Tasmania · Holiday-Home Marketing

Airbnb Marketing
in Freycinet & the East Coast

If you own or run a holiday home at Coles Bay, Bicheno or Swansea, this page covers what the numbers show, which rules apply and where the bookings come from.

Get a quotePrices in A$
Start here Work with Cavmir in Freycinet & the East Coast
Get a Quote
Australia/Markets/Freycinet & the East Coast
A$367
Avg. nightly rate
54%
Avg. occupancy
A$5,599
Avg. monthly revenue
8.6-9.8%
Est. gross yield
HIGH
Seasonality
MODERATE
Rules to follow

* Market averages in Australian dollars from AirROI data for the Coles Bay, TAS market (with the Bicheno and Swansea AirROI markets for comparison), October 2025 to September 2026, in Australian dollars as AirROI shows them. The yield is Cavmir's estimate. A single home's numbers depend on its size, its location and how it is marketed.

The market

Holiday Rentals on the Freycinet Coast

Cavmir is an Airbnb marketing agency for Australian holiday homes. This page is for owners and managers of short-stay homes in Freycinet & the East Coast.

The Freycinet coast is the stretch of Tasmania's East Coast that runs from Swansea in the south, past the Freycinet Peninsula and Coles Bay, to Bicheno in the north. Coles Bay is the gateway to Freycinet National Park, which was reserved in 1916 and which Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania describes as the oldest national park in the state, alongside Mount Field. One council looks after all three towns: Glamorgan Spring Bay Council says on its website that it serves Bicheno, Coles Bay and Swansea, along with Triabunna, Orford and Buckland. That matters for an owner, because it means one planning office, one rates notice and one set of local rules whichever of the three towns your home is in.

Getting here is part of the product. Devil's Corner, the winery at Apslawn, says it is about two hours' drive from Hobart and an hour and a half from Launceston, and Tourism Tasmania puts Wineglass Bay at about two and a half hours from either city. That is far enough that guests stay the night rather than drive back, and close enough that a long weekend works. AirROI's average stay is 2.8 nights in the Coles Bay market, 2.9 in Bicheno and 3.4 in Swansea, so most bookings are short breaks. That is a pattern in the data, not a profile of who books, and it is worth remembering when you write your minimum-stay rules.

Demand has two sources: the national park and the town of Bicheno. Parks Tasmania's Freycinet Visitor Gateway page puts visitation to the park at about 290,000 a year, against 320,000 in 2019. Bicheno was named the number one town in Australia on Australian Traveller's list of the 100 best towns to travel to, according to the Tasmanian Government's release of 11 May 2026, and the same release says one in three jobs on the East Coast is supported by tourism, which the Minister called the most tourism-reliant region in the country. Across Tasmania, the Government's release of 22 July 2026 reports a record 1.4 million visitors over the twelve months ending March 2026, a rise of 4.8%, with 1.2 million of them from interstate. The release gives no figures for the East Coast alone.

The homes are mostly houses. In the Coles Bay market, AirROI counts 56 three-bedroom, 48 two-bedroom, 14 one-bedroom and 14 four-bedroom entire homes, plus 7 studios and 2 homes with five bedrooms or more. The 2021 Census figures that Microburbs publishes for the suburb show 515 residents, and 92.8% of occupied private dwellings are separate houses, with no townhouses or apartments. So the typical listing is a house, not a unit in a block, which means strata by-laws are rarely the issue and guests compare you against a lot of similar houses.

The three towns sell different things. Coles Bay sells the park: the Hazards range across the bay, the Wineglass Bay walk and the jetty cruise. Bicheno is the biggest of the three by listings (184 in AirROI's Bicheno market) and sells the town itself, with its penguin tours, its beach and, on 21 November 2026, its food and wine festival. Swansea has the fewest listings (59) but the highest nightly rate of the three at A$384, and leans on history: a restored 1885 bark mill and a bridge the convicts built in 1843. AirROI's Coles Bay market covers a narrower area than this page: it names Sandpiper Beach, Coles Bay, Friendly Beaches, Freycinet National Park, Little Swanport and Cressy. The figures in the stats box above are for that market. Where this page quotes Bicheno or Swansea figures, they come from AirROI's own pages for those towns, for the same period, October 2025 to September 2026, in Australian dollars.

