range takes in more than the typical four-plus-bedroom home, and since the sizes overlap that much, I'd put more effort into the building and the listing than into squeezing in an extra bedroom.

Who else is hosting here? A large share of the listings belong to professional hosts, which sounds odd for a city that only licenses owner-occupants, but the figures also cover Arlington, Alexandria and the Maryland suburbs. If you'd rather hand off turnovers and guest messages, the DC property management roundup compares local managers, although inside the District the license still has to belong to the person who lives in the home.

BNBCalc's top performance tier, meanwhile, brings in a little more than double what the average listing across the market does, and it books about half again as many of its nights. I'd treat that tier as a goal to work toward, and I wouldn't put its numbers in a pro forma.

Is the Washington, DC Airbnb Market Oversaturated?

That average listing sits in a market that shrank over the past year, which is the first thing I'd want to know if saturation worried me.

Metric	Year-over-year change
Average nightly rate	+16%
Purchase price	0%
Booking lead time	Down
Active supply	−6%
Occupancy	−10%

BNBCalc data across all listings BNBCalc tracks in the market, setting September 2025 through August 2026 against the same twelve months a year earlier, with each change rounded to the nearest whole percent. A measure gets left out if this year's data can't yet say whether it went up or down, and booking lead time shows a direction without a number because how far it dropped isn't settled. Because each row is averaged independently, the rows can't be multiplied together, and purchase price reflects home prices, not listings.

No, DC isn't oversaturated right now, because a crowded market is one where listings keep piling up while each one books less, and DC went the other way on listings. Active supply fell about 6% over the year, so there are fewer hosts competing for guests than there were a year ago.

What caught my eye is that occupancy fell faster still, down about 10%, while DC's average nightly rate moved the other way, up about 16%. So even with less competition, hosts are charging a lot more and filling fewer of their nights. Did guests balk at the prices, or did hosts raise them to make up for quieter calendars? I can't tell from these figures, so I won't pretend to.

Either way, that drop in occupancy didn't come from new hosts crowding in, since there are fewer of them, so it's the split between occupancy and rate I'd plan around rather than the listing count. Unfortunately, a quieter calendar can squeeze a new host just as hard as a crowded market would, which is why I'd check how often comparable listings near your address get booked at the rate you'd charge before you buy, then go back to those same comps once a season to see whether their calendars are still thinning out.

When Is Washington, DC's Peak Airbnb Season?

Those yearly figures also hide a big swing between months, and DC's peak season runs from spring into early summer.

Month	Occupancy	Avg nightly rate
Sep 2025	38%	$242
Oct 2025	44%	$274
Nov 2025	34%	$245
Dec 2025	31%	$240
Jan 2026	27%	$214
Feb 2026	29%	$213
Mar 2026	43%	$277
Apr 2026	49%	$293
May 2026	48%	$310
Jun 2026	48%	$311
Jul 2026	46%	$302
Aug 2026	39%	$264

Month-by-month BNBCalc market data for all listings, where each month's occupancy and average nightly rate are worked out separately.

Occupancy climbed steeply into spring, with April, May and June each filling close to half their nights, whereas January filled only 27% and February 29%. Rates followed the same curve and topped out in early summer, with June's $311 just ahead of May's $310, while January's $214 and February's $213 were the cheapest nights of the year. In the autumn, October stands out, filling 44% of its nights at $274, against 38% at $242 in September and 34% at $245 in November.

If you live in the home, that shape matters for how you use the 90-night cap. Those nights only count when you're away and a guest has the whole place, so if you're traveling anyway, April through July is when an empty home books the most nights at the best rates, while a hosted room can keep working through the slow months without touching the cap.

The week has a rhythm too. BNBCalc's latest all-listing day-of-week figures put Saturdays 15% ahead of a typical night on occupancy and Fridays 13%, while Monday is the weakest night at 11% below and Thursday books right about at the weekly average. Rates move the same way over a shorter distance, topping out about 10% above average on Saturday, so if I were pricing here, I'd set the Friday and Saturday premium before worrying about any midweek discount.

