Vacation Rental Management
Vacation Rental Management in Cape Cod, MA
Across Cape Cod's fifteen towns, from Mashpee and Falmouth out to Chatham and Provincetown, Fairly runs vacation homes through the summer rush and the quiet months between, with listings on Airbnb, Vrbo and Fairly.com, a caretaker who lives nearby, and every Massachusetts room occupancy excise collected and remitted.
4.8
Average review in Cape Cod, MA
Fairly is an Airbnb Superhost, and our homes average 4.84 stars across 21,000+ guest reviews. 87% of those reviews are five stars. Better reviews attract better guests, at higher prices, maximizing your revenue.
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Cape Cod market overview
Cape Cod is Barnstable County: fifteen towns on the peninsula that runs from the Cape Cod Canal out to Provincetown, with Cape Cod Bay on its north shore and Nantucket Sound to the south. Guests come for the beaches (the bay's tidal flats, the warmer water along the Sound, and the Atlantic surf of the Cape Cod National Seashore) and for harbor villages from Woods Hole to Chatham.
The calendar is about as seasonal as American vacation markets get. Among top-performing homes, occupancy runs around 80% in July and only slightly lower in August, and nightly rates peak in the same two months. June and September are short shoulders at well under half the summer's occupancy. From November through March occupancy sits in the single digits, and nightly rates fall to about half of July's. A Cape home earns most of its year in roughly ten weeks, so pricing those weeks well decides the result. Fairly has its own pages for six Cape towns: Falmouth and Mashpee on the Upper Cape, Barnstable and Yarmouth in the Mid-Cape, and Harwich and Chatham at the elbow.
What homes earn in Cape Cod, MA
The chart reflects top-performing vacation rentals across Cape Cod: homes on Airbnb and Vrbo with a review score of 4.8 or higher that were available or rented at least 300 days of the year, in every Cape town from Bourne to Provincetown. July and August carry most of the annual revenue, June and September add thin shoulders, and winter contributes little. Where a specific home lands depends on its town, its distance to the water and how many it sleeps. You can customize a projection for a specific home.
| Month | Total rent | Occupancy | Avg. daily rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | $360 | 4% | $290 |
| Feb | $385 | 5% | $275 |
| Mar | $436 | 5% | $281 |
| Apr | $824 | 9% | $305 |
| May | $2,243 | 18% | $402 |
| Jun | $6,899 | 45% | $511 |
| Jul | $14,434 | 80% | $582 |
| Aug | $13,940 | 77% | $584 |
| Sep | $5,368 | 36% | $497 |
| Oct | $2,321 | 19% | $394 |
| Nov | $926 | 9% | $343 |
| Dec | $686 | 7% | $316 |
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This is based on properties listed on Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com with an average review score of 4.8 out of 5 or higher, limited to homes available or rented at least 300 days a year. Earnings vary based on the unique amenities and qualities of each home.
A guaranteed $5,000 increase in earnings
We guarantee that homeowners coming from self management or other managers will make an extra $5,000 in their first year with Fairly.
Vacation Rental Taxes and Regulations in Cape Cod, MA
Short-term rentals across the Cape
Short-term rentals operate throughout Cape Cod, but there is no Cape-wide or Barnstable County permit. The Cape's fifteen towns each set their own local rules, so what a rental needs depends on the town it sits in.
Lodging taxes
Every stay of 31 days or fewer carries the 5.7% Massachusetts room occupancy excise, a 6% local room occupancy excise and the 2.75% Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund excise. Every Cape town levies both local excises, so the total is 14.45% wherever the home sits, charged on everything the guest pays for the stay, cleaning fees included. Dennis, Falmouth, Orleans, Provincetown, Truro and Wellfleet also levy a 3% community impact fee on professionally managed units: one of two or more short-term rentals the same operator runs in that town, outside a building that includes the operator's primary residence. All of it is reported to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue on one monthly return, and the Department publishes each town's current local rates.
Registering your rental
Start with the state. Every rental is registered with the Department of Revenue through MassTaxConnect, which issues a Certificate of Registration that must be posted inside the home. Massachusetts law also requires the operator to carry at least $1 million in liability insurance for each short-term rental, unless the booking platform maintains equal or greater coverage.
Town registration comes next, through each town's health or building department. The Town of Barnstable requires every rental to register with its Board of Health. Yarmouth registers rentals yearly through its Health Department, with an annual inspection, and Falmouth has adopted a Board of Health licensing bylaw. Fairly's Falmouth and Yarmouth pages cover those towns in detail.
Mashpee
Mashpee's Board of Health issues a Rental Certificate after an inspection, and the Building Department inspects again every year. The certificate sets occupancy at two guests per bedroom and names a responsible person who answers emergencies within 24 hours. Town Meeting has also voted to limit new rentals: homes that held a Rental Certificate before the vote keep renting as before, while any other home may rent short-term only if an owner or host lives in it, either in a bedroom year-round or in the whole home for at least eight months of the year. A summer-only whole-home rental cannot qualify, so if you are buying in Mashpee to rent, find out first whether the home already holds a certificate.
How Fairly handles it
Fairly registers your home for the Massachusetts room occupancy excise, collects the state, town and Water Protection Fund excises (and the community impact fee where a town levies it) on every booking, and files and remits the monthly return. We also assist with your town's registration or certificate application and its renewals.
Operating a vacation rental in Cape Cod, MA
Every car, cleaner and delivery reaches the Cape over one of two bridges across the Cape Cod Canal, and summer weekends, when most stays change over, are when that traffic is heaviest. Turnovers run back-to-back through July and August, with sand, beach gear, outdoor showers and linens to reset between groups. Salt air and nor'easters are hard on roofs, decks and HVAC, so the off-season is when a home gets its maintenance, and an empty house still needs its heat and plumbing watched through the winter.
Some towns attach standing conditions to a rental. Mashpee and Yarmouth inspect rentals every year, and Mashpee's Board of Health requires a named responsible person who answers emergencies within 24 hours. A Fairly caretaker lives nearby and handles every turnover personally, which is the kind of reachable local contact that rule asks for.
Frequently asked questions
Fairly's management fee in Cape Cod is a flat 20% commission on rental revenue — no long-term contract, no hidden fees, and nothing charged until the home books. For that, we list it on Airbnb, Vrbo and Fairly.com, set its prices, answer its guests, and collect and remit the lodging taxes. Your caretaker is paid the full cleaning fee guests pay plus a share of the commission.
Yes. Short-term rentals operate throughout Cape Cod, but each of its fifteen towns sets its own rules, usually a registration or certificate through the town's health or building department on top of the state Certificate of Registration. Mashpee now requires an owner or host to live in any newly certified rental, so check whether a Mashpee home already holds a certificate before you buy.
Stays of 31 days or fewer carry the 5.7% state room occupancy excise, a 6% town excise and the 2.75% Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund excise, which comes to 14.45% in every Cape town. Six towns add a 3% community impact fee on professionally managed units. Fairly collects and remits all of it on every booking.
July and August, by a wide margin. Top-performing Cape homes run around 80% occupancy in July with nightly rates at their peak, and August is close behind. June and September are short shoulders, and from November through March occupancy is in the single digits, so the summer weeks decide most of a year's revenue.
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Fairly Vacation Rental Management
Serving Cape Cod, MA and neighboring areas
Available 24/7