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Fairfield tourism report: AirBnb listings surge, but visitors want predictable restaurant hours
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FAIRFIELD – Terry Baker of Fairfield Convention & Visitors Bureau delivered her annual tourism report this fall that highlighted areas where the town is doing well, and areas it needs to improve.
To begin with the good news, Fairfield is attracting more outside visitors who are spending nights here, as measured by AirBnb bookings. In fact, the growth in AirBnb bookings is nothing short of astonishing, going from 8,000 listings in 2023 to over 11,000 in 2024. Revenue from those bookings also exploded from just under $400,000 in 2023 to over $600,000 the very next year, and Baker said that bookings for August 2025 are 54 percent higher than the same time last year.
Baker said that, while Fairfield has been good about getting people into town, it hasn’t been easy to find a place to eat. Travel writers who visit rave about the variety of food, and the town hosted famous food blogger JayJay Goodvin known as the “Iowa Gallivant” in August. But Baker has also heard from visitors perplexed by restaurants’ unusual hours, or being misled by their website into thinking they were open only to show up and discover the restaurants were closed.
“One couple told me they went to five restaurants to find something to eat, and even though their Facebook page said they were open, there was a little paper on the door that said, ‘Sorry, closed today.’ They ran into that so many times,” Baker said. “That’s one of the reasons we do our Restaurant Guide, so people know what’s available, and we try to keep it as up to date as possible.”
Baker noted that a lot of the town’s restaurants cater only to the local population, so maybe being open for weekday lunch or evening dinner, but closed on the weekends.
“If you want to take advantage of that $22 million [in tourism] coming into our community, you need to be open on Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays,” she said.
Baker said that, when the numbers come in for 2025, she wouldn’t be surprised to see a dip in tourism revenue as measured by visitor spending on lodging, food, entertainment, fuel and transportation. At the same time, she sees great things on the horizon for Fairfield’s economy, especially with the announcement of the town becoming a Main Street Iowa community.
“We’re really hoping that Main Street is going to focus on attracting new businesses and helping those businesses maintain, as well as working on some infrastructure pieces,” she said. “We want to be that megaphone that says, ‘Fairfield is worth coming to.’”
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
