The Hamilton County Tourism team is deep into 2024 strategy implementation and already setting sights on 2025 and beyond. But it’s important to reflect on overall 2023 performance to track two notable market shifts. 

Trend 1: Home Rental Growth
Over the past three years, the number of “entire house” home rental listings have grown considerably:

2021 – 301 Entire Place Available Listings 
2022 – 345 Entire Place Available Listings (booked listings up 32.6% YOY)
2023 – 489 Entire Place Available Listings (booked listings up 21.8% YOY)

Translated, that means home rental demand nights grew from 29,201 in 2022 to 39,466 in 2023. For comparison, that’s like a 100-room hotel being 100% occupied for a year. Home rental revenue grew from $8.7 million in 2022 to $10.7 million in 2023. Weekends drove the biggest demand for home rentals (with overall occupancy rates at 67-68%). Largest growth occurred in Noblesville and Westfield.

Trend 2: Event Drivers Impact Demand
While Hamilton County’s hotel room demand grew a healthy 3.1% last year, sales declined in June and October 2023. The county’s two biggest overnight room drivers in the county drove declines in part due to calendar movement.

Ruoff’s concert schedule shifted for the year as if often does and impacted June hotel sales, especially in the Noblesville sub-market. But demand for short-term rentals surprisingly increased in June, as it did throughout the county, which also indicates consumer preference changes. Ruoff’s October visits were comparable year-over-year. The venue was rated tops in the country by Pollstar and is a fan favorite.

Grand Park’s visits shifted in June as well. As a result, hotel sales fell in Westfield and nearby Carmel. Short-term rentals, as noted above, did not decline in Hamilton County in June but declined significantly in Howard County, which acts as an overflow location for the sports campus. Grand Park visits also shifted in October which again negatively impacted hotel sales. But decline did not impact short-term rentals, as sales throughout the county increased almost 40% in October. 

June 2024 looks much more promising, with most weekends pacing well above average for room sales and likely indicating new changes to the calendar. 

Data Sources: Placer.ai, STR, AirDNA, TravelClick