What Do Short-Term Rentals Near Zion Actually Earn? A Realistic Look

Search "Airbnb near Zion income" and you'll find two kinds of numbers: screenshots of someone's best month, and market averages that blend legal rentals with illegal ones, managed with mismanaged, Springdale with suburban St. George. Neither tells you what *your* property would earn. This post walks through how STR revenue actually behaves in Washington County, Utah — what drives it, what erodes it, and why any honest answer starts with "it depends on zoning, seasonality, and management."

What does a short-term rental near Zion actually earn?

There is no single answer — gross revenue varies widely by location, property type, legal status, and operator quality, and any specific figure should be sourced, dated market data rather than a promise. As market orientation: St. George-area STRs have recently shown median occupancy around 52% and average daily rates around $295 (May 2026 trailing data) , while Springdale and Zion-corridor properties command different economics — typically higher rates on similar occupancy — Springdale runs around $453 ADR at 57% occupancy (May 2026) — because of gateway proximity. Annual gross revenue for legal, professionally run units in the county commonly spans a wide band: market-average annual revenue runs about $35,800 in the St. George area versus about $68,100 in Springdale (trailing twelve months, May 2026), with individual units landing well above and below those averages by size, zoning, and quality . Treat every number here as an estimate for underwriting, not a guarantee of income, occupancy, or return. Anyone who hands you a guaranteed number is selling something.

What actually drives STR revenue in Washington County?

Four variables explain most of the spread between units that perform and units that limp: legal location, seasonality management, furnishing quality, and operations. In practical terms:

• Zoning comes first. Only parcels in STR-legal zones can operate at all — and in Washington County, most residential zones prohibit nightly rental. Legal supply is concentrated in specific zones in St. George (including sections of Desert Color), Hurricane near Sand Hollow, Springdale, and a handful of resort communities. A great house in the wrong zone earns zero nightly-rental dollars, legally speaking.
• Location within the legal pool. Zion-gateway properties, lagoon-adjacent Desert Color units, and Sand Hollow product each attract different guests at different price points.
• Furnishing and photography. Guests book images and reviews. Units furnished for five-star reviews consistently out-earn identically located units with landlord-grade furniture — that gap is one of the most controllable levers an owner has.
• Management. Dynamic pricing, fast guest response, and clean turnovers are the difference between the market median and the top quartile. This is an operations business wearing a real estate costume.

Before you model revenue on any property, confirm it can legally produce revenue at all. Get the Zoning + Permit Map — it shows permitted, conditional, and prohibited zones across Washington County with ordinance citations, so you're underwriting real inventory instead of Zillow results.

How does seasonality work near Zion?

Demand follows Zion National Park's visitation curve, with strong spring and fall shoulders, a hot-summer pattern that behaves differently than most national-park markets, and a slower winter that pricing strategy has to plan for. Zion's visitation is heavily weighted to June and July — roughly 12% of annual visitation each — with about 65% of all visitors arriving April through September , and Washington County adds its own demand layers — sports tournaments, the marathon and Ironman events, snowbird traffic, and Sand Hollow's warm-season draw. The underwriting consequence: annual averages hide months that run near-full and months that don't. A property that pencils only if December performs like May is a property that doesn't pencil.

What costs eat into gross revenue?

Between gross bookings and owner cash flow sit management fees, platform fees, cleaning and turnover, HOA dues, licensing, transient room and sales taxes, STR-appropriate insurance, utilities, and a furnishing/refresh reserve. Stack them honestly: professional management typically runs 20–35% of gross revenue for full service , resort-community HOAs like Desert Color's add roughly $140–$200/month , and Utah's transient room tax plus sales tax must be collected and remitted on every stay — verify current rates with the Utah State Tax Commission and the city. Net margins on a well-run unit look very different from the gross-revenue screenshots, which is exactly why the screenshots circulate and the net statements don't.

Why do listing-agent projections usually overstate income?

Because the incentive structure points one direction: seller-side agents are paid when you buy, so "projections" often use top-decile comps, peak-season rates annualized, and occupancy assumptions the median unit never touches — and they rarely mention whether the property is even zoned for nightly rental. The correction isn't cynicism; it's process. Demand sourced, dated data. Underwrite at market-median assumptions. Itemize every operating cost. And insist on parcel-level zoning verification in writing before you value the property as an STR at all. A buyer's agent willing to show you why a deal *doesn't* work is the one whose numbers you can trust when a deal does.

How do you get honest numbers for a specific property?

Start with legality, then model at median assumptions with all costs itemized — in that order. That's the sequence we run for every out-of-area buyer: parcel-level zoning verification first, then a conservative pro forma built on current Washington County data, then in-house furnishing (St. George Home Staging) and management (Assurance Property Management) so the assumptions in the model are the same team accountable for hitting them after closing.

Step one costs you nothing. Get the Zoning + Permit Map and see where short-term rentals are actually legal in Washington County — before you underwrite a single deal.