STR Metrics 101 For Oklahoma Cabins

Thinking about buying a Broken Bow or Hochatown cabin from Oklahoma City but not sure how to judge the numbers? You are not alone. STR metrics can feel complicated, and rural cabin markets behave differently than city condos or hotels. In this guide, you will learn the essential metrics, where to find reliable benchmarks, how to build a simple model, and the key sanity checks to use before you tour a property. Let’s dive in.

STR metrics you must know

ADR: Average Daily Rate

ADR is the average rental revenue earned per night for nights actually rented.

• Formula: ADR = Total nightly rental revenue ÷ Nights booked.
• What it includes: nightly charges only. It typically excludes optional cleaning fees and guest platform service fees.
• Tip: Hosts often show a base rate and use dynamic pricing. Use realized ADR from historic performance when you can.

Occupancy: Utilization of available nights

Occupancy measures the share of nights available that are actually booked.

• Formula: Occupancy (%) = Nights booked ÷ Nights available × 100.
• Nights available means nights the property could be rented during the period. Exclude known owner blocks.
• In small rural markets, short windows or a few high-volume listings can skew occupancy. Compare across sources.

RevPAR: Revenue per available night

RevPAR combines ADR and occupancy into one output metric that shows revenue per night available.

• Formulas: RevPAR = ADR × Occupancy% or Total rental revenue ÷ Nights available.
• Why it matters: RevPAR normalizes performance and helps you compare across cabins with different occupancy or rate strategies.

A quick example

Suppose a cabin generated $54,000 in nightly rental revenue in 12 months, with 180 nights booked and 365 nights available:

• ADR = $54,000 ÷ 180 = $300
• Occupancy = 180 ÷ 365 = 49.3%
• RevPAR = $300 × 0.493 = $148 (or $54,000 ÷ 365)

This shows how rate and occupancy interact. A cabin with slightly lower occupancy can still outperform if ADR is higher.

Broken Bow demand and seasonality

Why Broken Bow attracts Oklahoma City investors

You get strong weekend getaway demand from Dallas–Fort Worth and Oklahoma cities. Outdoor recreation, including Beavers Bend State Park and Broken Bow Lake, fuels year-round interest from families and groups. Private cabin development and entire-home listings have expanded, offering investors more scale and product variety.

Seasonality to plan for

Peak periods typically include spring and summer weekends, holiday weekends like Memorial Day and July 4, and fall foliage season. Winter and shoulder seasons vary based on local events. Booking windows can be short, and weekends tend to carry a larger share of demand than midweek.

Features that drive rate

The typical product mix includes 1 to 6-plus bedroom entire-home cabins. Guests respond to hot tubs, forest or water views, game rooms, fire pits, pet-friendly policies, and convenient access to parks and the lake. When comparing comps, segment by bedroom count, capacity, and key amenities since these drive ADR differences.

How to find reliable benchmarks

Paid data sources for baselines

Start with a paid STR dataset to anchor your model. Options include services with market-level ADR, occupancy, seasonality, and bedroom segmentation. These tools let you filter by property type, bedroom count, and amenities.

Free and public validation sources

Validate paid data with on-the-ground checks:

• Direct platform checks: sample comparable Airbnb and VRBO listings for recent pricing ranges and availability patterns.
• Local lodging tax receipts: county or municipal reports can confirm aggregate lodging seasonality and growth trends.
• Local property managers: many share advertised ADR ranges or occupancy targets and can ground-truth seasonality.
• Real estate listing sources: use purchase comps to check your acquisition price per bedroom and to calibrate cap rate assumptions.

Triangulate to reduce risk

Use at least two independent sources for ADR and occupancy. If one dataset shows 60 percent occupancy but your manual sampling and local tax receipts tell a different story, investigate. Look for explanations like supply growth, sampling bias, or calendar blocks that affect data quality.

Build a simple STR model

Minimum inputs to collect

• Monthly ADR and occupancy profiles for 12 months.
• Nights available, including owner use blocks.
• Operating expenses: cleaning per turnover, utilities, internet, grounds, insurance, property taxes, routine maintenance, and supplies.
• Management fee structure if applicable. Full-service cabin management often ranges between 20 and 35 percent of gross rental revenue in many cabin markets.
• Platform and payment processing fees if the owner pays them.
• Capital reserves at 5 to 10 percent of gross or a fixed annual amount for major items like HVAC, roof, and furnishings.
• Financing: loan amount, interest rate, down payment, amortization.
• Taxes: include transient occupancy taxes and consult a tax professional for income tax planning.

