June is in. Freewyld Foundry’s portfolios closed the month up 22.36% year over year, generating $14.4M in revenue across 75+ client properties. The overall market averaged 9%. That 13-point gap did not happen by accident, and the breakdown tells you exactly where to focus in the second half of summer.
This month also brought something new from Airbnb: a discount that just launched quietly and will affect your pricing strategy if you are not paying attention.
Here is the full picture.
Key Takeaways
- Freewyld portfolios outperformed the overall market by over 13 percentage points on comparable units in June.
- World Cup demand was real in select cities, but weaker than anticipated. Higher prices in game markets scared away regular travelers, holding down occupancy even as ADR rose.
- Kansas City led all World Cup markets, up 44%. Dallas up 40%, Miami up 28%, Philadelphia up 20%.
- Calgary down 20%, Grand Canyon area down 14%. The event lift was not evenly distributed.
- Managing the full booking window, not just last-minute fills, is where the performance gap is built.
- Airbnb launched a 15% discount for top-rated guests. It stacks with your existing discounts. You need a strategy for it.
- A mobile-only discount on Airbnb has been reported in some markets. OTA discount strategy is becoming more complex.
June Performance: Freewyld Portfolios Up 22.36%
Before getting into the market breakdown, one framing note. These numbers are always measured on comparable units: listings that were active in both the current year and the prior year. If a portfolio doubled in size, that revenue increase does not count toward the performance metric. Only the actual improvement in how existing units performed counts.
This is how you and your team should be measuring performance too. Adding units grows revenue. Improving management improves performance. Those are different things and should be tracked separately.
With that framing: comparable units across Freewyld’s portfolio of 75+ companies were up 22.36% in June, generating $14,425,000 in total revenue versus $11,789,000 the same month last year. That is just over $2.5 million in additional revenue generated for clients.
The market averaged 9%.
World Cup Impact by City
June was the heart of the World Cup. 48 countries participated, making this one of the largest sporting events ever staged. The expectation was that host cities would see outsized demand. The reality was more complicated.
In most World Cup markets, we saw higher ADR but lower occupancy. The pattern: elevated prices deterred regular leisure travelers who were not coming specifically for the games. Demand from soccer fans partially filled that gap, but not completely. The net result was modest gains in most markets, strong gains in a few.
Here is how the standouts broke down.
| Market | June YoY Change | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Kansas City | +44% | Top performing World Cup market |
| Dallas | +40% | One client market up 30%; another up 40% |
| Miami | +28% | World Cup city; strong ADR gains |
| Philadelphia | +20% | World Cup city |
| Halifax | Strong | One of the better Canadian markets in June |
| Grand Canyon area | -14% | Surprising given international tourist volume |
| Calgary | -20% | Weakness across several Canadian markets |
The broader picture: most US markets were either down slightly or up modestly. The World Cup created real lift in the cities where it was strongest, but the average gain of 9% across all markets is genuinely disappointing given the scale of the event.
The reason is not hard to find. Operators in World Cup cities often raised prices well above what the market could bear for regular guests. They captured some event demand, but they chased off the base of travelers who were not coming for the games. The net was weaker than it should have been.
Why Managing the Full Booking Window Is the Real Advantage
The 13-point outperformance Freewyld generated versus the market in June was not primarily about what happened in the last two weeks of the month. It was built across the entire booking window.
Here is the pattern most operators fall into. They focus energy on last-minute pricing: what is my minimum rate for next week, what gaps need to be filled, should I drop prices on Thursday to grab some bookings. That part of revenue management is relatively simple and almost everyone does it.
What most operators underweight is the early part of the booking window. People who book three, six, or nine months out are often willing to pay a premium. They are locking in Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year’s, or a summer week while the calendar is still wide open. If your early-window prices are set too high, you miss those bookings entirely. They do not come back.
Managing pricing competitively across the entire window, not just the final stretch, is where the real performance gap is created. It is also harder. Last-minute pricing is reactive; early-window pricing requires staying ahead of demand curves and making pricing decisions when the outcome feels distant.
That is where the majority of additional revenue Freewyld generates for clients comes from.
One action item for right now: Look at your August weekday pricing. Many operators set a summer seasonal profile from Memorial Day to Labor Day and leave it alone. But within that range, demand shifts significantly once schools return. In many states, kids are back in class by the second or third week of August. Weekday occupancy softens noticeably. If your pricing does not reflect that, you are likely overpriced for mid-August weekdays and leaving those nights unfilled instead of booked at a competitive rate.
New Airbnb Discount: Top-Rated Guests
Airbnb just launched a fixed 15% discount for guests who have at least three reviews and a 4.8 or higher guest rating. You cannot choose the percentage. It is 15% or you do not participate.
To find it: go to your Airbnb calendar, select an individual listing, and click Discounts on the right side of your screen. Look for the Top Rated Guests section below the weekly and monthly discount options.
In exchange for offering the discount, Airbnb promises increased search visibility and a badge on your listing. They do not specify exactly what the visibility improvement looks like.
What you need to know before turning it on:
The discount stacks. It adds on top of your early bird discounts, length-of-stay discounts, weekly discounts, and monthly discounts. Stack enough of these together and your effective rate can come down fast.
