Short-term rental marketing to grow bookings and nightly rate in Horseshoe Bay, from waterfront homes with a private dock on Lake LBJ to golf-course homes along the resort's fairways and lake-view condos a short drive from Marble Falls.
Sixteen services, one team. Everything below is built in-house and scoped to your property and market. Most owners start with the 12-Step System.
Every engagement is quoted to your portfolio. These are the ready-made scopes owners pick most — our Fall Special (55% off list or more) is already applied to the website, King Broker, Hotels and à la carte scopes. A clear proposal within 48 hours.
The work is public. Selected engagements and what changed — and reviews from the owners and managers behind them.
* Market averages from AirROI data for Horseshoe Bay, Texas, August 2025 to July 2026; monthly revenue is the annual average divided by twelve. ROI is Cavmir's estimate. A single home's numbers depend on its size, its location and how it is marketed.
Cavmir is an Airbnb marketing agency. We build the brand, the direct-booking website and the marketing for short-term rentals in Horseshoe Bay.
Horseshoe Bay is a small city on Lake LBJ in the Texas Hill Country, sitting across the line between the southeastern corner of Llano County and the southwestern corner of Burnet County, about six miles southwest of Marble Falls. Horseshoe Bay Resort puts the drive at about 60 miles and an hour and a quarter from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, and 84 miles from San Antonio. The town grew up around the resort and its golf, and around a lake whose level barely moves. AirROI counts about 148 active Airbnb listings here; nearly all of them are entire homes, and two in three have three or more bedrooms.
The market splits into products that book and price differently. Waterfront homes with a private boat dock on the lake's coves carry the top tier, because the dock is the reason most summer guests choose Horseshoe Bay over a hotel room. Golf-course homes along the resort's fairways carry the golf trade and the couples' weekend. Lake-view condos, townhomes and houses away from the water make up the value end. Around the lake, Marble Falls, Granite Shoals and Kingsland add their own rentals under their own rules, so a listing titled 'Lake LBJ house' competes with all of them at once.
The guest base is mostly Texan and mostly driving. AirROI's trailing twelve months to July 2026 put Austin at the top of its guest-origin list and nearly 97 percent of guests domestic, with Spanish the second language among them after English. San Antonio is under two hours away, Houston three and a half to four hours, and Dallas-Fort Worth farther still. Revenue peaks in June, July and August, March is the busiest month for occupancy, and the Hill Country's spring wildflowers, fall wine trips and the resort's Robert Trent Jones Sr. courses carry the months in between.
What sets Horseshoe Bay apart is who you're competing with. Horseshoe Bay Resort advertised rooms from $406 a night for its Fourth of July program in 2026, and AirROI's average Airbnb rate here is $407. A rental house wins on bedrooms, a private dock, a kitchen and a whole family under one roof, but only when the listing makes that case as clearly as the resort makes its own. AirROI's spread shows what's at stake: the median listing fills about 24 percent of its nights, the top quarter 40 percent or more and the top tenth 59 percent or more. Much of that gap comes down to presentation, pricing and repeat business, which is work a marketing plan can do.
Nearby Markets: Fredericksburg | Austin | Wimberley
Cavmir markets Horseshoe Bay homes as the small hospitality brands they are, the waterfront house with a dock that hosts the same Austin family every July, the golf home that fills spring and fall weekends with groups of friends, the lake-view condo that becomes a winter base for a month, rather than as interchangeable lake inventory. We put your property in front of the guest who books Horseshoe Bay on purpose, the San Antonio family planning the Fourth of July in May, the Houston couple booking a bluebonnet weekend, the returning guest who wants their week held, wherever they search, from Google and AI assistants to the email list that brings last summer's group back.
