Short-term rental marketing for Charlotte County on Passamaquoddy Bay, from heritage houses a short walk from Water Street in Saint Andrews to cottages and domes in Chamcook and Bayside and island homes on Campobello, Deer Island and Grand Manan, aimed at fuller summers, a longer fall and a stronger nightly rate.
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* Market averages in Canadian dollars from AirROI data for the Town of Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, October 2025 to September 2026, converted from US dollars at 1.39. 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 Saint Andrews.
This page covers the New Brunswick shore of Passamaquoddy Bay in Charlotte County, the corner of the province that looks across the water at Maine. Saint Andrews is its center: a town of about 3,000 people where the Algonquin has taken guests since 1889 and which, since New Brunswick's local governance reform took effect on January 1, 2023, also takes in Bayside and Chamcook. St. Stephen, now the Municipal District of St. Stephen, sits at the border crossing with Calais, Maine, about 20 minutes away. Offshore are the Fundy Isles: Deer Island, a 20-minute ferry ride from Letete; Campobello, joined by bridge to Lubec, Maine; and Grand Manan, 90 minutes by ferry from Blacks Harbour. Saint John is about an hour's drive east. A family booking a July week near Water Street, a couple who want a dome in the woods in March and a group taking the ferry to a Grand Manan cottage in August want different things from a rental, and a listing does best when it picks one of them and writes to that guest.
The town charges more than the rest of the province. In AirROI's data for the Town of Saint Andrews, the 68 active listings of the latest twelve months, October 2025 through September 2026, averaged about C$328 a night at 48.6% occupancy; New Brunswick as a whole averaged C$210 and 44%, and Canada C$280 and 45%. The average listing took in about C$36,790, 10.5% more than the year before, even as the number of listings fell 6%. A tenth of the town's listings charge C$555 a night or more, and its best-earning listing of the year, a four-bedroom house, took in about C$160,300 at C$725 a night and 64% occupancy. Grand Manan is a separate AirROI market of 47 listings at about C$214 a night and 46% occupancy, where revenue per listing rose 17.1% to about C$26,200, and Saint John, the nearest city, counts 230 listings at C$157. A word on currency: AirROI's underlying figures are in US dollars, and it shows Canadian markets at 1.39, near the Bank of Canada's average for October 2025 to September 2026, so the C$ figures quoted here carry that conversion.
Saint Andrews draws most of its guests from two countries. In AirROI's guest data, 65.9% of Saint Andrews guests are Canadian and 30.6% come from the United States; Fredericton, Toronto, Ottawa, Saint John and Moncton are the top five origin cities, and AirROI counts 21.3% of the guests who left reviews as French speakers. The town puts Boston about six hours away by car, Halifax five and Montreal eight, and it points fly-in visitors to Saint John Airport and Fredericton International Airport. Saint John Airport's airline partners include Air Canada, Flair and Pascan.
The rules are light at the provincial level and changing in town. We found no New Brunswick registry or licence for short-term rentals, and no official provincial statement either way; the province studied the sector in 2023 and its housing minister promised a task force in 2024, so confirm the current position with the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture. The province's Tourism Development Act still asks anyone who rents sleeping accommodation to the traveling public to keep a guest register and, unless exempt, to file monthly occupancy reports. The Town of Saint Andrews charges a 3.5% Tourism Accommodation Levy on stays of up to 31 days in a row and names Airbnb and Vrbo rentals among the places that must charge it, and the levy isn't on Airbnb's list of the Canadian taxes it collects. The town is also writing a new municipal plan and zoning by-law, due by January 1, 2028, and its guide to the draft lists short-term rental among the terms the zone pages spell out.
Those facts belong in the marketing. The levy as its own line, the tide schedule for Ministers Island and the ferry times to the islands are things guests plan around, and a guest who finds them in the listing has fewer questions to send. Cavmir handles the marketing layer: positioning and listing copy, a shot list for the photographer, a fast booking site of your own, search and AI-visibility work, and ad campaigns timed for Fredericton, Toronto, Ottawa and New England. Levy returns, zoning questions and income tax stay with the owner and the owner's lawyer, accountant or manager. The sections below cover the numbers, the rules local government by local government, the calendar from the Ministers Island opening in May to the October festivals, and three plans: a heritage house in town, a cottage on Grand Manan and a dome near the bay.
Nearby Markets: Bar Harbor | Chester & Lunenburg | Cavendish & North Rustico
Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Cavmir sells each Passamaquoddy Bay property to the guest it suits, under the rules of the local government it stands in. A heritage house in Saint Andrews goes to market on the walk to Water Street, with the levy shown correctly from the first quote; a dome or cabin near Chamcook sells privacy and a view for two in any season; and a Grand Manan cottage sells the island, the ferry and a full week. The Fredericton family planning its summer, the Toronto couple flying in for September whales and the Boston friends driving up for a long weekend each start their search somewhere different, so the plan covers Google search and Maps, the AI assistants guests now ask, Instagram, and a short email each winter to the people who stayed last summer. Cavmir is a marketing agency and nothing more here: the keys, the guest messages and the turnovers stay with you or your manager, and every inquiry from the direct site lands in your own inbox.