What brings guests to Freycinet & the East Coast

  • Wineglass Bay Lookout: a 2.6 km return walk of 1 to 1.5 hours (Grade 3) that guests plan their whole stay around
  • The Wineglass Bay and Hazards Beach circuit: 11 km, 4 to 5 hours (Grade 4), for guests who want the full day
  • Cape Tourville: a 600 m, 20-minute circuit (Grade 1) that suits grandparents, prams and wet afternoons
  • Friendly Beaches in Freycinet National Park: beach walks from 100 m to 5 km (Grade 2)
  • The Wineglass Bay cruise from the Coles Bay jetty: a 4½-hour day on the water, with whales in season
  • Devil's Corner at Apslawn: a cellar door open seven days, a kitchen and a view over the vines and the sea
  • Bicheno penguin tours: dusk tours at 70 Burgess Street to see the penguins come ashore
  • Swansea's Bark Mill and Spiky Bridge: a restored 1885 mill with a bakery, bar and restaurant, and a convict-built bridge from 1843
The pink granite peaks of the Hazards above the water at Freycinet

Photo: “The Hazards, Freycinet Peninsular” by JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cavmir in Freycinet & the East Coast

What Cavmir Does for Freycinet & the East Coast Hosts

Cavmir markets Freycinet coast homes as the separate places they are. A Coles Bay house is sold on the walk to the park gate and the light on the Hazards, a Bicheno cottage on the short stroll to the penguins and the beach, and a Swansea home on the quiet and the road trip. Cavmir builds you a direct-booking website with a page for each walk, tour and season your guests ask about, writes the pages Google and AI assistants read when someone asks where to stay near Wineglass Bay, plans the photography around morning and evening light, runs your social channels, and sets up an email list so last year's guests hear from you before the next holiday weeks fill. Cavmir does the marketing and works with owners here remotely. It does not run your property.

Website designYour own site and domain, with direct booking from your PMS or a button to your listing.Learn more →Monthly marketingSocial posts, guide pages, email and AI search, done every month.Learn more →Prices in A$Every package and plan in Australian dollars, with the terms in plain words.Learn more →
Then and now

The Freycinet Coast Short-Stay Market, Then and Now

The Paredarerme people, who are also called the Oyster Bay tribe, lived on this coast for thousands of years before Europeans arrived, according to the Wineglass Bay cruise operator's history of the area's names. The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman sailed past in 1642 and took the peninsula for part of a chain of islands. Nicolas Baudin's French expedition surveyed it in 1802 and 1803, found it was a peninsula and named it for the brothers Louis-Henri and Louis-Claude de Freycinet, who were on the expedition. Australian Geographic says the first whaling station on Tasmania's east coast opened in 1824 and that up to nine stations worked the peninsula and the nearby islands, and the cruise operator puts the whaling at roughly two decades. The same operator says the Hazards take their name from a whaler, Captain Richard Hazard.

Most of the built heritage on the coast is later. The Bark Mill at Swansea was established in 1885 to mill bark for tanning and is now a bakery, bar and restaurant. Spiky Bridge, south of Swansea, was built by convicts in 1843, according to Tourism Tasmania. The national park came in 1916. A walker who arrives today is following a tourism habit that has been going for more than a century, which is one reason the Freycinet name carries so much weight with people planning a trip from interstate.

Visitor numbers tell the demand side of the story. Parks Tasmania says visitation to Freycinet is about 290,000 a year, down from 320,000 in 2019, and its projection for 2039 is around 343,000, well below the 650,000 that was forecast in 2019. So the park has stopped growing at the pace people expected, even as Tasmania as a whole set a record of 1.4 million visitors in the year to March 2026. For an owner, the lesson is that the market is mature: bookings come from winning a larger share of an existing flow of guests, not from waiting for the flow to double.

The supply side is easier to count today than to trace back. AirROI shows 143 active listings in its Coles Bay market, 184 in Bicheno and 59 in Swansea for the year to September 2026. I did not find a published count of short-stay listings in these towns in earlier years, so I can't tell you how fast supply grew. The rules arrived in steps. The Short Stay Accommodation Act, which makes booking platforms pass listing details to the state, started on 4 June 2019. The Glamorgan Spring Bay planning scheme took its current form on 30 March 2022. And in 2026 the state tried and failed to pass a 5% levy on short stays, which is covered in the regulation section below.

