Short-term rental revenue in Vincennes rose 114.9% between June 2025 and June 2026, according to AirDNA's most recent market report for the city. Occupancy climbed 57.1% over the same period, with the average listing booked 78% of available nights by mid-2026. On its own, that reads like a market someone should have gotten into a year ago.
Look one line further down the same report and the average daily rate actually fell 9.5%, landing at $95 a night. The number of active listings grew 26.3%, bringing the total to 48. Revenue went up because hosts filled far more nights, not because anyone paid more to stay in one. That distinction matters if you're deciding whether last year's numbers are a floor you can count on or a ceiling that's already behind you.
What Changed, Number by Number
Here's how the twelve months break down, all figures from AirDNA's Vincennes market report covering June 2025 through June 2026:
| Metric | Change, June 2025 to June 2026 | Level as of June 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue per listing | +114.9% | $14,900 average annual |
| Occupancy | +57.1% | 78% of available nights |
| Average daily rate | -9.5% | $95 per night |
| RevPAR (rate x occupancy) | +38.9% | $71 |
| Active listings | +26.3% | 48 |
Every metric moved in the direction a host would want except one. Rate fell while every other figure that depends on filling a calendar rose. That's the pattern you'd expect from a market where more rooms came online at once and the people running them competed for the same guests by pricing lower, not by finding new guests.
The Math Behind the Big Number
Revenue per listing is occupancy multiplied by rate, multiplied by the number of nights in the period. When occupancy grows 57% and rate falls 9.5%, the arithmetic still produces a large revenue gain because occupancy did the heavy lifting. A property that sat empty half the year in 2025 and got booked three-quarters of the year in 2026 will show a large revenue jump even if it charged less per night to get there.
That's a fine outcome for the hosts who already owned a listing before the wave of new supply. It's a different question for anyone buying a property today and modeling next year's income off this year's average. The $14,900 average annual revenue figure blends properties that entered the market at different points, under different competitive conditions. A listing added in 2026, competing against 26% more supply than existed a year earlier, isn't guaranteed the same occupancy path that pulled the average up.
Forty-Eight Listings Is Still a Small Room
Vincennes carries a Market Score of 99 out of 100 on AirDNA's scale, which weighs rental demand, seasonality, revenue growth, regulation, and investability into one composite. The demand and investability subscores sit at 99 and 95. The regulation subscore is lower, at 64.
A high overall score built on a base of 48 listings behaves differently than the same score in a market with thousands of units. Add a dozen new listings to a market that size and the competitive picture shifts fast, which is consistent with what the rate data already shows. It also means a handful of well-run properties, or a handful of poorly run ones, can move the market averages more than they would in a larger city. Anyone comparing Vincennes to a bigger Indiana market on the strength of the headline score alone is comparing a small sample to a large one.
The Permit Question That Surfaces After the Purchase
Indiana's short-term rental framework runs through state code rather than a single statewide license. Under the relevant statute, cities can't ban short-term rentals outright, but they can require a permit, cap the fee at $150, and set the permit to expire one year after issuance. A property used as the owner's primary residence is generally treated as a permitted residential use. A property that isn't the owner's primary residence may require a special exception, special use approval, or zoning variance depending on how the local government has structured its ordinance.
That distinction is the one that catches out-of-town buyers. An investor purchasing a second property in Vincennes specifically to run as a short-term rental isn't in the same position, under state law, as a homeowner who occasionally rents out the house they live in. Whether Vincennes has adopted a specific local ordinance addressing that gap, separate from the state minimums, isn't something this report can confirm. Buyers should ask the city clerk's office directly before assuming the state baseline is the entire picture, and before assuming a property's income history transfers cleanly to a new owner who won't occupy it.
County innkeeper's tax and the state's 7% gross retail tax also apply to qualifying short-term stays under 30 days, on top of any city permit fee. Those are collected either by the host directly or through the booking platform, depending on the arrangement, and they belong in any underwriting spreadsheet next to the nightly rate.
What This Means If You're Underwriting a Purchase
Three things worth pinning down before treating the AirDNA average as a forecast:
- Ask whether the property qualifies as a primary residence use or whether it will need a special exception or variance, and confirm that answer with the city before closing, not after.
- Model occupancy against the current, larger pool of competing listings rather than the pool that existed a year ago. The 78% occupancy average reflects conditions with 48 active listings competing for guests. If supply keeps growing at anything close to last year's 26.3% pace, that number won't hold steady on its own.
- Separate the rate trend from the revenue trend when you evaluate a specific listing's history. A seller showing you last year's revenue growth is showing you a number driven mostly by filling more nights at a lower price, not a number that reflects pricing strength.
None of this means the Vincennes short-term rental market is a bad one. Revenue climbed, occupancy climbed, and RevPAR, the figure that blends rate and occupancy together, still rose 38.9%. It means the easy read of the headline number and the accurate read of what's actually happening in the market aren't the same sentence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the falling average daily rate mean hosts are earning less overall? No. Total revenue per listing still rose because occupancy grew faster than the rate fell. A lower nightly rate paired with far more booked nights nets out to more income for most hosts in this data set, though the mix varies by property.
Do all short-term rentals in Indiana need a permit? There's no single statewide license. Cities may require one, and where they do, state law caps the initial permit fee at $150 and sets a one-year expiration. Whether a specific property needs a special exception beyond the standard permit depends on whether it's the owner's primary residence and on the local zoning ordinance where the property sits.
Is county innkeeper's tax charged on Vincennes short-term stays? Indiana's Department of Revenue applies county innkeeper's tax to qualifying stays under 30 days in counties that have adopted the tax, in addition to the state's 7% gross retail tax. Confirm current rates and who's responsible for collecting them, host or platform, before setting a nightly price.
If you're weighing whether a property you already own, or one you're looking at, makes sense as a short-term rental instead of a traditional sale or long-term lease, the first number worth pinning down is what it's actually worth today under either path. Get an Instant Home Valuation from Klein Real Estate, and we'll walk through what the zoning and permit picture looks like for that specific address before you commit to a strategy.
