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Island size32 sq mi, paired with St. John (4 mi east)
Peak season14 Dec to 14 Apr (Christmas/NY peak)
Frenchman’s Bay 4BR peak$20,000 to $32,000 / wk
Trophy 8BR peak$48,000 to $62,000 / wk
Last updated2026-05
St. Thomas is 32 square miles in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the gateway island for the territory with the Cyril E. King International Airport (STT) and the cruise-port economy at Charlotte Amalie. The villa rental market splits six ways. The East End carries the trophy ridge stock at Peterborg (the highest absolute St. Thomas rates) and Mahogany Run with private cove access. Frenchman’s Bay carries the working East End villa stock with the Ritz-Carlton resort frontage. Magens Bay edge carries the public-beach-adjacent stock with the Drake’s Seat overlook routing; Magens Bay itself is ranked among the top Caribbean beaches and is the most visited St. Thomas day-beach. Hull Bay and the North Side carry the quieter swell-side stock with the local-surfer routing. Charlotte Amalie hills (Estate St. Peter, Estate Solberg) carry the historic-residential walking-to-the-harbour stock. Water Island carries the offshore-by-ferry alternative at materially below the East End rate.
The peak window is December through April. The absolute peak is the 20 December through 03 January window (Christmas-and-New-Year), with the 14 February to 14 April window the secondary peak (Presidents’ Day, school spring break, Easter). Saturday-to-Saturday is the standard cadence at most editorial-grade properties, with Christmas-and-New-Year holding a 10-to-14 night minimum. The 14 December through 14 April window is the calibration-quality window with no named-storm risk in recorded history. The hurricane season (1 June through 30 November) is closed-season for most operator-managed properties; the May and late November shoulder windows open to 5-to-7 night bookings at 40 to 55 percent below winter-peak rates.
Editorial-grade St. Thomas villa rates run $20,000 to $62,000 per week at peak. A four-bedroom Frenchman’s Bay or Mahogany Run villa with pool sits at $20,000 to $32,000. A six-bedroom East End or Peterborg ridge estate sits at $32,000 to $48,000. The trophy compounds (8-plus bedrooms, ocean-frontage, full staff) sit at $48,000 to $62,000 and up. Published low-season weekly rates at the larger 1-to-22-guest trophy tier run from $22,500 to $30,500 per week. McLaughlin Anderson Luxury Villas (managing Caribbean villas since 1985), WIMCO, Vacation VI, Island Luxury VI, and Where To Stay carry the operator-managed inventory. Airbnb and Vrbo cover the second-tier inventory at smaller-portfolio level.
This page covers the six sub-regions, the cruise-port-density-versus-villa-location math, the USVI Occupancy Tax structure, the hurricane-and-named-storm clause language, the STT airport access and the St. John ferry routing, and the cost band by group size. Specific named-villa rates carry markers where inventory pages route to direct enquiry rather than published nightly rates.