Average Daily Rate Vacation Rental Nashville: A Case Study
The average daily rate for a vacation rental in Nashville sits between roughly $313 and $362 in 2026, depending on which data provider you trust. AirDNA's July 2026 figure is $349. At Maverick STR, we treat that spread as a starting benchmark, then price each Nashville property against its own comp set.
Key Takeaways
Average daily rate (ADR) is the average nightly price guests paid across booked nights only, so empty nights never enter the calculation.
2026 Nashville ADR reports run from $313 (StaySTRA, April 2026) to $362.30 (AirDNA overview) because each source uses a different time window, geography, and method.
Occupancy and RevPAR matter as much as ADR: AirDNA shows annual Nashville RevPAR of $180, down 10.0%, even as occupancy edged up.
Consumer search data shows Friday averaging $395 and Sunday $259, a day-of-week gap that static pricing leaves on the table.
A 2026 study of 541 Airbnb listings found dynamic pricing lifted gross revenue per unit by 36.3% while ADR slipped 0.7%, which shows ADR is an output, not a target.
Property type, bedroom count, and group capacity move your achievable rate more than the citywide average does.
If you have ever checked one Nashville market report, noted a nightly rate, and then opened a second report with a different number, you know the problem. The published figures sit nearly $100 apart once older reports enter the mix. Pick the wrong one and your pricing calendar starts from a bad baseline.
This case study covers what ADR means, why Nashville's 2026 numbers disagree, and how occupancy, day of week, property type, and event weekends change what you should charge. It is written for owners deciding whether their current rate is competitive. For the search visibility side of the equation, our guide to SEO for vacation rentals in Nashville and Charleston covers how to attract the guests who pay these rates.
One scope note: our revenue management and consulting work is available to owners anywhere in the country, while full-service management is local to markets like Nashville and Charleston. The Nashville examples below come from the homes we manage day to day.
What Does Average Daily Rate Mean for a Vacation Rental in Nashville?
Average daily rate (ADR) is the average nightly price guests paid across the nights that actually booked. AirDNA measures it over a trailing 12 months across Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com listings, and nights that never booked stay out of the math. For a Nashville vacation rental, ADR is the pricing benchmark that owners, lenders, and investors quote most often.
The formula is total nightly revenue divided by nights booked. Round numbers show how it behaves. Suppose a home books 12 nights in a 30-night month and collects $4,800 in nightly revenue. ADR is $400. Occupancy is 40%. Revenue per available night, called RevPAR, is ADR multiplied by occupancy, which gives $160. These figures are illustrative, not Nashville market data.
ADR tells you what a booked night sold for. The 18 empty nights in that example never appear in it, which is why occupancy and RevPAR get their own section later in this article.
Why Do Nashville ADR Reports Range From $264 to $362?
Nashville vacation rental ADR reports disagree because each provider measures a different time window, geography, and set of listings, and some publish consumer search prices instead of booked-night revenue. The table below lines up the sources we reviewed, with dates and methods stated so you can compare like with like.
Source | Reported ADR | Period and direction | What it measures |
AirDNA market snapshot | $349 | July 5, 2026 | Nashville short-term rental listings |
$353 | Trailing 12 months, down 5.4% year over year | Active listings on Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com | |
$362.30 | Past-year comparison, up 3% | Market overview ADR | |
StaySTRA | $313 | April 2026 | Single-month ADR, with RevPAR of $187 |
AirROI (Nashville) | $347 | January 2026 vs January 2026, up 23.0% | Point-in-time comparison, occupancy down 5.7% |
AirROI (Nashville-Davidson) | $335 | February 2026, up 29.3% from $259 | Nashville-Davidson geography |
Costigan Group | About $310 | 2026 approximation | Based on AirROI 2026 to 2026 rolling-calendar data |
$358.50 | January 2026, down 1.41% | Market-wide, historical | |
Bowstring Management | $264.40 | Q1 2026 | ADR with RevPAR of $131.90, historical |
$259 (Sunday) to $395 (Friday) | User searches from the prior two weeks | Consumer search prices, not booked-night ADR |
Four factors explain most of the gap:
Time window. A trailing 12-month figure smooths seasons, while a single-month figure like April 2026 captures one moment.
