I have closed more than 550 Airbnb-eligible transactions in Nashville since 2018. That number is one reason buyers and investors keep asking me the same comparison question: does Kissimmee actually have the most Airbnb listings in the United States, and if so, why should anyone buy in Nashville instead?
The short answer is yes, Kissimmee carries one of the largest Airbnb inventory counts in the country, and no, that volume is not the same thing as the best investor return. Most-listings markets are usually most-supply markets, which compresses nightly rates and occupancy. Nashville’s combination of year-round demand, codified NOOSTR rules, and a stable appreciation curve has consistently outperformed Kissimmee, Gatlinburg, Scottsdale, and most other high-supply US Airbnb markets on the metric that actually matters: net revenue per door over a full calendar year.
This is the 2026 investor case for Nashville over the headline-volume markets.
Which US Airbnb markets carry the most listings?
If you sort US short-term rental markets by raw listing count, the leaderboard barely changes year to year. The Orlando-Kissimmee metroplex consistently sits at or near the top of national STR inventory rankings published by AHLA and AllTheRooms aggregate market reports, with theme-park-adjacent vacation rental supply approaching 25,000 active listings in peak season. Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge in Sevier County, Tennessee carries roughly 14,000 listings, much of it cabin product. Destin, Asheville, Phoenix-Scottsdale, and Branson round out the typical top ten depending on which aggregator’s methodology you trust.
Nashville’s Airbnb-eligible inventory is smaller. Within the five-mile Lower Broadway demand corridor where investor-grade NOOSTR product concentrates, I track 31 individually-titled buildings with consistent permit standing under Metro Code Title 17. The full city carries thousands more listings if you include single-family OOSTR product across all 35 Davidson County neighborhoods, but the institutional-quality investor inventory is deliberately bounded.
That bounded supply is the first piece of the thesis. Volume creates competition. Scarcity creates pricing power.
Does the highest-listing market also produce the highest investor return?
It does not. The math is straightforward: nightly revenue equals average daily rate multiplied by occupancy, and both metrics fall as supply rises. Kissimmee operators competing against 25,000 substitute listings discount aggressively in shoulder seasons. The same property profile in Nashville, where the investor-grade Airbnb-eligible set is roughly two thousand units inside the downtown demand corridor, holds rate.
Across the three years of MLS-recorded closed sales I aggregated for my June 2026 Nashville Airbnb buildings analysis, the median sale price across 31 Airbnb-eligible buildings was $485,000 with a median price per square foot of $507. East Nashville turned over $34.4 million across 50 closed transactions in that window, with median days on market at 14. Downtown Nashville closed 24 transactions for $22.6 million in the same period, and Midtown closed 20 for $16.2 million. Combined, the corridor closed $73.2 million of investor-grade Airbnb-eligible product in 36 months. That kind of velocity does not exist in oversupplied vacation markets.
For investors deploying mid-six-figure capital per door, the question is not whether you can find an STR property to buy. It is whether the property will earn enough net cash to justify the purchase price. Nashville’s lower listing count is a feature.
How does year-round demand actually differ across these markets?
Nashville runs a 12-month event calendar that competing markets simply cannot replicate. CMA Fest in June, country music tourism every weekend, the Nashville Convention Center booking corporate groups, two major healthcare conferences a year, the Predators NHL season October through April, the Titans NFL season, the Tennessee SC MLS season, bachelorette and wedding tourism every weekend April through November, the growing tech employer base bringing relocation traffic, and a Christmas-into-New-Year holiday peak that runs eight weeks. There is no off-season in the strict sense. There are slower weeks, but the demand floor never drops to seasonal-zero.
Kissimmee is theme-park seasonal. Spring break, summer school break, Christmas, and Easter peaks. May, September, October, and most of November are demonstrably softer. Operators I have spoken with in that market underwrite to a roughly 60-percent occupancy assumption on the year because three of the twelve months barely cover variable costs.
Gatlinburg leans on three peaks: October foliage, July summer, and Christmas-through-New-Year. November, January, February, and most of March are slow. The cabin supply that has flooded Sevier County since 2020 has further compressed nightly rates outside those peaks.
I would rather own a property that earns a steady number every month than one that earns three times that for three months and then breaks even, or worse, bleeds cash for nine.
Where can you actually operate legally?
