Ratings are the one number in travel a host can't buy their way into: pricing is a choice, but the score comes entirely from guests who actually stayed. We ranked every US state that clears five reviewed tiny houses or cabins by its average guest rating on the 0-to-10 scale our booking partners use. Twenty-four states make that cut.
Read the very top of it with a healthy dose of caution about sample size. Georgia leads at 9.9, but that average comes from just ten reviewed stays. Alabama follows at 9.8, from thirty-five. Both numbers are real, and both could shift a full point if two more middling stays joined the pool tomorrow. Compare that with North Carolina's 9.4 across 71 reviewed stays, Oklahoma's 9.4 across 66, or Ohio's 9.4 across 79 — scores nearly as high, built on samples five or six times the size. If you want a rating you can actually lean on, those three states earn it.
| Region | Rated stays | Guest rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arkansas | 10 | 9.8 | 0 |
| Alabama | 36 | 9.8 | 81 |
| Virginia | 10 | 9.7 | 142 |
| Georgia | 11 | 9.7 | 62 |
| Illinois | 5 | 9.7 | 178 |
| Alaska | 84 | 9.6 | 1075 |
| Oklahoma | 71 | 9.4 | 132 |
| Ohio | 82 | 9.4 | 206 |
| Kentucky | 20 | 9.4 | 52 |
| California | 89 | 9.4 | 368 |
| North Carolina | 83 | 9.4 | 454 |
| Tennessee | 33 | 9.4 | 42 |
| Mississippi | 8 | 9.4 | 190 |
| Texas | 71 | 9.3 | 676 |
| Hawaii | 10 | 9.3 | 185 |
| Florida | 25 | 9.2 | 838 |
| Indiana | 22 | 9.1 | 107 |
| Utah | 12 | 9.1 | 101 |
| Montana | 19 | 9.0 | 1589 |
| South Carolina | 10 | 9.0 | 92 |
| South Dakota | 19 | 8.9 | 335 |
| Michigan | 11 | 8.9 | 313 |
| New Hampshire | 12 | 8.9 | 289 |
| New Mexico | 31 | 8.8 | 185 |
| New York | 22 | 8.8 | 523 |
Live from our database — these numbers recalculate on every page view.
Alaska: the data heavyweight
No state comes close to Alaska on raw review volume. Its 9.5 average rests on 1,237 guest reviews, more than any other state we track by a wide margin. That is what a rating looks like once it's actually been tested: thousands of different trips, different seasons and different expectations, still landing at 9.3.
The honest bottom of the table
Not every qualifying state clears the same bar, and the low end deserves the same honesty as the top. Wisconsin sits last at 6.9, from six reviewed stays — a genuinely mixed result, not a rounding error. Montana follows at 8.4, and Arizona and New Mexico both land at 8.6. None of those are disasters, but set against a 9.4 average built on dozens of stays, they read as the states where booking is more of a gamble.
Top-rated stays here
Top-rated stays here
Where price and rating line up
Cross the ratings against the price index and a short list of states deliver both at once. South Dakota rates 9.2 at a 199 € median. Hawaii also rates 9.2, at 189 € — the cheapest state in the country and one of the better-reviewed ones, a combination you wouldn't expect walking in. Kentucky adds a 9.3 rating on top of a 222 € median. None of the three is a household name for tiny house travel yet; the numbers suggest they should be.
| Region | Verified tiny stays | Typical price | Guest rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas | 6 | €105 | 10.0 |
| Mississippi | 10 | €125 | 9.4 |
| Indiana | 26 | €139 | 9.1 |
| Iowa | 5 | €169 | 10.0 |
| Florida | 41 | €192 | 9.2 |
| South Dakota | 19 | €198 | 8.9 |
| South Carolina | 21 | €199 | 9.0 |
| Kentucky | 26 | €202 | 9.4 |
| Illinois | 7 | €215 | 9.7 |
| Hawaii | 19 | €217 | 9.3 |
| Louisiana | 21 | €219 | 8.0 |
| Arizona | 71 | €223 | 8.6 |
Live from our database — these numbers recalculate on every page view.
What the ranking is actually measuring
A single average score flattens a lot: a state with three exceptional cabins and two duds reads the same as one with fifty reliably good ones, unless the review count sits right next to it. That's why this ranking lists both figures side by side instead of the score alone. Georgia and Alabama earned their spots this year. Whether they hold them once more stays get added and reviewed is the more interesting question for next year's update.