Rates and seasons

Rates, Occupancy and Seasons in Freycinet & the East Coast

Rates and revenue

For the twelve months to September 2026, AirROI puts the Coles Bay market at an average daily rate of A$367, occupancy of 54.0% and average annual revenue of A$67,189 per listing, which is A$204 for every available night. For comparison, AirROI gives Tasmania's averages as A$290 a night, 50% occupancy and A$44,866 a year, so the Coles Bay figure is about half as much again as the state average. Bicheno's market shows A$308 a night, 54.2% occupancy and A$57,640 a year, up 17.7% on the year before. Swansea shows A$384 a night, 45.6% occupancy and A$49,039 a year, down 7.6%. The stats box uses the Coles Bay figures. The monthly figure of A$5,599 is A$67,189 spread over twelve months. AirROI's month-by-month table, which runs from September 2025 to August 2026, has real months between A$3,604 and A$10,551 per listing, so no month looks like the average.

Home size moves the numbers in the Coles Bay market. For entire homes, AirROI lists one-bedroom homes at a median of A$48,600 a year and A$322 a night with 62% occupancy; two-bedroom homes at A$54,000, A$346 and 56%; three-bedroom homes at A$61,500, A$385 and 53%; and four-bedroom homes at A$79,100, A$435 and 53%. Larger homes earn more in total but fill fewer nights, which is the usual pattern, and it means a four-bedroom house leans harder on the school holidays than a one-bedroom does. The medians are lower than the averages (AirROI's average for three-bedroom homes is A$70,800), so a few high earners pull the average up. Plan around the median.

Lead time and stay length shape how you price. Guests book on average 70 days ahead in the Coles Bay market, 64 days in Bicheno and 87 days in Swansea, and stay 2.8, 2.9 and 3.4 nights. A 70-day lead means the January weeks are being decided in October and November, so rates and minimum stays should be set before then. Swansea's longer lead and longer stay suggest guests there plan a road trip rather than a weekend, so show availability three months out and make the third night worth taking. These are market averages from one data source and not a forecast for your home.

The year in Freycinet & the East Coast

Summer on this coast runs from December to February, and AirROI's month-by-month table for the Coles Bay market shows the shape clearly. January 2026 was the strongest month, at 80.7% occupancy, A$418 a night and A$10,551 of revenue per listing. December ran at 67.9%, February at 70.5% and March at 66.2%. AirROI groups December to March as its high season, at A$8,650 of revenue a month, 71% occupancy and A$399 a night. April and November are the shoulder months, at A$6,390, 57% and A$367. Low season is May through October, with A$4,260 a month, 39% occupancy and A$346 a night. August 2026 was the weakest month, at 31.3% occupancy and A$3,604. July is the exception to the winter slump: 39.4% occupancy but A$390 a night and A$5,499 of revenue, ahead of May, June and August.

School holidays set the busy weeks. Tasmanian government school terms for 2026 end on 18 December, and Term 1 2027 starts on 4 February, so the summer holidays run from 19 December 2026 to 3 February 2027. Term 1 ends on 9 April 2027 and Term 2 starts on 26 April, which leaves the autumn break from 10 to 25 April. Term 2 finishes on 2 July and Term 3 begins on 19 July, so winter break is 3 to 18 July 2027, and spring break is 25 September to 10 October 2027. Interstate school calendars differ, so check each state's dates for your guests. Events add smaller peaks: the Bicheno Food and Wine Festival is listed for 21 November 2026 and the ECHO Festival in Swansea for 12 to 14 March 2027. The East Coast tourism site lists no events in Coles Bay for late 2026 or early 2027, which is worth knowing: there, the national park is the event.

The rules

Short-Stay Rules in Freycinet & the East Coast

Whether a Freycinet coast home needs a permit is a planning question, and the answer comes from Glamorgan Spring Bay Council, which covers Coles Bay, Bicheno and Swansea alike. Its website says the Tasmanian Planning Scheme applies here, built from the State Planning Provisions and the council's own Local Provisions Schedule, and that the pair took effect on 30 March 2022 in place of the 2015 interim scheme. The State Planning Office's September 2025 fact sheet exempts short stay use of a dwelling that is your main home, provided you let it only while you are on holiday or away, or guests use four bedrooms or fewer while you live there. A weekender at Coles Bay or a cottage at Bicheno that nobody occupies full time falls outside that, so it generally needs a permit unless the use began lawfully before the current rules and carries existing use rights. To apply for a change of use to visitor accommodation, the council asks for its planning application form, a floor plan with dimensions and a recent title search with the folio plan.

Tasmania also checks listings through the platforms. Under the Short Stay Accommodation Act 2019, in force since 4 June 2019, a host hands Airbnb, Booking.com or any other platform a statement of permit status (an exemption, a permit number or existing use rights), the street address, how many bedrooms guests will use and whether it is the host's primary residence. The platform shows the permit status on the listing and, within 30 days of each quarter's end, sends the Director of Building Control what it holds and how long each home was listed. False or missing information is an offence for the host, and a platform that skips its own steps commits one too. The Act applies in General Residential, Inner Residential, Low Density Residential, Rural Living, Landscape Conservation and Village zones. Hotels, motels and caravan parks sit outside it, and an agent acting for an owner is not counted as the provider.

