Davenport and ChampionsGate vacation rentals: are they worth it?

Search for “Davenport FL vacation homes” or “ChampionsGate Airbnb” and you will see a lot of big pool homes at nightly rates close to Kissimmee’s. The real question is what you give up in return. For a side by side look at every Orlando area, start with where to stay in Orlando. This guide zooms in on one corner of the map: Davenport, ChampionsGate and the resorts along I-4 southwest of Disney.

What county is ChampionsGate in, and where is Davenport?

ChampionsGate is in Osceola County. Solterra and Posner Park, which listings call Davenport, are in Polk County. The county line runs just south of ChampionsGate.

We checked every point with the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder. The results clear up three common mix-ups:

• ChampionsGate is Osceola. The Omni resort and the Publix on ChampionsGate Blvd are in Osceola, inside the Four Corners census area. Less than a kilometer (about half a mile) south, you are in Polk.
• The mailing address does not tell you the county. One of the homes we manage in ChampionsGate has a Davenport mailing address, ZIP 33896, yet sits in Osceola. Another home in the same resort has a Kissimmee address.
• “Davenport” is rarely the City of Davenport. Solterra and Posner Park are in unincorporated Polk County, outside city limits. Davenport City Hall is about 13 minutes south of Solterra.

Place	County (Census)	Inside Davenport city limits?
ChampionsGate (Omni and ChampionsGate Blvd)	Osceola	no
Solara Resort	Osceola	no
Solterra Resort	Polk	no
Posner Park (US 27 at I-4)	Polk	no
Davenport City Hall	Polk	yes

Source: U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder, checked October 7, 2026.

Which vacation home resorts are in Davenport and ChampionsGate?

Orlando Best Place has homes in three resorts in this area: ChampionsGate, Solterra and, a little farther north, Solara.

• ChampionsGate, in Osceola, right off I-4. It sits next to ChampionsGate Golf Club at the Omni, with two 18-hole courses designed by Greg Norman, according to Experience Kissimmee.
• Solterra Resort, in Polk, east of Posner Park, with its gate at 5200 Solterra Blvd. It is about 9 minutes from the shopping center.
• Solara Resort, in Osceola, with a Kissimmee address. It is north of ChampionsGate.

Our Disney distance ranking also includes two other resorts in this part of the map, Festival and Windsor at Westside. We do not have homes in those two.

Why are Davenport vacation homes bigger?

Because the vacation rental supply here leans toward homes with 4, 5 or more bedrooms. Market data from AirROI, a company that tracks short-term rental listings, shows the gap with Kissimmee over the same period.

Active listings, August 2025 to July 2026	Davenport	Kissimmee
Active listings	3,909	10,688
3 or more bedrooms	93.0%	80.0%
5 or more bedrooms	51.1%	35.2%
Sleeps 8 or more	85.1%	70.2%
Average stay	6.1 nights	5.7 nights
Average daily rate	$291	$290

Source: AirROI market reports for Davenport and Kissimmee.

An almost identical average rate with bigger homes in Davenport is the whole pitch for the area. Still, a market average is not the price of a home. Each home’s rate depends on its size, your dates and the resort.

As of October 2026, the homes we manage in ChampionsGate, Solterra and Solara all have 5 or 6 bedrooms.

How much does a big Davenport rental cost per person?

The fair way to compare is to divide the nightly rate by the number of guests the home sleeps. The price table on this page does that math for every Orlando Best Place home, across all areas, for the next 12 months, before cleaning and taxes.

Homes with 5 or more bedrooms have a median of $212 per night, or $14 per person with the home full. For 3 to 4 bedrooms, the median per person is $23. Compare both rows before choosing between one big house and two smaller ones.

How to split rooms, cars and the bill between families is covered in how to plan a group trip to Orlando.

How far is Davenport from Disney World and Universal?

To Disney, 18 to 23 minutes without traffic. To the Universal Studios entrance area, 31 to 37. In the drive we measured for the closest vacation home resorts to Disney, ChampionsGate came in at 18 minutes from the Magic Kingdom parking toll plaza, Solterra at 21 and Solara at 23. The closest resort on that list, in Kissimmee, is 12.

For the other drives, we routed from three points in the area.

Destination	From ChampionsGate	From Solterra	From Posner Park
Universal Studios (entrance area)	22 mi (34 km), 31 min	24 mi (39 km), 36 min	25 mi (40 km), 37 min
Epic Universe	21 mi (33 km), 29 min	23 mi (38 km), 33 min	25 mi (39 km), 34 min
Orlando International Airport (MCO)	27 mi (44 km), 39 min	30 mi (48 km), 44 min	31 mi (50 km), 45 min
Posner Park	6 mi (9 km), 10 min	5 mi (7 km), 9 min	starting point

Source: driving routes from OSRM with OpenStreetMap data, October 7, 2026, without traffic, rounded up. Starting points: the Publix on ChampionsGate Blvd, the Solterra gate (5200 Solterra Blvd) and the Target at Posner Park.

The drive to Disney and Universal is mostly on I-4, and rush hour on I-4 adds real time. Legoland Florida in Winter Haven is also in Polk County, south of Davenport. See whether Legoland Florida is worth the drive.

What is at Posner Park?

Posner Park is the open-air shopping center at US 27 and I-4, at 42650 US Hwy 27. According to Visit Central Florida, Polk County’s tourism office, its anchor stores include Target, Best Buy, HomeGoods, Marshalls, JCPenney, Ulta and Books-A-Million. There is also a Cinépolis theater with IMAX, a Starbucks and restaurants such as Chipotle.

In practice, it is where people staying in Solterra or ChampionsGate handle the first grocery run, the swimsuit someone forgot and the lost phone charger, without driving into Kissimmee.

Is the tax different in Davenport and ChampionsGate?

Yes. A home in Polk pays 12% tax on the rental, and a home in Osceola pays 13.5%. Per the Florida Department of Revenue forms, both charge the 6% state sales tax. Polk adds a 1% surtax and a 5% tourist development tax. Osceola adds a 1.5% surtax and a 6% tourist development tax.

County	Examples	State	Surtax	Tourist tax	Total
Polk	Solterra, Posner Park	6%	1%	5%	12%
Osceola	ChampionsGate, Solara	6%	1.5%	6%	13.5%

On every $1,000 of taxable rent, the difference is $15. It will not decide your trip, but it explains why two homes that look like neighbors on the map show different taxes. The county counts, not the city in the address. Every line of the bill is explained in Orlando vacation rental fees and taxes.

Airbnb in Davenport or booking direct?

The home can be the same; what changes is who charges you and how. Many homes in the area are listed on platforms such as Airbnb and can also be booked with the management company. When you book direct with Orlando Best Place, the final price with cleaning and taxes is shown before payment, there is no platform fee and payments are processed by Stripe. The full comparison is in book direct or on Airbnb.

So, is a Davenport vacation rental worth it?

Yes, if your group is large and the house matters more than the minutes. You add 6 to 11 minutes each way to the Magic Kingdom compared with the closest resort, and more to Universal.

Davenport or ChampionsGate makes sense if:

• you have 10 or more people, or two or three families traveling together;
• your trip has more Disney days than Universal days;
• you want pool and downtime days between parks;
• golf or Legoland is on the plan.

Look closer to the parks if the trip is short, the group is small, or Universal and Epic Universe are the center of your plans.

In practice: before you book, ask for the exact address and check the county. It sets your tax rate, and the real distance from the resort gate matters more than the city name in the listing. Then run the route in your GPS to the park you will visit most, at the time you plan to leave.