Victoria · Holiday-Home Marketing

Airbnb Marketing
in Melbourne

Marketing for owners and managers of holiday homes and apartments in Melbourne, from Southbank and Docklands to South Yarra, St Kilda, Fitzroy and Carlton.

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Australia/Markets/Melbourne
A$334
Avg. nightly rate
43%
Avg. occupancy
A$3,150
Avg. monthly revenue
4-6%
Est. gross yield
MODERATE
Seasonality
MODERATE
Rules to follow

* Market averages in Australian dollars from AirROI data for the Melbourne, Victoria market, October 2025 to September 2026 (updated 1 October 2026), in Australian dollars as AirROI shows them (converted from US dollars at about A$1.44). 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 in Melbourne

Cavmir is an Airbnb marketing agency for Australian holiday homes. This page is for owners and managers of short-stay homes in Melbourne.

Melbourne is the capital of Victoria, and the Australian Open's own website acknowledges that the tournament is held on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country. This page covers the inner city and the suburbs guests actually choose between: the CBD, Southbank and Docklands; South Yarra, Toorak, Prahran and Armadale; St Kilda, Elwood and Albert Park; and Richmond, Fitzroy, Collingwood, Carlton, Parkville and North Melbourne. The stats box uses AirROI's Melbourne market for October 2025 to September 2026, a page AirROI updated on 1 October 2026. AirROI prints its money in Australian dollars, converted at about A$1.44 to the US dollar, and we've kept its figures as printed. AirROI doesn't publish the market's boundary or split its headline figures by suburb. It names Fitzroy, North Melbourne, Carlton, Docklands and Collingwood as the market's top neighbourhoods and reports Southbank, South Yarra, St Kilda, Elwood and Richmond as separate nearby markets, so we quote those separately where they help.

Melbourne is a large, mixed market. AirROI counts 14,961 active listings, 8% fewer than a year earlier, which makes it the largest of the 199 Victorian markets AirROI tracks. Entire homes are 87.3% of the stock and private rooms 12.2%. By property type, 52.6% are apartments, 39.5% are houses and 4.5% are hotel or boutique stays. The typical listing has 2.9 beds and 12 photos, and only 35% show their exact location. Capacity splits into small and large: 25.2% of listings sleep two, 25.3% sleep four, 14.6% sleep six and 20.5% sleep eight or more. That mix is the reason one average can't describe the market. A studio near Flinders Street and a five-bedroom house in Toorak share a city and little else, and the way each one is marketed should reflect that.

Guests are mostly Australian, and the biggest single source is Melbourne itself. AirROI puts domestic guests at 70% and international guests at 30%, and its top origin cities are Melbourne at 11.1%, Sydney at 3.7% and Adelaide at 1.9%. By country, Australia supplies 70.2% of guests, the United Kingdom 5.6%, the United States 4.4%, New Zealand 4.2% and Singapore 2.6%. Booking languages show the same spread: English 62.9%, Chinese 6.9%, French 5.1%, Spanish 4.7% and German 3.5%. Visit Victoria's release of 6 October 2026, covering the twelve months to June 2026, says Melbourne remains Australia's leading destination for interstate overnight leisure travellers, with 3.5 million annual trips and A$4.5 billion spent, and that Chinese visitors spent A$3.6 billion in Victoria, up 20% on the year.

The spread between the average listing and the typical one is wide. AirROI's average listing earns A$37,821 a year, up 4.9% on the year and above the Victorian average of A$36,652, at an average daily rate of A$334 and 43.4% occupancy. The median tells a different story: a median daily rate of A$245 and median occupancy of about 45%. The top quarter of listings charge A$375 or more a night and fill 69% of nights or better, and the top tenth reach A$615 and 86%. A quarter of listings sit at the other end, at A$165 a night or under and 22% occupancy or under. AirROI prints monthly revenue percentiles apart from its annual average: up to A$1,740 for the bottom quarter, A$3,510 at the median, A$5,710 and up for the top quarter and A$8,530 and up for the top tenth. Read those as a spread, not as a sum. The gap between the bottom and top is mostly a gap in product, presentation and pricing, which is work a marketing plan can do.

AirROI's nearby-market tables add suburb detail. Southbank is the deepest, with 426 listings averaging A$37,813 a year at A$286 a night and 51% occupancy. Richmond has 79 listings at A$30,817, A$291 and 51%, and South Yarra has 103 at A$31,103, A$292 and 48%. Elwood has 47 listings at A$24,515, A$284 and 48%, and St Kilda has 139 at A$21,475, A$233 and 46%. AirROI doesn't explain the differences, but they show why a Southbank apartment, a South Yarra terrace and a St Kilda flat need separate pages, separate photo sets and separate prices rather than one Melbourne listing voice.