Long before the Van Horne era, the island's own history page says, Ministers Island was an important summer camp for the Passamaquoddy First Nations, and Qonasqamkuk, now known as St. Andrews, was an important meeting place where the Passamaquoddy held sacred ceremonies. The same page notes that Passamaquoddy Bay was known for its abundance of fish, particularly pollock, hence the Passamaquoddy people were known as the Peskotomuhkati, 'Fishers of Pollock.' The town's heritage page gives Qua-nos-cumcook as the name the Peskotomuhkati Nation at Skutik uses for the town. Saint Andrews itself was founded in 1783 by United Empire Loyalists who fled the American Revolution. From 1784 to 1967 it was the shiretown of Charlotte County, home to the courts, local government and professional offices that served the county and the Fundy Isles, and it was incorporated as a town in 1903. The town says it holds the country's largest collection of authenticated heritage buildings, dating back to the 18th century; by its count the Canadian Register of Historic Places lists 118 places in St. Andrews, and the town is known as a National Historic Site of Canada.
The town armed itself early. During the War of 1812, fearing American privateers and soldiers, townspeople raised money and, with militia support, built two blockhouses, one for each of two batteries; a carronade sat on the upper floor and Royal Artillery soldiers lived in barracks below for the rest of the war. The one at Joes Point survives, and Parks Canada calls it the only remaining blockhouse in Canada built for the War of 1812. Just off the shore, Ministers Island takes its name from the Reverend Samuel Andrews, the rector of St. Andrews, formerly of Wallingford, Connecticut, who bought the island from a Captain Osborn between 1788 and 1791 for 250 pounds and built a stone cottage there.
The Algonquin opened in 1889, one of Canada's first seaside resorts in the hotel's own account, and the town's heritage page calls Saint Andrews the first and oldest seaside resort. A golf course opened in the hotel's early decades, and after a fire in 1914 it was rebuilt in the Tudor style it still wears. Guests came by train, and the hotel's own timeline has them still arriving by rail when it reopened after the Second World War. William Van Horne, who became vice-president of the Canadian Pacific Railway in September 1885, its president within four years and chairman of its board in 1899, bought part of Ministers Island in 1890 and built a 50-room summer home there. The timber barn was designed and built in 1899 by Edward Maxwell and Van Horne, and the bathhouse on the shore served as his studio. His daughter Addie acquired the last piece of the island after his death in 1915; the province made it a protected site in 1977, Parks Canada's national historic sites board designated it in 1996, and a volunteer charity has run it under a long-term provincial lease since 2008.
The islands and the border town have their own stories. Franklin Roosevelt came to Campobello as a child, as a young husband whose third son was born on the island, and as President. On January 22, 1964, Prime Minister Lester Pearson and President Lyndon Johnson signed the treaty that created the commission for Roosevelt Campobello International Park, which opened that August 20; Canada and the United States own it together, appoint equal numbers of commissioners and split its costs. On the mainland, Ganong has made candy in St. Stephen since 1873, with heart-shaped boxes and Chicken Bones among the confectionery firsts it claims for Canada, and St. Stephen was named Canada's Chocolate Town in 2000. Saint Andrews has honors of its own: the Canadian Institute of Planners named Water Street one of its Great Places in Canada in 2016, and the street has been the center of the town's shops and community life for about 200 years.
The rental market grew up around that history, and the people running it are mostly owners. In AirROI's figures for the twelve months to September 2026, 88% of Saint Andrews listings are entire homes and 57% are houses; two-bedroom places are the most common size, at 36% of entire homes, and four-bedroom homes make up 14%. Unique stays such as domes are 8.8% of the market, and two dome listings sit among its six top earners. Three in four listings are run by Superhosts, a quarter use a co-host and fewer than 1% are professionally managed. The market is consolidating rather than adding supply: active listings fell 6% over the year while revenue per listing rose 10.5%, and on Grand Manan the count fell 8% while revenue rose 17.1%.
Guests rate the town highly, 4.95 on average, and 90% of listings carry Airbnb's Guest Favorite badge; value is the weakest category at 4.86, while check-in, location and communication score highest. AirROI also finds no Saint Andrews listing showing a permit number, which fits the absence of any provincial number we could find, and only about a third of listings show their exact location. The first fixes we look for in a listing here follow from those numbers: a first photo of the kitchen instead of the bay, no mention of the tide when the house is a walk from the Ministers Island bar, no word on the levy until the bill arrives, a vague map pin that hides a five-minute walk to Water Street, and a calendar that goes quiet after Thanksgiving.
Regulation has come in small steps. The Tourism Development Act of 2008 replaced the older act in the province's 1973 Revised Statutes with duties to keep guest registers and file occupancy reports, and no licence. In April 2023, months after the reform that brought Bayside and Chamcook into the town, Saint Andrews enacted its accommodation levy. The province looked into short-term rentals in 2023 and 2024, as the regulation section below sets out, without producing rules we could find. Meanwhile the town's planning rewrite, which council set in motion in the summer of 2023, now has three drafts of a new zoning by-law posted.
Rates spread widely, and space and position set them. Half of Saint Andrews listings charged C$265 a night or less in AirROI's latest twelve months; a quarter charged C$360 or more, a tenth C$555 or more, and the cheapest quarter C$195 or less. Three-bedroom homes averaged about C$357 a night at 54% occupancy and C$44,500 a year, two-bedroom homes C$292 at 53% and C$35,900, and one-bedroom places C$285 at 48% and C$33,900, so the third bedroom is where the rate steps up. In the months a listing was open for guests, the middle listing took in about C$3,660 and the top quarter C$5,450 or more. Grand Manan prices lower and books longer: a median of about C$200 a night, C$245 or more for the top quarter, stays averaging 5.5 nights and about C$2,850 for the median listing in an open month.