Tasmania nearly had a 5% levy and does not. The Treasury page records a draft Short Stay Levy Bill released for comment on 17 December 2025, with submissions open until 25 February 2026, to apply to stays of fewer than 28 consecutive nights. The House of Assembly passed it with an amendment on 7 May 2026. In the Legislative Council on 9 September 2026 the vote tied six all, and the President, Craig Farrell, used his casting vote against, so the Bill failed. Treasury last updated its page on 15 September 2026. With nothing in force you add no levy to your prices today, but a defeat by one vote is a reason to keep watching that page.

Two taxes follow the property rather than the platform. The State Revenue Office charges land tax each year on land classed as General Land on 1 July: rental properties and shacks are in, Principal Residence Land is out, and a foreign investor who bought general land on or after 1 July 2022 may pay a surcharge. For income tax, the ATO treats guest rent as assessable income. It lets you claim ownership and use costs (interest, council and water rates, repairs) only where the home is used or held mainly to earn rent, and says you must scale deductions down for private use. Booking fees, commissions and advertising are claimable in either case. The ATO page on residential premises covers ordinary residential rent being input taxed for GST and does not address short stays, so put the GST question to your accountant. We found no published rates category for short-stay homes at Glamorgan Spring Bay, so ask the council how yours is rated.

Overseas buyers meet a federal ban. The Foreign Investment Review Board's Guidance Note 6 says that from 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2029 foreign persons are generally barred from buying established dwellings, apart from narrow exceptions that need approval. A foreign owner who already holds a home owes an annual vacancy fee unless it is occupied or actually available for rent for at least 183 days of the year, and short lets of under 30 days, including those through holiday rental sites, don't count towards that. Most homes on this coast are houses, but if yours sits in a strata scheme, read its by-laws before you list. Our rules page covering every state and territory sets the national picture out side by side. This is orientation, not legal advice. Your council, a lawyer and an accountant can answer for your home; Cavmir handles the marketing side.

Marketing

Marketing a Holiday Home in Freycinet & the East Coast

What works here

Write the listing around the walk. Almost every guest in Coles Bay is planning the Wineglass Bay Lookout, so say how far your home is from the park gate and how long the drive takes, name the walks in the order your guests will do them, and tell them about the park pass before they arrive. Parks Tasmania's fee page, last modified on 1 July 2026, lists A$49.15 per vehicle for 24 hours and A$98.35 for a holiday pass lasting up to two months, and says a valid pass is required to enter the park. A line in your booking confirmation saves your guest a surprise at the gate and earns you a review mentioning it. Photograph the Hazards in morning and evening light, show the verandah or deck where people will sit after the walk, and show the boot room where the muddy shoes go.

List on every channel your guests use, then build your own. Airbnb and Booking.com come first. Vrbo is the other major platform, and Australians also know Stayz, though its site wouldn't open for us, so check where your Stayz listing now sits before you plan around it. Whatever the platform, the Short Stay Accommodation Act means your permit status travels with the listing, so make sure each channel shows the same one. Keep prices and calendars in step everywhere, because a guest who finds a better rate on Booking.com than on your own site stops trusting the site.

Use the lead time. With guests booking about 70 days ahead in the Coles Bay market and 87 in Swansea, the weeks from 19 December 2026 to 3 February 2027 are being decided now. Email last year's guests first, before the platforms open the same weeks to everyone. A short email with the open weeks, the rate and a link to your own booking page costs nothing. Give them a reason to book direct beyond price: a flexible check-in, a bottle from Devil's Corner cellar door or a printed walks map. Then keep an eye on the quiet months. AirROI's low season of May to October averages 39% occupancy, so the weeks outside the school holidays are where a good midweek offer pays.

Sell the shoulder seasons on what only happens then. The cruise operator says humpback and southern right whales migrate past from May to July and from September to December. Bicheno's penguin tours run from February to January with earlier start times in winter, though the operator's site says March tours are closed because sightings fall. Devil's Corner lists a kitchen open from 11 am to 4 pm that is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so check before you promise a guest lunch. Build a page for each of these, with dates, and link it from your winter and spring listings. Winter guests come for different reasons than summer guests, and your site should speak to those reasons.