What brings guests to Melbourne

  • Queen Victoria Market, with its trading hours posted week by week
  • NGV International on St Kilda Road, open daily with free general entry
  • Federation Square, home to ACMI, the Koorie Heritage Trust and the Ian Potter Centre
  • The Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Australian Sports Museum at Gate 3
  • Melbourne Park and the Australian Open, 11 to 31 January 2027
  • Flemington and the Melbourne Cup Carnival, 31 October to 7 November 2026
  • Luna Park at 18 Lower Esplanade, St Kilda
  • Prahran Market, trading since 1864
Princes Bridge over the Yarra River and the Melbourne skyline

Photo: “Princes Bridge and Melbourne skyline, southwest view 20230219 1” by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cavmir in Melbourne

What Cavmir Does for Melbourne Hosts

Cavmir markets Melbourne homes as the specific places they are, the Southbank apartment, the South Yarra terrace near Prahran Market, the Fitzroy house, each with its own pages and photos, rather than as interchangeable 'Melbourne CBD' stock. We build your own direct-booking website with a price that already includes Victoria's short stay levy, write suburb and event pages that Google and AI assistants can quote, direct the photography around the walk to the nearest station, and keep an email list of past guests so the same Sydney couple hears about next January first. Our work with Australian owners is remote and limited to marketing; running the home, holding keys and arranging permits stay with you or your manager.

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 Melbourne Short-Stay Market, Then and Now

The city began as a settlement from Tasmania. The City of Melbourne's own history records that Melbourne was founded in 1835, that John Batman's party rowed up the Yarra on 8 June 1835, and that the Enterprize, carrying John Pascoe Fawkner's party, reached the river on 29 August, with Fawkner's family arriving on 10 October. On 4 March 1837 Governor Bourke arrived and had Robert Hoddle lay out the town, and he overruled the suggested name Glenelg and named the settlement Melbourne after the British Prime Minister. Victoria separated from New South Wales in 1851 and Melbourne became its capital, and gold changed the scale of everything: arrivals in Victoria by sea averaged 90,000 a year from 1852 to 1854, and the population was nearly 80,000 by 1854 and 140,000 by 1861.

The next boom left the buildings that guests photograph today. The council's history dates the land booms to 1880 to 1890, when eight- and nine-storey buildings went up almost overnight, and records the crash that followed: in 1891 and 1892 numerous banks and building societies ceased operation, and by mid-1892 twenty-one financial companies were in suspension. At Federation in 1901 the Victorian Parliament House became the seat of the federal parliament and the state parliament moved to the Exhibition Building, where it sat until 1927.

The short-stay market grew inside that city quickly enough to draw rules. Consumer Affairs Victoria dates the owners corporation short-stay reforms to February 2019, with amendments in January 2025. On 26 August 2023 the City of Melbourne said more than 4,100 residential properties, around 14% of the city's residential properties, were being used for short stays, that 84% of them were in the CBD, Southbank, Docklands and Carlton, and that it was considering an annual registration fee of A$350 and a 180-day cap. It consulted from 7 to 29 September 2023 and then paused. On 27 August 2024 the Premier announced a statewide 7.5% short stay levy from 1 January 2025, expected to raise about A$60 million a year for social and affordable housing, and the same release said owners corporations could ban short stays if 75% of owners agreed.

Today the market is large, slightly smaller than a year ago and still professionalising. AirROI counts 14,961 active listings, down 8%, while revenue per listing rose 4.9%, so the listings that remain are earning a little more each. About 11.1% are professionally managed and 36.2% are co-hosted, 47.2% of listings belong to Superhosts, and the top ten hosts run only 5% of the stock. Management companies matter in the middle: 65 run five or more listings, covering 16% of the market, and AirROI names Hometime as the largest with 332 listings, followed by MadeComfy with 124, Property Mums with 113, Jellis Craig with 105 and Advante Homes with 102. Fewer than 1% of listings show a permit number, which fits a state with no host register. The first gaps we check for are practical: a dozen photos where thirty would sell, no mention of the walk to the station, a January week and a May Tuesday on the same price, and nothing in place to bring past guests back.

Rates and seasons

Rates, Occupancy and Seasons in Melbourne

Rates and revenue

Rates in Melbourne climb with bedrooms, but revenue doesn't climb with them as fast. In AirROI's entire-home data, a studio averages A$170 a night with median annual revenue of A$22,700 and 47% occupancy. A one-bedroom home averages A$215, A$29,300 and 50%, and a two-bedroom home A$290, A$37,700 and 48%. A three-bedroom home averages A$457 a night with median revenue of A$37,800 at 39% occupancy, a four-bedroom home A$649 with A$39,800 at 32%, and the five-or-more-bedroom group A$968 with A$64,400 at 33%. Median revenue barely moves between two and four bedrooms, because the higher rate is offset by lower occupancy. That is where a marketing plan has the most to do: a four-bedroom house that fills a third of its nights at A$649 is selling to a small group of guests, and finding more of them is a positioning job, not a pricing one. AirROI's amenity table shows ocean-view listings (2% of the market) averaging A$62,100 against A$37,400 without, and river-view listings A$59,700, but it warns that these gaps partly reflect larger, professionally run homes.

Melbourne's rate barely moves with the season while occupancy does. AirROI's high season, December and January, averages A$5,770 a month at 53% occupancy and A$341 a night. Its shoulder months (February to April, July, October and November) average A$4,210, 49% and A$312, and its low months (May, June, August and September) A$3,540, 43% and A$307. By calendar month, January averages A$5,860 and May A$3,390, so the best month earns about 1.7 times the worst. In the latest twelve months the pattern was the same: January 2026 earned A$5,895 at 52.8% occupancy and A$346 a night, December 2025 A$5,778 at 52.6% and A$340, and May 2026 A$3,605 at 40.5% and A$326. July 2026 earned A$4,524 at 43.4% and A$335, ahead of May and June. A host who raises the rate only by a little and works on occupancy in the quiet months is following the market's own shape.