Before there was a lake, there was the Colorado River running over granite. The shoals that gave nearby Granite Shoals its name were visible in the riverbed until Wirtz Dam created the lake. The Lower Colorado River Authority built the dam in tandem with Starcke Dam downstream, and completed it in 1951 with nine floodgates. Its main jobs are hydroelectric power and serving as the cooling reservoir for the Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant, which added a tenth floodgate when it was finished in 1974. The lake behind the dam was named in 1965 for President Lyndon B. Johnson. Kingsland, meanwhile, had grown at the juncture of the Llano and Colorado rivers after the railroad arrived in 1892, with the Antlers Hotel built by railroad interests, and by the mid-1960s the Highland Lakes' retirement and recreation trade had made it a regional commercial center.
Horseshoe Bay itself is younger. The Texas State Historical Association's handbook records that cousins Wayne and Norman Hurd began developing a lakeshore resort on former ranchland around 1972, and that Wayne reportedly named it after finding a horseshoe in the lakebed when the water was down. The resort grew around golf: three Robert Trent Jones Sr. courses, Slick Rock, Apple Rock and Ram Rock, and later Summit Rock, a Jack Nicklaus Signature course kept for members. A private jet center with a 6,000-foot lighted runway serves fly-in guests. Residents incorporated as a city in 2005, and the population reached 4,257 in the 2020 count.
Short-term rentals came into focus in late 2022. In November that year the city's Development Services Director told council there were 373 short-term rentals inside city limits, and the mayor described three-bedroom homes listed for 18 people and about six repeat offenders. On January 17, 2023, council adopted Ordinance 2023-11, which added Article 4.08, Short Term Rentals, to the city code, with an annual permit, a local contact who must respond within an hour, and daily fines for violations. Implementation was set to start on March 1, with an enforcement grace period to July 1, 2023, and the city contracted with Granicus to monitor rental sites and handle registrations. The fee began at $600 a year; the fee schedule effective October 3, 2026 lists it at $1,200.
Today the market is small, family-sized and uneven. AirROI's trailing twelve months to July 2026 show about 148 active listings averaging roughly $407 a night at about 27 percent occupancy, with annual revenue per listing near $25,800, down about 9 percent on the year. A third of those listings already set a minimum stay of 30 nights or more, the line below which the city's permit applies. The gaps we look for first are the ones that cost money at these rates: photos that never show the dock or the view from it, a title that doesn't say which cove or fairway, guest counts above what the city allows, no answer to the golf-access question, and total dependence on one platform in a market where the same Texas families come back every summer when a house earns it.
Horseshoe Bay pricing is tiered by product first. Waterfront homes with a private dock carry the top tier; golf-course homes and large lake-view houses the next; condos, townhomes and smaller houses away from the water the value end. AirROI's distribution shows the spread: the median listing averages about $276 a night, the top quarter $406 or more and the top tenth $677 or more. Monthly revenue runs from about $2,227 at the median to $4,012 or more for the top quarter and $7,248 or more for the top tenth. A dock house that belongs in the top tier but presents like the median is an expensive mistake, and the fix is usually positioning before price.
The calendar's shape does the heavy lifting. June carries the year's highest nightly rate, August the most revenue and March the highest occupancy; January is the weakest month for both occupancy and revenue, and February the cheapest. AirROI's three peak months, June, July and August, average about $429 a night at 31 percent occupancy, against $361 and 24 percent in the low months of January, February and September. Guests book about 39 days ahead on average, about 61 days out for July and only about 29 for December, and the average stay is just under four nights, from about three in September to five in February.
The common mistakes are pricing Fourth of July week like any other summer week, and letting the cleaning fee do the damage. Fourth of July week belongs to families who plan around the resort's fireworks over the lake and the holiday traffic, and it deserves its own rate and minimum stay. AirROI puts the average cleaning fee here at about $248, roughly 17 percent of revenue, which can push a two-night total past what a guest expected. Half the market uses a two-night minimum, so a well-priced two-night weekend in the shoulder months and a longer minimum in July is often a better structure than one rule all year.