Nashville’s regulatory framework is codified, audited, and stable. Metro Code Title 17 distinguishes Owner-Occupied Short-Term Rental Property (OOSTR) from Non-Owner-Occupied Short-Term Rental Property (NOOSTR), with permitting, taxation, and zoning overlays clearly defined for both. Thirty-five-plus ordinances have refined the framework since the first STR regulations passed, and the current cohort of operators benefits from a clarity that did not exist in 2018. New construction NOOSTR product continues to deliver because developers can underwrite to known rules.
Kissimmee STR rules vary by sub-jurisdiction across Osceola County. Some HOAs ban rentals shorter than 30 days outright. Some county pockets allow STR with permit; others do not. Buyers I have talked to who started in that market spent meaningful capital researching legality before purchase, and a non-trivial percentage of new listings hit enforcement action within their first year.
Gatlinburg sits under Sevier County rules that allow STR broadly, but the post-2020 cabin supply boom has driven Sevier County and the City of Gatlinburg to consider additional regulation. The investor calculation there is now partly a regulation-risk calculation.
Phoenix and Scottsdale benefit from Arizona state-level STR pre-emption that prevents municipalities from outright bans, but cities can still require permits, assessments, and notification requirements that erode net margin.
Nashville’s regulatory clarity is itself a return premium. You do not need to price in legal risk when the rules are settled.
How does property appreciation compare?
Nashville’s investor-grade Airbnb-eligible product has produced compounding capital appreciation alongside its operating cash flow. The buildings I track most closely all posted positive medians year over year through the three-year window ending June 2026, with downtown high-rise condo product specifically showing some of the strongest appreciation in the broader Davidson County market.
Public assessor data from Sevier County, Tennessee shows Gatlinburg-area cabin appreciation slowing materially since 2023 as supply expanded. Public Osceola County, Florida records similarly show Kissimmee-area vacation rental properties trading sideways to slightly down in real-dollar terms since the late-2022 short-term rental supply peak. Phoenix and Scottsdale single-family STR product saw meaningful pull-back in 2023 and has recovered slowly, with appreciation trailing inflation in several neighborhoods.
Appreciation matters because investor return is a function of both operating cash flow and exit value. Markets that overbuild may compress both at the same time. Nashville’s bounded supply has historically protected both legs of the return equation.
Who is actually buying in each market?
The buyer profile differs meaningfully between these markets, and that matters for an investor trying to understand the depth of resale liquidity.
Nashville’s Airbnb-eligible inventory sells to a mix of accredited investors, sophisticated retail buyers building multi-unit portfolios, and bi-coastal owners using a Nashville property as part of a multi-market diversification thesis. The buyer with $700,000 to spend on a downtown Nashville Airbnb is usually buying their second, third, or fifth STR unit. The transaction is a business decision, not a vacation purchase. Approximately one in five of my Nashville STR closings since 2018 has been a repeat client.
Kissimmee draws a different buyer. The dominant profile there is a 1031 exchanger or a vacation-home dual-use purchaser whose decision is partly emotional. Proximity to Disney drives a willingness to pay above what the rental math justifies because the buyer plans to use the property a few weeks a year themselves.
Gatlinburg attracts the cabin-enthusiast buyer who often is purchasing their first STR. The financial sophistication is generally lower, the time horizon shorter, and the underwriting often more optimistic than the data supports.
These buyer differences show up in resale liquidity. A Nashville investor selling an Airbnb-eligible condo in 2026 is selling to another investor, and the comp set is robust. A Kissimmee or Gatlinburg seller is more often selling to an end-user or vacationer, and the comp set is more volatile.
Where do experienced STR investors actually deploy capital in Nashville?
For investors who have decided Nashville is the right market, the question becomes which buildings to underwrite. The current Airbnb-eligible inventory falls into three operating tiers.
The volume-leader tier is anchored by Starlet East, Hyve, and Odyssey. Those three buildings closed 47 percent of every Airbnb-eligible transaction I tracked across the trailing three years. Starlet East alone moved 19 units at a median $450,000. The product is purpose-built for NOOSTR investor use and the buyer pool is deep.
The premium tier includes the East Nashville townhome cluster: Alora, Lucy, and Vistas at Katie Hill. Each delivers three- and four-bedroom floor plans with rooftop decks and design-forward interiors. Alora produced the single most expensive Airbnb-eligible closing in Nashville in early 2026 at $1.4 million and $545 per square foot, in a building where I represent the developer. Lucy has moved three units at a $925,000 median. Vistas has moved six at a $1.1 million median. The thesis is that tourists pay a premium for four-bedroom design-forward product within walking distance of Main Street, and the achievable nightly rate scales with acquisition price.
