Ohio short-term rental investors looking beyond the state can find promising opportunities without abandoning the regional knowledge that helped them succeed. Erie, Pennsylvania, and Monroe County, Michigan, are nearby Lake Erie markets with familiar drive-to demand, relatively accessible property prices, and distinct investment risks. Comparing tourism, seasonality, competition, regulations, and local management requirements can help investors determine whether either market belongs in a carefully planned STR portfolio … and illustrate how to assess new markets and cross-border expansion.

What Should Ohio Short-Term Rental Investors Consider Before Expanding?

• Stay within a region you understand.

Nearby markets such as Erie and Monroe County allow Ohio investors to build on their knowledge of Lake Erie tourism, seasonal demand, and drive-to travelers instead of learning an entirely unfamiliar destination.

• Identify what consistently brings guests to the market.

Erie benefits from Presque Isle State Park and its millions of annual visitors, while Luna Pier and Monroe County attract beachgoers, anglers, and travelers from Toledo and Metro Detroit.

• Compare property prices with realistic annual revenue.

Affordable homes can improve an STR’s revenue-to-price ratio, but a low purchase price does not guarantee profitability. Investors must compare total acquisition and operating costs with conservative revenue projections.

• Treat performance data as evidence, not a promise.

Occupancy, average daily rate, and annual revenue figures vary between data providers. This is especially important in a small market such as Monroe, where a few unusually strong properties can noticeably affect the averages.

• Account for Lake Erie seasonality.

Summer revenue may have to carry a large portion of the year in both markets. Underwriting should reflect slower winter months instead of assuming that peak-season rates and occupancy will continue year-round.

• Evaluate competition and the market’s capacity for growth.

Erie has stronger established demand but considerably more listings. Monroe offers less competition, but its smaller guest pool could become saturated quickly if too many new rentals enter the market.

• Verify short-term rental rules before buying.

Permits, registrations, zoning restrictions, and local enforcement policies can change. Investors should confirm current requirements directly with the appropriate city, township, or county before committing to a property.

• Build the local operating team into the investment plan.

Remote pricing software cannot clean a property, replace a failed water heater, or help a locked-out guest. Reliable cleaners, inspectors, maintenance providers, and emergency support must be available near the rental from the beginning.

• Match the market to your existing geographic base.

Erie is a more natural extension for investors operating around Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Monroe County and Luna Pier may be easier to support from Toledo or other parts of western Ohio.

• Underwrite the individual property … not merely the destination.

Location, bedroom count, amenities, condition, guest capacity, and proximity to attractions can make one property perform very differently from another in the same town. Market averages should begin the investigation, not settle it.

Two Nearby STR Markets … and Two Very Different Investment Bets

If you have built a working short-term rental in Ohio, the natural next move is to buy more down the road. Same city, same crews, same playbook. It is the safe way to grow, and often the right one.

But two Lake Erie markets sit just outside the state line, and both are close enough that most of what you already know still applies. Erie, Pennsylvania, and Monroe County, Michigan, share the lake, the feeder cities, and the drive-to guest that Ohio operators build around every season. HomeHop has spent years managing rentals across Ohio, with the deepest roots in the northeast corner of the state, so the question is practical: can an Ohio operator step across the border without giving up the knowledge and ground game that make the business work?

This is not a pitch for either market. It looks at what each one offers, what each one costs you in headaches, and what it really takes to run a property you cannot drive to in ten minutes. Most importantly, it shows how HomeHop approaches market expansion beyond our core, evaluates particular towns, and views the STR investor market more broadly.

Why look just past the state line at all?

The case for staying regional is simple. Erie and Monroe both sit on the same body of water as Sandusky, Vermilion, and the rest of Ohio’s Lake Erie shoreline. They draw from the same pool of weekend travelers from Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toledo, Detroit, and Buffalo. They follow the same summer-heavy demand curve. A guest who books a lake house in Vermilion is the same guest who books one in Erie.