Guests book about 54 days ahead on average, from about 67 days for December stays to about 33 for June. The average stay is 5.8 nights and the average listing takes about 24 bookings a year. On minimum stays, 25% of listings accept one night, 44% ask for two, 14% for three, 10% for four to six, 6% for seven to 29 and 1% for 30 or more. Cancellation policies lean firm: 36% are Firm, 31% Moderate, 15% Flexible and 11% Strict. Cleaning fees are the item guests notice. AirROI says 85.6% of listings charge one, with a median of A$153 and an average of A$244, about 10.5% of gross revenue, or roughly A$42 a night on a 5.8-night stay. Its profit model for an average self-managed listing starts at A$37,821 of gross bookings (A$33,851 of nightly revenue plus A$3,970 of cleaning fees), takes off A$13,280 of running costs, including A$4,960 in Airbnb fees and A$3,970 for cleaning, and leaves A$24,541 before housing costs, about A$2,050 a month. For a top-quarter listing the same model shows A$61,620 of bookings and A$40,350 left, about A$3,360 a month. The stats box shows A$3,150 a month: AirROI's A$37,821 annual average spread over twelve months, so it describes the whole year and not a May.

The year in Melbourne

Melbourne's year is built on events more than weather, and summer here runs from December to February. The school summer holidays start after Term 4 ends on Friday 18 December 2026 and run until Term 1 starts on 27 January 2027, which puts the Boxing Day Test at the MCG inside the school break. The MCG's website lists Australia v New Zealand from Saturday 26 December 2026, with play starting at 10:30 am each day through Wednesday 30 December. The Australian Open runs from 11 to 31 January 2027, and AirROI's January 2026 was the best month of its twelve. Autumn brings the Australian Grand Prix, listed on the event's website for 2 to 4 April 2027 at Albert Park Circuit, and the autumn school break sits between Term 1 ending on 25 March and Term 2 starting on 12 April 2027. The winter break covers 26 June to 11 July 2027, and the spring break 18 September to 3 October 2027. The Spring Racing Carnival at Flemington, with Derby Day on 31 October 2026, Melbourne Cup Day on Tuesday 3 November, Oaks Day on 5 November and Stakes Day on 7 November, carries the end of spring. Prahran Market lists itself closed on Melbourne Cup Day, and Queen Victoria Market's posted hours show Tuesday closed for the public holiday, so tell Cup week guests to check before they shop.

The money most hosts miss sits in the quiet stretch. May is AirROI's weakest month, June stays book only about 33 days ahead, and August and September sit in its low season at about 43% occupancy. Those months are where a clear reason to come matters most. The NGV's visit page says selected gallery spaces may close from 7 September to 13 December 2026 while the NGV Triennial is installed, which points to a Triennial opening in December. Longer stays are another answer: only 6% of AirROI's listings set a seven-to-29-night minimum and about 1% ask for 30 nights or more, and the State Revenue Office counts a short stay as under 28 consecutive days, so a booking of 28 days or more falls outside the levy. Ask a Victorian lawyer how a longer stay is treated under tenancy law before you sell one. Mid-week offers for Melburnians, who are the largest single group of guests, and for interstate visitors in for work, fill nights that an event-only calendar leaves empty.

The rules

Short-Stay Rules in Melbourne

Victoria regulates short stays through tax, building rules and councils, and we found no statewide register or host licence on the State Revenue Office, Consumer Affairs Victoria or council pages we read in October 2026. The rules that do apply come in layers, and they are worth knowing before you set a price. For the national picture across states, see our short-stay rules guide. What follows covers Melbourne, and the dates are the ones printed on the official pages.

The first layer is the short stay levy, which the State Revenue Office (SRO) collects. From 1 January 2025 it takes 7.5% of the total booking fee on any stay shorter than 28 consecutive days in one property, with the checkout day left out. The fee it applies to covers the nightly rate, cleaning fees, GST and any late checkout charge; card and other payment processing fees and damage charges sit outside it, so A$1,000 of booking fees means A$75 of levy. When a guest books through Airbnb or another platform, the platform lodges and pays. When you accept the booking yourself, for instance through your own website, you pay, and you register with the SRO before your first return; an owner whose bookings all come through platforms needn't register. Returns are quarterly (due 30 April, 30 July, 30 October and 30 January) once your booking fees reach A$75,000 a year, and annual, due 30 January, below that. Bookings made before 1 January 2025 weren't charged. Your own principal place of residence is excluded, along with premises that can't be occupied separately from your main home, hotels, motels and hostels, and a few uses such as student accommodation and crisis housing. The SRO's pages say who lodges and pays but not whether the cost lands on the guest or the host, so decide how you will show it. On AirROI's average of A$37,821 of bookings, 7.5% is about A$2,837 a year. The SRO pages we read were last updated on 29 September 2026.

