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

Bottom line

Salem Or edges ahead of Rochester on higher occupancy (29.6% vs 21.9%), stronger RevPAR (£42 vs £26).

Head-to-head metrics

	Rochester	Salem Or
Median occupancy	21.9%	29.6%
Median daily rate	£124	£124
Median RevPAR	£26	£42
Active listings	742	233
YoY occupancy	+0.5 pts	-9.9 pts
YoY daily rate	+59.7%	+39.4%
Regulation risk	—	—
Annual night cap	None	None
License required	No	No

Full analysis: Rochester vs Salem Or

On the money side of this comparison — what a listing actually earns against the nights it has available — Salem Or finishes clearly ahead of Rochester. Revenue per available night — rate and occupancy combined, the figure that actually reaches an owner — is 60.5% higher in Salem Or: £42 against £26. Salem Or's listings run at 29.6% occupancy against 21.9% in Rochester, worth 7.7 extra points of booked calendar every year. Those gaps are wide enough to survive a normal year's variance.

Salem Or takes both halves of the yield equation, which is less common than it sounds. It charges more per night — £124 against £124 — and still fills more of the year, 29.6% against 21.9%. 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 £42 against £26.

That verdict needs a caveat, because Rochester is not simply the weaker market of the two. The twelve-month direction favours Rochester too: occupancy there moved +0.5 points while Salem Or moved −9.9 points. Nightly rates are also climbing faster in Rochester, +59.7% over the last year against +39.4% in Salem Or. If your model leans on that dimension, the ordering above can reasonably flip.

Neither Rochester 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. Rochester peaks in September at 51.4% and bottoms in February at 21.5%; 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. Rochester suits buyers who want a conventional, lightly regulated entry. It is also the momentum side of this pair. 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 742 active Rochester listings and 233 in Salem Or.

Frequently asked questions

Is Rochester or Salem Or better for Airbnb investment?

Salem Or, on the data we track. It leads on stronger RevPAR (£42 vs £26), higher occupancy (29.6% vs 21.9%), and higher median annual revenue (£15,230 vs £9,480). Rochester is not the weak side of this pair, though — it wins on the better occupancy trend (+0.5 points vs −9.9 points year over year).

Which has higher occupancy, Rochester or Salem Or?

Salem Or, at 29.6% median occupancy against 21.9% in Rochester — a gap of 7.7 points. That is a real but modest edge; a well-run listing in Rochester can close most of it. Over the last twelve months Rochester gained 0.5 points and Salem Or shed 9.9 points, so the gap is closing.

Which has higher nightly rates, Rochester or Salem Or?

Salem Or, at £124 a night against £124 in Rochester — roughly 0.6% more. Revenue per available night agrees rather than contradicts: £42 in Salem Or against £26, so the rate premium survives contact with the occupancy figures.

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

Rochester, on occupancy: +0.5 points over the last twelve months against −9.9 points in Salem Or. Nightly rates rose 59.7% in Rochester and rose 39.4% in Salem Or 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, Rochester or Salem Or?

Rochester, with 742 active listings against 233 in Salem Or. 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 Rochester vs Salem Or?

Salem Or earns more: roughly £15,230 a year for a median listing against £9,480 in Rochester. 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 Rochester →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

Market guide

Airbnb in Salem Or →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

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