Austin vs Pacific Grove: which is better for Airbnb investment? (2026)

Bottom line

Pacific Grove edges ahead of Austin on stronger RevPAR (£67 vs £25).

Head-to-head metrics

	Austin	Pacific Grove
Median occupancy	42%	42%
Median daily rate	£100	£239
Median RevPAR	£25	£67
Active listings	7,933	191
YoY occupancy	+14.1 pts	+10.8 pts
YoY daily rate	-7.4%	+6.3%
Regulation risk	—	—
Annual night cap	None	None
License required	No	No

Full analysis: Austin vs Pacific Grove

On the money side of this comparison — what a listing actually earns against the nights it has available — Pacific Grove finishes clearly ahead of Austin. Revenue per available night — rate and occupancy combined, the figure that actually reaches an owner — is 168.8% higher in Pacific Grove: £67 against £25. Pacific Grove commands 140.5% more per night, £239 against £100. Those gaps are wide enough to survive a normal year's variance.

On the mechanics of the yield the two are hard to separate. Austin runs 42% occupancy at £100 a night; Pacific Grove runs 42% at £239. That leaves RevPAR almost level too — £67 against £25 — so operating quality, not market selection, is what will decide your return between these two.

That verdict needs a caveat, because Austin is not simply the weaker market of the two. Austin is the deeper market at 7,933 active listings against 191, which usually means better comparables going in and a wider buyer pool coming out. The twelve-month direction favours Austin too: occupancy there moved +14.1 points while Pacific Grove moved +10.8 points. If your model leans on that dimension, the ordering above can reasonably flip.

Neither Austin nor Pacific Grove currently has a verified short-term rental regulation record in our register, so the comparison above is a yield comparison only. Regulation is the single largest source of downside in this asset class — an unverified market is an unpriced risk, not an absent one.

The two calendars also behave differently. Austin peaks in September at 49% and bottoms in December at 24.7%; Pacific Grove runs from 62.5% in October down to 30.7% in May. Austin is the steadier of the two at 24.3 points peak-to-trough against 31.8 — easier to underwrite against a mortgage — while Pacific Grove concentrates its return into a shorter window and rewards operators who price the peak aggressively instead of holding a flat rate all year.

Who each suits, then. Austin suits buyers who want a conventional, lightly regulated entry and whose economics survive high turnover — more bookings, more cleans, more guest contact per pound of revenue. It is also the momentum side of this pair. Pacific Grove answers to the same regulatory profile, so the split between them is operational rather than legal: it is the market for an owner who can hold rate through the shoulder season rather than discounting to fill the calendar. Every figure above comes from the same Inside Airbnb snapshot pipeline on both sides, dated 2025-09, filtered to listings with at least one booking in the last twelve months. Occupancy medians are drawn from 4,251 active Austin listings and 77 in Pacific Grove.

Frequently asked questions

Is Austin or Pacific Grove better for Airbnb investment?

Pacific Grove, on the data we track. It leads on stronger RevPAR (£67 vs £25), a higher nightly rate (£239 vs £100), and higher median annual revenue (£24,349 vs £9,062). Austin is not the weak side of this pair, though — it wins on a deeper market (7,933 vs 191 active listings).

Which has higher occupancy, Austin or Pacific Grove?

Effectively neither — they are level. Austin sits at 42% and Pacific Grove at 42%, a 0-point difference that is inside the noise of a median drawn from a listings snapshot. Over the last twelve months Austin gained 14.1 points and Pacific Grove gained 10.8 points, so the gap is widening.

Which has higher nightly rates, Austin or Pacific Grove?

Pacific Grove, at £239 a night against £100 in Austin — roughly 140.5% more. Revenue per available night agrees rather than contradicts: £67 in Pacific Grove against £25, so the rate premium survives contact with the occupancy figures.

Which has stronger year-over-year growth, Austin or Pacific Grove?

Austin, on occupancy: +14.1 points over the last twelve months against +10.8 points in Pacific Grove. Nightly rates fell 7.4% in Austin and rose 6.3% in Pacific Grove over the same window. One year of movement is a direction, not a trend — weigh it against the regulation picture before treating it as momentum.

Which is the bigger Airbnb market, Austin or Pacific Grove?

Austin, with 7,933 active listings against 191 in Pacific Grove. Size cuts both ways: a deep market gives you comparables, contractors and an exit, while a thinner one means fewer near-identical rivals competing for the same search results.

How much can you earn from an Airbnb in Austin vs Pacific Grove?

Pacific Grove earns more: roughly £24,349 a year for a median listing against £9,062 in Austin. Those are gross booking revenues before cleaning, management, platform fees, furnishing amortisation and tax — budget for a meaningful share of them, and note that a median listing is a median operator, not a good one.

Go deeper on each city

Market guide

Airbnb in Austin →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

Market guide

Airbnb in Pacific Grove →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

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