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

Bottom line

Pacific Grove edges ahead of Salem Or on higher occupancy (30.7% vs 29.6%), stronger RevPAR (£97 vs £42).

Head-to-head metrics

	Pacific Grove	Salem Or
Median occupancy	30.7%	29.6%
Median daily rate	£332	£124
Median RevPAR	£97	£42
Active listings	186	233
YoY occupancy	-2.2 pts	-9.9 pts
YoY daily rate	+38.5%	+39.4%
Regulation risk	—	—
Annual night cap	None	None
License required	No	No

Full analysis: Pacific Grove vs Salem Or

On the money side of this comparison — what a listing actually earns against the nights it has available — Pacific Grove finishes clearly ahead of Salem Or. Revenue per available night — rate and occupancy combined, the figure that actually reaches an owner — is 133.5% higher in Pacific Grove: £97 against £42. Pacific Grove commands 166.5% more per night, £332 against £124. Those gaps are wide enough to survive a normal year's variance.

Pacific Grove takes both halves of the yield equation, which is less common than it sounds. It charges more per night — £332 against £124 — and still fills more of the year, 30.7% against 29.6%. A market that leads on price and utilisation at once is normally one where demand has outrun supply, rather than one where hosts are discounting to keep the calendar busy. RevPAR reflects the double advantage at £97 against £42.

That verdict needs a caveat, because Salem Or is not simply the weaker market of the two. Salem Or sits at the cheaper end at £124 a night against £332, which lowers the bar for filling shoulder-season dates and usually tracks a lower purchase price too. Its strongest submarket, Ward 6, clears £62 RevPAR on its own — city medians hide that kind of spread. If your model leans on nightly rate rather than volume, the ordering above can reasonably flip.

Neither Pacific Grove nor Salem Or 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. Pacific Grove peaks in October at 61.8% and bottoms in May at 30.9%; Salem Or runs from 58.3% in September down to 30.1% in February. Both swing by a similar amount across the year, so neither offers meaningfully steadier cash flow than the other.

Who each suits, then. Pacific Grove suits buyers who want a conventional, lightly regulated entry. Salem Or answers to the same regulatory profile, so the split between them is operational rather than legal. It is the contrarian side: buying it means buying a market that has cooled. Every figure above comes from the same Inside Airbnb snapshot pipeline on both sides, dated 2026-09, filtered to listings with at least one booking in the last twelve months. Occupancy medians are drawn from 186 active Pacific Grove listings and 233 in Salem Or.

Frequently asked questions

Is Pacific Grove or Salem Or better for Airbnb investment?

Pacific Grove, on the data we track. It leads on stronger RevPAR (£97 vs £42), a higher nightly rate (£332 vs £124), and the better occupancy trend (−2.2 points vs −9.9 points year over year). Salem Or is not the weak side of this pair, though — it wins on a lower price point (£124 a night vs £332).

Which has higher occupancy, Pacific Grove or Salem Or?

Effectively neither — they are level. Pacific Grove sits at 30.7% and Salem Or at 29.6%, a 1.1-point difference that is inside the noise of a median drawn from a listings snapshot. Over the last twelve months Pacific Grove shed 2.2 points and Salem Or shed 9.9 points, so the gap is widening.

Which has higher nightly rates, Pacific Grove or Salem Or?

Pacific Grove, at £332 a night against £124 in Salem Or — roughly 166.5% more. Revenue per available night agrees rather than contradicts: £97 in Pacific Grove against £42, so the rate premium survives contact with the occupancy figures.

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

Neither is growing on occupancy — both cooled over the last year. Pacific Grove gave up 2.2 points and Salem Or 9.9, so Pacific Grove is the shallower decline rather than the winner. Nightly rates rose 38.5% in Pacific Grove and rose 39.4% in Salem Or over the same window.

Which is the bigger Airbnb market, Pacific Grove or Salem Or?

Salem Or, with 233 active listings against 186 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 Pacific Grove vs Salem Or?

Pacific Grove earns more: roughly £35,550 a year for a median listing against £15,230 in Salem Or. 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 Pacific Grove →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

Market guide

Airbnb in Salem Or →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

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