What makes it hard

Seasonality is the first challenge. AirROI's Coles Bay figures run from 80.7% occupancy in January 2026 to 31.3% in August 2026, and revenue per listing from A$10,551 to A$3,604, so the best month brought in nearly three times the worst. A host answers it with a calendar that has a plan for every week: a minimum stay and premium rate for the summer holidays, a midweek offer for autumn and spring, and a winter story built on whales and penguins. Cleaning and linen costs run all year, so the quiet months need at least a floor of bookings, and a direct-booking list of past guests is the cheapest way to build that floor.

Competition and rules are the second. AirROI shows 143 active listings in the Coles Bay market, 184 in Bicheno and 59 in Swansea, and guests compare them on the same platform pages. At the same time, most whole-home short stays outside the main-home exemption need a planning permit, and the platforms must show your permit status on the listing. A host answers by treating the permit as part of the product: get it right, state it clearly, and use the lawful status as a reason to trust you. An owner who is buying should ask the council about permit status before signing a contract, not after. Rules can also change: the levy bill failed on a casting vote on 9 September 2026 and could return.

Access and congestion are the third. The park's Visitor Gateway page says the project aims to reduce congestion, and it lists car parks at the Visitor Centre, Ranger Creek, Richardsons Beach, Honeymoon Bay and the Wineglass Bay trailhead. Some of your guests will arrive to find the car park full. A host answers by giving a plan B in the welcome book: an early start, the Cape Tourville circuit, Friendly Beaches or the cruise. Coles Bay also lists no events for late 2026 or early 2027 on the East Coast tourism site, so guests need reasons beyond the park to fill a four-night stay. Local suggestions, set out day by day, are the simplest way to add them.

Worth knowing. The bare granite of the Hazards, the range that looks over Coles Bay, is about 370 million years old, according to Australian Geographic. Feldspar in the rock gives it pinkish tones, and the cruise operator says the range is named after Captain Richard Hazard, a whaler. The curve of Wineglass Bay looks like the base of a glass, but the cruise operator's history of the area's names says blood from whaling reportedly stained the water red, which may be where the wineglass image comes from.
Money matters for Freycinet & the East Coast owners
Insurance

Standard home and contents policies often treat paying guests differently, so read the exclusions, the Key Fact Sheet and the product disclosure statement before the first booking. Tell the insurer the house takes short-stay guests, ask whether public liability is part of the cover, and ask what happens to the policy when a Coles Bay or Swansea house sits empty through winter. A broker can compare options for you. Cavmir does not recommend a product.

Tax

Guest rent counts as assessable income. The ATO lets you claim interest, council and water rates and repairs on the home only where it is used or held mainly to earn rent, and expects you to scale back deductions for time the family and friends use it free or cheaply. Booking fees, commissions and advertising are claimable either way. Whether GST touches short stays is not answered on the ATO page about residential premises, which deals with ordinary residential rent being input taxed, so ask an accountant before you set up your records. Tasmanian land tax is assessed on General Land as at 1 July. Sofie is not an accountant.

Lending and land tax

Sale prices vary by source and the samples are small. For Coles Bay, Your Investment Property Mag shows a median house price of A$780,000 from 12 house sales in the 12 months to July 2026, while Microburbs shows A$688,000 from 8 sales. Microburbs shows A$615,000 for Bicheno (26 sales) and A$450,000 for Swansea (31 sales). One sale moves a median that thin, so treat the figures as a guide. AirROI's average annual revenue for the Coles Bay market, A$67,189, is about 8.6% of A$780,000 and about 9.8% of A$688,000. Those are gross yields, before rates, insurance, cleaning, platform fees, management and interest, and this page does not try to estimate those costs. Your own costs, permit status, financing and bookings will differ. Ask a broker about lending on a short-stay home and, if the buyer is not an Australian resident, about the federal ban and foreign purchaser surcharges.

Your own website

A Direct-Booking Website for a Freycinet & the East Coast Home

A direct-booking website earns its place on this coast because guests have a lot of questions before they book. They want to know how far the house is from the park gate, whether there is a path to the beach, where the nearest shop is, and what to do if the Wineglass Bay car park is full. A site can answer all of that on one page in a way a platform listing can't. Pages worth writing for a Freycinet coast home include a page for each walk with distances and grades from Parks Tasmania, a page on the cruise and the penguins, a winter and whales page, a getting-here page with drive times from Hobart and Launceston, and a page on the park pass. Cavmir builds these as part of a direct-booking website that you own.

