Two markets owners weigh against each other constantly, and nobody publishes the numbers side by side. Here they are. Every figure below is built on nights actually sold, never on an occupancy percentage, and every figure is shown in euros on both sides so the comparison means something.
| What we measure | Aspen | Vail |
|---|---|---|
| Nightly rate, high season | €2,400 | €2,200 |
| Nightly rate, low season | €620 | €580 |
| Nights sold, high season | 45 | 45 |
| Nights sold, low season | 40 | 35 |
| Total nights sold per year | 85 | 80 |
| Gross annual income | €133,000 | €119,000 |
| What an agency takes | 35% | 35% |
| Net, self-managed on a platform | €112,000 | €101,000 |
| Net, through an agency | €86,300 | €77,500 |
All figures on this page are shown in euros, on both sides, so the two columns can be compared. The individual market pages show local currency.
Aspen sells 45 nights at €2,400 and 40 outside the peak. Vail sells 45 at €2,200 and 35 outside it. Vail is the fragile one. A year that rests on 80 sold nights has no margin for error: lose the two or three weeks everyone wants and the year is gone, and no amount of clever pricing in the shoulder season will bring it back. A market that sells many nights at a moderate rate is a structurally different asset, even when the annual total lands in the same place.
Because it is the most misleading number in this business, and it is the one every other site quotes. An occupancy rate of 50% sounds moderate. Multiply it by 365 and you have implied 182 nights sold. A seasonal villa does not sell 182 nights. It sells the weeks people want and stands empty the rest of the year, and nobody is even trying to rent it in November. The occupancy model overstates seasonal markets by roughly a factor of two. We count nights actually sold, and nothing else.
An agency in either market takes about 35% of what the guest pays, before a single bill is settled. Manage the villa yourself on a platform and you lose about 15.5%. On these numbers that is €112,000 net in Aspen and €101,000 net in Vail, self-managed. The fees also stack: an agency that then lists your villa on a platform hands the platform its cut too, and total commissions above 40% are common.
Both benchmarks on this page are our estimates, built from comparable markets and public rate data. They are not yet confirmed by an operator who set the prices and paid the staff in Aspen or Vail. We label them that way rather than pretend to a certainty we do not have. If you own in either market and tell us what you actually earned, this page gets better and you get to see where you truly sit.
Four questions and we will tell you what yours specifically can earn, not what the market average earns. Free, and free permanently.
Estimate my villa →Aspen, by about 11%. Roughly €133,000 a year in Aspen against €119,000 in Vail, for the same well-maintained 4-bedroom villa, professionally marketed. That is gross. What reaches your account depends on whether you self-manage or hand it to an agency, and the gap between those two outcomes is larger than the gap between these two markets.
About 85 in Aspen and 80 in Vail, on our benchmark. Nights sold, not occupancy. We never quote an occupancy percentage because multiplying one by 365 flatters a seasonal market by roughly a factor of two: the villa is not on the market for most of the year, and nobody is trying to sell it in November.
This page cannot tell you, and anyone who claims it can is selling you something. Rental income is one half of a yield. The purchase price is the other half, and it varies more between two streets than it does between two countries. A high gross on a very expensive property is frequently a worse investment than a modest gross on a cheap one. Get both numbers before you decide.
About 35% in Aspen and about 35% in Vail, of everything the guest pays, before a single bill is settled. Self-managing on a platform costs about 15.5%. Nobody publishes these figures because every party in the chain benefits from the owner not knowing them. Our team has worked both sides of that trade, which is how we know.
Estimates are based on destination benchmarks and property attributes, not on a formal appraisal. Amounts are shown in local currency using approximate conversion rates. Actual results depend on marketing, pricing strategy and seasonality. Last updated 14/07/2026.