The C$3,070 in the box sits below those monthly figures because of how it's built: it takes the average listing's year, about C$36,790, and divides it across all twelve months, open or not. Only 45.6% of Saint Andrews listings were open for 271 days or more, and 41% were booked or blocked for just 91 to 180 days. Summer carries the year: July 2026 brought the average listing about C$8,750 and August about C$8,640, at roughly C$370 a night, while February brought about C$1,920. Two small changes move the total, by AirROI's arithmetic: selling ten more nights a year at the median rate adds about C$2,650, and charging 10% more on the nights you already sell adds about C$3,370. Subtract the Airbnb fee, cleaning and laundry, utilities, supplies, repairs, insurance and permit costs, about C$12,540 in AirROI's model, and the average listing is left with roughly C$24,250 a year, or C$2,020 a month, for its mortgage and property tax; the top quarter keeps about C$36,320.
Fees and settings shape what the guest sees at checkout. Most listings, 82.4% of them, add a cleaning fee, with a median of C$122 and an average of C$140, about C$27 a night at the median over the average 4.5-night stay, and cleaning fees make up 8.4% of gross revenue. Half the market uses a two-night minimum, a quarter accept one night, 16% ask for three and only 7% for four nights or more, and 61% use a firm or strict cancellation policy. August stays averaged five nights, so a summer minimum of four or five nights with a set changeover day suits the larger houses, while two nights fits the rest of the year. Guests here mark value lower than anything else, 4.86 against 4.95 overall, so the checkout total deserves as much care as the photos.
Quote the whole price. In Saint Andrews, Bayside and Chamcook, every stay of up to 31 days carries the 3.5% Tourism Accommodation Levy, which the town wants shown as its own line and which is not subject to HST, on top of New Brunswick's 15% HST where it applies. Airbnb takes care of GST/HST for hosts who aren't registered, but its list of Canadian local taxes has no New Brunswick entry, so the levy is the operator's to collect and remit on every booking, platform or direct; ask the town how it wants the levy shown on platform stays. A direct-booking site that adds rate, cleaning fee, HST and levy before the guest pays shows the real figure up front. Campobello, Deer Island, Grand Manan and St. Stephen lie outside the town, so its levy doesn't apply there; ask each local government whether it charges one of its own.
The year here climbs steeply into summer. In AirROI's typical year for Saint Andrews, a listing earns about C$8,500 in August and C$1,910 in February, about 4.4 times as much, and the three strongest months bring in 45% of annual revenue. AirROI's high season runs June through September at about 62% occupancy, October is the shoulder at about 43%, and November through May averages about 33%. Summer guests plan early. Stays in July 2026 were booked about 132 days out on average and August's about 119; January's were booked about a month ahead and March's about 26 days. Grand Manan follows the same curve with an even stronger August, 80.5% occupancy in 2026, booked about 107 days ahead.
September and October hold up. September 2025 ran 57.5% occupancy at about C$315 a night and October 42.4% at C$304, and both beat every month from November to April. The fall has its own draws: whale tours run until the end of October, Ministers Island stayed open until October 18 in 2026, and the town's 2026 calendar had the 12th Charlotte County Pumpkin Festival at Kingsbrae Garden on October 10 and the Indulge Food & Wine Festival from October 16 to 18. Sell October in August: a line in the checkout message and a fall rate on your own site reach summer guests while they're still enjoying the house.
Winter is quiet but not empty. From November 2025 through April 2026, occupancy ran between about 28% and 37% at nightly rates of about C$278 to C$291, and guests booked roughly a month to two months ahead. March and April brought the longest stays of the year, 5.5 and 5.7 nights on average, so a weekly or monthly winter rate is worth testing. A winter listing should sell what keeps running: the ferries to Deer Island and Grand Manan cross all year, the town's arena calendar includes free public skating, and the Algonquin's USVA Thermal Experience adds outdoor hydrotherapy pools and saunas, so check its winter hours before you promise it. Kingsbrae Garden, closed for the winter, reopens on May 20, 2027, and the slow months are for reshooting photos, fixing what the summer wore out and writing next year's note to past guests.
Start with the province, because there's little there. We found no New Brunswick registry, licence or registration number for short-term rentals as of October 2026, and no statement on the province's website that settles the question either way. In November 2023 Housing NB said it was studying the sector with the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture and would use the data to decide its next steps, and Global News reported that Fredericton was then the only city in the province that had regulated short-term rentals. In February 2024 the housing minister pledged a task force to the mayors of the larger cities, to look at how short-term rentals should be regulated; a provincial spokesperson said the aim was a mid-March launch, and Moncton's mayor said the minister put the number of homes used as short-term rentals at about 3,400, roughly 0.7% of the province's housing. We found no rules that came of it, and an industry guide updated in July 2026 also describes New Brunswick as having no provincial registry. None of that is an official answer, so confirm with the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture what applies before you advertise; a provincial number, if one arrives, would belong in every listing.