The second layer is the building. From 1 January 2025 an owners corporation can make a rule that bans short stays in its development, if the rule passes by special resolution: 75% of lot owners, or 75% of lot entitlements when it goes to a ballot or poll (Consumer Affairs Victoria). Such a rule can't reach a lot that is someone's principal place of residence, and it has to fit the Owners Corporations Act 2006 and local planning laws. A separate set of powers deals with misbehaving guests. Under it the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) can fine up to A$1,100 for a breach of the Act and award neighbours up to A$2,000 for loss of amenity, and after three breach notices for separate events within 24 months it can bar an apartment from short-term letting for a period. Owners and guests can both be held liable. Consumer Affairs Victoria treats a short stay as a booking for a continuous period of less than 28 days. Read your building's rules and its minutes before you buy or list; in Melbourne's towers this layer often matters more than any council's.

The third layer is the council, and in October 2026 it is the quietest. The City of Melbourne said in a media release on 26 August 2023 that it was considering an annual registration fee of A$350 and a 180-day cap, and it consulted from 7 to 29 September 2023. Its participation page now says consideration of the options is paused pending the state levy, with the decision on a local law still to be confirmed. No registration or cap is in force. The City of Port Phillip's page says domestic-scale short-stay accommodation isn't prescribed accommodation, so no council permit is needed if the property is self-contained, has no more than 9 bedrooms and sleeps no more than 12 people; the council can still enforce the Victorian Planning Provisions and its Community Amenity local law if a property causes problems. In May 2023 the City of Yarra resolved to have officers report on a cap on days and a registration fee (the council's news item is dated 18 May 2023), and we found no later decision. The City of Stonnington's accommodation registration page lists hotels, motels, rooming houses, hostels, student accommodation, holiday camps and residential accommodation, exempts houses and self-contained flats under the occupier's exclusive occupation, and doesn't mention Airbnb-style rentals. The Premier's release of 27 August 2024 also promised planning-system changes to let councils regulate short stays; we couldn't find the amendment or a start date, so treat planning as in flux, and ask your council which of these pages applies to your street, since the footprint spans several councils.

The federal layer applies everywhere. The ATO treats rental income as taxable. For a holiday home you also use yourself, the costs of owning and running it, such as interest, rates, body corporate fees, land tax and repairs, can be claimed only when the home is used or held mainly to produce rent, and you apportion them for private use; booking, advertising and cleaning fees for rented periods are a separate category. On 20 May 2026 the ATO issued Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2026/3 for individuals who aren't carrying on a business: it sets green, amber and red risk zones with no numeric occupancy thresholds, and says the ATO won't devote compliance resources to expenses incurred before 1 July 2026. For GST, the ATO says registered providers of commercial residential premises, such as hotels and motels, are liable for GST when a guest stays less than 28 continuous days, and that leasing an individual holiday apartment to a guest or a management company is an input taxed supply of residential premises, so there is no GST on the income and no GST credits. Which side your home falls on depends on how it is run. Victoria's land tax is charged on taxable value, with nothing payable below A$50,000, A$1,350 plus 0.3% above A$300,000 and A$2,250 plus 0.6% above A$600,000, and an absentee owner table that adds 4 percentage points to each rate. Foreign persons are barred, with limited exceptions, from buying established dwellings between 1 April 2025 and 30 June 2029. This is orientation, not legal advice: Cavmir handles the marketing side, while permits, tax and building rules sit with you, your lawyer, your accountant and your owners corporation.

Marketing

Marketing a Holiday Home in Melbourne

What works here

First, sell the suburb and the station, not 'Melbourne'. Guests pick a base by how fast they reach a venue, so put the walk in the title and the first line: minutes to the nearest tram stop or station, and to the ground, gallery or market they came for. The Metro Tunnel is now open with five new stations, Arden, Parkville, State Library, Town Hall and Anzac, and a home near one of them has a station name worth using in its page title. AirROI's average Melbourne listing carries 12 photos and only 35% show their exact location, so thirty ordered photos and a map of the walk make a listing look like the better-run one. Because 99% of listings offer heating and 99% air conditioning, lead with what is not universal: a desk by a window, a quiet bedroom, a car space, a view from your floor.

Second, price the events as products. The Australian Open runs from 11 to 31 January 2027, the Cup Carnival from 31 October to 7 November 2026, the Grand Prix weekend is 2 to 4 April 2027, and the Boxing Day Test starts on 26 December 2026. Open each calendar early, since December stays book about 67 days ahead, set a minimum stay for the headline dates, and write a short page for each event with the getting-there time, your minimum stay and a sample total with the levy and cleaning fee inside it. Keep each event page at one address year after year and update the dates, so the links it earns keep their value. Then build offers for the months between: mid-week rates for Melburnians, a weekly rate for May, and a 28-night product for relocating guests.

Third, make the price clear at the point of booking. A cleaning fee averaging A$244 is about A$42 a night on a 5.8-night stay and about 10.5% of gross revenue, so guests notice it. On 1 April 2026 the Treasurer and the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury announced a bill to crack down on drip pricing, with the reforms due to take effect from 1 July 2027. Card surcharges on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa payments have also been removed since 1 October 2026 following a Reserve Bank decision. The sensible route is a single total that already contains the cleaning fee, the levy if you take the booking directly and your payment costs. AirROI puts the lowest category rating, value, at 4.69 against 4.86 for communication and location, which suggests that price is where guests are hardest to please.

