Sauna vs Hot Tub for a Short-Term Rental: Which Pays Off?

Short answer: if you can only add one, the wood-fired hot tub is the cheaper buy and the one more guests search for. The sauna costs more but books into January, February and March, when a hot tub listing is competing with every other hot tub listing in town. Sauna vs hot tub is really a question about your calendar, your power situation and your budget, so let me walk through all three.

Owner's Insights

I sell both, and I will tell you up front that neither one has sold off this site yet. The saunas, tubs and cold plunges went live in June 2026, and the push for them starts this fall. So what follows is not a victory lap. It is what I have learned pricing them, shipping them and answering the questions hosts ask before they buy.

The first question is always "which one." Hosts expect me to say sauna, because it costs more. Most of the time I say hot tub first, because it is the one guests type into the search bar, it needs no electrician, and it leaves room in the budget for the cold plunge that makes either one stand out.

The honest limitation: a wood-fired tub takes two to three hours to heat. If your guests arrive at 9 pm and want to soak at 9:15, a sauna wins that night. Plan around the check-in, not the catalog.

Sauna vs Hot Tub: Quick Comparison

Temperatures are the standard ranges: the North American Sauna Society puts a traditional sauna at 150 degrees F and up, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission says hot tub water should never pass 104. Search numbers are US Google averages pulled in September 2026.

What a Sauna Does for a Rental

Picture the check-in photo in your listing. A deck, a grill, some chairs. Now put a black cedar sauna with a glass door and a warm light inside it at the edge of that deck. That photo gets saved. That is the job a sauna does before anyone has used it.

Once they do use it, the sauna is the amenity that works hardest in the months you need it most. Searches for "outdoor sauna" run about 33,100 a month across the US and climb to 49,500 in January. Nothing else I sell peaks in January. Fire pits peak in September, hot tubs in December, and outdoor bars die in winter. A sauna fills the gap.

What it asks of you is power. Every sauna I carry comes with a Harvia electric heater, which is the Finnish brand the whole industry standardizes on, and that heater needs its own circuit. Budget for an electrician before you budget for the sauna. The other thing it asks for is a level pad. A barrel sauna is the easiest structure I sell to site, but it still cannot sit on soft ground.

Prices here run from $4,999.95 for a Finland pine barrel that seats three or four, to $11,995.95 for a red cedar cabin that seats eight with Bluetooth. Browse the outdoor saunas and start with the seat count, not the wood.

What a Hot Tub Does for a Rental

A hot tub is the amenity guests already know to ask for. "Airbnb with hot tub" gets 1,900 US searches a month, nearly three times the sauna number, and the booking platforms have had a hot tub filter for years. You are not teaching anyone what it is.

The catch is that most listings with a hot tub have a conventional electric spa. It sits at temperature 24 hours a day, it needs a 220-volt circuit, and it needs weekly water testing and monthly filter cleaning whether anyone soaked or not. For a property you visit twice a month, that is a lot of standing cost and a lot of things that can go wrong between turnovers.

The tubs I carry are wood-fired. A stove heats 422 gallons of pine tub with nothing but firewood, so there is no electrician, no running electric bill, and nothing humming in the yard at 3 am. It takes two to three hours to come up to temperature, which is the trade. Guests light it after lunch and soak after dinner. Most of them like that part.

The wood-fired tubs run $2,995.95 to $3,995.95, and one stainless model switches to a cold plunge for the rest of the year. See the wood-fired hot tubs. If you want the full picture on what a conventional spa costs to keep hot, I wrote that up in What Does It Actually Cost to Run a Hot Tub?

How Much Does a Sauna Cost Compared With a Hot Tub?

Three numbers matter: what you pay for it, what you pay to put it in, and what it costs every month after.

Purchase. A sauna here starts at $4,999.95 and a wood-fired hot tub at $2,995.95, so the tub is about two thousand dollars cheaper at the entry point. Every sauna I carry ships free, and the tubs show free shipping at checkout too, to the lower 48. Everything comes by freight truck to the curb. If your address is rural or remote, text me your zip code first and I will check it for a freight surcharge.

Installation. Both need a level, load-bearing pad. The sauna also needs an electrician for its dedicated circuit, and that is the line item that varies most by zip code. Get it quoted before you order. A full 422-gallon tub weighs over 3,500 pounds with water and people in it, so if it is going on a deck, the deck has to be built for that.

Running. The sauna uses power only while it is on, which in a rental is a few hours a week. The wood-fired tub uses firewood per soak and nothing between guests. Neither one sits at temperature around the clock the way a conventional spa does, and that is the whole reason both of them suit a property you do not live at.

If you came here searching "how much does a sauna cost," the plain answer is: five to twelve thousand for the unit, plus the electrician, plus the pad. Call or text me and I will tell you which end of that range your property actually needs.

Which One Guests Are Actually Searching For

I pulled the Google numbers before writing this, because guessing is how hosts end up with the wrong amenity. Here is what people type, averaged across the US per month.

• "airbnb with hot tub": 1,900, peaking at 3,600 in January
• "airbnb with sauna": 720, peaking at 1,000 in December and January
• "airbnb with sauna and hot tub": 90, and "airbnb with sauna and cold plunge" has more than doubled in a year
• "cold plunge": 60,500, flat all year

Read it two ways. The hot tub has the bigger crowd. The sauna has far less competition in that crowd, because almost no rental has one. Both of them get their biggest month in January, which is the month most outdoor amenities are under a tarp.