One provincial law does reach rentals. The Tourism Development Act, 2008, in force since December 2, 2008, covers any premises run to provide sleeping accommodation for the traveling public. Unless a regulation exempts them, operators must keep a register with each guest's name and place of residence, the place of registration and plate number of any vehicle, and the unit used, and must file an occupancy report with the minister within 10 days after each month of operation; inspectors may ask to see the register. Regulation 2008-141 sets the register's retention at 18 months and lists the exemptions: a private cottage, a seasonal residence used mainly by the owner and immediate family, needs neither register nor reports, and a tourist home, a private residence run as roofed accommodation, bed and breakfasts included, skips the monthly reports but keeps the register. Failing to keep the register is a category C offense under the Provincial Offences Procedure Act, and missing reports a category B offense. The Act doesn't say where a whole-home rental fits, so ask the department. The 2008 bill also amended the Residential Tenancies Act so that living space in a tourist establishment isn't treated as premises under that Act when someone stays there less than 90 consecutive days, which means a winter let of three months or more may be a tenancy with a tenant's rights. The province asked for more public input on its review of the Residential Tenancies Act in April 2026, so take any long winter let to a lawyer before you agree to it.
The Town of Saint Andrews has included the former local service districts of Bayside and Chamcook since January 1, 2023, and its building permits, zoning and planning approvals go through the Southwest New Brunswick Service Commission (SNBSC), whose planners work from St. Stephen. Zoning today is the town's Z22 zoning by-law, amended twelve times between June 2022 and December 2025, and the old Bayside Rural Plan is still on the town's by-law list. That is about to change. The Community Planning Act gives a new municipality five years to adopt a plan, so the town needs a new Municipal Plan, MP25, and Zoning By-law, Z25, in place by January 1, 2028. Planners met stakeholders in 2023 and the town mailed a survey in June 2024; open houses, a formal public presentation and review sessions followed, with more sessions on the draft zoning by-law in 2026, and three drafts of Z25 are now posted. The town's guide to the draft lists short-term rental among the terms its zone pages spell out in more detail. We couldn't open the draft's text, so we can't say which zones would allow short-term rentals or on what conditions: before you buy, build or add a suite, ask the SNBSC how your lot is zoned now and how the latest draft would zone it.
The levy is already in force. Under By-Law 23-01, enacted on April 17, 2023, accommodation in Saint Andrews, Bayside and Chamcook carries a 3.5% Tourism Accommodation Levy on the purchase price. The town lists hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, Airbnbs, Vrbo rentals, cottages, resorts and campgrounds among those who must charge it, and it counts as a short-term rental any temporary sleeping accommodation for 31 days in a row or less. Every place of business registers with the town by March 31 each year and receives its own Registration Identification Number. The levy goes on the invoice as a separate line marked as not subject to HST, and operators report every quarter, by April 30, July 30 and October 30 for the first three, filing even when they collected nothing. The town's table gives December 31 for the fourth quarter, which doesn't match its own 30-days-after rule, so confirm that date with the town office at 212 Water Street. A conviction under the by-law brings an administrative penalty fine set in its Schedule A, paying it doesn't end the duty to comply, and the money raised pays for marketing and promoting tourism.
Beyond the town, other local governments take over. St. Stephen and the districts around it, Dufferin and Dennis Weston among them, became the Municipal District of St. Stephen. The reform left the Rural Community of Campobello Island and the Village of Grand Manan as they were and placed Deer Island and White Head Island in the new Southwest Rural District, for which the SNBSC's site has a page on a new rural plan. The commission takes permit and planning applications for all of them. We found no short-term rental licence in any of them, but each has its own zoning, so ask the SNBSC before you list, and ask each local government whether it charges a levy of its own; none appears on Airbnb's tax list.
Taxes complete the picture. New Brunswick's HST is 15%. Hosts with no GST/HST number leave the tax to Airbnb, which charges it on any Airbnb booking of 30 nights or less, the cleaning fee too, and pays it over to the CRA; a host with a number gives it to Airbnb and files the tax personally. The CRA's small-supplier line is C$30,000 of taxable sales, counted in any one calendar quarter or across four consecutive ones, and once you cross it registration is no longer optional. Ottawa's income-tax rule applies here as everywhere: for tax years after 2023, the CRA treats a short-term rental, any stay under 90 consecutive days, as non-compliant on days it ran where such rentals aren't allowed or without a registration, licence or permit the province or municipality required, and it disallows that share of the year's expenses by formula. Keep your levy registration and any permit dates with your tax file. Read all of this as a map, not as legal advice: the town office, the SNBSC, a New Brunswick lawyer and your accountant decide the details, and Cavmir sticks to marketing the stay.
Put the tide in the listing. Ministers Island opens only around low tide, by car, bicycle or on foot along a gravel road across the ocean floor from the end of Bar Road, and its hours change every day, so a guest who checks the tide before planning the day gets the best of the stay. Link the island's daily hours in your guide, say how far the house is from Bar Road, and if the view changes with the tide, photograph the bay at both. Treat the paperwork the same way: show the levy as a separate line from the first quote, name the local government the house sits in, and describe a dome, cabin or bunkie as the separate building it is.
Sell the walk and the water. Guests choose Saint Andrews for Water Street, the Algonquin, Kingsbrae and the bay, so the first lines should give the walking time to Water Street and the first photos should show the house's view of the water, if it has one, before any room. Only about a third of listings here show their exact location, and the average listing carries about 10 photos, which leaves room to stand out with a full set: the street, the view, each bedroom and the walk into town. A heritage house should say what's original and when it was built. In summer, list the whale tours, the Blockhouse, Kingsbrae and Ministers Island with their seasons, since all four close for the winter, and keep the aquarium on the rainy-day list.
