How does a $35,000-a-year profit from a side hustle sound? According to AirDNA, a research firm that analyzes data of short-term rental markets in the U.S., that’s the average profit margin for property owners of Airbnb, and smaller competitors such as Vrbo, in Springfield. That put the city at No. 5 on its latest list of “Best Places to Invest in Short-Term Rentals in 2026” report.
“For investors looking for reliable returns without the noise, Springfield is a great choice,” according to the AirDNA report. “As the capital of Illinois and the longtime home of Abraham Lincoln, Springfield draws steady demand from government-related travel, heritage tourism and educational trips. It’s a civic and cultural hub that sees reliable year-round bookings.”
Proof that Springfield is a good Airbnb market is not a surprise to Jim VanderLaan and Jen Aholt, who own and operate three rental properties in the city. While the national occupancy rate for short-term rental units in 2025 was 56%, according to AirDNA, VanderLaan and Aholt said they had an occupancy rate of 77.5%.
It has generated a nice, passive income for the couple, and they both say they have gotten to know a lot of interesting people over the nine years they’ve been in business. But, they warn, it’s not the easy money that potential investors might expect.
“It’s not for the faint of heart,” said Aholt, who works at SIU School of Medicine. “It’s a lot more work than people might think.”
VanderLaan, who recently retired after working for the state for 30 years as an economist, said, “Sometimes I’ll think, ‘We could have taken all our money and put it in the stock market, and where would we be?’ I don’t want to romanticize it. But when we first started this, I will say I was really surprised at the number of people who come here to see Lincoln and Route 66. With our central location in the Midwest, we also get quite a few people who maybe want to have a girls’ weekend or a family reunion, and they use Springfield as a central meeting place.”
Bram Gallagher, an economist at AirDNA and a university professor, said the findings on Springfield were based on a number of metrics, especially the number of rentals available in a given market. Springfield, he said, is a hidden gem that many investors probably have overlooked. The average yield of $35,000, he said, is based on the revenue from the short-term rental divided by the sale price for the property.
“There are markets like, say, Orlando, where you see tons and tons of short-term rentals, with lots of tourists going in, but they’re not necessarily the best investment because you’ve got to compete against all those other people,” Gallagher said. “One of the things that Springfield does very well is in the seasonality aspect, in that it does well for most of the year. Really high seasonality is difficult to deal with as an operator. If you’re only going to be making revenue a handful of months out of the year, that might be great for a second home or part-time (residents), but not necessarily for the investor.”
The average sale price of short-term rental properties available in Springfield for 2026, Gallagher said, was $262,000. That is roughly $100,000 higher than the average home price in Springfield, but short-term rental units typically are in higher-end properties.
That is the case for VanderLaan and Aholt’s signature property, advertised as the “Big Green House by the Capitol” in rental guides, a 3,100-square-foot home built in 1890 that has been modernized and can accommodate up to eight people. For mid-February one-day availability, a price of $194 was listed, but later summer dates – many of which are already booked – have higher rates.
The rental currently has a 4.95 favorability rating on Airbnb, with 563 guest reviews. The couple have been given the “Superhosts” designation by Airbnb, which is given only to rental owners with a long track record of proven performance and quality reviews.
The couple both say they have become friends with some repeat customers, and that they take pride in having clean furnishings and a concierge mentality for visitors looking for tips on dining and area attractions.
“We get some groups of people who will stay several days, and a lot of people we call “sleep and runs,” typically business people or people who want to break up a long trip with a stop and rest here,” VanderLaan said. “They usually show up late and leave early.”
Springfield will soon see some additional short-term rental units on Peoria Road by the State Fairgrounds. The city council recently granted a zoning variance to a local investor planning to open at least two micro-lodging units, built out of modified shipping containers, called Route 66 Hideaways. Preliminary plans show them to look a bit like modified mobile homes with Route 66-themed décor.
VanderLaan said he wishes sincere good luck to his potential competitors, but with the proviso of his earlier warning.
“You can never really shut your phone off as an Airbnb operator,” he said. “I’ve had to let people in at 1 a.m., or respond to something at a moment’s notice, pretty much every hour of the day. But we must both like it because we’re both still doing it. You get a lot of great stories to tell your friends about the people you’ve met, I’ll tell you that.”
Adrian Dater, a longtime former sportswriter in Denver and author of seven books, moved to Springfield in 2023 to get his first taste of life in the Midwest.
This article appears in March SBJ 2026.