Vienna Leads Rentals, Alpine Resorts Earn More

Vienna remains Austria’s largest short-term rental market, with analytics provider AirROI tracking 9,216 active listings. Yet Alpine resorts generate substantially higher estimated revenue per listing. Sankt Anton am Arlberg leads at $3,355 a month and an average booked nightly rate of $555. Record tourism demand is supporting the market, but revenue should not be confused with investment returns: acquisition costs, financing, taxation, operating expenses and local rental restrictions are not reflected in those figures.

Vienna remains Austria’s largest short-term rental market

Austria’s short-term rental market differs sharply by location. Vienna benefits from scale and diversified urban tourism, while ski and Alpine destinations can generate more revenue per property because guests pay substantially higher nightly rates.

AirROI’s Austria market data, updated on August 8, covers 100 locations and compares active listings over the trailing 12 months, monthly revenue per listing, average daily rate and occupancy. Across the markets in its ranking, average occupancy is 33.1%, average monthly revenue is $1,754 and the average booked nightly rate is $270. These are AirROI estimates rather than official Airbnb figures or a weighted national average for Austria’s entire short-term rental sector.

Vienna has 9,216 active listings, just over eight times Graz’s 1,141. A Vienna listing generates an estimated $1,627 a month on average, with a $167 nightly rate and occupancy of 43.9%. Graz averages $783 a month, $109 a night and 34.7% occupancy.

The difference illustrates why market size alone does not determine the economics of an individual property.

Salzburg and Innsbruck outperform Vienna on revenue

Among larger tourism markets, Salzburg and Innsbruck generate considerably more revenue per listing.

Salzburg has 540 active listings with estimated monthly revenue of $2,539, roughly 56% above Vienna. Its average nightly rate is $208 and occupancy stands at 46.9%.

Innsbruck has 423 listings averaging $2,319 in monthly revenue and $198 per booked night. Occupancy reaches 48.6%. In AirROI’s separate comparison restricted to markets with at least 300 listings, Innsbruck ranks first for occupancy, followed by Salzburg and Vienna.

Zell am See illustrates a different model. Its 513 listings achieve occupancy of only 31.1%, but a $341 average nightly rate supports monthly revenue of approximately $2,130. Resort-market earnings can therefore depend less on continuous occupancy and more on the ability to charge premium prices during periods of strong demand.

Sankt Anton leads Austria in revenue and nightly rates

Sankt Anton am Arlberg records the highest estimated monthly revenue among the 100 markets tracked. One of Tyrol’s best-known ski resorts has only 124 active listings, but average revenue reaches $3,355 per month.

The resort also has Austria’s highest average booked nightly rate in the dataset at $555, with occupancy of 39.2%. Mühlbach am Hochkönig follows on revenue at $3,001 a month, ahead of Brand at $2,933 and Scharnitz at $2,896.

Kitzbühel has 162 active listings generating an estimated $2,824 per month. The average nightly rate is $435 and occupancy 33.5%. Nearby Kirchberg in Tirol also averages $435 per night, with estimated monthly revenue of $2,806.

Sankt Anton’s revenue is more than double Vienna’s, but that does not establish that real estate there offers twice the investment return. The ranking does not include acquisition prices, which are essential to calculating yield.

Austrian tourism sets a new early-summer record

Short-term rental demand is being supported by another strong tourism season. Preliminary July data from Statistics Austria show that accommodation establishments recorded 41.87 million overnight stays between May and July 2026. That was 3.2% more than a year earlier and the highest total for the first three months of the summer tourism season since electronic records began in 1973.

July alone generated 19.46 million overnight stays, up 4.8% year on year. Guest arrivals rose 9.3% to 5.97 million. Foreign visitors accounted for 14.68 million nights, an increase of 5.9%, while domestic guests generated 4.78 million, up 1.7%.

Germany remained Austria’s largest international source market, producing 7.18 million overnight stays in July, 4.8% more than a year earlier. Dutch nights increased 11.5% to 1.53 million and Czech demand jumped 21.8% to 740,000. Between January and July, Austria recorded 96.46 million overnight stays, a 1.8% annual increase.