Fourth, build the direct channel and treat operations as marketing. Melbourne guests choose among Airbnb, Booking.com, Stayz and Vrbo, and 38% of AirROI's listings carry Airbnb's Guest Favourite badge, 47.2% belong to Superhosts and only 25.8% use Instant Book. A direct-booking website, a finished Google Business Profile and a mailing list of past guests give you somewhere to send the Sydney couple who came for the tennis and the Melburnian who wants a night near Prahran Market. Operations count too: with owners corporations able to fine up to A$1,100 and restrict short stays after three breach notices in 24 months, clear house rules, a guest cap that matches the bedrooms and a fast reply to a neighbour's call protect the calendar. If a booking site is not yet an option, start with listing copy, photos and a one-page guide.

What makes it hard

Supply and spread make the market hard. With 14,961 active listings, a median listing reaches only about 45% occupancy and the bottom quarter 22% or less. Larger homes are harder still: AirROI's four-bedroom homes average A$649 a night but 32% occupancy, and the five-bedroom group 33%. Prices have softened too. An agency's summary of Cotality's index for August 2026 put metropolitan Melbourne house values 5.7% lower over the year and unit values 2.5% lower, so an owner who bought recently has less cushion. What helps is a clear reason to choose your home: the walk to the station, the quiet bedroom, a group-sized table, the flexible stay.

The rules are in motion, and they cost money. The levy adds 7.5% to the booking fee, owners corporations can vote to end short stays in a building, the City of Melbourne's local law is paused rather than cancelled, and the Premier's 2024 promise of council planning powers has no start date that we could find. Federally, PCG 2026/3 asks holiday-home owners to show that the home is used mainly to earn rent, and foreign buyers are shut out of established dwellings until 30 June 2029. AirROI's profit model already takes A$13,280 of running costs from an average of A$37,821, leaving A$24,541. Before you buy, ask for the owners corporation's rules and minutes and run the numbers with the levy inside them.

Concentration is the third problem. Revenue peaks in December and January and sags in May, a Melburnian is the most common guest, and the events that lift a week lift every competing listing too. A host answers by selling twice: events at a firm price and minimum stay, then a calendar of mid-week, long-stay and local offers for the rest of the year. Remote owners add a second problem, since a home managed from another city drifts: stale photos, slow replies and an unread owners corporation notice. Good house rules, a local cleaner and manager you trust and a listing refreshed before each event close that gap. Cavmir does not manage homes; it makes sure the marketing is ready when the calendar fills.

Worth knowing. Victoria's parliament spent 26 years in a borrowed building. The Parliament of Victoria's own history page records that the federal parliament used Victoria's Parliament House from 1901 to 1927, while the state parliament met in the Royal Exhibition Building and returned to Spring Street on 6 July 1927. For 26 years the city housed two parliaments in two different buildings.
Money matters for Melbourne owners
Insurance

Ask your insurer or a broker, in writing, whether your policy covers paying guests, and expect a landlord or short-stay policy to differ from home and contents cover. Check public liability limits, contents cover for items guests use, cover for damage by guests and loss of rent after an insured event. AirROI's profit model allows A$380 a year for insurance on the average listing, which is a modelling figure and no quote, so get your own. In an apartment, find out what the owners corporation insures and what you must insure yourself, and tell the insurer if your building has voted on short stays. In the ATO's Hunter Valley holiday-home example, insurance was not deductible because the home was not mainly used to earn rent, so the use of your home affects the tax side as well.

Tax

Rental income goes in your tax return, and the ATO's holiday-home page says the costs of owning and using the home count only when it is used or held mainly to produce rent, with a split for private use, while booking, advertising and cleaning fees for rented periods are separate. PCG 2026/3, issued on 20 May 2026, describes green, amber and red zones for individuals, and the ATO says it will not devote compliance resources to expenses incurred before 1 July 2026. For GST, the ATO says leasing an individual holiday apartment to a guest or a management company is an input taxed supply of residential premises, while registered providers of commercial residential premises are liable for GST on stays under 28 continuous days. Whether your home sits on one side or the other depends on how it is run. Capital gains tax may apply when you sell. Cavmir is a marketing agency, not an accountant; a registered tax agent should check your setup first.

Lending and land tax

A lender may count short-stay income differently from long-term rent, so ask a broker how yours will. For a rough scale, an agency summary of Cotality's August 2026 index puts the metropolitan Melbourne median house value at about A$920,000 and the median unit value at about A$630,000. Inner suburbs cost more than those medians, so work from recent sales near the street. Victoria's land tax is charged on taxable value, with nothing payable below A$50,000, A$1,350 plus 0.3% above A$300,000 and A$4,650 plus 0.9% above A$1,000,000, plus 4 percentage points on each rate for absentee owners. Foreign buyers can't generally purchase established dwellings between 1 April 2025 and 30 June 2029, apart from the narrow exceptions in the FIRB guidance; new and near-new dwellings are treated separately. The FIRB page also mentions an annual vacancy fee, so ask an adviser before you commit.

Your own website

A Direct-Booking Website for a Melbourne Home

A direct-booking website for a Melbourne home answers the questions guests ask before they book: how many minutes to the nearest tram or station, which bedroom is quiet, how heating and cooling work, what the building's rules are and what the total costs. Give each suburb you serve its own page, with the walk, the market or gallery nearby and the Metro Tunnel station if one is close. Add a page for each event that sets your calendar, from the Australian Open to the Cup Carnival, and a getting-here page. Chinese speakers are 6.9% of AirROI's guests and Chinese visitors spent A$3.6 billion in Victoria in the year to June 2026, so a Simplified Chinese version of the arrival and house-rules pages may earn its keep. We cover the build in our website design service.