Geography. AirROI reports both Nashville and Nashville-Davidson numbers, and each provider draws its market boundary differently.
Listing mix. Providers count different sets of active listings and platforms.
Price type. Consumer search data shows what searchers see, not what guests paid on booked nights.
The direction of change also varies by source: down 5.4% on one AirDNA page, up 3% on another, up 23.0% in AirROI's comparison. Methodology, not the market, explains most of that. Our position: use the trailing 12-month AirDNA figure for annual budgeting, use current-month data for near-term pricing, and ignore consumer search prices as a benchmark.
How Do Occupancy and RevPAR Change What a Good Nightly Rate Looks Like?
RevPAR is revenue per available rental night, calculated as ADR multiplied by occupancy, and it tells you more about earnings than ADR alone. AirDNA defines occupancy as the share of available nights booked, averaged across active listings over the trailing 12 months. Nashville's ADR looks strong on paper, but the RevPAR picture is more sober.
AirDNA reports Nashville occupancy of 54% in its July 2026 overview, up 4% over the past year. For the May 2026 to May 2026 window, it reports occupancy up 0.9% but annual RevPAR of $180, down 10.0%. Rates and demand moved in different directions, and revenue per available night paid the price.
Supply context helps. AirDNA counted 13,898 active Nashville listings across Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com in June 2026, and active supply fell 1.9% from June 2026. Its Rental Demand score for Nashville is 84 out of 100. AirDNA also reports average annual revenue of $40.5K per active listing.
AirROI's February comparison shows the tension between rate and occupancy. Nashville-Davidson ADR rose from $259 to $335, occupancy held near 39%, and RevPAR grew from $99.50 to $125.40. Bowstring Management's Q1 2026 analysis also cited 39% occupancy. AirDNA's 54% comes from a different definition and listing set, so do not average these numbers together.
Which Days, Months, and Event Weekends Push Nashville Nightly Rates Highest?
Nashville vacation rental rates peak on Fridays and spring weekends, and they soften on Sundays. Consumer search data puts numbers on the weekly pattern, while an AirDNA-based report describes the seasonal one.
Pattern | Data point | Source |
Lowest-priced day | Sunday, averaging $259 per night | Consumer search data |
Highest-priced day | Friday, averaging $395 per night | Consumer search data |
January weeknight vs weekend night | $320 vs $381 | Consumer search data |
High season and low season | June and August | Consumer search data |
Highest rates | Spring weekends | AirDNA-based report (January 2026) |
Spring and fall weekend occupancy | Low-to-mid 90% range | AirDNA-based report (January 2026) |
These are search prices and a dated report, so read them as patterns, not as your rate card. The sources we reviewed publish only January figures by month, so if you need a full 12-month curve, export it from your own property management system or a pricing tool like PriceLabs.
How Do Event Weekends Affect Nashville ADR?
Event weekends lift rates when demand outruns supply, and Nashville has plenty of triggers. CMA Fest has historically been held in early June, which lines up with the June high season. Bridgestone Arena concerts and Nissan Stadium events add smaller spikes throughout the year.
None of the sources we reviewed quantify event-period ADR against the surrounding weekend, and we will not invent a multiplier. Do the calculation yourself. Pull last year's ADR for each event weekend from your own booking history, compare it with the weekends on either side, and use that gap as your override.
The pattern we see across our Nashville properties is that owners who price event dates a year out at a flat rate give away the most money. Event nights book early, and a low opening price cannot be recovered once the night sells. More Nashville market breakdowns live on our blog.
How Much Do Property Type, Bedroom Count, and Group Size Move Your Rate?
Achievable ADR is the nightly rate a specific listing can hold given its type, capacity, location, and amenities, and it can sit far from any citywide average. A one-bedroom condo and a 10-guest house with a hot tub compete in different segments, so a single Nashville number cannot serve both.
The Costigan Group's 2026 report gives an approximate 2026 citywide ADR of $310 and says group-friendly units cluster around $350 to $450+. That gap is the argument for building your own comp set instead of aiming at the market average.
Our own Nashville portfolio shows how different the segments are:
Underwood Manor is a 3-bedroom house sleeping 10, with a 7-person hot tub, a speakeasy game room, and a 5-minute run to downtown. It competes for bachelorette and group trips.