What you gain by crossing the line is a little distance from any single city’s rules and any single market’s supply swings. You are not chasing a market on the other side of the country that you would have to learn from scratch. You are extending into territory that behaves like home.

Erie, Pennsylvania: an established lake market Ohio investors overlook

Erie is not an up-and-coming idea. It is a vacation town that has been drawing families for generations, and the reason is Presque Isle.

Presque Isle does the heavy lifting

Presque Isle State Park is Pennsylvania’s most visited state park. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and multiple park sources, it draws roughly four million visitors a year, and recent reporting put visitation closer to five million during the pandemic travel surge before it settled back down in 2024. The park is a 3,200-acre sand spit with thirteen beaches, a long shoreline trail, a historic lighthouse, and the state’s only surf beach.

For most of the last century, Presque Isle has been the affordable ocean substitute for working families across western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and West Virginia. That kind of demand is durable. It is not built on a single festival or a passing trend. It is built on a beach that people have been driving to since their grandparents did.

What the rental numbers say

Performance data depends on the source, which matters before you underwrite anything. AirDNA lists Erie around 55 percent occupancy with an average daily rate near $167. AirROI, using a slightly different method, reports about 39 percent occupancy, a $170 daily rate, roughly $17,500 in annual revenue per listing, and around 240 active listings, with supply up more than 40 percent year over year. The two disagree on occupancy, so treat any single number as a starting point, not a promise.

Entry prices are reasonable. Zillow puts the typical Erie home value near $210,000, and Redfin’s recent median sale price for the city has run lower, in the $150,000 to $188,000 range depending on the month. Rabbu notes that Erie’s revenue-to-price ratio is stronger than many Pennsylvania markets, which is what makes it interesting: you are not paying a coastal premium for lake demand.

The seasonality is real, and it is steep

Here is the honest catch. Erie’s demand is concentrated hard in the warm months. Rabbu’s data shows listing revenue swinging from around $821 in January to roughly $3,644 in August. That is not a gentle curve. That means your summer has to carry your year, and your underwriting cannot lean on peak-month figures.

There are winter counterweights. Splash Lagoon is a large indoor water park that pulls families in the cold months. Erie has an arena and an event calendar, the Lake Erie wine country sits just east of the city, and the lake supports ice fishing when it freezes. None of that fully replaces a July weekend, but it keeps the shoulder seasons from going to zero.

The other thing to watch is supply. With listings up sharply, per AirROI, the market is getting more crowded, and the properties that win are well run and well positioned rather than simply available. Regulation in Erie has been relatively light, but permit and registration rules can change, so confirm the current requirements with the City of Erie before you buy.

Monroe County and Luna Pier, Michigan: a smaller opportunity right next door

If Erie is the established market, Monroe County is the one hiding in plain sight, mostly because it is so close that Ohio investors drive past it without stopping.

A small town almost on the Ohio line

Luna Pier is a city of about 1,400 people in Monroe County, roughly six miles from the Ohio border along Lake Erie. It is about 20 minutes from downtown Toledo and about 45 minutes from Detroit. Its signature feature is a long crescent-shaped concrete pier reaching into the lake, flanked by sandy beach and a replica lighthouse. For decades, it has functioned as a modest resort for people from Toledo and Metro Detroit who want a beach without a long drive.

The wider county gives guests more to do. Sterling State Park is Michigan’s only state park on Lake Erie; Lake Erie Metropark and the River Raisin National Battlefield sit nearby, and the fishing draws anglers throughout the season.

The performance data, read carefully

This is where you have to slow down. According to AirDNA’s Monroe, Michigan market page, updated in August 2026 with data through July, the market had 48 active listings earning about $20,900 in average annual revenue, at 67 percent occupancy and a $143 average daily rate. Over the trailing year, revenue rose 18.0 percent, occupancy rose 17.4 percent, the daily rate fell about 10 percent, and the number of listings actually shrank. AirDNA scored the market 92 out of 100.