Moderate seasonality with a summer top. The peak months earn about twice what the low months do, and the lake itself stays steady through the year. LCRA names Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis as the region's water-supply reservoirs and holds Lake LBJ in a target operating range of 824.4 to 825 feet above sea level, so the dock that's in the water in March is still in the water in August. Lake Travis, by contrast, has ranged from a low of 614.18 feet in 1951 to a high of 710.44 feet in 1991 against a full mark of 681. March brings spring breakers, April the bluebonnets, and October and November the couples, golf groups and wine trips, so the shoulders carry more of the year than owners expect.
The revenue most owners miss sits in two places. The first is January and February, when stays run longest and a monthly product for remote workers and people trying the town before they buy fills weeks a weekend-rate model leaves dark. The second is late summer, when the river can bring a flood through the lake. The level is steady in ordinary weather, but the Llano River flows into Lake LBJ, and in a big storm LCRA opens Wirtz Dam's floodgates to pass the water on to Lake Marble Falls and Lake Travis. Say plainly in the listing what happens to a booking if the lake is closed to boating or a road is under water, and point guests to the city's CivicReady alerts and Warn Central Texas. A clear, fair policy wins the careful planner your neighbors lose.
Texas handles short-term rentals through its tax code first. The state hotel occupancy tax is 6 percent of the cost of a room, and the Comptroller says plainly that it applies to houses and condominiums as well as hotels, that people leasing their houses must collect it from guests, and that online travel companies and other third-party rental companies may also be responsible for collecting it. Returns are due monthly by the 20th, or quarterly if you qualify. Airbnb collects and remits the state's 6 percent on the listing price, including the cleaning fee, for reservations of 29 nights or fewer. The City of Horseshoe Bay says it doesn't collect a local hotel occupancy tax, and neither the city nor Llano or Burnet County appears on Airbnb's list of Texas localities where it collects. Any booking that doesn't run through a platform that collects is yours to report.
The City of Horseshoe Bay adds its own layer. Article 4.08 of the city code, adopted on January 17, 2023, requires an annual short-term rental permit for any home rented for less than 30 consecutive days, and the city's FAQ says you need it as soon as you're advertising a short-term rental, even with no open dates on the calendar. Only the owner or the owner's representative can apply, each address needs its own permit, there's no cap on how many permits the city issues or one owner holds, and permits can be renewed up to 60 days before they expire. The city's fee schedule effective October 3, 2026 lists the permit at $1,200, as does the fee section of its STR page; older city documents still say $600, so confirm the amount with Development Services when you apply. There's no routine inspection, but you certify under penalty of perjury that the home has a working type A fire extinguisher and smoke detectors, and you name a Local Responsible Party who can respond within one hour.
The operating standards are short and specific. The city's guest guidelines cap overnight guests at two adults per bedroom plus two more, so a three-bedroom home hosts eight adults. Only the house itself can be rented, not a camper, RV, trailer or second structure; only one rental contract can run at a time; and the ordinance excludes event-center and other nonresidential uses. Parking must be on paved areas, never on the street, the right-of-way or the yard. Amplified sound that carries 100 feet is allowed only from noon to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and to 11 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and holidays, and outdoor lighting must follow the city's dark-sky ordinance. Operating without a permit can bring fines of up to $200 a day for a first violation, $400 for a second and $650 for a third, and a permit can be revoked or refused if a rental is found to be harming the neighborhood's health, safety or welfare.
Then come the neighbors you can't see on a map. Horseshoe Bay sits in two counties, so your appraisal and property-tax bill come through either Llano or Burnet County, and Marble Falls, Granite Shoals and Kingsland each need checking on their own. Deed restrictions and property owners' association rules can add more, and in Texas their exact wording decides the question: in Tarr v. Timberwood Park in 2018, the Texas Supreme Court held that a covenant limiting tracts to residential purposes didn't by itself bar short-term vacation rentals. Read your own restrictions before you list. Treat this section as orientation rather than legal advice, and confirm current requirements with the city, the Comptroller and your association before you list. Cavmir handles the marketing side; permitting and tax compliance sit with you and your local professionals.