Ultimate Bach Pad is two side-by-side duplexes with 8 bedrooms sleeping 24 or more, bookable together or separately. Its comp set is other large-group homes, not standard rentals.
Luxe Loft SoBro is a 1-bedroom sleeping 4, three blocks from Broadway, in a building with a saltwater pool and fitness center. Location and building amenities carry its rate.
The Herman Haven is a pet-friendly, wheelchair-accessible 3-bedroom for 10 with an en-suite bathroom per bedroom, which opens a different guest pool.
Each of these properties needs its own benchmark. When we review a home, we compare it against listings with the same bedroom count, capacity, and walk time to Broadway or downtown. You can browse how we present Nashville vacation rental properties in our portfolio to see how different amenity sets translate into distinct positioning.
Larger groups pay a higher total nightly rate but a lower price per person. A hot tub or game room lets a listing compete in the group segment instead of against every standard rental in the city.
Case Study: How Do You Turn Conflicting ADR Numbers Into a Pricing Plan?
This case study follows the situation we see most often among Nashville owners: a self-managed home priced from whichever ADR number the owner found first. We do not publish individual client revenue figures here, so the outcome benchmarks below come from a published study and our portfolio averages.
The Problem
An owner reads $362 on one report and $264 on another. Anchored to the high number, they price every night near it and watch midweek dates sit empty. Anchored to the low number, they underprice Fridays and event weekends. Either way, static pricing ignores the Friday-to-Sunday spread and the demand spikes described earlier. Airbnb's built-in Smart Pricing is a fair baseline, but it reacts to demand rather than anticipating it.
The Solution
The Maverick STR approach replaces a single target with a repeatable process:
Choose one benchmark source and record its date, geography, and platform coverage.
Build a comp set by bedroom count, guest capacity, amenities, and distance to downtown.
Set a base rate, minimum rate, and maximum rate inside PriceLabs.
Layer manual overrides for CMA Fest, Bridgestone Arena dates, and other proven demand events.
Review gap nights weekly and adjust the dates that stay open.
Judge results by RevPAR and total revenue, not ADR alone.
Our revenue management service runs this process for owners nationwide, and the five key revenue management fundamentals we wrote up earlier explain the reasoning behind each step. If you want local hands-on support in Nashville, our Nashville Airbnb management team handles guest communication and turnovers too. Owners who want to keep control of their listing can choose co-hosting instead, and Charleston owners can use our Charleston property management team for the same approach.
The Results
A 2026 study across 541 Airbnb listings in 34 countries, reported by Your.Rentals and PriceLabs, found that properties using dynamic pricing saw gross revenue per unit rise 36.3% on average. Nights booked per unit rose 37.3%, gross bookings per unit rose 46.2%, and ADR fell 0.7%.
Read that last number carefully. Revenue climbed sharply while ADR barely moved, because the extra revenue came from filling nights, not from charging more on each one.
Treat ADR as an output of good pricing, not the input. The number to watch every month is revenue per available night.
Across Maverick STR's revenue management clients, the average revenue increase runs 20 to 30 percent, and properties typically outperform their local markets by 30 to 50 percent. Results vary by property and market. We work with 30+ revenue management clients across Nashville and the Smoky Mountains and hold a 4.9 rating.
What Does a Guest Pay Compared With the Advertised Nightly Rate?
Guest checkout cost is the total a guest pays for a stay, including the nightly rate, cleaning fee, platform fees, and taxes, and it is always higher than the ADR a provider reports. Definitions vary on whether a provider's ADR includes cleaning fees, so check the methodology before you compare a market figure with your own listing.
The example below uses hypothetical numbers to show the mechanics. It is not market data, and taxes and platform fees vary by listing and change over time, so confirm current rates with the platform and the local tax office.
Line item | Illustrative amount |
Nightly rate, 3 nights at $400 | $1,200 |
Cleaning fee (hypothetical) | $200 |
Platform fees and lodging taxes | Varies; confirm current rates |
Guest total before fees and taxes | $1,400 |
Effective cost per booked night before fees and taxes | About $467 |
Now flip to the owner's view. If that home books 15 nights at a $400 ADR in a 30-night month, nightly revenue is $6,000, but revenue per available night is $200. Fifteen empty nights cut the effective rate in half. Owners who chase ADR while ignoring gap nights often miss this. Our list of tips to boost occupancy rates covers the fixes.