Price the steep year in three parts. Summer bookings arrive about four months ahead, so have July and August priced, with their minimum stays, before the snow melts, and keep the larger houses for stays of four nights or more that start on a fixed day. September and October deserve their own copy and rates: the whale tours, the last weeks of the Ministers Island season and the October festivals give couples a reason to come midweek. From November to April guests book closer in and stay longest in March and April, so add a weekly rate, keep the calendar open and sell a warm house by the bay instead of a list of summer attractions that are closed.
Market to the guests who drive, then to the ones who fly. Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton are three of the top five origin cities and all three are within a few hours by car, so they're the natural market for weekends and the off-season; reach them with search, Instagram and a Google Business Profile that shows the house in every season. Toronto and Ottawa come next, and with 21.3% of reviewing guests speaking French, a French version of the house details and rules on your direct site is worth adding. American guests make up 30.6% of the total, and the crossing at Calais is 20 minutes from town, so write for the driver from Boston, six hours away: the border, the documents to carry, the total in Canadian dollars with a rough US-dollar figure, and, on Campobello, Atlantic time. Run the paid campaigns from January through March, while those cities are choosing their summer trips.
Keep the guests who already know the house. The Fredericton family that wants the same August week next year, the couple who come back for the whales each September and the Ontario visitors who return for Kingsbrae can book without a platform if you make it easy: a direct-booking website that works quickly on a phone and shows rate, levy and HST as one figure, a Google Business Profile with photos from every season, and a short email each January that offers last year's guests first choice of dates. Saint Andrews stays already average 4.95 stars, so a quick answer and a fair total matter more than a discount.
Summer has to pay for a whole year of costs. August earns about four times what February does, the three best months bring in 45% of a typical year's revenue, and AirROI's model has the average listing spending about C$12,540 a year on platform fees, cleaning, utilities, supplies, upkeep, insurance and permits, with the mortgage and property tax still to come. More than half of Saint Andrews listings are open fewer than 271 days a year, so a house marketed only for July and August sits empty much of the time. The remedy we'd try first is a winter offer of its own, aimed at New Brunswick's cities on short notice, plus a way for last summer's guests to rebook without a platform.
The rules may change under you. The town's new zoning by-law is on its third posted draft, lists short-term rental among the terms it spells out and must be adopted by January 1, 2028, and the province has studied short-term rentals and promised a task force without, so far, writing rules we could find. A house that works under Z22 today may face conditions under Z25, so a buyer should read the latest draft with a planner before signing, keep the levy registration current and keep records of the dates the house operated, since the CRA's deduction rule works day by day.
The competition is across the water as well as in town. AirROI's nearby markets include Lubec, Maine, with 64 listings at about C$351 a night, and Eastport, with 54 at about C$322, both within about 30 km, so an American family pricing a week on the bay sees both sides of the border. The islands add logistics: Grand Manan is a 90-minute ferry ride, Deer Island 20 minutes by ferry, and Campobello's road link runs through Maine while the island keeps Atlantic time, an hour ahead of Lubec. With fewer than 1% of listings professionally managed, most owners run their own houses, and an owner who lives away needs current photos, quick replies and a local contact who can reach the house the same day.
We found no provincial or town rule that sets an insurance minimum for short-term rentals here, so the policy is between you and your insurer. Tell the insurer plainly that the house takes paying guests by the night, find out how the policy handles an injured guest or a damaged kayak or bicycle you supply, and have the rental use named in the policy itself. AirROI's model budgets about C$370 a year for rental insurance on an average Saint Andrews listing; treat that as a starting guess until a broker who insures coastal New Brunswick homes gives you a real quote, and ask how the policy treats a house that sits empty for weeks in winter.
Settle three tax questions before the season. The first is HST: once taxable sales pass C$30,000 in one calendar quarter or over four in a row, you must register and charge New Brunswick's 15%, and an accountant can tell you whether to register sooner or let Airbnb collect it on Airbnb stays. The second is the Saint Andrews levy: 3.5% on stays of up to 31 days, shown as its own line, not subject to HST and reported quarterly. The third is property tax: New Brunswick gives homeowners a tax credit on their primary residence, which a second home or rental property doesn't get, so ask Service New Brunswick's property assessment office how the house will be classed before you count on a number.
Start with what houses in town are asking. On REW in late October 2026, the 26 houses for sale in St. Andrews had a median asking price of about C$685,000, with asks running from about C$300,000 to C$3 million. The wider benchmarks sit lower: NB REALTORS put New Brunswick's MLS benchmark price for a single-family home at C$342,800 in September 2026, up 2.7% on the year, with 5.6 months of inventory, and Royal LePage's 2026 report on recreational property gives C$581,300 as the 2025 weighted median single-family price across Canada's recreational regions and expects the Atlantic regions to reach a median of C$361,305 in 2026. Asking prices aren't sale prices, and a heritage house near Water Street or a house on the water can cost well above the town's median, so underwrite the actual property, model only the weeks you can sell and leave room for the levy, the HST and a quiet winter.
The rules are the first thing to watch. Saint Andrews must adopt its new municipal plan and zoning by-law by January 1, 2028, and the town's guide to the draft already lists short-term rental among the terms it spells out, so the next drafts and hearings will decide where and how houses can be rented in town. The province's study and the task force promised in 2024 haven't produced rules we could find, but if a registration number does arrive, listings that already show their levy registration and house rules will have the least to change. The levy matters too: it pays for tourism marketing, so owners who collect it have a stake in how the town sells its shoulder season.