First, sell the dock as the product. Lake LBJ's steady level is the market's quiet advantage over Lake Travis, so make it visible: the first photo from the end of the dock, the second from the water looking back at the house, then the shade, the swim ladder and the view at sunset. Say what the dock holds, whether there's a lift, whether guests may bring their own boat or rent one nearby, and how far the house is by water from the resort's marina. A title that names the cove and the dock does more than three adjectives about the lake.
Second, describe golf and resort access exactly. Horseshoe Bay Resort sells play on its three Robert Trent Jones Sr. courses through stay-and-play packages and membership in The Club at Horseshoe Bay Resort, Summit Rock is members-only, and the resort says the Yacht Club's outdoor pool and beach are reserved for guests of its Signature Residences. A rental guest who arrives expecting all of that writes the review that costs you the next booking. Tell golf groups what you can deliver, confirm with the resort before you promise a round, and sell what anyone can do: Inks Lake, Longhorn Cavern, Enchanted Rock, a winery on Park Road 4 and breakfast at the Blue Bonnet Cafe.
Third, build the summer and Fourth of July product early. July books about two months out, the furthest ahead of the year, and the resort's own travel notes warn of heavier traffic out of Austin on Friday afternoons and around spring break, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day. Put arrival advice in the confirmation email: leave in the morning, watch for deer at dusk on the winding roads, and rent a car, because the resort reports that ride-share requests here are rarely completed. Price the holiday week as its own product with a longer minimum stay, and offer it to last year's family first.
Fourth, engineer the repeat and treat operations as marketing. Competition on reviews is stiff: AirROI rates the market 4.88 on average, with more than half the hosts Superhosts and about 60 percent of listings carrying a Guest Favorite badge. That argues for a real direct channel, a fast direct-booking website, a complete Google Business Profile and a past-guest list that hears about next summer first, and for a house that runs like a small hotel: a guest count inside the city's cap, the trash-day sticker on the can, a printed quiet-hours note, and the grinder-pump instructions where guests will see them. Reviews built that way defend the rate, and a neighbor can't copy them quickly.
Flood risk is the structural one, and it comes down the Llano River rather than up from the lake. In October 2018 the Llano crested at about 39.9 feet; LCRA ran four floodgates at Wirtz Dam and all ten at Starcke Dam, and bridges, docks, piers and watercraft were swept away, though most homes came through. In July 2024 the river crested at 17.2 feet at the Llano city dam and brought mud and debris into Lake LBJ. In July 2025, the Fourth of July storms that brought deadly flooding to the Hill Country, worst in Kerr County, sent the Llano over the Kingsland low-water crossing within minutes, and on July 14 LCRA opened Buchanan Dam's floodgates for the first time in six years, with two gates open at Wirtz. In July 2026 the river rose again, and Llano County's emergency coordinator said most at-risk properties had already adjusted. Insure the dock and the boat lift, keep a plan for moving furniture and watercraft, and write a fair cancellation policy for days the lake is closed.
The city's standards shape the product at the top end. A five-bedroom house can be marketed to twelve adults, not the twenty its bunk rooms might hold, and parking must fit on paved areas off the street. The permit now costs $1,200 a year, a third of the market's listings already set a 30-night minimum that puts them outside it, and the fines run by the day. That points the bigger houses at multigenerational families and golf groups who pay for space and quiet, and it makes the decision between a short-stay permit and a monthly-only product a real business question for smaller homes.
The competition is the resort as much as the house next door. Horseshoe Bay Resort sells the courses, the marina, a spa, a putting course and a fireworks show, at room rates that start close to the market's average Airbnb rate, and AirROI has average revenue per listing down about 9 percent on the year, so standing still costs money. Owners who live in Austin, San Antonio or Houston face a second problem: remotely run houses drift, with stale photos, slow replies and a January calendar nobody opens. A strong local operations partner and current marketing close that gap.