Where Should You Buy an Airbnb in Washington, DC?

Where you buy in DC is also where you'll live, since the license follows your own home, so the first thing I checked was how much of this market is the District at all.

Just over half of this market's listings sit inside the District, and the rest spread across Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County in Virginia and Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland. The typical listing inside DC has one bedroom against two outside it, and yet the two groups post almost the same median revenue. I've built one table from the District's own neighborhood clusters and a second from Census county lines across the whole market, so the rows in one don't line up with the rows in the other.

Inside the District of Columbia

The District groups its neighborhoods into official clusters, so I assigned every measurable DC listing to its cluster and kept the 15 with the highest median annual revenue, labelling each row with the first three neighborhood names on that cluster's official list.

Rank	Neighborhood cluster	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	75th-percentile revenue
1	Downtown, Chinatown, Penn Quarters	$60,543	$525	40%	$91,935
2	West End, Foggy Bottom, GWU	$41,697	$261	30%	$68,571
3	Georgetown, Burleith/Hillandale	$40,812	$306	38%	$63,732
4	Shaw, Logan Circle	$36,311	$298	36%	$54,502
5	Dupont Circle, Connecticut Avenue/K Street	$35,155	$265	38%	$44,467
6	Southwest Employment Area, Southwest/Waterfront, Fort McNair	$34,473	$252	36%	$58,165
7	Howard University, Le Droit Park, Cardozo/Shaw	$33,400	$286	33%	$43,397
8	Near Southeast, Navy Yard	$32,276	$271	37%	$36,619
9	Capitol Hill, Lincoln Park	$31,518	$264	35%	$42,994
10	Cathedral Heights, McLean Gardens, Glover Park	$28,331	$249	34%	$40,389
11	Edgewood, Bloomingdale, Truxton Circle	$28,073	$234	34%	$41,936
12	Union Station, Stanton Park, Kingman Park	$27,666	$226	35%	$38,188
13	Kalorama Heights, Adams Morgan, Lanier Heights	$27,219	$229	34%	$42,534
14	Columbia Heights, Mt. Pleasant, Pleasant Plains	$25,119	$225	34%	$39,994
15	Ivy City, Arboretum, Trinidad	$24,371	$231	31%	$39,503

Trailing-twelve-month BNBCalc listing data for 2026, placed inside the District's official neighborhood clusters, where the middle three columns are medians and the last one marks the 75th percentile, the point at which a cluster's best-earning quarter begins. Because each figure is worked out on its own, they don't multiply, and clusters without enough listings to measure don't appear.

Keep in mind those occupancy figures belong to each cluster's middle listing, so they're for comparing one cluster with another rather than with the monthly table.

I'd put a caveat on the top row before anything else. The Downtown, Chinatown and Penn Quarters cluster posts a $60,543 median on a $525 median nightly rate, roughly double most of the table. That tells me the units listed there are pricing at the high end, and I'd look hard at them before assuming a downtown condo of your own would do the same. West End and Foggy Bottom, Near Southeast and Navy Yard, and Cathedral Heights all rest on thin samples too. The Shaw name also turns up in two clusters, rows four and seven, so make sure you check which one an address falls in.

Among the rows with real depth behind them, Georgetown and the Shaw and Logan Circle cluster are the two I'd look at hardest. Georgetown sits third at $40,812 on a $306 rate, while Shaw and Logan Circle follows at $36,311 on one of the District's deeper samples. I read that cluster's 75th percentile of $54,502 as a sign a well-run listing there can get well clear of the median. Right behind them sits Dupont Circle, whose 38% median occupancy ties Georgetown's for the best of any cluster in the top ten outside downtown.

Capitol Hill and the Union Station, Stanton Park and Kingman Park cluster tell a different story, though. They hold more measurable listings than anywhere else in DC, yet they land mid-table, which tells me that being where the most hosts are isn't the same as being where the money is.