How Can You Price Above the Nashville Average Without Losing Bookings?
Pricing above the Nashville market average works when your listing earns the premium through capacity, amenities, location, and visibility. A high rate on a weak listing produces empty nights, so fix the listing first and the rate second.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Anchoring to one report. Any single figure in the table above misleads if you ignore its date and geography.
Chasing ADR over occupancy. The 541-listing study shows revenue can rise while ADR dips.
Pricing every night the same. Friday and Sunday search averages sit $136 apart.
Skipping the permit. Nashville's short-term rental page states that anyone listing a property must obtain a permit from Metro Codes before listing. Confirm current requirements there.
Relying only on OTAs. Every booking on Airbnb or Vrbo carries platform fees, which lowers what your ADR nets you.
Trade-Offs to Understand
A higher base rate lowers occupancy risk on peak dates but raises it on shoulder nights. A commission-free channel changes the math, because the same nightly rate keeps more of your revenue. A direct booking website only helps if guests can find it, which is where vacation rental SEO for direct bookings comes in. Our broader vacation rental marketing work ties the website, search, and ads together, and you can browse more revenue management articles for pricing detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average daily rate for a vacation rental in Nashville in 2026?
Most 2026 sources place Nashville vacation rental ADR in the low-to-mid $300s. AirDNA reports a trailing-12-month figure of $353, while StaySTRA's April 2026 single-month figure is lower. Compare only figures with the same period and geography.
How is vacation rental ADR calculated from booked nights?
Divide total nightly revenue by the number of nights actually booked. Unbooked nights are excluded. Multiply ADR by occupancy to get RevPAR, which shows what each available night earned.
What is Nashville's average vacation rental occupancy, and which months are highest?
AirDNA reports Nashville occupancy near 54% as of its July 2026 overview. Consumer search data identifies June as high season and August as low season. An AirDNA-based report notes that spring and fall weekend occupancy reached the low-to-mid 90% range.
How much does a luxury vacation rental cost in Nashville?
No single verified luxury benchmark exists in the sources we reviewed. The Costigan Group puts group-friendly units around $350 to $450+ per night. Homes with hot tubs, game rooms, or rooftop decks tend to sit at the upper end of that band or above, so check comparable listings for your dates.
What is included in a typical vacation rental in Nashville?
Most include a full kitchen, fast Wi-Fi, a washer and dryer, smart lock check-in, and coffee. Group homes often add a hot tub and game room, while downtown condos add building amenities such as a pool and fitness center. Cleaning fees and a security hold or optional damage waiver may also apply.
How does PMS integration improve pricing automation?
A property management system that syncs calendars, reservations, and rates with a pricing tool such as PriceLabs lets rate changes flow to your channels without manual edits. It also feeds booking history back into the pricing tool. Confirm which integrations your PMS supports before you commit.
How does SEO help vacation rental managers drive direct bookings?
SEO puts your own website in front of travelers who search Google and AI tools for a Nashville stay, so you capture bookings without OTA commissions. Our client sites have averaged 3 to 5 times monthly organic traffic within the first 3 months, though results vary by market. See how search engine optimization works for STR websites for the mechanics.
What Should You Take From the Average Daily Rate for a Nashville Vacation Rental in 2026?
The average daily rate vacation rental Nashville data supports a mid-$300s benchmark in 2026, with a spread that comes from methodology. AirDNA reports declining RevPAR alongside flat-to-rising occupancy, so a strong nightly rate does not guarantee strong revenue. Pick one dated source for annual planning, build a comp set that matches your bedrooms and amenities, and measure RevPAR every month.
Getting your Nashville pricing right rarely happens by accident. It takes the right data, the right event calendar, and someone watching the booking window when you cannot. With active supply tightening slightly and rates moving unevenly, owners who price by date will keep pulling ahead of owners who price by average through the rest of 2026 and into 2027.
If your nightly rate feels like a guess, Maverick STR can help. Our properties typically outperform their local markets by 30 to 50 percent, and our revenue management clients average a 20 to 30 percent revenue increase, with results varying by property and market. Get a free consultation to see how your Nashville property compares.
Written by Chase Gillmore, Owner & Operator at Maverick STR
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