A few legal points shape a booking page. Show one total price. On 1 April 2026 the Treasurer and the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury announced a bill to crack down on drip pricing, with the reforms due to take effect from 1 July 2027, so build the habit now: the cleaning fee and any compulsory charge inside the price shown, plus the levy if you take the booking directly. The State Revenue Office counts cleaning fees and GST in the levy's booking fee, but not credit card fees. Since 1 October 2026, following a Reserve Bank decision, the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa no-surcharge rules have stopped merchants adding a card surcharge; the RBA says the change doesn't cover booking or service fees, and that costs can be reflected in overall pricing or in discounts for particular payment methods. Victoria has no host registration number to print on an advertisement, as far as we found. The Privacy Act applies to organisations with more than A$3 million of annual turnover and some others, but a clear privacy policy and a cookie notice are worth having whatever your size.

Write the pages in the order your calendar needs them. With the Boxing Day Test a few weeks away and the Australian Open from 11 to 31 January 2027, publish those event pages first, then the autumn pages for the Grand Prix on 2 to 4 April, then the long-stay page for the quiet months. Each page should settle one question about a date, a venue or a journey, because those are the questions guests type into Google. Photograph what Melbourne guests filter for: heating and cooling, the view from your own floor, the lift and the car space, and a desk by a window. Keep the site fast on a phone, since guests will open it on the tram.

AI search

Getting Named in AI Answers About Melbourne

Guests now ask AI assistants things like: which suburb near Melbourne Park has a quiet two-bedroom for the Australian Open, a family house within walking distance of the MCG for the Boxing Day Test, or where to stay near Flemington on Cup Day. Those questions carry a venue, a date and a constraint. An assistant answers from pages that state the suburb, the nearest station and tram stop, the minutes on foot to the venue, the bed layout and the dates as plain text, not inside a photo or a booking widget. For the full method, read our guide to generative engine optimisation for holiday rentals.

Make your site the page an assistant quotes. Write one fact sheet and copy it unchanged to your website, Airbnb, Booking.com, Stayz and Vrbo: the street, sleeps and bedrooms, the floor, the nearest station and tram stop with walking minutes, heating and cooling, parking, quiet hours and cancellation terms written as dates. Add a sample total for a weekend and a week with the cleaning fee and the levy inside it, and state that stays of 28 days or more are not short stays under the levy. When the site says eight guests and the listing says six, nobody can tell which to believe. Add structured data that repeats the address, bed count and amenities, keep every page open to crawlers, and use one spelling of your property's name.

What's next

Where Melbourne Is Heading

Melbourne's transport map has changed, and more is coming. The Big Build's Metro Tunnel page, last updated on 16 October 2026, says the Metro Tunnel is open, with twin 9 km tunnels and five new stations: Arden, Parkville, State Library, Town Hall and Anzac. The Suburban Rail Loop East, running from Cheltenham to Box Hill, is under construction with trains due in 2035, according to its project page updated on 28 October 2026. In Southbank, NGV Contemporary is under construction in the Melbourne Arts Precinct with more than 13,000 square metres of gallery space, with entries from Southbank Boulevard and the corner of Kavanagh Street; NGV hasn't given an opening date on the page we read. In the meantime the Australian Open runs from 11 to 31 January 2027 and the Grand Prix weekend is listed for 2 to 4 April 2027.

Demand looks steady. Visit Victoria reports a record A$49.5 billion visitor economy for the twelve months to June 2026, with spending up 6.6%, and says visitation from China rose 11.4% and from the United Kingdom 21.4%. AirROI shows the other side: listings fell 8% while revenue per listing rose 4.9%, so supply is tightening a little. The rules to watch, with dates: the City of Melbourne's decision on a local law is still 'to be confirmed'; the Premier's planning powers for councils have no start date we could find; PCG 2026/3 covers expenses from 1 July 2026; the unfair trading reforms are due from 1 July 2027; and foreign buyers stay shut out of established dwellings until 30 June 2029. Each rewards a host with current paperwork and a clear total price.

Search habits are changing too. People now ask assistants for a quiet apartment near a Metro Tunnel station or a house near the MCG for the Test, and the homes that surface publish clear, structured facts: walking minutes, bed lists, quiet hours, a sample total and the event dates. A host with a quick direct-booking site and a list of returning guests does not depend on any platform's search ranking for the guests who return every January or every Cup week. Getting ready for those answers now is one of the longer-lasting advantages a Melbourne owner can build, and Cavmir can do that work remotely.

Why we like the work

Why We Love Marketing in Melbourne

What I love about marketing Melbourne homes is how particular the guests are. They don't want the city in general; they want the tram line, the market, the ground, the gallery. A listing that names the suburb, the station and the walk to the tennis speaks to a guest who has already chosen, and that guest books with fewer questions and tends to leave a better review.

I also love the calendar. The Australian Open in January, the Grand Prix in April, the Cup Carnival in November and the Boxing Day Test in December each give a home a real reason to be booked, and the quiet months have their own reasons: the NGV is open daily and free to enter, Prahran Market has traded since 1864, and Queen Victoria Market posts its hours week by week. An owner who stops selling one generic weekend and starts selling six or seven reasons to come will often find the nights and the rate were there already.