Lake LBJ insurance has to be planned around the river, not the coast. Expect flood coverage to be separate from a homeowners policy, ask how the carrier treats the dock, the boat lift and any watercraft, and check how wind and hail claims and deductibles are handled. Disclose short-term rental use to the carrier, and talk to a broker who writes Highland Lakes waterfront homes before you buy.
Guests pay Texas's 6 percent state hotel occupancy tax, which Airbnb collects on its stays of 29 nights or fewer; the City of Horseshoe Bay doesn't collect a local hotel tax. Rental income is still federal income. The city's 20 percent homestead exemption is for full-time residents, so a rental second home doesn't get it; the city's own rate is $0.26775 per $100 of assessed value, collected through Llano or Burnet County. Work with a Texas accountant who knows lake property.
Financing is conventional but sized for the product: jumbo loans for waterfront and golf-course homes, second-home or investment-property pricing depending on how you use the house, and lenders who want a realistic, summer-heavy revenue model rather than a flat monthly average. The median sale price in the 78657 ZIP code was about $674,900 over the six months to October 2026 in Resideline's tracked sample, so model the full carry, including insurance and the permit, not just the note.
Horseshoe Bay's outlook is stable for structural reasons. LCRA's $76 million replacement of all ten floodgates at Wirtz Dam installed its last gate in mid-2026, and the authority said it didn't expect to lower Lake LBJ for the work. LCRA keeps the lake within its narrow operating range, the resort's courses keep the golf trade coming, and the drive from Austin and San Antonio is short enough for a weekend. None of those reasons to visit depends on a platform's search ranking.
The pressures to watch are cost and weather. The fee schedule that took effect in October 2026 lists the permit at twice the $600 council set in 2023, and the city contracted Granicus that year to watch the rental sites, so enforcement is part of the business. Floods on the Llano have come in October 2018 and in July of 2024, 2025 and 2026, insurance costs need checking at every renewal, and AirROI's numbers show revenue per listing slipping. None of this threatens a well-run rental, but each one rewards owners who run the house professionally.
The other shift is in how guests find a house. Travelers now also find stays through AI assistants and direct search, not only platform scrolls, and the properties that surface in those answers publish clear, structured, useful information: what the dock holds, the guest limit, how golf access works, drive times from Austin and San Antonio, a plain flood policy and a fast site an assistant can read. Our guide to generative engine optimization for vacation rentals explains how that works. Horseshoe Bay's guest plans a summer week around family and a lake, and positioning for these answers now is one of the most durable advantages an owner can build.
Horseshoe Bay is a market where the water does the selling. There's a lake that stays put, a dock that's usable in August, granite in the hills around it, and a guest who drove an hour or two to get there on purpose. When a listing leans into that instead of generic lake-house copy, it attracts the family that's actually shopping for Lake LBJ, and that family tends to come back the same week next year.
What I love about marketing here is how Texan the calendar is. March belongs to spring break, April to the bluebonnets, July to the fireworks and the boat, and the fall to golf and Hill Country wine. An owner who stops marketing one generic lake house and starts marketing three seasonal products often finds nights and rate that were sitting there all along.
And the raw material is generous. A town said to be named for a horseshoe found in a dry lakebed, a cavern cleared and opened by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a cafe that has served pie in Marble Falls since 1929 and a pink granite dome under an International Dark Sky Park are the kinds of details guests repeat at dinner. Our job is rarely to invent an angle. It's to notice the true one the owner has stopped seeing, frame it plainly and put it in front of the guest already looking for exactly that.
The picks Cavmir puts in a Horseshoe Bay welcome book: the details that make a stay feel like local knowledge instead of a printed concierge script, and that quietly earn the five-star reviews.