Access is changing. Since June 15, 2026, Pascan's flights from Saint John to Montréal Metropolitan Airport connect on one ticket to Porter's network, from both Toronto airports to Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Vancouver, which puts a week in Saint Andrews one connection away from much of Canada. By road, Bangor, Maine, is about two and a half hours from Campobello, and Boston about six hours from Saint Andrews. Write the listing for each arrival: the drive from Saint John, the crossing at Calais, the ferry times for the islands and a total in Canadian dollars.
Trip planning is moving to AI assistants as well. A family planning August can ask one for a house in Saint Andrews that sleeps eight within a walk of Water Street, with whale tours and Ministers Island nearby, and get an answer before opening a booking app. Those tools lean on text they can find, which is why a house website listing its beds, its minutes to Water Street, the levy and its summer dates is easier for them to recommend. Cavmir's guide to generative engine optimization for vacation rentals lays out the method, and it's why Cavmir treats the direct-booking site and AI visibility as one job.
What I love about Saint Andrews is that the tide sets part of the schedule. Ministers Island can be reached only when the water drops off the bar, and its opening hours move every day, so one of the most useful lines in a listing is a link to the island's hours. Guests remember the house that told them when to cross.
I also like how much of the town's story is on the record. A Loyalist town founded in 1783, a blockhouse from the War of 1812, a resort hotel taking guests since 1889 and the barn William Van Horne built in 1899 are all documented, so a listing can name them plainly, and every fact in it can be checked.
And the range keeps the work interesting: heritage houses a few minutes from Water Street, domes and cabins in the woods near Chamcook, cottages on Grand Manan reached by ferry, summer houses on Campobello an hour ahead of Maine. Each has a different guest and a different best month, and finding that match is the part of the job I enjoy most.
What we'd put in the guest book of a house on Passamaquoddy Bay: places that are open in their season, from the island you reach at low tide to the chocolate museum at the border, and the page every guest should read first.
Reached only around low tide, by car, bicycle or on foot along a gravel road across the ocean floor from the end of Bar Road, so its hours change every day. The 500-acre island holds the Van Horne estate, its 1899 barn and walking trails, and its 2026 season ran from May 16 to October 18. Check the posted hours before sending guests across.
Twenty-seven acres of themed gardens with more than 50,000 perennials, ponds and streams, old-growth Acadian forest, alpacas and dozens of sculptures, with Sage Restaurant on site. It's closed for the winter and reopens on May 20, 2027; the By The Sea Beer Festival is set there for June 11 to 13, 2027.
Built by townspeople with militia support during the War of 1812, and the only blockhouse left in Canada from that war, according to Parks Canada. It stands at 23 Joes Point Road; the 2026 season ran June 2 to August 31, Tuesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with daily fees and free admission for youth.
A tall ship built in New Zealand has taken passengers onto the Bay of Fundy since 1995, and a faster 12-passenger boat takes smaller groups. Whale season runs from June to the end of October, and the company's site shows finback whales and mentions porpoises and sunning seals. Book ahead for summer weekends.
Run by Huntsman Marine, a non-profit ocean charity at work since 1969, at 1 Lower Campus Road. Beyond the aquarium, its guided programs include Walk Between the Tides, three hours from C$35, and a three-hour Citizen Scientist Marine Cruise from C$70; check the visitor page for the aquarium's hours.
Taking guests since 1889, rebuilt in the Tudor style after a 1914 fire, and reopened after a 2012–2014 restoration as Canada's first Marriott Autograph Collection hotel. It has a championship golf course and the new USVA Thermal Experience, an outdoor spa of hydrotherapy pools and saunas, at 184 Adolphus Street.
Thursdays in Market Square on Water Street through the summer; the 2026 season ended on October 1. Put the day in the welcome note so a summer week includes a morning there.
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's summer home and 2,600 acres of trails and carriage drives, owned and run by Canada and the United States together. Admission, the Roosevelt Cottage included, is free; the park keeps Atlantic time and its historic buildings open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in season. Reach it by the bridge from Lubec, Maine, or by the summer car ferry from Deer Island.
Coastal Transport's ferries cross from Blacks Harbour to North Head in about 90 minutes. The Grand Manan Adventure, which carries 82 cars, runs all year, and the Grand Manan V adds crossings from late June to early September. From Ingalls Head, a free ferry reaches White Head Island in 20 minutes.
In the original Ganong factory at 73 Milltown Boulevard, telling the story of candy-making in a town where Ganong has made candy since 1873 and that was named Canada's Chocolate Town in 2000. It opens in late spring and makes a good stop on the way to or from the Calais crossing.
Start the welcome book with what guests need on day one: the levy registration and how it appears on their bill, how many guests the house sleeps, the house rules, today's Ministers Island hours, ferry times for island houses, and the name and number of someone nearby who picks up.
Three property types that do well in Saint Andrews, a common starting point for each, and the plan Cavmir builds for it.
A three-bedroom heritage house a few minutes' walk from Water Street, used by the owner's family in early July and rented for the rest of the summer. It sells two-night stays at one flat rate all season, opens its photo set with the kitchen, never mentions the tide or Ministers Island, and has no registration for the town's 3.5% levy.