The official accommodation statistics cover commercial and private tourist establishments in reporting municipalities. They are not a measure of Airbnb bookings specifically, but they provide an indication of the broader tourism demand supporting short-term rentals.

Alpine markets remain exposed to seasonality

A $555 nightly rate in Sankt Anton or $435 in Kitzbühel demonstrates the pricing power of premium ski destinations during high-demand periods. Their occupancy rates, however, remain substantially below Innsbruck’s.

Sankt Anton averages 39.2% occupancy, Kitzbühel 33.5% and Zell am See 31.1%. Innsbruck reaches 48.6% despite its much lower $198 nightly rate.

The markets therefore generate revenue in different ways. Ski resorts are more dependent on winter peaks and the strength of their summer tourism season, while a regional city can draw on a broader mix of leisure travel, events, education and business demand.

For investors, the relevant comparison is consequently wider than nightly rates or headline revenue. Seasonality, legal availability, operating expenses and the property’s acquisition price all affect the result.

Vienna applies a 90-day threshold

The number of active listings also does not demonstrate that any newly acquired apartment can legally operate as a year-round tourist rental.

Under the City of Vienna’s short-term rental rules, since July 1, 2024 apartments outside designated residential zones generally require a special exemption permit if they are to be used for short-term accommodation for more than 90 days per calendar year. A permit can be granted for a maximum of five years and is subject to specified conditions. Home sharing of a residence for no more than 90 days can remain exempt where the permanent residence is not abandoned.

Permit requirements include restrictions relating to the building and the use of its units, as well as consent from all co-owners of the property. Separate rules apply in designated residential zones, while tenancy agreements and condominium arrangements can impose additional restrictions.

That distinction matters when using third-party analytics. AirROI assigns Vienna a “low” regulation profile. The score is a proprietary market classification rather than a legal assessment and does not fully describe the city’s 90-day threshold and permit regime.

EU rules did not create nationwide Austrian registration

EU Regulation 2024/1028 on short-term accommodation data has applied since May 20, 2026. It harmonises rules for data collection and sharing where registration procedures exist, but does not require every jurisdiction to establish such a scheme. That framework is set out in the official EUR-Lex text and summary of Regulation 2024/1028.

Austria follows a decentralised system because tourism matters fall within the responsibility of its federal provinces. The Austrian Federal Ministry for Economy, Energy and Tourism says that no province initially opted into the registration framework when the regulation became applicable. As a result, the regulation did not immediately create a new nationwide registration-number requirement for Austrian short-term rentals. Existing provincial, municipal and other legal requirements continue to apply.

Investors therefore need to check the regime applying to the specific province, municipality and property. Vienna’s rules cannot simply be extrapolated to Tyrol, Salzburg, Styria or Vorarlberg.

Airbnb revenue is not the same as property yield

Monthly revenue estimates show the operating turnover of a listing, but they do not answer the central investment question: how much does an owner earn relative to the capital required to acquire and operate the property?

Management, platform charges, cleaning, utilities, insurance, repairs, maintenance and taxation all reduce revenue. Acquisition costs and interest expenses can further affect the return where financing is used.

The difference between Vienna’s $1,627 and Sankt Anton’s $3,355 monthly revenue therefore should not be interpreted as a twofold investment advantage. If an Alpine property costs substantially more to acquire and operate, its net yield can be similar to or below that of a lower-revenue market.

Short-term rental data are useful for estimating potential operating income, but investment decisions require net cash-flow analysis and a return calculated against the capital actually deployed.

As International Investment experts report, Austria’s short-term rental ranking primarily illustrates differences in the operating economics of cities and resorts rather than identifying the country’s most profitable real estate investment market. Alpine destinations can generate roughly twice Vienna’s revenue per listing, but expensive acquisition prices, seasonality and operating costs may substantially reduce that advantage. Third-party regulation scores also require caution: describing a city as lightly regulated is no substitute for checking the rules governing the individual property. For investors, entry price, net cash flow, legal eligibility for short-term letting and returns after expenses remain more important than headline nightly rates.