On Park Road 4 West outside Burnet, a lake whose level usually stays steady, with nine miles of trails and the Devil's Waterhole for a short canyon hike or a swim. Kayaks, canoes and paddleboards rent at the park store. Adults pay $7, children 12 and under are free, and the park often fills, so reserve day use ahead.
The Civilian Conservation Corps cleared this cavern and built the park's facilities in the 1930s. The grounds are free and open daily except December 25; the cave itself is seen only on paid guided tours, so book a time before the trip and give guests the tour link.
On US 281 in Marble Falls since 1929 and known for breakfast and its pies. Open from 7 a.m. every day, until 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 1:45 p.m. on Sunday, and closed from Christmas Day until January 2. A good first-morning plan for guests who arrive late.
A winery on Park Road 4 West, the same road as Inks Lake State Park, pouring wines it describes as 100 percent Texas grown. Tastings run from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and to 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Pair it with Inks Lake for a full day away from the lake house.
The 425-foot pink granite dome near Fredericksburg has nearly 22 miles of trails and International Dark Sky Park status. Day passes should be reserved before the visit; adults pay $8. Put the reservation link in the welcome email; a pass booked ahead is how a guest makes sure of getting in.
The Burnet Bluebonnet Festival ran on Burnet Historic Square on April 10–12, 2026, with live music, a parade, a carnival, food vendors and the Hill Country Flyer train from Cedar Park. Check next spring's dates early and build a bluebonnet-weekend offer around them.
Horseshoe Bay Resort's annual Fourth of July fireworks go up over the lake, set to a patriotic playlist; in 2026 they were the centerpiece of a July 2–5 program. Tell dock-house guests where to watch from, and warn everyone that holiday traffic on the roads is heavy.
Horseshoe Bay Resort's jet center has a 6,000-foot lighted runway and takes aircraft up to a regional jet, about two miles from the resort. For owners with a pilot clientele, a line on ground transport from the field is worth more than a paragraph about the view.
The resort's own travel notes say ride-share requests here are rarely completed, so guests who fly into Austin-Bergstrom should rent a car for the 60-mile drive. Add a note about deer on the winding roads at dusk and an easy grocery stop on the way in.
The city's guest guidelines describe the grinder pump as the central part of a home's sewer system and ask guests to call the utility office at 830-598-8741 any time the red light on the outside unit comes on, even briefly and even after hours. One line in the house manual saves a ruined weekend.
The city allows amplified sound that carries 100 feet only from noon to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, and until 11 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and holidays, and its dark-sky ordinance keeps outdoor light off the neighbors. Guests like knowing the rules before the dock party starts.
Three property types that do well in Horseshoe Bay, a common starting point for each, and the plan Cavmir builds for it.
A lake house with a private dock that fills its summer weekends but sells the Fourth of July like any other week, advertises sleeping space beyond the city's limit of two adults per bedroom plus two, shows the kitchen before the water, and depends on one platform for every booking.
Rebuild the listing around the water and the family that books it: dock-first photography, a title that names the cove, a guest count of ten adults that matches the city's cap, a Fourth of July week with its own rate and minimum stay offered to last year's guests first, a plain flood and lake-closure policy, and a direct-booking site for returning families.
Built to raise the rate on the summer weeks that set the year and to turn one-off families into returning ones. Track June to August nightly rate against AirROI's peak-month average, how far ahead July 4 week books, the share of direct and repeat bookings, and reviews that mention the dock.
A well-kept home on the fairways that competes with Horseshoe Bay Resort for the same golf groups but never explains how course access works, so groups either book the resort for its packages or arrive expecting tee times and Yacht Club access the house can't deliver.
Position it as the golf group's base: name the course and hole in view, say exactly how the resort's courses are booked and that Summit Rock is members-only, cap the group at eight adults to match the city's rule, add a midweek spring and fall offer, and pair golf with Hill Country wine and Fredericksburg day trips for the non-golfers.