Two things matter in those numbers. First, the revenue gain came from filling more nights, not from charging more; the daily rate fell while occupancy rose. Second, and more important, this is a very small market. Forty-eight listings is a thin sample, and in a market that size, one or two strong or weak properties can move the average. A single year of eighteen percent revenue growth is a snapshot, not a trend line, and it would be a mistake to assume that pace repeats year after year. Read it as a reason to look closer, not as a forecast.

The honest downsides

The small size cuts both ways. Less competition is good, but thin data makes any projection shakier, and there is less room for many operators before the market is saturated. Since the beach is a big part of the draw, water quality in a given summer can affect demand. Local officials have discussed waterfront improvements in Luna Pier, but treat any specific plan as unconfirmed until you verify it directly.

The real question: can you expand without starting over?

For an Ohio operator, the market data is the easy part. The hard part, the part that decides whether a distant property makes money or drains it, is operations.

Short-term rentals succeed or fail on the ground. A guest locked out at eleven at night, a water heater that quits on a Friday, a cleaning turn that has to happen in the four hours between checkout and check-in, an inspection that catches a problem before a guest does. None of that is solved by a good spreadsheet.

Properties aren’t managed from an office.

That sentence is the whole test of any expansion. A listing an hour or two away is not run from a desk in Cleveland. Whoever can be at the front door in thirty minutes when something breaks runs it. Cleaners, maintenance people, inspectors, and someone to answer a guest at midnight and move fast in an emergency. If those people are not in place near the property, the distance will find you.

Here is where an honest line matters. HomeHop built its systems, standards, and vendor relationships in Ohio, with the deepest bench in the Northeast. What travels is the operating model: the onboarding process, pricing and multi-channel listing strategy, cleaning standards, guest-response times, and the method for vetting and holding local vendors accountable. What has to be built fresh in any new market is the physical crew on the ground.

So the real work of expansion is porting a system that already works and then standing up reliable local labor to run it. That is doable, and it is exactly how experienced operators grow. But it is a decision to make with eyes open. The question to ask before you buy in Erie or Monroe is not only whether the revenue pencils, but whether the market is strong enough to justify building and maintaining a dependable local team.

If you already own in one of these markets and run it remotely from Ohio, the same rule applies. Software and good intentions do not replace a cleaner who shows up and a handyman who answers the phone.

Weighing Erie against Monroe

The two markets are not the same bet.

Erie is larger, more established, and backed by a tourism draw that has held up for generations. It also has more competition and a sharper seasonal swing, and for a Cleveland-based operator, it is the easier drive, about an hour and a half east on I-90.

Monroe and Luna Pier make more sense if your base is closer to Toledo or western Ohio, where the market is nearly adjacent. The recent occupancy strength is real, but the ceiling is lower, the data is thinner, and you are underwriting a much smaller pool of comparable properties.

Both are drive-to lake markets. Both are very seasonal. Both reward conservative underwriting: use trailing-twelve-month figures rather than peak months, model the winter trough honestly, confirm current local rules, and price in the cost of a reliable ground team from day one.

Where that leaves you

We aren’t recommending either town. These are two of the hundreds of towns HomeHop has investigated as we’ve expanded outside Ohio and grown our portfolio to well over 100 STR’s across the Midwest. We just signed up to manage new properties in Illinois and Indiana, and thought it might be helpful to explain the thinking we go through as we built our portfolio of short-term rentals across state lines.

The best answer to “where should you look beyond Ohio” is usually this: somewhere close enough that the knowledge and systems you already have still apply, and where you can put dependable people near the property. Erie and Monroe County both fit that description for the right operator, in different ways and for different reasons.

If you own in either market and want a second read, or you are weighing a purchase and want to talk through what management would actually take, the team at HomeHop is a sensible place to start that conversation. You can reach us through homehop.com. We are always learning; the market is always changing, and we are always delighted to have a no-pressure conversation with owners looking to grow their portfolio and geographic diversification.