If money and location was no issue — Which markets are sexiest for STR!?

[David C Heiling]

A little background... I'll keep it short though because I know I'm targeting a specific audience here. I traveled the world for five years and stayed in AirBNBs in most of the places I went. The experience of being able to get a local's perspective is very valuable to travelers. 

That's why STR is so appealing to me. As I've shared in another post, I've done some research and have identified the Maine coast, Madison, WI, the Ozarks, northern Vermont and Boise as some pretty good options for STR income.

But I want to know from y'all. Is it better to look at bigger cities? Highly visited outdoor recreation areas?

I use a mix of finance background, STR tools, and a not-so-fully-functioning AI data manipulator to parse through listings I choose — but any additional resources, thoughts, experiences, or stories sure would be appreciated. 

I love Bigger Pockets — let's connect!

[Angie Castro]

Hey David! It depends I have had lots of success for my personal airbnb in small cities that have limited hotels plus not a lot of competition but still see traffic. This doesn't necessarily mean tourism traffic but instead affordable accommodations. People travel to visit family, weddings, funerals, school activities, and all sorts of reasons. Houses in this smaller towns also tend to be cheaper and can still cash flow pretty well. The thing with bigger cities is that homes are so much more expensive that is hard to make a profit.

Other than that if you are looking for traffic areas I would look into the NC Mountains like banner elk, Beech Mountain, blowing rock, Seven devils, and Boone.