How to Make Money on Airbnb in Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines is having a moment. With 545 active Airbnb listings and a downtown packed with conferences, concerts, and sporting events, Central Iowa's biggest city is one of the better short term rental markets in the Midwest. But there is a gap. The typical Des Moines Airbnb earns around $13,483 per year, while the top 10 percent of hosts command $274 or more per night.

Same city. Same guests. Very different results.

If you own a property in Des Moines and want to know how to actually make money on Airbnb in Iowa, this is your playbook. No fluff. Just what works.

What Airbnb Owners Actually Take Home in Des Moines

Here is the honest math on the Des Moines STR market in 2026.

• Median nightly rate: around $128
• Top 25 percent: $189 or more per night
• Top 10 percent: $274 and up
• Average occupancy: roughly 50 percent
• Typical annual revenue: about $13,483

Most owners are stuck near the median because they price flat, list on one platform, and manage reactively. The top hosts are doing something different. They treat the property like a business, not a side hobby.

The gap between the two is not luck. It is a set of repeatable decisions you can start making today.

Pick the Right Neighborhood in Des Moines

Location inside Des Moines matters almost as much as the city itself.

• Downtown Des Moines delivers the highest nightly rates because of Wells Fargo Arena, the Iowa Events Center, and walkable nightlife.
• Sherman Hill attracts couples and families who want to be near downtown without the noise. Historic homes with strong design photograph well and price at a premium.
• Beaverdale pulls visiting families of Drake University students plus guests who want a quieter, residential feel.
• East Village and the Western Gateway corridor are strong for business travelers and Wells Fargo campus contractors.

If you already own outside these pockets, you are not out of the game. But you need to lean harder on design, amenities, and guest experience to compete.

Price Like the Top 10 Percent, Not the Average

Most Des Moines hosts leave 30 to 50 percent of their potential revenue on the table with flat pricing.

Here is how the best operators price in Des Moines.

• They use a dynamic pricing tool like PriceLabs to move rates daily based on demand, lead time, and local events.
• They raise minimum stays during high demand windows and drop them during slow weeks to backfill occupancy.
• They push weekday rates up during big conferences at the Iowa Events Center and weekend rates up during concerts, Iowa Cubs games, and the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival.

A simple example. When Gov't Mule and Larkin Poe played Val Air Ballroom this week, properties inside a 10 mile radius saw nightly rates jump well above their normal weekend floor. Owners using dynamic pricing caught it. Owners using flat rates watched guests book at yesterday's number.

Capture Event Demand Without Missing It

Des Moines is a quietly event heavy city, and most hosts are not paying attention to the calendar.

Just in the next six weeks, the city is hosting:

• Broadway runs at the Des Moines Civic Center from April 24 through early May
• The Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival on April 18
• Spring Fling at Sleepy Hollow on May 2 and 3
• Multiple runs at the Funny Bone Comedy Club
• Business conferences including the Commercial Real Estate Forum and Harkin Retirement Security Symposium

Every one of those is a demand spike. If you build a running event calendar for your zip code and pair it with dynamic pricing, you will outearn 80 percent of the market without changing anything else about your listing.

Make Your Listing Work Harder Than You Do

Once pricing is sorted, the listing itself is where revenue is won or lost. The top earning properties in Des Moines have three things in common.

1. Photography that looks like it belongs in a design magazine. Not phone pictures at 2pm.
2. A title and description that speak to a specific guest. Business traveler, family visiting Drake, bachelorette party, not everyone.
3. Amenities that guests will actually pay more for. Fast WiFi, a real workspace, blackout curtains, a quality mattress, a coffee setup, covered parking.

If your listing has fewer than 20 five star reviews, your ceiling is low. Every host should have a post stay message sequence designed to drive reviews, because review count and rating are what unlock visibility in Airbnb's algorithm.

The Mistake That Kills Most Des Moines Hosts

Most Des Moines owners do not lose money on management fees or marketing. They lose it on silence.

Missed messages. Slow responses. Cleaners falling through. Small maintenance issues left for months. Listings that stop getting updated after the first few bookings.

The average Des Moines owner manages their Airbnb part time, on top of a full time job. That works until it does not. One 8pm guest message that goes unanswered turns into a 1 star review that drops your search ranking for the next 30 days.

If you are doing this on your own, set a non negotiable response time rule. One hour, always. If you cannot hold that, it is a signal to bring in help, not a character flaw.

Your Des Moines Airbnb Playbook for 2026

If you want to move from average to top 25 percent in Des Moines, here is the short list.

1. Pick a specific guest you are serving and design your listing for them.
2. Invest in professional photography and refresh it every 12 months.
3. Use dynamic pricing, not flat rates.
4. Build and maintain a rolling six month event calendar for Des Moines.
5. Respond to every message within one hour.
6. Ask for reviews through a templated post stay sequence.
7. List on Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com, not just one platform.
8. Track revenue, occupancy, and ADR monthly so you know what is working.

None of this is complicated. It is just consistent. And consistency is exactly what separates a $13,000 per year Airbnb from a $40,000 per year one in the same zip code.

Free Airbnb Property Evaluation

If you own an Airbnb in Ames, Des Moines, Clear Lake, or the surrounding Central Iowa market and want to know how much more your property could earn, request a free Airbnb property evaluation here: https://www.stayawhilehouses.com/airbnb