Numbers aside, you'll be living in whichever of these you pick, so I'd also read the best Washington, DC neighborhoods for Airbnb for a feel of what each area is like day to day.

The Rest of the Washington Market

Does it pay better across the river or over the District line? To find out, I split the whole market by county on Census boundaries, with DC included for comparison.

Rank	County or city	State	Median annual revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	75th-percentile revenue
1	Alexandria (independent city)	VA	$37,004	$318	36%	$54,476
2	Arlington County	VA	$34,037	$283	34%	$47,620
3	District of Columbia	DC	$28,553	$238	34%	$42,436
4	Fairfax County	VA	$28,067	$242	33%	$40,977
5	Prince George's County	MD	$24,357	$297	29%	$40,154
6	Montgomery County	MD	$20,061	$196	31%	$33,424

BNBCalc 2026 listing data, trailing twelve months, placed by US Census county boundaries (Alexandria and the District count as county equivalents), covering the counties and independent cities with the most listings, with every column except the 75th percentile a median calculated on its own.

On that table, Alexandria leads, Montgomery County trails and the District lands in the middle. The typical listing has two bedrooms in every suburban row against one in DC, so I'd put some of the suburbs' edge down to house size. Prince George's County shows how far a high rate can fall short on its own, since its median nightly rate beats the District's by nearly $60 while its occupancy is the lowest in the table.

The bigger difference is the rulebook, because DC's licensing rules stop at the District line. Arlington County only permits a home the host lives in for at least 185 days a year, Fairfax County requires the host to be a permanent resident, Prince George's County ties its license to Maryland's homestead tax credit, and Montgomery County runs a license of its own. Alexandria is the exception worth knowing about, because its permit also covers rentals the owner doesn't live in, for a higher yearly fee. That's a detail I'd want settled before any purchase, so make sure you read BNBCalc's Alexandria short-term rental guide before you bid on anything there.

Which Amenities Make the Most Money in Washington, DC?

Once you've narrowed down where, the next question is what goes inside the unit.

BNBCalc's current amenity model puts an EV charger at about 16% more revenue for a listing here, and that's the only amenity figure the public market page puts on show. It holds up when you split the market by size, too, leading for one-, two- and three-bedroom listings at between 16% and 18%. My guess is that the figure says as much about the kind of building that offers charging, often a newer one with a garage, as it does about the charger itself.

For four-plus-bedroom homes, though, a hot tub leads at about 16% instead.

Beyond those two, the model picks up a signal for seven more here: a gym, a pool, a sauna, lake access, allowing pets, bicycles and internet. Their percentages for this market sit behind BNBCalc Markets, so I can name them but not size them, and a handful of standard fixtures are deliberately left out of the model altogether.

Cleaning fees are worth a look as well. Just under half of the listings in this market charged one as of August 2026, averaging about $124 where they did, or roughly $1,890 a year once it's averaged over all listings, the zero-fee ones included. Since that money goes straight back out to your cleaner, I'd leave it out of any revenue figure you're judging the home on.

Is Airbnb Legal in Washington, DC?

Yes, provided you own the home and live in it, and for most investors that requirement settles whether the earnings figures are relevant at all.

Under the District's Short-Term Rental Regulation Act, every short-term rental needs a basic business license with an endorsement from the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, known as DLCP. A short-term rental endorsement covers stays while you're home, such as a spare bedroom, and has no yearly cap. By contrast, a vacation rental endorsement covers stays while you're away and the guest has the place to themselves, and those are capped at 90 nights a calendar year. If you want to do both, you need both, and DLCP's guidance limits any single booking to 30 nights.

The host has to be a natural person, and the property has to be their primary residence, which DC's code defines as a home eligible for the homestead deduction. DLCP spells out that investment properties and homes owned by corporate entities aren't eligible, and it only licenses a home owned by an individual. Still, one license can cover more than one rental at the same address, like a bedroom and an in-law suite, and DLCP counts an English basement as part of your home when the property qualifies for the homestead deduction.