And the raw material is generous. A town laid out by Robert Hoddle in 1837, a parliament that sat in two buildings, a Luna Park on the St Kilda foreshore and a tunnel with five new stations give a host more stories than a welcome book has room for. The work is finding the true angle the owner has stopped noticing, writing it plainly and putting it where a guest who is already searching will see it.

Welcome book

Picks for Your Melbourne Welcome Book

The picks Cavmir would put in a Melbourne welcome book: places we checked on official pages in October 2026, the kind of local knowledge that earns a five-star review.

Arrival

Take the Metro Tunnel

The Metro Tunnel is open, with twin 9 km tunnels and five new stations: Arden, Parkville, State Library, Town Hall and Anzac. Put the name of the nearest station, and the walk to it, in your welcome message.

Morning

Queen Victoria Market

Queen Victoria Market posts its trading hours week by week, with Thursday and Friday running from 6 am to 3 pm, Saturday from 6 am to 4 pm and Sunday from 9 am to 4 pm in the week we read, and specialty shopping opening at 9 am on market days. Tell guests to check the week's hours before they set out.

Market

Prahran Market

Prahran Market describes itself as Australia's longest serving market, founded in 1864. Its listed hours from 19 October to 29 November were 7 am to 4 pm Monday (except Monday 2 November, when it was closed) and Wednesday, 7 am to 5 pm Thursday and Friday, and 8 am to 4 pm Saturday, closed Tuesday and Sunday, including Melbourne Cup Day on 3 November. Its footer summary lists different days, so check the calendar before you send guests.

Art

NGV International

NGV International at 180 St Kilda Road opens every day from 10 am to 5 pm, with free general entry and charges for some special exhibitions. Its visit page says selected gallery spaces may close from 7 September to 13 December 2026 while the NGV Triennial is installed, so check before you promise a particular room.

City centre

Federation Square

Federation Square is home to ACMI, the museum of screen culture, the Koorie Heritage Trust, which covers the history of Aboriginal Victoria and south-east Australia, and the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, which shows Australian art. It suits a morning that needs no booking.

Sport

The MCG and the Australian Sports Museum

The MCG's website lists the Australian Sports Museum inside Gate 3, with tour options and a Committee Room restaurant package. The Boxing Day Test, Australia v New Zealand, starts on Saturday 26 December 2026 at 10:30 am and runs to Wednesday 30 December.

Seaside

Luna Park, St Kilda

Luna Park is at 18 Lower Esplanade, St Kilda, and its opening hours change day by day. Park entry is A$30 for ages 4 and over at the ticket box and includes one ride, with unlimited-ride passes listed at A$47 for ages 4 to 12 and A$57 for ages 13 and over; children aged 0 to 3 pay nothing. Check the day's hours before you go.

Gardens

Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

The Gardens' website lists a free guided walk and free Seek and Find Nature Cards, with paid tours such as the Gardens Explorer from A$12 and the Aboriginal Heritage Walk from A$40. It makes a free morning for guests staying near South Yarra.

January

The Australian Open

The Australian Open's site lists the tournament for 11 to 31 January 2027. Guests who book a summer stay near Melbourne Park will ask about the walk, the tram and a quiet bedroom, so put all three in your listing.

Racing

The Melbourne Cup Carnival at Flemington

The Victoria Racing Club lists Derby Day on 31 October 2026, Cup Day on 3 November, Oaks Day on 5 November and Stakes Day on 7 November. Prahran Market lists itself closed on Cup Day, and Queen Victoria Market's posted hours show a Tuesday closure for the public holiday.

April

The Australian Grand Prix

The Grand Prix website lists the 2027 weekend as 2, 3 and 4 April at Albert Park Circuit. Guests staying in Albert Park, South Yarra or St Kilda will want to know the walk, and the ones who stay longer may add a day out: the Mornington Peninsula has its own page on this site.

The playbook

How Cavmir Would Market Three Melbourne Homes

Cavmir has no clients in Melbourne 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.

Two-bedroom apartment in Southbank or Docklands
The situation

A tower apartment listed as a 'Melbourne CBD apartment', with the market's usual dozen photos, one rate all year and a cleaning fee that stings on a two-night stay. The owner hasn't read the building's rules since buying.

The plan

Start with the owners corporation: read its rules and minutes, and check whether a ban vote has been called. Then rework the listing around the walk to the nearest tram stop or station and the view from the floor, shoot thirty ordered photos, and write short pages for the Australian Open, the Boxing Day Test and the Cup Carnival with a sample total that includes the levy and the cleaning fee. Add a direct-booking page with a sign-up for past guests, and a mid-week offer for people visiting for work.

What it targets

Built to raise the rate in event weeks and to fill the quiet months through longer and mid-week stays. Track event-week rates against the previous year, May and June occupancy, review scores for value, and the share of direct and returning-guest bookings.

Three-bedroom terrace in Fitzroy, Collingwood or Richmond
The situation

A renovated terrace that sleeps six, listed with a generic 'inner-city home' description and two photos of the kitchen. It rents well on event weekends and sits quiet in winter, and the owner isn't sure whether to take group bookings.

