How much does an Airbnb really earn in Cuenca? Nightly rates, occupancy and income by area

It is the first question every owner asks and the hardest one to answer honestly, because there are no official statistics on what an Airbnb earns in Cuenca. Neither the city council nor the Ministry publishes income by accommodation, and the data platforms that do sell that information cover Quito and Guayaquil but do not break out Cuenca.

So we did the only thing that can be done: we went out and counted them. This article is the result of our own sampling of active listings in Cuenca, with the method explained below so you can judge for yourself how much it is worth.

What can be known and what cannot

Let us start with the uncomfortable part. Nobody outside the platform itself knows a listing's exact income. What can be observed from outside, and it is a fair amount, is three things: the rate each listing asks for, how many reviews it has accumulated and how fast they arrive, and what gaps its calendar shows over the coming months.

Those three signals give you an estimated range of occupancy and income. It is an estimate, not a set of accounts. Anyone who gives you an exact dollar figure for what someone else's apartment earns is making it up.

There is also a useful public benchmark: according to the market data circulating for Ecuador, the national average rate is around 51 dollars a night, with Quito at roughly 43% occupancy and about 40 dollars a night, and Guayaquil near 26% at about 49 dollars. Cuenca is not broken out in any of those sources — hence this sampling.

How we did the sampling

The sampling covered 1,000 active short-stay listings in Cuenca, spread across the seven areas in the table, during September 2026.

To make the rates comparable, all of them were checked on the same basis: entire place, two guests, and a seven-night stay. That is worth knowing, because a seven-night search usually triggers the weekly discount many hosts have set up, so the figures in the table sit somewhat below what a single night would cost. It was done on purpose: comparing one-night prices across listings with different discount policies would have produced a much noisier picture

Average rate by area

The first thing that stands out is that the Historic Centre is not the most expensive area. Avenida Remigio Crespo and Turi charge above it — 26% and 22% more than the average — while the Centre sits barely 2% above.

It is not an anomaly, it is competition. The Historic Centre has the highest density of places to stay in the city, and where there is more supply there is more pressure on price. Remigio Crespo and Turi have fewer listings fighting over the same guest, and that shows up in the rate.

The other thing to read is the gap between the extremes: from Yanuncay's 30.60 dollars to Remigio Crespo's 51.54 there is a 68% de diferencia. Similar apartments, in the same city, at almost double the rate depending on which avenue they sit on.

And a warning before drawing conclusions: la tarifa no es el ingreso. An expensive area with little demand can return less than a cheap one that fills up. Totoracocha, for example, has very few places to stay, and that can mean little competition or little demand — two very different things. The next section is the one that decides.

Real occupancy, not the occupancy you get promised

Occupancy is where expectations break most often. A new listing, with no reviews and no history, does not start at the market average: it starts below it and takes months to get there. And a city average hides enormous differences between a well-designed studio in the Historic Centre and a three-bedroom apartment in an area with no tourist demand.

What is left after expenses

Gross income is misleading. From what a place bills you have to deduct, at a minimum: the platform commission, cleaning between stays, utilities, internet, replacing amenities and linen, corrective maintenance, and the slow months. And if you delegate the management, the manager's commission.

The honest calculation is done over twelve months, not over one holiday weekend. An apartment that bills well in November and sits empty in May can return less than a more modest one with steady occupancy.

What the top-billing listings have in common

Looking at the listings that rank at the top of each area, the patterns repeat with an almost boring insistence:

• A cover photo taken in natural light, horizontal, showing the largest space in the home.
• A title that says where it is and who it suits, instead of generic adjectives.
• A description available in English as well.
• Rates that change between weekdays, weekends and holidays.
• Recent reviews: not just many, but from the last two or three months.
• Fast replies to messages, which the platform rewards in its ranking.

None of those six points depends on having a better property. They depend on how it is managed.

How to use these numbers for your own property

Find your area in the table, take the average rate, multiply it by the days you think you could fill in a normal month and take off between thirty and forty per cent for expenses and commissions. That figure, not the gross one, is what you should compare against what your property gives you today.

If the number does not add up, that is just as valuable: it means your property performs better on a traditional long-term rental, and that is also a decision made with data.

And before putting any property up for short-stay rental it is worth being clear about what the law requires in Cuenca: the Tourism Registry, the LUAF licence and the guest register.