Key Takeaways
- Home football weekends can generate up to 26 percent of an entire year’s short-term rental revenue in smaller college towns
- Tuscaloosa posted a 455 percent RevPAR jump on Alabama home game weekends compared with a typical fall weekend
- Early 2026 bookings show Nebraska already topping 60 percent occupancy for six of seven home games
College football weekends are doing a lot more than filling stadiums.
In some of the country’s biggest football towns, a handful of home game weekends can generate as much as a quarter of an entire year’s short-term rental revenue.
A new AirDNA analysis looked at 32 SEC and Big Ten markets and found the impact is especially dramatic in smaller college towns where football weekends can overwhelm the normal supply of places to stay.
Oxford, Mississippi, home to Ole Miss, led the pack.
Home game weekends generated 26 percent of the market’s annual short-term rental revenue in 2025.
Tuscaloosa wasn’t far behind at 24 percent, while Auburn generated roughly one-fifth of its annual rental revenue around Tigers home games.
For owners in those markets, that means seven or eight weekends can carry a surprising amount of the year.
Tuscaloosa sees a 455% game-day revenue jump
The biggest numbers showed up when AirDNA compared game weekends with a normal fall weekend.
In Tuscaloosa, revenue per available rental jumped 455 percent when Alabama played at home.
Oxford followed with a 360 percent increase, while Auburn climbed 319 percent.
Hosts were able to raise nightly rates too.
Tuscaloosa rates ran 66.7 percent higher on home game weekends, while Oxford listings were up 59.1 percent.
That combination of higher rates and packed calendars is what makes football weekends so valuable in smaller markets.
Related: Airbnb names Tuscaloosa a top fall ‘groundhopping’ destination for game-day travelers
The impact drops as the market gets bigger.
Home games accounted for about 10 percent of annual short-term rental revenue in Knoxville, home to the University of Tennessee. Columbus, Ohio, Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Oklahoma City landed closer to the 7 to 8 percent range.
In larger tourism markets, football has more competition.
Vanderbilt home games in Nashville lifted annual short-term rental revenue by about 8 percent. Seattle and Austin saw gains of 5 percent or less.
October Saturdays can make or break the fall calendar
Occupancy told a similar story.
Twenty-two of the 32 markets studied topped 80 percent occupancy on home game weekends in 2025.
And surprisingly, the opponent wasn’t always what mattered most.
Timing played a huge role. Eighteen schools recorded their strongest occupancy weekend of the year in October, with seven hitting their annual peak on the same Saturday.
That gives owners another reason to pay close attention to the schedule instead of simply pricing every home game the same way.
The early 2026 booking pace is already showing just how different these markets can be.
Nebraska has crossed 60 percent occupancy for six of its seven home games so far.
Rutgers, which is located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, has yet to hit 60 percent for any home game.
Starkville, Mississippi, may be an even better example of what football can do to a small market.
Short-term rental occupancy there averages just 34 percent on a typical non-game weekend. When Mississippi State plays at home, it jumps to 87 percent.
That is more than two and a half times the normal occupancy rate.
For short-term rental owners in college towns, the takeaway is pretty simple: the football schedule is not just a list of busy weekends. It can be one of the most important pricing calendars of the year.
And the biggest stretch is still ahead.
AirDNA’s data shows October has historically produced many of the highest-occupancy weekends across the markets studied, putting owners just weeks away from the heart of college football’s busiest short-term rental season.
RevPAR shows what a home game is really worth by combining nightly rates and occupancy into one number.
Here’s how 12 of the largest college football markets stack up, according to AirDNA:
| School | Market | RevPAR vs Non-Game | ADR vs Non-Game | Occupancy vs Non-Game | Demand vs Non-Game | Avg Available Listings | Avg Nightly Demand | Occupancy | ADR | RevPAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Tuscaloosa | +454.8% | +66.7% | +232.7% | +242.7% | 1,027 | 626 | 79.3% | $642 | $509 |
| Ole Miss | Oxford | +360.1% | +59.1% | +189.1% | +203.6% | 1,774 | 1,041 | 81.1% | $707 | $573 |
| Auburn | Auburn | +318.7% | +45.7% | +187.4% | +183.7% | 717 | 494 | 84.9% | $495 | $420 |
| Mississippi State | Starkville | +284.5% | +51.2% | +154.3% | +151.8% | 500 | 370 | 87.2% | $356 | $311 |
| Florida | Gainesville | +151.6% | +48.7% | +69.2% | +74.5% | 1,628 | 1,162 | 83.9% | $296 | $248 |
| Georgia | Athens | +148.2% | +50.5% | +64.8% | +73.5% | 1,403 | 868 | 81.3% | $469 | $381 |
| Penn State | State College | +142.8% | +41.0% | +72.1% | +76.0% | 1,531 | 850 | 76.2% | $602 | $459 |
| LSU | Baton Rouge | +124.2% | +42.8% | +57.0% | +58.5% | 1,210 | 828 | 83.4% | $252 | $210 |
| Michigan | Ann Arbor | +105.4% | +42.5% | +44.2% | +52.2% | 1,018 | 685 | 82.6% | $436 | $360 |
| Iowa | Iowa City | +105.1% | +42.6% | +43.8% | +50.2% | 376 | 274 | 86.2% | $304 | $262 |
| Oregon | Eugene | +99.3% | +29.2% | +54.3% | +55.8% | 1,981 | 1,377 | 84.9% | $250 | $212 |
| Texas A&M | College Station | +99.0% | +31.0% |
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