--- title: "August 2026 STR Market Update: 16% Growth While the Market Declined 2.5%" canonical_url: "https://freewyldfoundry.com/podcast/ep733-august-str-market-update/" content_type: "podcast-episode" last_updated: "2026-09-07T11:00:00.000Z" --- Episode 733 of the Get Paid For Your Pad podcast. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N2WhvMzj8M Audio: https://embed.acast.com/5afc793a028014b853c89db4/6a9e11a6d024784c994d4b2b?accentColor=161616&bgColor=e48f0c&secondaryColor=161616 The August 2026 STR Market Update is here. Every month, Jasper shares exactly what we are seeing across 70+ client portfolios: which markets are up, which are down, what has changed on the platforms, and what we are doing about it. Real numbers, real portfolios, no fluff. August was the highest-impact month to date for Freewyld Foundry. Comparable client listings were up 16.3% year over year while the broader market averaged a 2.5% decline, producing a 19.3% combined impact and just over $2.1 million in additional revenue for clients. Labor Day weekend shifted from August to September this year, which explains most of the market softness. The flip side: September is already pacing well ahead. **You will learn:** * Why Freewyld Foundry clients grew 16.3% in August while the broader market declined 2.5%, and how comparable-unit tracking gives you a clear picture of true performance * The OTA discount stacking problem quietly eroding effective rates across Airbnb and VRBO, and how to calculate the right channel markup to protect your floor * How to position your low season pricing right now to capture midterm rental demand before snowbird bookings dry up * Why Airbnb's new AI pricing model should be approached with skepticism, and what the 15.5% host-only fee rollout means if you are not on a PMS * What VRBO's new sponsored listings feature is, how the bidding works, and why early movers may get the cheapest visibility **We also talk about:** * Top declining markets in August: Branson MO (-25%), Chattanooga TN (-25%), Myrtle Beach SC (-20%), Fredericksburg TX (-20%), Kansas City MO (-16%) * Top growing markets: San Antonio TX (+13%), Columbus OH (+12%), Milwaukee WI (+11%), Canada and select European markets (+15%) * Airbnb's record Q2 earnings (revenue up 17%, hotel bookings growing 3x faster than homes) and what it signals about where the platform is heading * How VRBO discounts stack differently than Airbnb discounts, and why Booking.com is in a category of its own for complexity * The full fall conference calendar: GuestyVal Madrid, Skift Global Forum NYC, VRMA Nashville, Host Expo Bogota, Vacation Rental World Summit Lyon, Skillfest Barcelona, Direct Booking Success Summit **Mentioned in the Episode:** * Freewyld Foundry Free Revenue Report * Midterm rental episode with Frank at Hostfully: search Get Paid for Your Pad * Email Jasper: jasper@freewyldfoundry.com * Freewyld Foundry at VRMA Nashville: October 4-6, stop by the booth Subscribe for new episodes every Monday on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. ## Transcript ## August Results: The Highest-Impact Month to Date Welcome back to Get Paid for Your Pad. This is an episode of Rev Up where we dive into revenue management. Today I'm going to do a recap of the month of August. The summer is pretty much over. August is typically one of the strongest months in a lot of markets. The first week or two are still very strong in most places, but then it tapers off toward the end of the month as schools go back. So August really divides into two parts: the first half is high season, the second half is shoulder season. One important thing to note: last year Labor Day weekend fell in August, and this year it falls in the first weekend of September. That creates a demand shift. If you are looking at your August results and you are down maybe five to ten percent, that shift is likely the primary explanation. ## Portfolio Results: 16.3% Year Over Year August was actually a very strong month for us. We reached our highest impact to date. The way we calculate impact: for each portfolio we manage, we look at listings that were active both last year and this year. If a client has 100 units and 50 were active in August last year, we take only those 50, compare this year's revenue to last year's revenue. This is what we call comparable listings. New units are excluded because adding new inventory obviously grows revenue, but it does not tell you how the same listings are performing. On that comparable basis, our client revenue was up 16.3% year over year. The broader market averaged a 2.5% decline. Combined, our impact stood at 19.3%, which generated just over $2.1 million in additional revenue for clients. ## Market by Market Breakdown We are in around 75 markets, so we have a solid read on what areas did well and what areas struggled. Top declines in August: - Branson, Missouri: down almost 25% - Chattanooga, Tennessee: down almost 25% - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: down almost 20% - Fredericksburg, Texas: down almost 20% - Kansas City, Missouri: down about 16% Markets that grew: - San Antonio, Texas: up about 13% - Columbus, Ohio: up about 12% - Milwaukee, Wisconsin: up around 11% - Canada and select European markets: up around 15% Most markets saw a small decline, which is consistent with the Labor Day weekend shift pulling demand from August into September. ## September Outlook Markets are currently pacing around 15 to 20% ahead of where they were at this point last year. That number will likely compress as the month fills out, because Labor Day weekend has a longer booking window than the rest of September. I expect final results to land somewhere around 5 to 10% ahead year over year. We will have the full numbers in next month's update. ## Industry Updates **Airbnb 15.5% host-only fee for all hosts.