Pricing law is moving towards whole-price display. McCullough Robertson's summary of 3 July 2026 says the unfair trading practices law has passed and starts on 1 July 2027. As the summary describes it, a business must show extra per-transaction charges, or how they are worked out, prominently close to the base price every time a price appears. Build your booking page around the full stay price now, with the cleaning fee and any compulsory charge sitting beside the nightly rate. Add a privacy policy that says what you collect and why, and keep your permit or exemption details to hand. The Short Stay Accommodation Act makes platforms show your status, so a guest who books direct will expect the same clarity from you.

Make the site easy on a phone. Many guests will look at it from the car on the Tasman Highway, or in a Hobart café, deciding where to sleep on the East Coast. Pages should load fast, show the calendar and price on the first screen, and keep the contact options visible. Add a short enquiry form for groups who want to ask about dates before they book. Let guests who book direct have something the platforms don't: a flexible check-in, a welcome basket, or a late checkout when the next night is empty. Then link the site from your Google Business Profile and your social accounts, so everything points to one place.

AI search

Getting Named in AI Answers About Freycinet & the East Coast

People now put the questions they used to type into Google to AI assistants: where to stay near Wineglass Bay, which East Coast town suits a family, whether Bicheno or Coles Bay makes the better winter base. An assistant answers from pages it can read and trust, so your site should state plain facts in text and not only in pictures: the street address, how far the park gate is, bedrooms and beds, permit status, check-in times and the school-holiday rates.

Cavmir's guide to generative engine optimisation sets out the method. On this coast, give each page one real question to answer: how long the Wineglass Bay Lookout walk takes (Parks Tasmania says 1 to 1.5 hours, 2.6 km return, Grade 3), what the park pass costs, when the whales pass and how far Bicheno is from Coles Bay. Name your sources on the page, refresh the dates each season, and keep your business name, address and phone number identical wherever they appear, so an assistant has little reason to choose someone else.

What's next

Where Freycinet & the East Coast Is Heading

The biggest planned change is at the park. Parks Tasmania's Freycinet Visitor Gateway project page, dated 30 July 2026, describes a plan to improve visitor facilities inside the park, with A$8.9 million allocated. It includes car park, traffic and local road upgrades, a walking and shared-use path linking the Coles Bay foreshore, the Visitor Centre and the Wineglass Bay trailhead, new signs and maps, and real-time parking information. Planning is starting, some early works may begin in late 2026, and the program is to be delivered over three years, though the page also says the project will be deferred in the medium term and gives no completion date. Expect works near the park gate in the next few years, and tell guests if they affect your area.

The rules are also unsettled. The 5% short-stay levy fell in the upper house on 9 September 2026 and we found no announced replacement. On the federal side, the foreign-buyer ban on established dwellings is scheduled to run to 30 June 2029, and the unfair trading practices law starts on 1 July 2027. Nothing that we found proposes a night cap or a statewide register for Tasmania, but Tasmania's Short Stay Accommodation Act already feeds listing data to the state each quarter, so the state knows what is listed. Build your business so it works under the current rules and could handle a levy, because the vote on 9 September was tied.

Demand looks steady rather than explosive. The Parks Tasmania page expects around 343,000 visitors a year by 2039, compared with about 290,000 now, which is growth of a different order from the 650,000 forecast in 2019. Tasmania set a visitor record in the year to March 2026, and Bicheno's top ranking in May 2026 is likely to send more first-time visitors up the coast. On the calendar, the Bicheno Food and Wine Festival is listed for 21 November 2026 and the ECHO Festival in Swansea for 12 to 14 March 2027. Owners who build a direct audience now will be in the best position whichever way the rules and the visitor numbers go.

Why we like the work

Why We Love Marketing in Freycinet & the East Coast

What I like most about marketing on this coast is how easy it is to be specific. A Freycinet home has a real answer to almost every question a guest asks: the walk is 2.6 km, the lookout takes an hour, the cruise leaves at a quarter to ten, the penguin tour is timed to dusk. I don't have to invent a reason to book. My work is to put the real ones in front of the right person at the right time, in plain words, with a photograph that shows the light as it is.

I also like that the three towns are so different. Coles Bay is about the park, Bicheno is about the town and the evenings, and Swansea is about the slower road and the old buildings. Each home gets its own story and its own guests, and each season gets its own page. A winter whale-watching weekend and a January family week are different products, and they should look like it on the site.

The work I enjoy most is the follow-up: the email to last year's guests, the page that finally answers the question a host keeps getting by message, the listing rewritten after the owner tells me what the verandah is like at six in the evening. None of it is glamorous, and all of it adds up. Owners here are usually proud of their homes, and the job is to make that visible to people who are about to choose.

