If renting a beach house is on your summer agenda, brace yourself to spend a bundle.
According todata from short-term rental research site AirDNA, the most expensive time to rent a beach house is July, when average daily rental prices hit a nationwide high of $420 per night (that’s based on data from 2023, the latest year available).
Want to rent a beach house that’s also a bargain? It is possible if you time your trip right, with the cheapest month nationwide being October, when average daily rental prices drop to $343 per night. Compared to high season, that amounts to savings of $77 per day, or $539 for a weeklong stay.
The reason for summer’s higher pricing is pretty obvious, of course.
“It’s warmer, and people like to swim,” explains AirDNA economist Bram Gallagher.
That, and there’s a higher demand for families who are forced to squeeze in their travels around kids’ schedules.
“The school calendar is very important for a lot of vacation planning,” Gallagher notes.
But not all beach rental markets follow the exact same pattern.
“Some areas have a larger seasonal difference than others,” Gallagher points out. “Looking at regions, for instance, we see that Pacific coasts have much less seasonal difference than Northeast markets.”
Northeast and Mid-Atlantic beach towns tend to see the steepest differences of $196 per night between high and low seasons, most likely because winter temperatures drop below what even the most stalwart beach goers would find comfortable.
On the other hand, the Pacific Coast and other regions that boast year-round sunshine don’t see much seasonal variation in prices at all, with just a $42 difference between the highest and lowest months.
In areas where the in-demand seasons are flipped—like sunny Florida, where many folks from the Northeast travel to escape the cold and snow in winter—you might see higher prices during what is typically considered the off-season in other regions.
For instance, this popular, two-bedroom, one-bath condo (below) in Miami rents for just $323 during the summer and for $561 in the winter. That runs contrary to what you’d expect in areas where there’s snow on the ground during those months (rental prices can vary based on occupancy and other factors).
Meanwhile, guests hoping to spend their summer vacationing in the stunning Rio Grande rental in Puerto Rico below can enjoy the experience pretty much any month of the year with little change in rate. If you wanted to book this four-bedroom, two-bath spot, you could do so in July for $185 a night or in December for $204.
Yet Gallagher also noticed that in 2023, a growing number of renters attempted to snag a bargain (and avoid the crowds) by targeting traditionally less popular months for beach vacations.
“What we’ve been seeing is an increased interest in more off-season travel,” he explains, noting a spike in people heading to popular beach towns during the normally quieter months of September and October. “We’ll see if it still holds true this year.”
How the cost of real estate can impact rental prices
In other areas, the high cost of living—and real estate—can further exacerbate the pricing extremes seen from month to month.
“Long Island is a pretty famous example with the Hamptons,” Gallagher explains. “There’s a very, very high cost of living and a lot of expensive homes in that area.”
Indeed, booking a trip to the Hamptons to stay in this seven-bedroom home in East Hampton, NY, will set you back $2,000 a night in July and just $1,000 a night in the less desirable (and much colder) month of February.
Meanwhile, if you want to rent the picturesque cabin below on Hawaii’s Big Island, you’re going to pay $395 a night for the experience in July and $450 a night in December. In either case, it’s a deal compared to the Hamptons.
Why beach rental prices took a nosedive last year
Aside from pricing fluctuations month to month, U.S. coastal vacation towns also experience the same ebb and flow year to year. For instance, many beachgoers in 2023 paid less per night than in 2022.Gallagher says this was because many Americans chose to travel abroad last year rather than stick to their own country’s sandy shores.
“In 2023, the dollar was very, very strong, and this made international travel more inexpensive or more attractive to American consumers,” he notes.
Because vacations to, say, the French Riviera were as accessible as trips to the U.S. Gulf Coast in some cases, many rental property owners dropped their prices in effort to draw travelers back in, Gallagher says.
Whether that means people will still be able to stay for less this summer remains to be seen.