Sauna vs Hot Tub: Head-to-Head by Property

This is how I answer it when a host tells me what they own.

Ski cabin or cold-climate mountain house

Sauna. Your guests arrive cold and want heat in fifteen minutes, not three hours. Thermowood handles freeze-thaw cycles best, so look at the Aris models first. Add the cold plunge later. In January it will chill itself.

Lake house or property with a view

Wood-fired hot tub. The soak is about the view, and a sauna has no windows worth speaking of. Site the tub where the sunset lands and your listing photo takes itself.

Off-grid cabin or anywhere power is far from the yard

Wood-fired hot tub, no contest. Trenching a 220-volt line a hundred feet can cost more than the tub. Firewood does not need a permit.

Group house that sleeps eight or more

Sauna, and a big one. The six to eight person cabins and barrels seat the whole party at once, which is something a four-person tub cannot do. The Camellia and the Canadian hemlock cabin are the two I point to.

Couples retreat

Either, and this is where the stainless tub that doubles as a cold plunge earns its price. One footprint, two amenities, two seasons. If you want a sauna instead, the two-person Aris is the size of a garden shed.

Suburban three-bedroom that books families

Hot tub first for the demand, and put the rules in the house manual before the first family arrives. A sauna at 180 degrees is not a kids' amenity. A tub capped at 104 is closer to one, with supervision.

What About a Cold Plunge?

The cold plunge is the piece that makes either answer stronger. On its own it is $1,695.95, it needs a level spot and a garden hose, and it is still rare enough in rentals that guests mention it in reviews. Paired with a sauna or a hot tub, it gives you the hot-then-cold routine people call contrast therapy, and "sauna and cold plunge" alone gets about 6,600 searches a month.

I am not a doctor and I do not make health claims for a tub of cold water. What I can tell you is that a 2025 University of Oregon study compared hot water immersion with sauna and found the hot water did more for blood pressure and immune markers, which is a point for the tub. The sauna side has decades of Finnish heart research behind it. Both are heat. Both work. Pick the one your property can support and add the cold half when you can.

The Wellness collection has the sauna and cold plunge sets, which are priced below buying the two pieces separately. The cold plunge and hot tub page has the standalone units.

FAQ

Is a sauna or a hot tub better for a short-term rental?

A hot tub has more guests searching for it and costs less to buy. A sauna has almost no competition and peaks in January. If your calendar is soft in winter, buy the sauna. If your budget is under four thousand or you have no easy power, buy the wood-fired tub. If you can do one now and one later, start with the tub and add the sauna before next winter.

Do I need an electrician for a sauna or a wood-fired hot tub?

Sauna, yes. The 6 to 8 kW heater needs a dedicated circuit, and that is not a job for an extension cord. Wood-fired hot tub, no. It runs on firewood with no pump and no heater element, which is why it works at cabins where running a line would cost more than the tub.

How long does a wood-fired hot tub take to heat up?

Two to three hours from cold for a 422-gallon tub, depending on the outside temperature and how hard you run the stove. The internal stove version heats faster because the firebox sits in the water. The external stove version gives that space back to the bathers. Tell guests in the house manual to light it before dinner.

Can a sauna or hot tub stay outside all winter?

Yes. Both are built for it and winter is when they get used most. Drain a tub that will sit unused through a hard freeze, because ice expanding inside a full tub is the one thing that will crack it. Keep the sauna roof and door swing clear of snow. Thermowood saunas handle freeze-thaw best.

What rules should go in the house manual?

No unsupervised children. No alcohol in the sauna. A time limit for both. Anyone pregnant, or with a heart or blood pressure condition, should check with a doctor first. Show where the sauna door is and that it never locks. Talk to your insurer before the unit arrives, not after. Most policies handle it, but they want to know.

Does a hot tub really increase bookings?

I do not have booking data of my own yet, so I will not pretend I do. What I can point to is demand: 1,900 searches a month for "airbnb with hot tub" and a hot tub filter on every booking platform. Guests use that filter. A listing without the box checked does not appear in that search at all.

How much upkeep is there between guests?

A sauna gets wiped down and aired out. A wood-fired tub gets the ash cleared and the water drained or treated, and if guests share it you follow your local health rules the same as any hot tub. Washing and treating the exterior wood is a once-a-season job. It is less than a conventional spa, which needs weekly water tests whether anyone used it or not.

Final Verdict

Buy the wood-fired hot tub if your budget is under $4,000, you have no easy power in the yard, your property sells on a view, or your guests are mostly couples and small groups.

Buy the sauna if your calendar is soft from December to March, your guests arrive cold and want heat fast, you host groups of six or more, or you want the amenity almost no competitor in your town has.

Add the cold plunge either way. It is the cheapest piece, it needs nothing but water, and it turns one amenity into a routine guests plan trips around.

Related Reading

• What Does It Actually Cost to Run a Hot Tub?: the running costs of a conventional electric spa, which is the comparison most hosts need.
• The Best Airbnb Outdoor Upgrades: where a sauna or tub sits against the other things you could spend the money on.
• 10 Outdoor Living Space Ideas That Boost Bookings: the wider list.
• Wellness: saunas, cold plunges and hot tubs
• Outdoor saunas
• Wood-fired hot tubs
• Cold plunge and hot tubs