Once you clear that bar, though, I'd call the process light. Before you apply, you'll want proof that your condo, co-op or homeowners association allows short-term rentals, liability insurance, which a booking platform's coverage can supply, and eligibility for a Certificate of Clean Hands from the Office of Tax and Revenue. The license costs $99 and lasts two years. Once you're hosting, guests are capped at eight or two per bedroom, whichever is greater, the listing has to show your license number, and you need working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors plus a 24-hour contact number posted inside.

So what can an investor who won't move in do? Under today's law, there's no short-term rental license for that home, so the nightly earnings figures won't apply to it. That could change, though. In March 2026 the Council received the Short-Term Rental Regulation Amendment Act of 2026, B26-0647, introduced at the Mayor's request. As introduced, it would let renters host in the home they live in, unless the unit is rent-stabilized or the lease forbids it. It would also merge the two license types, add a license for special events, and let District residents license a second property they own in DC, capped at 90 nights a year when nobody lives there. As of August 2026 it had been referred to committee with no hearing or vote, so don't buy on it.

Lodging tax is added to what the guest pays, so it doesn't come out of your rate. The District charges 15.95% sales tax on transient accommodations, a temporary rate the Office of Tax and Revenue has extended through September 30, 2027. Airbnb's DC tax page says it collects that 15.95% on the listing price, cleaning fee and guest fee for stays of 90 nights or shorter, which lines up with DC's law requiring booking platforms to collect the tax and pay it to the District for hosts. Even so, Airbnb leaves any other tax obligations to you, so I wouldn't assume the platform has your whole tax picture covered.

I'd assume DC is watching, too, because DLCP monitors listings on the booking platforms and takes complaints. If any part of a listing suggests guests get the whole home, the law treats that as evidence it's a vacation rental whatever license you hold, so describe a hosted listing carefully. Under the statute, a host's fines run $500 for a first violation, $2,000 for a second, and $6,000 plus revocation for a third, while a platform faces $1,000 for each booking it takes in violation. The Mayor can adjust those amounts by rulemaking, so treat them as the statute's figures rather than a fixed schedule. At a June 2026 neighborhood commission meeting reported by HillRag, DLCP officials said Ward 6 by itself had drawn more than 300 notices of infraction by mid-April, and Ward 6 is where most of Capitol Hill's listings sit.

If you qualify and want the step-by-step, BNBCalc's DC short-term rental regulation guide covers each stage of applying, which documents DLCP asks for, and the offices to contact.

Where Does BNBCalc Get Its Washington, DC Airbnb Data?

That guide deals with what the District requires, while the market numbers in this one are pulled from BNBCalc Markets, the half of BNBCalc you use to study a whole market before you narrow things down to one address. For each market it lays this year's occupancy and nightly rates next to last year's, and that pairing is where I started when I pulled apart DC's quieter calendars and its rising prices in judging whether the city counts as oversaturated. If DC isn't the only city on your list, you can pull up the same view for the others, although I'd still settle each one on how often comparable listings there get booked.

How Do You Estimate Airbnb Revenue for a Washington, DC Property?

These medians sum up a few thousand homes, yet you're buying one, so how do you turn them into an estimate for a specific address?

Start with the Washington, DC market page for the latest revenue, occupancy and seasonal curve, and check BNBCalc's gross yield page for the District of Columbia to see how the market's annual revenue compares with what homes cost there. Once you've got a specific home in mind, put its price, financing and running costs through BNBCalc and see what comes back.

