Willow and Hearth

Hotel rates in Dubai climbed 8% year over year in 2026, and short-term rental revenue in the emirate jumped 172% year over year over the same period, according to AirDNA’s own market data, updated Sept. 8, 2026. In Doha, short-term rental revenue rose even further, up 186.7% year over year, per figures reported by Travel And Tour World.

Key Points

• Dubai hotel average daily rate rose 8% year over year to AED 579 (about $158), with RevPAR up 11% to AED 467, per STR Global and JLL data cited by Travel And Tour World
• Dubai short-term rental revenue rose 172% year over year, with average annual revenue per unit near $37,200, according to AirDNA
• Dubai’s active short-term rental listings fell to about 18,900, even as revenue surged, pointing to a smaller but far more profitable pool of properties
• Doha short-term rental revenue climbed 186.7% year over year, alongside double-digit hotel RevPAR growth

The numbers point to travelers being priced, or simply squeezed, out of hotel rooms in two of the Gulf’s busiest tourism markets. In Dubai, AirDNA’s data shows the average nightly rate for a short-term rental actually fell slightly, down 10.3% year over year to about $178, even as total revenue per listing jumped 172%. That combination means bookings and occupancy did the heavy lifting: Dubai’s short-term rental occupancy rate sits at 69%, up more than 24% from a year earlier, and RevPAR for rentals is up 15.2%.

Dubai hotels, meanwhile, are running at 80.7% occupancy across more than 154,000 rooms, according to figures Travel And Tour World attributed to STR Global, with average stays around 3.7 nights. That kind of hotel demand, paired with rates rising faster than typical inflation, is exactly the environment that tends to push travelers toward apartment-style short-term rentals in neighborhoods like Dubai Marina, Downtown Dubai and Palm Jumeirah.

Doha is following a similar pattern. Hotel occupancy there has topped 70%, the highest in more than six years, across roughly 42,000 hotel keys, while the city logged 1.13 million international arrivals in the first quarter of 2026 alone. With short-term rental revenue nearly tripling year over year in neighborhoods such as West Bay and Msheireb Downtown, Doha’s rental market looks to be riding the same wave of demand that has outpaced what the city’s hotel inventory can comfortably absorb.

Both cities have leaned into tourism growth in recent years, expanding flight capacity, event calendars and hotel construction alike. The rental data suggests that expansion still isn’t keeping pace with how many travelers want a place to stay, and increasingly, those travelers are choosing an apartment over a hotel room to get one.