You cannot maintain price consistency across guests. Qualifying guests get 15% off. Non-qualifying guests pay your full rate. If you raise your base price by the full 18% to offset the discount, you are effectively raising prices for everyone who does not qualify, which may price you out of the market for the broader guest pool.
One approach worth testing: Raise your Airbnb markup by 5% to 10%, not the full 18%. Qualifying guests still get a real discount versus your previous pricing. Non-qualifying guests pay a modest premium. On average you may be roughly neutral, but you are rewarding the lower-risk guests: people who have already stayed at multiple Airbnbs, understand the review system, and are less likely to leave a confused four-star review.
When Airbnb introduces a feature and wants hosts to use it, they typically reward adoption with visibility. That has been the pattern historically. Whether this particular discount is worth it for your portfolio depends on your pricing headroom, your OTA mix, and how aggressively you are already running promotions.
We are discussing the optimal strategy internally and will give an updated recommendation in a future episode.
Mobile-Only Discount: Coming Soon
Multiple hosts have reported a new mobile-only discount appearing in their Airbnb accounts. We have not seen it across all markets yet, but if it rolls out fully it mirrors what Booking.com already does with a 10% mobile-only rate.
This would stack with the top-rated guest discount, early bird, and length-of-stay discounts. OTA discount strategy is becoming a meaningful and complex piece of revenue management in its own right. A dedicated episode covering how to build a discount strategy across Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com is coming in the next couple of months.
July Outlook
Markets are currently tracking up about 5% year over year for July. Modest overall growth.
Philadelphia is the standout, up significantly in July, likely tied to the 250th anniversary of the United States. The city hosted the signing of the Declaration of Independence and is seeing strong demand around the July 4th festivities.
Freewyld portfolios are pacing 29.8% ahead for July, though that number typically settles lower by month-end as the early-booking advantage normalizes. Expect final July numbers around 20 to 25%, which is still a strong result given how flat the overall market is.
World Cup semifinals are in Dallas and Atlanta; the final is in New York on July 19th. If you have properties near those venues, anticipate last-minute demand spikes, particularly if a country makes a run they did not expect.
Get a Free Analysis of Your Revenue Setup
If you are managing 15+ properties and generating $1M+ in annual revenue, apply for a free revenue report. Freewyld manages $190M+ in bookings across 4,000+ listings, and our clients average 18% above their market. We will show you specifically where your current setup is limiting revenue.
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Listen to the Full Episode
June STR Market Update: World Cup Impact, New Airbnb Discounts and What’s Coming in July on Get Paid for Your Pad, EP 725. Jasper covers the full market breakdown, the Airbnb discount strategy in detail, and the July outlook including what to watch with the World Cup semifinals and final.
Related Articles
- Best PMS for STR Revenue Management: 5 Systems Ranked - The software layer between your pricing strategy and the OTAs that book your units.
- Price Labs Features Guide: 7 Tools You’re Not Using - How to configure PriceLabs to capture the revenue most operators miss.
- STR Revenue Manager vs Pricing Tool: Which Do You Need? - How tools and human expertise fit together, and when you need both.
- How to Scale STR Revenue Management from 10 to 100+ Properties - The systems and structure required to manage revenue at scale without adding headcount.
FAQ: STR Market Update June 2026
How did the World Cup affect short term rental markets in June 2026?
Results were mixed. World Cup host cities saw higher ADR but lower occupancy in most cases, as elevated prices deterred regular travelers who were not attending games. Markets that outperformed included Kansas City (up 44%), Dallas (up 40%), Miami (up 28%), and Philadelphia (up 20%). The overall market averaged only 9% despite the scale of the event.
What is Airbnb’s new top-rated guest discount?
Airbnb launched a fixed 15% discount for guests with a 4.8 or higher rating and at least three reviews. The discount is not adjustable. It stacks with other discounts including early bird and length-of-stay. You can find it in your listing calendar under the Discounts section.
Should I turn on the Airbnb top-rated guest discount?
There is no universal answer, but the key consideration is stacking. This discount adds on top of your existing promotions, which can compound quickly. One approach: raise your Airbnb markup by 5 to 10% before turning it on, rather than the full 18% needed for complete price neutrality. This way qualifying guests get a real discount and you capture the visibility benefit without pricing out non-qualifying guests.
Why did Freewyld portfolios outperform the market by 13 points in June?
The primary driver is managing the full booking window. Most operators concentrate on last-minute pricing. Freewyld focuses heavily on the early part of the booking window, where guests booking months in advance are often willing to pay a premium. Pricing competitively across the entire calendar, not just the final weeks, is where the majority of the performance gap is built.
Which STR markets underperformed in June 2026?
The Calgary market was down approximately 20% year over year in June. The Grand Canyon area was down around 14%. Several other US markets were down 5 to 10%. The World Cup lift was concentrated in specific host cities and did not provide a broad market tailwind.
What should STR operators watch in August 2026?
Focus on weekday pricing for mid-to-late August. Many operators set a summer seasonal profile that runs flat from Memorial Day through Labor Day. But once schools return, typically in the second or third week of August, weekday demand softens meaningfully in most markets. If your pricing does not adjust for that shift, you risk overpricing mid-week nights and leaving them unfilled.
