Rotterdam vs The Hague: which is better for Airbnb investment? (2026)

Bottom line

Rotterdam edges ahead of The Hague on higher occupancy (16.4% vs 8.8%), stronger RevPAR (£27 vs £19).

Head-to-head metrics

	Rotterdam	The Hague
Median occupancy	16.4%	8.8%
Median daily rate	£135	£160
Median RevPAR	£27	£19
Active listings	934	977
YoY occupancy	+2.7 pts	+0.6 pts
YoY daily rate	+29.3%	+26.5%
Regulation risk	—	—
Annual night cap	None	None
License required	No	No

Full analysis: Rotterdam vs The Hague

On the money side of this comparison — what a listing actually earns against the nights it has available — Rotterdam finishes clearly ahead of The Hague. Revenue per available night — rate and occupancy combined, the figure that actually reaches an owner — is 42% higher in Rotterdam: £27 against £19. Rotterdam's listings run at 16.4% occupancy against 8.8% in The Hague, worth 7.6 extra points of booked calendar every year. Those gaps are wide enough to survive a normal year's variance.

The two markets reach their revenue by different routes, which is what makes this pairing worth reading rather than just tabulating. The Hague is the rate market: £160 a night against £135, some 18.6% more, but it converts fewer of those nights at 8.8% occupancy. Rotterdam is the volume market, filling 16.4% of its calendar at a lower headline price. Revenue per available night settles it: £27 in Rotterdam against £19. Rate is what you advertise; RevPAR is what you bank.

That verdict needs a caveat, because The Hague is not simply the weaker market of the two. Nightly rates favour The Hague: £160 against £135 in Rotterdam, a 18.6% premium. Its strongest submarket, Arendsdorp, clears £89 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 Rotterdam nor The Hague 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. Rotterdam peaks in September at 69.8% and bottoms in December at 54.1%; The Hague runs from 68.2% in October down to 54.7% in March. Both swing by a similar amount across the year, so neither offers meaningfully steadier cash flow than the other.

Who each suits, then. Rotterdam 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. The Hague 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 2026-09, filtered to listings with at least one booking in the last twelve months. Occupancy medians are drawn from 934 active Rotterdam listings and 977 in The Hague.

Frequently asked questions

Is Rotterdam or The Hague better for Airbnb investment?

Rotterdam, on the data we track. It leads on stronger RevPAR (£27 vs £19), higher occupancy (16.4% vs 8.8%), and higher median annual revenue (£9,731 vs £6,865). The Hague is not the weak side of this pair, though — it wins on a higher nightly rate (£160 vs £135).

Which has higher occupancy, Rotterdam or The Hague?

Rotterdam, at 16.4% median occupancy against 8.8% in The Hague — a gap of 7.6 points. That is a real but modest edge; a well-run listing in The Hague can close most of it. Over the last twelve months Rotterdam gained 2.7 points and The Hague gained 0.6 points, so the gap is widening.

Which has higher nightly rates, Rotterdam or The Hague?

The Hague, at £160 a night against £135 in Rotterdam — roughly 18.6% more. The nightly rate is not the whole story, though. On revenue per available night — rate multiplied by how often the room actually sells — Rotterdam comes out ahead at £27 against £19, so Rotterdam's cheaper nights are more than repaid by how often they fill.

Which has stronger year-over-year growth, Rotterdam or The Hague?

Rotterdam, on occupancy: +2.7 points over the last twelve months against +0.6 points in The Hague. Nightly rates rose 29.3% in Rotterdam and rose 26.5% in The Hague 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, Rotterdam or The Hague?

The Hague, with 977 active listings against 934 in Rotterdam. 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 Rotterdam vs The Hague?

Rotterdam earns more: roughly £9,731 a year for a median listing against £6,865 in The Hague. 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 Rotterdam →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

Market guide

Airbnb in The Hague →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

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