Cavmir starts with the town: the levy registration, a separate levy line on every quote, and a call to the SNBSC planners about the lot's zoning under Z22 and the latest Z25 draft. With that settled, the listing leads with the walk to Water Street and the wharf, July and August become stays of four nights or more with a set changeover day, the new photo brief starts outside with the street and the bay, and the direct site carries the levy, the HST and a past-guest sign-up, with a short French version of the house details.
A compliant summer listing priced for its position, a checkout total guests can trust, and a fall season with its own offer. Track the July and August rate, October bookings, repeat guests, French-language inquiries and the share booked direct.
A two-bedroom cottage on Grand Manan, the island's most common size, rented by an owner who lives in Fredericton. The listing says nothing about the ferry, accepts one-night stays in August, charges no cleaning fee and closes from October to May.
Cavmir first confirms the cottage's zoning with the SNBSC and asks the Village of Grand Manan whether it has rules of its own. The new listing explains the crossing from Blacks Harbour step by step, sets a minimum of several nights in July and August so guests aren't taking the ferry for a single night, adds a modest cleaning fee, and photographs the shore and the trails. A September offer and a quiet winter week for writers and birders give the cottage something to sell outside summer, and the direct site gives the family that came in August a way back.
A cottage sold on the island and the crossing rather than on price, with summer stays long enough to justify the ferry and a shoulder season of its own. Track August and September occupancy, average stay, repeat families and direct bookings.
A one-bedroom dome on a wooded lot near the bay, inside the Town of Saint Andrews since 2023 and built for couples. It rents well in summer, sits empty most weekdays from November to April, shows the same three photos all year and charges no levy, because the owner assumed the levy applied only to hotels.
Cavmir begins with the paperwork: the levy registration, since the town names cottages and Airbnbs among the accommodations that must charge it, and a check with the SNBSC that the dome is permitted where it stands. Then the dome gets a winter product: a weekday rate, a two-night minimum, photographs at dusk and in snow, and copy aimed at couples in Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton who book on short notice. Instagram and the direct site carry the same images, and past guests hear about the winter rate first.
Designed to make a summer dome a year-round stay for couples, with clean paperwork behind it. Track weekday nights from November to April, the winter rate, review scores and the share of stays booked direct.
Yes. Cavmir markets heritage houses, cottages, domes and cabins, inns and bed-and-breakfast rooms in Saint Andrews, Chamcook and Bayside, in St. Stephen and on Campobello, Deer Island and Grand Manan. Cavmir builds the brand and the listing, writes the photo brief, sets up a direct-booking website, works on search and AI visibility and runs paid campaigns; for the grandest houses on the water or in the historic district there's the estates and private collections tier. The property, its keys and its guests remain yours or your manager's; Cavmir's work ends at the marketing.
On AirROI's numbers for the year to September 2026, the average Saint Andrews listing charged about C$328 a night at 49% occupancy and grossed about C$36,790. Divided by twelve, that's the C$3,070 a month in the box, lower than nightly rate times occupancy would suggest, since a large share of houses here take guests for only part of the year. A three-bedroom house averaged closer to C$44,500 a year, and a Grand Manan listing about C$26,200, at C$214 a night with 46% of nights booked; both figures are AirROI's, converted from US dollars at about 1.39. Read the box's 4–6% as a rough yield band for a Saint Andrews house, not a forecast. C$36,790 is about 5.4% of C$685,000, the median asking price of the houses for sale in St. Andrews on REW in late October 2026, and about 6.3% of C$581,300, Royal LePage's 2025 median for a single-family house across the country's recreational regions; take off AirROI's running costs of about C$12,540 and those two figures fall to about 3.5% and 4.2%. That spread, about 3.5% to 6.3%, is what the box rounds to 4–6%. New Brunswick's province-wide benchmark of C$342,800 is about half the town's asking median, so it isn't a fair guide here, asking prices aren't sale prices, and a house bought for more earns proportionally less: read these figures as direction, not a promise.
July and August. AirROI shows Saint Andrews at 70.6% occupancy in July 2026 and 72% in August at about C$370 a night, with stays booked about four months ahead, and Grand Manan at 80.5% in August. June and September are strong shoulders: whale tours run from June to the end of October, Ministers Island is open from mid-May to mid-October, and October brings festivals at Kingsbrae Garden and in town. Winter is quiet, with occupancy between about 28% and 37% from November to April, and guests book roughly a month to two months out.
Not that we could find as of October 2026, though we found no official provincial statement either way. The province studied short-term rentals in 2023 and its housing minister promised a task force in February 2024, but we found no provincial registry, licence or number to display. Two other layers do apply. The Tourism Development Act asks operators of sleeping accommodation to keep a guest register and, unless exempt, file monthly occupancy reports, and in Saint Andrews, Bayside and Chamcook the town requires registration for its 3.5% Tourism Accommodation Levy by March 31 each year. Zoning applies everywhere, and the town's new zoning by-law, which lists short-term rental among the terms it spells out, is in draft. Cavmir can't give legal or permit advice, so check with the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture, the town and the SNBSC before your first booking.
The HST in part, and the levy not at all, going by Airbnb's own list. Without a GST/HST number, you can leave New Brunswick's 15% to Airbnb: it adds the tax to any booking of up to 30 nights, cleaning fee and all, and sends it to the CRA. With a number, you give it to Airbnb and the tax becomes yours to account for. Airbnb's Canadian tax page names no New Brunswick levy among the taxes it collects, and the town counts Airbnb and Vrbo rentals among the places that must charge its 3.5%, so collecting it, showing it as its own line and reporting it each quarter is your job. On direct bookings, both are yours.