Step-by-step calculation

1. Build a 12-month ADR and occupancy seasonality profile from your benchmark data and comps.
2. Calculate monthly gross rental revenue: ADR × nights available per month × occupancy%.
3. Add any non-rental income that accrues to you, such as cleaning fees if retained by the owner.
4. Subtract variable per-booking costs like cleaning and consumables, then fixed monthly costs.
5. Subtract management and platform fees.
6. Deduct mortgage payments to see cash flow before and after tax.
7. Compute returns: cash-on-cash, debt service coverage ratio, and implied cap rate on net operating income.

Key modeling insights

• In cabin markets, higher ADR with fewer stays can outperform low ADR with high occupancy because cleaning and turnover costs are significant.
• Owner use reduces nights available, which directly affects occupancy and RevPAR. Always reflect owner blocks in your model.

Scenario testing that fits cabin reality

Stress test rates and occupancy

Run scenarios at plus or minus 10 to 25 percent ADR and plus or minus 5 to 15 percentage points of occupancy. Weekend-heavy markets can swing sharply with pricing strategy errors or new competing supply.

Owner-use scenarios

Model a few owner-use schedules, such as two weeks in summer and one week in fall. You will see the impact flow through occupancy, RevPAR, cleaning turns, and net cash flow.

Sanity checks before you tour

Compare and validate the numbers

• Cross-verify ADR and occupancy across at least two sources, ideally one paid dataset and a manual platform sample. Variances over 20 percent call for deeper review.
• Compare your expected RevPAR to market averages. If your model far exceeds market performance without a clear edge like unique views or waterfront, be skeptical.
• Look for confirmation in local lodging tax receipts and any available hotel benchmarks for macro demand shifts.
• Check supply growth. New cabin builds and expanded rental inventories can pressure occupancy and ADR.

Touring checklist for Broken Bow cabins

Bring this list when you drive down from Oklahoma City to walk properties:

• Performance records: request platform-exported monthly revenue, nights booked, and calendar exports for at least the last 24 months.
• Guest experience drivers: inspect hot tub condition, outdoor spaces, views, kitchen quality, bedding, and whether photos match reality.
• Turnover logistics: cleaning time and cost, storage for supplies, laundry capacity, parking and driveway access.
• Operating costs: insulation, HVAC and roof condition, septic capacity, well or water quality, and internet reliability.
• Compliance: local zoning and STR requirements, permits, and any applicable occupancy tax registrations.
• Competitive landscape: note nearby new builds, clusters of professionally managed cabins, and amenity gaps you can exploit.

Common pitfalls to avoid

• Using a listed nightly rate as ADR without accounting for dynamic pricing and discounts.
• Confusing gross booking value that includes cleaning with the host’s rental revenue. Cleaning is often a pass-through.
• Extrapolating from a small sample or one high-earning luxury cabin that skews averages.
• Relying on a short window of exceptional performance rather than sustainable 12-month trends.
• Ignoring owner blocks and unavailable nights in occupancy calculations.

What Oklahoma City buyers should focus on

• Segment your comps by bedroom count, guest capacity, and amenities that your target guests value most.
• Calibrate to weekend-heavy demand. Consider weekday rate strategies, minimum night settings, and packages for longer stays to smooth occupancy.
• Use review velocity or review counts as an extra signal for demand quality when calendar data is limited.
• Align your furnishing and amenity budgets with the ADR tier you want to achieve. Small upgrades can have an outsized effect on rate quality.

From numbers to next steps

You can make confident decisions on Broken Bow and Hochatown cabins when you start with clear definitions, build a month-by-month model, and pressure test your assumptions. If you want help selecting data sources, validating comps, and mapping a plan from Oklahoma City to your next tour date, connect with a local expert who lives these numbers every day.

If you are ready to review cabins, evaluate performance records, or plan a development strategy, schedule a consult with Dawn Hibben. Dawn brings specialized Broken Bow market intelligence, STR investment experience, and high-touch representation to help you move from model to closing with confidence.

FAQs

What is ADR in short-term rentals?

• ADR is the average rental revenue earned per night for nights actually booked. It excludes optional cleaning fees and guest service fees.

How does occupancy differ from nights booked?

• Occupancy is nights booked divided by nights available, expressed as a percentage. It accounts for owner blocks and other unavailable nights.

What is RevPAR and why does it matter?

• RevPAR is revenue per available night. It blends ADR and occupancy into one metric, which makes it useful for comparing different cabins and strategies.

Where can I find STR benchmarks for Broken Bow?

• Use a paid STR dataset for ADR and occupancy baselines, then validate with manual platform checks, local lodging tax reports, and feedback from property managers.

How should I account for cleaning fees in my model?

• Separate guest-paid cleaning from your host revenue, then include your actual cleaning costs as a per-turnover expense in operating costs.

Why do Oklahoma City investors look at Broken Bow?

• Broken Bow offers strong weekend demand from regional drive markets, outdoor recreation anchors, and a deep inventory of entire-home cabins that can support compelling ADRs.