Aimed at golf-group and couples' bookings, more midweek nights in March to May and October to November, and fewer access complaints in reviews. Track group inquiries, midweek occupancy in the shoulder months, and what reviews say about golf logistics.
A smaller unit that sits empty most of January and February, prices winter weekends as discounts, and whose owner is weighing the $1,200 permit against switching to 30-night-minimum stays like a third of the market.
Run the numbers both ways, then build the stronger plan: either a permitted short-stay product for summer and spring with a monthly winter offer, or a 30-night-plus product for remote workers and people trying the town before they buy, with a fast connection, a real desk, flexible dates and a direct-booking page for returning winter guests.
Designed to fill January and February with longer stays at a steady rate and to make the permit decision on data. Measure winter occupancy, average length of stay, revenue against the permit and cleaning costs, and direct and repeat bookings.
Yes. Cavmir works with owners across Horseshoe Bay and around Lake LBJ, including Marble Falls, Granite Shoals and Kingsland, on branding, listing optimization, photography direction, direct-booking websites, SEO and paid campaigns. Waterfront homes with a dock, golf-course homes and lake-view condos are exactly the kind of stays we market. We're a marketing agency; day-to-day operations stay with you or your local manager.
AirROI's trailing twelve months to July 2026 put the average at about $407 a night and 27 percent occupancy, or roughly $25,800 a year per listing, down about 9 percent on the year. The spread is wide: the median listing earns about $2,227 a month while the top quarter earns $4,012 or more. Treat these as market averages, not a forecast for your house; product, presentation and pricing decide where a property lands.
Summer. June carries the year's highest nightly rate and August the most revenue, with the Fourth of July week at the center. March is the busiest month for occupancy thanks to spring break, April brings bluebonnet weekends, and October and November carry golf and wine trips. January is the quietest month, and February has the longest stays.
Yes. The city's Article 4.08 requires an annual permit for any stay under 30 consecutive days, listed at $1,200 in the fee schedule effective October 3, 2026, plus a local contact who can respond within an hour, and daily fines for operating without one. Texas's 6 percent hotel occupancy tax applies too; Airbnb collects it on stays of 29 nights or fewer. Confirm current requirements with the city, the Comptroller and your association; Cavmir handles the marketing side, not legal or permitting advice.
The city's guest guidelines allow two adults per bedroom plus two more, so a three-bedroom home hosts eight adults and a four-bedroom home ten. Parking has to fit on paved areas, never on the street or the yard. Market the house to the number the city allows; a listing that promises more invites complaints and fines.
Very little in ordinary weather. LCRA holds Lake LBJ in a target operating range of 824.4 to 825 feet above sea level, whose jobs are hydroelectric power and cooling the Ferguson Power Plant; LCRA's water-supply reservoirs are Buchanan and Travis, and Travis is the lake built to hold back floods. In major floods on the Llano River, as in 2018 and in July of 2025 and 2026, LCRA opens Wirtz Dam's floodgates, and the lake can carry debris and fast water for a while, so keep a plain flood policy in the listing.
Give returning guests a way to book you without a platform in the middle: a fast direct-booking website, a complete Google Business Profile, and a past-guest list that hears about next summer's dates first. Austin and San Antonio families, golf groups and winter long-stay guests tend to rebook a house that earned them; see vacation rental SEO for how search fits in, and our Austin page for the market most of your guests drive from.
It depends on scope. Current plans and one-time project pricing are on the pricing page; most owners start with a listing overhaul or the 12-step system. A conversation about your property costs nothing: contact Cavmir.
Send us the listing and we'll tell you what we'd change. Not a pitch deck — a straight read on your photos, your title, your rates against the Horseshoe Bay comp set, and whether a direct-booking site would pay for itself.
You'll hear back from a person, usually inside one business day. If we don't think we can move your numbers, we'll say so. Cavmir is a short-term rental marketing agency — we position and market properties, we don't manage them.