The new-delivery tier is Heritage at Broadway, Allegro, Modernest WeHo, VOCE Hotel and Residences, and The Jesse. These are either pre-construction or in the first 18 months of delivery. Investors who want to enter the Nashville Airbnb thesis at the next supply layer evaluate this tier carefully. None have completed a full resale cycle yet, but the developer underwriting and the comparable seasoned-building cash flow make the case.
For the full universe of Nashville Airbnb-eligible buildings, see the comprehensive Nashville Airbnb building guide. For active inventory now, see Nashville Airbnb properties for sale. For the full revenue and ROI methodology, see the Nashville Airbnb pro forma guide.
Frequently asked questions
Does Kissimmee have the most Airbnb listings in the United States?
Kissimmee, as part of the broader Orlando metropolitan vacation rental market, consistently carries one of the highest national STR inventory counts. Per AHLA and aggregate market reports, the Orlando-Kissimmee corridor sits at or near the top of US STR market rankings by listing volume. That ranking measures supply, not investor return.
How many Airbnbs are in Nashville versus Kissimmee?
Nashville’s full STR-listed inventory across all Davidson County neighborhoods is materially smaller than Kissimmee’s. The investor-grade NOOSTR inventory inside the five-mile Lower Broadway corridor is roughly two thousand units across 31 individually-tracked buildings. Kissimmee operates near 25,000 active vacation rental listings in peak season.
Is Nashville or Gatlinburg better for Airbnb investment?
Nashville has produced stronger appreciation, lower regulatory risk, and more consistent year-round demand than Gatlinburg over the past three years. Gatlinburg offers lower entry price points and a recognizable cabin product, but the post-2020 supply explosion has compressed rates and nightly margins. The right answer depends on capital, time horizon, and operating preference. For investors building multi-unit portfolios, Nashville is the higher-confidence bet.
Which US city produces the highest Airbnb revenue per property?
Headline national rankings cycle between Nashville, Scottsdale, Austin, and a small set of coastal vacation markets, and the answer varies year to year based on which methodology and which seasonality lens the aggregator uses. Per my Nashville closed-transaction data, investor-grade Nashville NOOSTR product has consistently produced higher revenue per door than Kissimmee or Gatlinburg comparable product at the same capital basis.
Are Nashville Airbnbs legal?
Yes. Nashville’s Metro Code Title 17 defines two permitted categories, Owner-Occupied Short-Term Rental Property (OOSTR) and Non-Owner-Occupied Short-Term Rental Property (NOOSTR). Permits, taxation, and zoning overlays are codified. For the full regulatory walkthrough, see the Nashville STR zoning and permits guide.
What is the average Nashville Airbnb cap rate in 2026?
Cap rate varies materially by building, unit size, and operating sophistication. The full methodology, including how to build a Nashville-specific pro forma, lives in the Nashville Airbnb revenue and ROI guide. I caution against headline national cap-rate averages because they obscure the wide spread inside any given market.
What I would tell an investor choosing between markets in 2026
If you are buying your first Airbnb as a hobby property you also plan to use, Kissimmee or Gatlinburg are reasonable choices. Lower entry price, recognizable product, vacation-use overlap.
If you are buying a business, you should be in Nashville. The bounded supply, the codified regulatory framework, the 12-month demand floor, and the comp-set depth produce a higher-confidence return per dollar deployed. The closing volume I have personally seen across 550-plus Nashville STR transactions since 2018 is the underlying evidence behind that recommendation.
The headline that ranked these markets in 2024 by listing count missed the actual investor question. Listings are supply. Returns are demand divided by supply. Nashville has more demand and less supply than every other market in this comparison set.
Sources
- American Hotel & Lodging Association annual lodging supply reports
- AllTheRooms aggregate market intelligence reports
- US Census Bureau lodging permits by county (Davidson TN, Sevier TN, Osceola FL, Maricopa AZ)
- Metro Nashville Codes Title 17, Short-Term Rental Property regulations
- Tennessee Department of Revenue state lodging tax records
- Sevier County, Tennessee property assessor public records
- Osceola County, Florida property appraiser public records
- Maricopa County, Arizona assessor public records
- Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp annual visitor and event reports
- Grant Hammond closed-transaction data, 550-plus Nashville Airbnb-eligible closings, 2018 through June 2026
- RealTracs MLS database, June 2023 through June 2026, 31 Nashville Airbnb-eligible buildings