Before I trusted that number, I'd hold it up against a few DC realities. Whether you'll live there comes before anything else, because if you won't, the District won't license it and the nightly figures stop applying. After that comes the winter, when January filled 27% of its nights at an average of $214, against 48% at $310 in May. If you expect to be away for more than 90 nights a year, only count 90 of them as bookable, since the vacation rental cap closes the rest. The 15.95% belongs in your pricing too, since guests see it added on top of your rate and cleaning fee. Finally, build the deal on today's rates, because they've already climbed about 16% in a year when occupancy fell about 10%, and another jump like that is a lot to ask.

A market where prices keep rising while fewer nights get booked can look healthy for a good while, right up until guests stop paying the rate, which is why the most useful number in any city is the one that tells you how many nights people are paying for.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Average Airbnb Income in Washington, DC?

BNBCalc listing data puts the median DC listing's revenue for the latest twelve months at $28,553, measured in 2026. The typical DC listing has one bedroom, and one-bedrooms post the best typical gross yield of any size in the market. The top performance tier in BNBCalc's data earns a little more than double the market's average listing. Across the wider market, Alexandria's median was $37,004 and Arlington County's was $34,037.

Is Airbnb Still Profitable in Washington, DC in 2026?

Potentially, for a host who qualifies, since DC licenses short-term rentals only in a home the host owns and lives in. Measured across every listing in the market over the year to August 2026, active supply dropped about 6% and occupancy about 10%, whereas the average nightly rate ended about 16% higher. Whether a particular home turns a profit comes down to what it costs to buy and run.

What Is the Best Month for Airbnb in Washington, DC?

April through July is DC's strongest stretch. Across all listings over the year through August 2026, each of those four months filled more than 45% of its nights, and June carried the top average nightly rate at $311, just ahead of May's $310. January was the low point, at 27% occupancy and a $214 average nightly rate, and within the week occupancy peaks on Saturdays, with Fridays close behind.

Do You Need a License to Run an Airbnb in Washington, DC?

Yes. DC requires a basic business license with a Short-Term Rental endorsement for stays while the host is present, or a Vacation Rental endorsement for stays while the host is away, and the license comes from the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection at $99 for two years. The home must be the host's primary residence, meaning eligible for the homestead deduction, vacation rentals are capped at 90 nights a year, and the license number must appear in the listing.

Can You Buy an Investment Property in Washington, DC and Run It as an Airbnb?

Not under current law. DC licenses short-term rentals only in a host's primary residence, and DLCP states that investment properties and properties owned by corporate entities are not eligible. Bill B26-0647, introduced in March 2026, would let District residents license a second DC property they own, capped at 90 nights a year when unoccupied, but as of August 2026 it had not had a hearing or a vote. Alexandria, Virginia, permits owner-unoccupied rentals under its own rules.

Which Washington, DC Neighborhood Is Best for Short-Term Rentals?

By median revenue, the Downtown, Chinatown and Penn Quarters cluster leads at $60,543, on an unusually high $525 median nightly rate. West End and Foggy Bottom follows on a thin sample, then Georgetown at $40,812 and Shaw and Logan Circle at $36,311. Capitol Hill and the Union Station and Stanton Park cluster hold the District's largest samples but sit mid-table. These are 2026 medians inside DC's official neighborhood clusters, from BNBCalc listing data.

How Much Is the Airbnb Tax in Washington, DC?

Guests pay DC's 15.95% sales tax on transient accommodations on top of the booking, a temporary rate the Office of Tax and Revenue has extended through September 30, 2027. Airbnb's District of Columbia tax page says it collects the 15.95% on the listing price, cleaning fee and guest fee for stays of 90 nights or shorter. DC law requires booking services to collect and remit transient occupancy taxes on behalf of hosts, and Airbnb's page adds that hosts remain responsible for any other tax obligations.

How Many Airbnbs Are There in Washington, DC?

The Washington, DC market holds about 5,000 short-term rentals that are active in BNBCalc's count, suburbs in Virginia and Maryland included, and professional hosts account for a large share of them. Just over half of those listings sit inside the District itself. Active supply across all of those listings fell by about 6% over the twelve months ending August 2026.