National amenity lists do not survive contact with a beach market. We measured ours.
Every owner has read an article ranking the amenities that boost a vacation rental. The problem is that those are national numbers, and national numbers do not transfer to a Gulf beach market. We measured amenity premiums on 4 bedroom entire place homes in Destin, Miramar Beach, and along 30A, one amenity at a time, using AirDNA data scoped to our three markets only.
The local list looks nothing like the national one. Here is what it says.
THE NATIONAL TRAP
The amenity national data loves does nothing here
National rankings put the hot tub at or near the top of the list. Measured in our three markets, the hot tub is the one amenity that shows no reliable rate benefit at all. It buys about two points of occupancy and hands the money back in price. You get nights. You do not get dollars. The reason is simple: an amenity is only an edge when the houses around you do not have the things guests are choosing on. On a beach coast, the things guests choose on are already everywhere.
THE TOP OF THE LIST
The two biggest premiums are already decided
A Gulf view carries a premium of about 20 percent, the largest we measured, and you cannot add it. Only 11 to 20 percent of homes have one. A pool carries about 19 percent, which sounds like an answer until you see that 83 to 94 percent of homes here already have one. Not having a pool costs you real money. Having one earns you no edge. It is the price of admission, not an advantage.
THE ONES THAT FLIP
Context changes the sign
Beach access is worth about +8 percent on 30A. In Destin it measures at minus 10 percent, because “beach access” is what a listing says when the property is not on the water. The same words mean different things in different markets, and the data knows it.
Pet friendly measures about +3 percent. It is small, but it is free to switch on, it holds in all three markets, and much of the competition has it turned off. It is one of the few edges on this list an owner can create this afternoon.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Keep what you have. Spend on how the property shows.
If you already own a hot tub in good condition, keep it. But if you are deciding where the next dollar goes, the data here is blunt: the big premiums are things you either have or you do not, and the purchases owners actually write checks for do not pay. The better spend is almost always the way the property shows: the photos, the listing, the reviews. One note on fire pits, since owners ask: our Destin sample was 23 homes, which is too thin to publish as a finding, and 30A measured slightly negative. Treat it as unproven.