Welcome book

Picks for Your Freycinet & the East Coast Welcome Book

Eleven places and events for a welcome book on the Freycinet coast. Each was open or listed on the operator's own site on 29 October 2026, but hours and prices change, so check before you promise a guest anything.

Morning walk

Wineglass Bay Lookout

Parks Tasmania lists the lookout walk at 2.6 km return, 1 to 1.5 hours and Grade 3. Guests need a valid parks pass; the fee page, last modified on 1 July 2026, lists A$49.15 per vehicle for 24 hours. Tell guests to start early, because the trailhead car park fills.

Full day

Wineglass Bay and Hazards Beach circuit

An 11 km circuit of 4 to 5 hours at Grade 4, according to Parks Tasmania. It suits guests who are used to long walks. A shorter option is the Wineglass Bay return walk of 6 km and 2.5 to 3.5 hours.

Easy walk

Cape Tourville circuit

A 600 m, 20-minute circuit at Grade 1, per Parks Tasmania. It is the one to give guests who have small children, limited mobility or only an hour before dinner.

Big climb

Mount Amos

Parks Tasmania lists Mount Amos as a 3.6 km return walk of about 3 hours at Grade 4. It is for confident walkers in good weather, and it comes with the usual advice to take water and check the forecast.

Beach day

Friendly Beaches

Parks Tasmania describes Friendly Beaches as a beach area, with walks from 100 m to 5 km at Grade 2. Isaacs Point, at the beaches, has low-key camping sites, a reminder that some of your guests are choosing between a bed and a tent.

On the water

Wineglass Bay cruise from Coles Bay

The operator's site lists a 4½-hour cruise from 61 Jetty Road, Coles Bay, checking in by 9:30 am and running from 9:45 am to 2:30 pm, with adult fares from A$190 if guests bring their own food and A$210 with lunch. It runs daily except Christmas Day, and the operator says humpback and southern right whales pass in May to July and September to December.

Wine and lunch

Devil's Corner, Apslawn

The cellar door takes visitors from 10 am to 5 pm every day except Christmas Day and Good Friday, and the kitchen cooks from 11 am to 4 pm but is also shut on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It is at 1 Sherbourne Road, Apslawn, and the cellar door prefers bookings.

Evening

Bicheno penguin tours

Tours leave from 70 Burgess Street, Bicheno, timed to dusk: 5 pm to 7:30 pm from February to August and 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm from September to January. The operator lists adults at A$76 and children at A$32, with under-fours free, and says March tours are closed because sightings fall. The phone number is 03 6375 1333.

Swansea stop

The Bark Mill and Spiky Bridge

The Bark Mill, at 96 Tasman Highway, was established in 1885 and has a bakery, bar and restaurant; its site shows bakery hours of 6 am to 3 pm on summer weekdays, though the page's footer reads 2021, so ring on 03 6257 8094 first. Spiky Bridge, south of Swansea, was built by convicts in 1843.

Festival

Bicheno Food and Wine Festival

The East Coast Tasmania events page lists the 2026 festival for 21 November 2026 at 78 Burgess Street, Bicheno. A festival day brings visitors into town, so decide before it whether that weekend needs a minimum stay.

Easy access

The TrailRider at the Freycinet Visitor Centre

Parks Tasmania describes the TrailRider as an all-terrain wheelchair that is free to hire and must be booked ahead through the Freycinet Visitor Centre. A line about it in your welcome book helps guests who plan trips around access.

The playbook

How Cavmir Would Market Three Freycinet & the East Coast Homes

Cavmir has no clients in Freycinet & the East Coast yet. These are the plans it would start with for three common kinds of home here: the situation, the plan, and what each one aims at.

Three-bedroom house in Coles Bay for walkers and couples
The situation

A well-kept house a few minutes from the park gate, listed on Airbnb and Booking.com, with guests who book for the Wineglass Bay walk and then leave. The photos show rooms but not the Hazards, and the listing doesn't mention the park pass or the car park.

The plan

Cavmir rewrites the listing around the walk, with distances, grades and the pass, photographs the house in morning and evening light, builds a direct-booking page with a winter and whales section, and sets up an email list so past guests hear about open weeks before the platforms do.

What it targets

The plan aims to win more of the summer weeks at the premium rate and more of the quiet months through direct enquiries. Track enquiries by source, direct bookings against platform bookings, and the length of the gap between enquiry and booking.

