Does a sauna add value to an Airbnb?

What does the Gold Coast listing data actually show?

It shows spa premiums, not sauna premiums, and the two get confused constantly. Airbnb's own Gold Coast sauna category lists stays from around $46 a night before taxes and fees. That confirms sauna listings exist locally. It says nothing about a rate premium, because a search category mixes property size, location, view and quality, and a sauna could easily be the smallest factor in that $46 figure.

Our own listing data project tracked 484 live Gold Coast and South East Queensland listings in August 2026 and found a nightly rate premium tied to spas, controlled for bedroom count: 12% for 2 bedroom listings, 23% for 3 bedroom, and 9% for 4 bedroom, see our listing data. Separately, an AirDNA-based analysis reported nationally that listings with a hot tub earn about 14.3% more , which sits inside our band. Neither number is about a sauna, and about 55% of the listings we tracked already have a spa, so it is a crowded amenity, not a rare one.

Where do inflated sauna nightly-rate numbers come from?

Mostly from companies that sell saunas. There is no public, methodology-disclosed dataset behind figures like an inflated nightly-rate percentage or "occupancy up to 22%". They get repeated from retailer to retailer until they sound like research. They are not.

General Gold Coast market reports exist, but they measure the whole short-term rental market, not saunas. One market report cites around 5,514 active Gold Coast listings and 88% average occupancy for FY2025. A separate host guide cites a different range, 66% to 79% occupancy and $320 to $381 average daily rate. Both are vendor-reported estimates from different sources and time windows, not a single official statistic, and neither breaks out sauna-only listings. If a number cannot tell you its sample and period, it cannot tell you what caused it.

A spa is not a sauna

The premium our data measures sits on the "spa" checkbox in a listing, which is the wet amenity our dataset can actually see at scale. Saunas are far less common in the listing pool, and no comparable checkbox-level dataset exists for them yet. Cold plunges are rarer again and untracked entirely.

Amenities also do not add up the way marketing implies. A 2026 peer-reviewed study on Airbnb amenity bundles found that some amenities lift revenue only in combination, and that a pool offered on its own was sometimes negatively associated with revenue. That is a warning against treating any single amenity, sauna included, as a guaranteed lift. A rundown of amenities guests respond to makes the same point: it is the whole stay, not one feature, that gets booked.

What we don't know

Being straight about the gaps is more useful than filling them with a made-up number:

• What share of Gold Coast listings have a sauna specifically.
• Any premium figure for a cold plunge, alone or paired with a sauna.
• Any occupancy uplift caused by a sauna, our data speaks to rate, not occupancy.
• Any resale or property value dollar figure linked to installing a sauna.

Anyone who states one of those four things as fact is quoting a number that does not exist publicly. Ask them where it came from.

Do the maths: what a sauna costs before it earns anything

A sauna is an enclosed cedar cabin heated to about 90 degrees C by an electric element, and that element is the running cost. A representative commercial heater, the Harvia Vega BC60 , is rated at 6.0 kW for a cabin of 5 to 8 cubic metres, a size in the range of a small backyard sauna. Using the Energex-area flat reference rate of about 28 cents per kWh from a 2026 to 27 standing offer schedule , a 6 kW heater running continuously would cost roughly $1.26 for 45 minutes, $2.52 for 90 minutes, and $3.36 for two hours. A thermostat that cycles the element after warm-up usually brings the real figure down, and tariffs vary by retailer, so check the Default Market Offer or a local rate comparison such as current Energex-area pricing against your own bill before assuming any of the above.

The question to ask any seller: what is the heater's rated draw in kW, not a flattering "typical session cost". A rated draw times your tariff times your actual session length is the only honest sum, and it is one you can do yourself in thirty seconds.

If the data can't tell you the return, at least get the size right

With no reliable sauna-specific ROI figure to chase, sizing to the property is the practical decision left. As a rule of thumb: 1 to 2 bedroom properties suit a 2-person build, and 3 or more bedrooms suit a 4-person build, which is what most short-stay properties end up choosing. Installed prices, current as of this writing, are the reference point:

• The Cube (2 people): 1200 x 1500 x 2000 mm, $8,498 installed, plus delivery.
• The Cube (4 people): 1800 x 1800 x 2100 mm, $11,498 installed, plus delivery.
• Plunge Cedar: a 2-person cedar cold plunge, $5,000 installed, plus delivery. A tub deeper than 300 mm can count as a regulated pool under Queensland's Building Act, so check barrier requirements before you commit to a hot-and-cold pairing.

Get the size right for the property first. Chase a rate premium once there is actual sauna-specific data to chase, not before.

Questions to ask before you believe any sauna ROI claim

• Which listings, exactly, is this percentage measured against?
• Matched for bedroom count, location and other amenities, or not?
• What period does the data cover, and how many listings?
• Is this actually a spa or hot tub figure being relabelled as a sauna figure?
• Who published the underlying dataset, and can I see it?

Any seller, us included, should be able to answer all five in writing. If they cannot, the number is marketing, not data.

Frequently asked questions

General information only. Figures quoted are measured on Gold Coast and South East Queensland short-stay listings and are not a promise of what any one property will earn. Nothing here is tax, insurance or building advice; check with your accountant, your insurer and your local council.