Demand in Horseshoe Bay peaks around June through August and runs quietest around January. Here is how the year actually books — and what to do about each stretch of the calendar.
Summer is the peak in Horseshoe Bay. June carries the year's highest nightly rate and August the most revenue, with the Fourth of July week at the center, when families come for the boat, the dock and the fireworks over Lake LBJ. Price July 4 week as its own product with a longer minimum stay, offer it to last year's guests first, and have the dock photos and summer listing ready by spring, because July books further ahead than any other month.
March is the busiest month for occupancy, driven by spring break, and April brings bluebonnet weekends around the Burnet Bluebonnet Festival. October and November carry couples, golf groups and Hill Country wine trips. Keep two-night weekends open in the shoulders, add flexible check-in days midweek, and pair the house with day trips to Inks Lake, Longhorn Cavern and Enchanted Rock in the listing copy.
January is the quietest month for occupancy and revenue, February carries the lowest rates, and September is soft after the summer rush. The quiet months book differently rather than not at all: February has the longest stays of the year, so a monthly product for remote workers and people trying the town before they buy fills weeks a weekend-rate model leaves dark. Use the slow weeks for new photography and dock maintenance.
Guests book a little over a month ahead on average. July bookings come in furthest out, around two months early, while December books on the shortest notice. Have summer and the Fourth of July dialed by spring, and keep winter and fall weekend pricing flexible for late planners.
Most stays are short, a long weekend of three or four nights, because the drive from Austin and San Antonio makes Horseshoe Bay a weekend trip. September has the shortest stays and February the longest, when monthly guests are part of the mix.
The winner is a three- to five-bedroom house with a clear reason to choose it: waterfront on one of Lake LBJ's coves with a private dock, or a golf-course home near the resort's fairways. Bedrooms sized to the city's guest limit, paved parking, a shaded outdoor living area and a short walk to the water win the summer family, while a quiet workspace and a full kitchen win the winter guest.
Start by naming your product, a waterfront home with a dock, a golf-course home or a lake-view condo, and sell that advantage in the title and the first photos. Price around the real calendar, holding summer and Fourth of July week firm and building a monthly product for February. Explain golf and resort access exactly, since guests often assume more than a rental can deliver. Add a Google Business Profile and a direct-booking site so Austin families, golf groups and winter guests can rebook you directly. That's the marketing layer Cavmir builds for owners here: photography direction, listing copy, a direct-booking website and local search.
Summer is the peak, with June carrying the highest nightly rate, August the most revenue and the Fourth of July week at the center. March is the busiest month for occupancy thanks to spring break, April brings bluebonnet weekends, and October and November carry golf and wine trips. January and September are the quietest months.
A little over a month ahead on average. Summer books furthest out, with July reservations arriving around two months early, while December moves on short notice. Have summer and the Fourth of July ready by spring and keep winter and fall weekend pricing flexible.
Mostly from Texas, by car. Austin is the top origin city, about an hour and a quarter away, followed by San Antonio, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth. Fly-in guests land at Austin-Bergstrom and rent a car, and some arrive at the resort's private jet center.
A private boat dock and a lake view lead, ideally with a boat lift and shaded outdoor living for long summer evenings. Paved parking matters because the city doesn't allow parking on the street or the yard. Golf groups want storage and a short drive to the resort's courses, and winter guests want fast wifi, a desk and a full kitchen.
Run your Airbnb, Vrbo, or website through Cavmir's free grader. It checks the things that decide whether guests book in Horseshoe Bay — photos, listing copy, page speed, local search — and shows you where bookings leak. Takes about a minute, and there's no sales call attached.
If the report says your booking engine is the weak link, that's fixable: a direct-booking website of your own means repeat guests stop paying platform fees to come back to you. That's the work Cavmir does — see Airbnb website design in Horseshoe Bay.
Talk to Cavmir today. We'll show you exactly what your Horseshoe Bay property is leaving on the table — and how fast we can change that.
Book a Free Strategy Call
