STR / Airbnb In Vermont - Is There Year Round Viability?

Question

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Had some downtime between food and football today and wanted to ask some burning questions. Does anyone have experience with running a short term rental in northern New England? Preferably something along the lines of a cabin. I'm specifically looking around Killington / Chittenden area of Vermont, as I feel like that's a sought after spot.

I'm curious as to how the vacancy fluctuates between the four seasons. Obviously winter is a big month, but I feel like I run into a lot of people around Boston who take trips up north during the summer and fall. Is there a big drop off?... Or not as much as you'd expect?

Any insight or thoughts on what else I should be considering would be much appreciated, and be yet another thing to be thankful for this holiday :)

Lucas

Zach Edelman · Answer

I looked up Killington, VT on Air DNA and it looks like there's a definite drop off once Winter ends (i.e March and beyond), with a slight uptick in July.

Alecia Loveless · Answer

@Lucas Bernard Hi Lucas, I’m from Northern New Hampshire around Bretton Woods and Cannon Mountain and owned Bed and Breakfasts there for 24 years. In my area we have golf courses and hiking within a short drive, 5-40 minutes that draws in tons of people from early May-September. Which if you have these of mountain biking is a great growing market. In late September-mid October you get fall foliage people and you can expect to raise your rates by at least 50-70% if you do good marketing during this time of the year and set a longer minimum number of night stay also during this time. If you normally require 2 nights, now you can require 3-4 once you get established. Once your ski mountain really gets open winter will be busy. Not like the first 3 weeks when they have two runs open to say they were the first mountain open in Vermont but once they have significant terrain open. This can be a primarily weekend business but during school vacation both new Hampshire and Massachusetts as well as Christmas week you should expect to get at least a 5 night stay if not a full week at peak prices. If you can figure out how to market to a foreign market you might be able to get longer stays than just the weekends. Mud season is the hardest, March and April. If there are local maple syrup events and you can market these year round in advance this is the best way to book ahead. Otherwise this is a great time of the year to do repairs and maintenance or for you to take advantage of the cabin yourself and have a getaway during the down time. Especially if local restaurants are still open.

Lucas Bernard · Answer

Thanks for that info Michael! When I went around the site it looked like occupancy was pretty high, considering it's close to peak season. Seems like you're right that spring is by far the quietest.

Patrick McCann · Answer

Most northern New England tourist areas pretty much shut down in the spring for mud season once every thing thaws. Summer theres hiking, biking, watersports etc. fall alot of the same things as summer plus hunting and leaves. winter skiing. Spring not much to do plus alot of places close to take a break

Patrick McCann · Answer

Summer time I know Killington is popular for mountain biking, I personally haven't rode there yet. I have been to Kingdom Trails in Burke/St. Johnsbury and it is like mountain bike disney world, license plates from all over the US and Canada.

Lucas Bernard · Answer

Thanks so much Alecia! Appreciate all the information here. I'll have to check out one of those maple syrup events regardless :)

Kathleen James · Answer

Hi Lucas, hope you had a great Thanksgiving!! I work in the Stowe area, and we absolutely have year round visitors, with the exception of April mud season and November stick season, though I have noticed more visitors without much of a break this year. I work primarily with investors, and I have yet to work with a client who runs a STR in the area who is not happy with their home's performance. The Chittenden County area, with the exception of Burlington (no STR allowed), is also a great option. I'm not as familiar with Killington, but when my clients and I run numbers, Killington property typically has not had the year round low vacancy, or high ANR that make Stowe and parts of Chittenden so attractive.

Michael Baum · Answer

Hey @Lucas Bernard happy Thanksgiving to you as well!I have no experience in that area, but you can bet that spring will be the slow time there.Summer will be good, winter as well. Fall will bring the leaf folks so stays should be pretty solid.Have you done a search on VRBO and AirBNB in the area to get a gander at other rentals in that area? What is their occupancy like?Here are the regs on STR in Killington - https://www.killingtontown.com/?SEC=94EB1515-E187-49C1-A7B2-...You have to make sure the STR rules in the area you are looking are either non-existant or common sense.