People ask us about Mt Hood cabin rental income more than any other owner question, and the honest answer starts with "it depends," followed by real reasoning. We manage a cabin in Mt. Hood Village ourselves, so we see the numbers every month. Here is how to think about what your cabin might make, the variables that swing it, and the costs you should subtract before you get excited.
The formula is simple; the inputs are not
Gross rental income is nightly rate times booked nights. A cabin that averages $275 a night and books 180 nights a year grosses about $49,500. The same cabin at $225 and 140 nights grosses about $31,500. Both are plausible outcomes for a similar-looking four-bedroom, and the difference is not luck. It is how the cabin is set up, priced, and marketed.
We will not publish fake averages. Instead, here is what moves each input in our experience.
What moves the nightly rate
- Hot tub. The single biggest lever on the mountain. Guests filter for it. A cabin without one competes on price.
- Sleeping capacity. Groups pay more. A cabin that honestly sleeps eight commands a different rate than one that sleeps four, even at the same square footage.
- Distance to Government Camp. Village cabins around Welches and Rhododendron are 25 to 35 minutes from Timberline and Skibowl. Closer commands more in winter, but village cabins win on year-round appeal and easier road access.
- Privacy and trees. Acreage, a creek, or no visible neighbors reads as "cabin" in photos. That drives rate more than granite counters do.
- Pets. Allowing dogs widens your pool and supports a pet fee. See our take on pet-friendly bookings.
- Photos and reviews. Boring but true. The same cabin with professional photos and 50 five-star reviews prices higher than its twin with phone photos.
What moves occupancy
Mt. Hood is unusual because it has two high seasons: winter for skiing and summer for lakes, hiking, and huckleberries. The soft spots are late April through May, and October into early November. We walk through the whole calendar in Mt. Hood vacation rental market seasonality.
Occupancy depends heavily on how you price the shoulders. An owner who holds a fixed rate all year will sit empty in May. Dynamic pricing that drops midweek shoulder rates and raises holiday-week rates is how you fill 170 nights instead of 120. Minimum-stay rules matter too. A rigid three-night minimum in October costs you weekend bookings.
Now subtract the real costs
Gross is not what lands in your account. In our experience, owners are most surprised by these lines:
- Platform fees. Airbnb and Vrbo take a host-side cut on most listings. Direct bookings avoid it, which is why we push booking direct.
- Cleaning. Usually paid by the guest as a fee, but turnover cost on a four-bedroom with a hot tub is real, and hot tub service adds to it.
- Utilities. Heating a cabin in January and running a hot tub year-round is not cheap. Budget for it.
- Maintenance and wear. Guests are harder on a house than you are. Plan a reserve for furniture, linens, small appliances, and the occasional hot tub pump.
- Lodging taxes. Oregon state plus Clackamas County transient lodging taxes are collected from guests and remitted. Make sure someone is actually filing.
- Insurance. A short-term rental policy costs more than a standard homeowner policy.
- Management. If you hire it out, know the real all-in rate, not the headline. Ours is a flat 20 percent with no setup fee, no per-night insurance add-ons, and no maintenance reserve held. Others structure it differently, and it is worth reading the fine print.
A worked example, with made-up but reasonable numbers
Say a four-bedroom village cabin with a hot tub grosses $48,000. Cleaning fees roughly wash against cleaning costs. Subtract platform fees, utilities, hot tub service, supplies, a maintenance reserve, insurance, and a 20 percent management fee, and an owner might net somewhere in the high $20,000s to low $30,000s before mortgage and property tax. Change the gross to $32,000 and the net drops sharply, because many of the costs are fixed. That is why the rate and occupancy levers matter so much.
These are illustrative figures, not a forecast for your cabin. Your number depends on your specific house, your debt, and how the season goes.
How to get a number for your actual cabin
The useful move is to model your specific address against comparable cabins that are actually booking. We do that for free, and we will tell you if the numbers look thin. Request a earnings review and we will send back a range with our reasoning. If you want to see how we run cabins on the mountain first, our Mt. Hood owner page covers the details, and Wildwood Basecamp is the cabin we use as our own test case.
One last honest note: a Mt. Hood cabin can be a solid rental. It is rarely a passive one. Snow, trees, and hot tubs all need attention. Budget for that in time or money, and the income side gets a lot more predictable.