** If you are connected to a PMS, you are already on the host-only fee structure. But if you are connected directly to Airbnb through a pricing tool without a PMS, you will be switched over to the host-only fee in September or October depending on your market. If you are still not using a PMS, this is a good reason to evaluate that. **Airbnb's AI pricing model.** Airbnb announced they are building their own AI pricing model. This should be met with skepticism. Airbnb is not a great advisor for hosts because Airbnb has its own interests in mind with any recommendation it makes. If you talk to your Airbnb account manager, they will tell you to lower minimum night stays, activate all discounts, and do everything that benefits Airbnb's booking volume, not necessarily your revenue. Any AI pricing model Airbnb launches should be tested carefully, not taken at face value. **Airbnb Q2 earnings.** Airbnb reported record Q2 revenue, up 17% year over year. The hotel section on Airbnb is growing about three times faster than homes. The platform is doing well overall and expanding into hospitality more broadly. **VRBO sponsored listings.** VRBO launched a sponsored listings feature that lets you pay to appear at the top of search results. The minimum bid is $5. You can bid on specific dates and compete for placement. Because this is new and not many hosts are aware of it yet, now may be a good time to test it while the cost of placement is low. Like Google Ads, prices rise as more hosts start bidding. **Airbnb mobile-only discount.** Airbnb has rolled out a 10% discount for guests booking through the mobile app. This stacks with other discounts. If you are activating multiple discounts across your Airbnb account, make sure you understand how they compound. ## OTA Discount Strategy Is Now a Discipline With Airbnb now offering a 15% top-rated guest discount, a 10% mobile discount, and the existing early bird, length of stay, weekly, and monthly discounts, plus VRBO and Booking.com each running their own stacking discount structures, OTA discount strategy has become genuinely complex. VRBO discounts do not stack with each other. VRBO gives the guest whichever single promotional discount is highest, but that does stack with weekly and monthly discounts. Booking.com has its own complicated stacking structure that warrants a dedicated review. The key point: if you are activating multiple discounts on Airbnb, check your effective net price. A guest who is on mobile, is top-rated, and books a week could be receiving a combined discount of 35% or more. If your base price is $100 and they get 35% off, you are netting around $65, not $100. To protect your floor, you need to mark up the channel price by more than the sum of the discounts, because the math does not work in reverse the way most people assume. ## Fall Conference Calendar A number of conferences are coming up in the next two months. We will be at several of them. - GuestyVal: September 16-18, Madrid - Skift Global Forum: September 22-24, New York City - Skift Middle East: September 30 to October 1, Dubai - VRMA International: October 4-6, Nashville (Freewyld Foundry has a booth; stop by) - Vacation Rental World Summit: October 8-9, Lyon, France - Host Expo: October 6-8, Bogota, Colombia - Skillfest: October 24-25, Barcelona - Direct Booking Success Summit: October 17-19, online If you are attending VRMA Nashville and doing over $1 million in yearly bookings, stop by our booth. We will create a free revenue report so you can see where you are leaving money on the table. ## What to Focus on Right Now Two things to prioritize heading into the next couple of months. First, low season preparation. Right now is the best time to start positioning your pricing for the low season, especially if you are in markets where you can attract midterm rental bookings. Snowbirds and longer-stay travelers are looking now. If your pricing is too high, you will miss those bookings before you even had a chance. Make sure your low season months are priced competitively to capture that demand. Second, OTA discount strategy. Review what discounts you have active across all platforms, understand how they stack, and make sure your channel markup accounts for the combined effect. This is now a meaningful part of revenue management and one that can quietly erode your effective rate if you are not paying attention. Thanks for listening. We will be back next Monday with another episode of Rev Up. --- ## About this file This is the agent-readable version of a page on freewyldfoundry.com. The canonical page for people is https://freewyldfoundry.com/podcast/ep733-august-str-market-update/ Freewyld Foundry runs revenue management for short-term rental operators: pricing strategy, distribution, and the systems around them. We manage 3,500+ listings representing $170M+ in annual bookings for 70+ clients. Pricing is custom and scales with portfolio size. Related machine-readable resources: - Every page in this format: https://freewyldfoundry.com/agent/pages/index.json - Site overview: https://freewyldfoundry.com/llms.txt - Request a free revenue report: https://freewyldfoundry.com/get-started/