Mostly the logistics. Grand Manan is about 90 minutes by ferry from Blacks Harbour, with one ferry all year and a second from late June to early September, and AirROI's Grand Manan market of 47 listings averaged about C$214 a night with stays of about 5.5 nights. Deer Island is a 20-minute ferry ride from Letete. Campobello's bridge runs to Lubec, Maine, so a drive from Saint Andrews passes through the United States; the island keeps Atlantic time, an hour ahead of Lubec, and in summer a car ferry also runs from Deer Island. The town's levy doesn't reach the islands, which have their own local governments: the Rural Community of Campobello Island, the Village of Grand Manan and, for Deer Island and White Head Island, the Southwest Rural District, all served by the SNBSC for zoning and permits.
Less than you might think on the rental side. Many of your guests may be American too, since 30.6% of Saint Andrews' Airbnb guests come from the United States and the Calais crossing is 20 minutes from town. The rules don't change with your address: the levy registration, zoning and the Tourism Development Act apply the same way, and the HST and income-tax questions belong with an accountant who works with cross-border owners. Property tax is where being away shows, since New Brunswick's homeowner credit is for a primary residence. A local contact who answers the phone and can reach the house quickly covers the days you're not there, and a direct site lets American guests see a clear total in Canadian dollars.
It depends on the property and how much of the work it needs. A good first step for an owner here is one of two things: a rebuild of the listing you already have, or the full 12-step system. Monthly plans and one-off projects are on the pricing page, search is covered on the vacation rental SEO page, and a first look at your property costs nothing if you get in touch.
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 Saint Andrews 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 Saint Andrews peaks around July through August and runs quietest around January through February. Here is how the year actually books — and what to do about each stretch of the calendar.
July and August are the peak around Saint Andrews and the Fundy Isles, and August is the strongest month both in town and on Grand Manan. Summer families and American drivers book those weeks about four months ahead, so have the summer rates, the minimum stays and the photos of the bay settled by early spring. Sell the larger houses by the week with a fixed changeover day and hold the high-summer rate firm.
June, September and October hold up well here. Whale tours on the bay run from June to the end of October, Ministers Island is open from mid-May into mid-October, and October brings festivals at Kingsbrae Garden and in town. Use two-night minimums, a weekday rate and offers built around those dates, and put the fall offer in front of summer guests before they check out.
November through May is the quiet stretch, and winter guests book a few weeks to a couple of months out; Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton, a short drive away, are the natural market for a weekend then. Late winter and early spring bring some of the longest stays of the year, so a weekly or monthly rate is worth testing. Keep the calendar open, sell a warm house by the bay for a weekend away, and use the slow months to reshoot photos, fix what summer wore out and write next year's note to past guests.
Guests book two to three months ahead on average. July and August book furthest out, around four months ahead, while winter and early spring stays are booked about a month or two before arrival. Have summer ready by early spring and keep winter pricing open for late planners.
Stays run four to five nights on average. They were longest in late winter, early spring and August, while November trips averaged under three nights. Grand Manan stays run a little longer than the town's.
The winner is a two- or three-bedroom house with a view of the bay and an easy walk to Water Street, or a larger heritage house in town that can take a family for a week. Three-bedroom homes out-earn the smaller sizes, and domes and cabins for couples do well when they sell privacy and the view. On the islands, a cottage that explains the ferry and sells a full week suits the guests who make the crossing.
Start by naming the product: a heritage house a walk from Water Street, a cottage or dome near the bay, or an island home on Grand Manan or Campobello, and sell that in the title and the first photos, taken outside with the water in view where you can. Price around the real calendar, holding July and August firm, giving September and October their own rates and offers, and keeping winter open for short-notice guests from around the province. Then give past guests a direct way back through a fast website, a Google Business Profile and a short email list. Cavmir builds that layer for owners here: the photo direction, the listing copy, the direct-booking site and the local and AI search work.
July and August, with August the strongest month in town and on Grand Manan. June and September are solid shoulders, with whale tours running from June to the end of October and Ministers Island open from mid-May to mid-October, and October brings festivals at Kingsbrae Garden and in town. November through May is quiet: late-fall trips are short, while March and April bring some of the longest stays of the year.
Two to three months ahead on average. Summer books furthest out, around four months ahead for July and August, while winter and early spring stays are booked about a month or two before arrival. Have the summer calendar, rates and photos ready by early spring, and keep winter pricing open for late planners.
Most are Canadian, led by Fredericton, Toronto, Ottawa, Saint John and Moncton, and a large share come from the United States, with the border crossing at Calais a short drive from town. Fly-in guests use Saint John Airport or Fredericton International Airport, and about a fifth of the guests who leave reviews speak French, so key details in French help.
A view of the water comes first, with a deck or porch to enjoy it and, where you have it, beach access. Most listings already offer parking and a barbecue, so those are expected rather than special. A washer and dryer matter for week-long summer stays, and a fireplace or wood stove and fast wifi help sell the colder months to weekend guests.
Run your Airbnb, Vrbo, or website through Cavmir's free grader. It checks the things that decide whether guests book in Saint Andrews — 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 Saint Andrews.
Talk to Cavmir today. We'll show you exactly what your Saint Andrews property is leaving on the table — and how fast we can change that.
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