The plan

Pick the guest first: a group of friends or two families in town for the tennis, the footy or a long weekend. Write the bed layout and quiet hours plainly, photograph the street, the front door and the walk to the tram, and cap the guest numbers at what the bedrooms support. Price the Cup Carnival and the Open as products with firm minimum stays, and offer a winter weekly rate with a workspace for relocating guests. Build a direct page that shows the total, the levy included.

What it targets

Aimed at lifting the rate on event weekends and the occupancy of winter weeks. Track the share of bookings from groups, complaint calls from neighbours (the goal is none), winter occupancy against the previous year, review scores and repeat bookings.

One-bedroom apartment in South Yarra or St Kilda
The situation

A well-located one-bedroom flat that competes with dozens of near-identical listings, priced by the platform's suggestion and described in two lines. Most guests are couples and Melburnians looking for a night away.

The plan

Give it a character: the walk to Prahran Market or the foreshore at St Kilda, a desk by a window, a quiet bedroom, and the best coffee spot a guest can reach on foot. Build a couples' weekend page and a mid-week page for guests in town for work. Collect the email addresses of guests who book directly, send them the January and Cup Carnival dates before the platforms do, and keep the fact sheet identical on every channel.

What it targets

Designed to win more of the couples and local guests who choose on neighbourhood detail. Track direct and repeat bookings, mid-week occupancy, the click-through from the listing to the website and review scores for location and value.

FAQ

Melbourne Airbnb Marketing: Questions, Answered

Does Cavmir offer Airbnb and holiday-home marketing in Melbourne?

Yes. Cavmir works remotely with owners and managers of Melbourne holiday homes and apartments, from Southbank and Docklands through South Yarra, St Kilda and Fitzroy to Carlton and Albert Park, covering listings, photography direction, direct-booking websites, Google and AI search, social media and email. We're a marketing agency, so permits, tax and the daily running of the home remain yours or your local manager's. For the surrounding regions, see our Mornington Peninsula, Daylesford & the Macedon Ranges, Mansfield & Mt Buller and Great Ocean Road pages.

What do holiday rentals earn in Melbourne?

AirROI's figures for October 2025 to September 2026 put the average at A$334 a night and 43.4% occupancy, about A$37,821 a year per listing and 4.9% up on the year. The range is wide: a median nightly rate of A$245 and median occupancy near 45%, against A$375 or more a night and 69% or higher for the top quarter. Entire homes with five or more bedrooms show a median of A$64,400 a year and a studio A$22,700. These are market averages and no forecast for your home; its size, suburb, presentation and rules decide where it lands.

When is demand highest for Melbourne holiday rentals?

December and January. AirROI's high season averages A$5,770 a month at 53% occupancy, January 2026 earned A$5,895 at 52.8% occupancy, and the Australian Open runs from 11 to 31 January 2027. The Boxing Day Test starts on 26 December 2026, the Grand Prix weekend is 2 to 4 April 2027 and the Cup Carnival runs from 31 October to 7 November 2026. May is the weakest month, with A$3,390 on average.

Is a permit or licence required for a Melbourne short stay?

On the State Revenue Office, Consumer Affairs Victoria and council pages we read in October 2026, we found no statewide host licence and no register for short stays. The State Revenue Office does require you to register for the short stay levy if you accept direct bookings. The City of Melbourne has no registration or night cap in force, and its work on one is paused; Port Phillip says no council permit is needed for a self-contained property of up to 9 bedrooms and 12 people. Apartment owners must follow the owners corporation's rules. Confirm your address with your council and a Victorian lawyer.

How does the Victorian short stay levy work for direct bookings?

The State Revenue Office charges 7.5% of the total booking fee on any stay shorter than 28 consecutive days, since 1 January 2025. The fee counts the nightly rate, cleaning, GST and late checkout charges, and leaves out card fees and damage charges. A platform lodges and pays on the bookings it takes. On a direct booking you register with the SRO and lodge returns yourself, quarterly once your booking fees reach A$75,000 a year and annually by 30 January otherwise. Your own principal place of residence is excluded.

Can an owners corporation stop me renting my apartment short term?

Yes, from 1 January 2025, if 75% of lot owners vote for it by special resolution (or 75% of lot entitlements on a ballot or poll). The rule can't cover a lot that is someone's principal place of residence. Apart from a ban, VCAT can fine up to A$1,100 and bar an apartment from short stays after three breach notices for separate events within 24 months. Read your building's rules and minutes before you buy.

How do I market a Melbourne home for the Australian Open and the Melbourne Cup?

Treat each as its own product. Open the calendar early, set a minimum stay, and put the walk to the venue and the tram in the title: Melbourne Park for the Open, from 11 to 31 January 2027, and Flemington for the Cup Carnival, from 31 October to 7 November 2026. Write a short page for each event with a sample total that includes the cleaning fee and the levy, keep it at one address year after year, and email past guests before the platforms do.

Can a foreign buyer purchase a holiday home in Melbourne?

Generally not an established dwelling. FIRB guidance, updated on 1 July 2026, says foreign persons are generally prohibited from buying established dwellings between 1 April 2025 and 30 June 2029, with limited exceptions. New and near-new dwellings are covered separately. Victoria also taxes absentee owners: its land tax table adds 4 percentage points to each rate. Speak to a lawyer and a broker before you commit; Cavmir covers the marketing side, not the legal side.

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