Two-bedroom cottage in Bicheno near the town centre
The situation

A cottage within walking distance of cafés and the beach that fills in January and school holidays and falls quiet between them. The host relies on one platform and doesn't use the town's events.

The plan

Cavmir builds pages on the penguin tours, the food and wine festival weekend and the whale season, adds a midweek offer for the shoulder months, lists the cottage on every channel guests use, and runs social posts that show the town in each season.

What it targets

The plan aims to lift midweek and shoulder-season bookings and make festival weekends predictable. Track occupancy by month against the previous year, midweek share of bookings and the pages that bring in the enquiries.

Four-bedroom house in Swansea for family groups
The situation

A large house on a quiet street, suited to two families. Guests plan well ahead, but the listing doesn't say how far Coles Bay and Bicheno are, so it looks remote and misses the road-trip audience.

The plan

Cavmir writes a getting-here page with drive times to Coles Bay and Bicheno, builds a three-night itinerary around the Bark Mill, Spiky Bridge and the park, shows availability months out, and writes the page so AI assistants can quote the facts.

What it targets

The plan aims to turn the longer lead time into earlier bookings and to attract groups planning a trip along the coast. Watch the lead time on bookings, the average length of stay and enquiries arriving from search and AI assistants.

FAQ

Freycinet & the East Coast Airbnb Marketing: Questions, Answered

Does Cavmir offer Airbnb and holiday-home marketing in Freycinet & the East Coast?

Yes. For homes at Coles Bay, Bicheno and Swansea, Cavmir builds a direct-booking website, works on Google and AI search, directs the photography, runs social media and writes to your past guests by email, all remotely. It is a marketing agency, so it doesn't manage the property, take bookings for you or hold your keys.

Do I need a permit to rent out my home in Coles Bay, Bicheno or Swansea?

Often, yes. The State Planning Office's September 2025 fact sheet exempts a home that is your main residence when you let it only while you are away, or when guests use four bedrooms or fewer while you live in it. A holiday house nobody lives in full time generally needs a planning permit, unless the use began lawfully and carries existing use rights. One council, Glamorgan Spring Bay, covers all three towns, so ask it before you list.

What do Coles Bay holiday homes earn?

AirROI's Coles Bay market averages A$67,189 a year per listing, measured over the twelve months to September 2026. By size, the median annual revenue of entire homes runs from A$48,600 for one bedroom to A$79,100 for four. Those are market figures and not a promise: your own result turns on the home, the permit, the pricing and the marketing.

When is the busy season on the Freycinet coast?

December to March. AirROI has January 2026 at 80.7% occupancy in the Coles Bay market and treats December to March as its high season. The summer school holidays run from 19 December 2026 to 3 February 2027, and the Bicheno Food and Wine Festival is listed for 21 November 2026.

Is there a levy on short stays in Tasmania?

Not now. A 5% levy on stays of fewer than 28 nights cleared the House of Assembly on 7 May 2026, then failed in the Legislative Council on 9 September 2026 when a six-all tie was settled by the President's casting vote. Land tax and income tax still follow the home, so put your questions about those to an accountant.

Can an overseas buyer purchase a holiday home on the East Coast to rent out?

Mostly not. Federal policy generally bars foreign persons from buying established dwellings between 1 April 2025 and 30 June 2029, with narrow exceptions that need approval. Foreign owners of homes they already hold owe an annual vacancy fee unless the home is occupied or available for rent for at least 183 days, and lets of under 30 days don't count towards that. This is orientation, not legal advice.

Which platforms should I list on?

Airbnb and Booking.com are the main two, with Vrbo as the other big name. Australians also know Stayz, but its site wouldn't open for us, so check where your Stayz listing now sits before you rely on it. Give every channel the same permit details, keep the calendars in step, and build a direct-booking site so past guests can return without paying a commission.

Does Cavmir publish its prices on this page?

No. Cavmir's prices are in Australian dollars on the pricing page, at Cavmir Australia pricing, with the monthly plans on the plans page. Ask for a plain quote for your home.

Get a quote

Tell Us About Your Freycinet & the East Coast Holiday Home

Which home, which town, and where it lists today. A written proposal in A$ follows within 48 hours.

What do you need?

Your details go to Cavmir only and are used to answer you. Privacy policy.

Nearby

Markets Near Freycinet & the East Coast

TAS · about 115 km awayHobartMarketing in Hobart →VIC · about 505 km awayMornington PeninsulaMarketing in Mornington Peninsula →VIC · about 555 km awayMelbourneMarketing in Melbourne →

All Australian markets

Photo Credits