How to use the short term rental calculator
- Enter your nightly rate, occupancy and the average stay in nights.
- Enter the cleaning fee you charge and the cleaning cost you pay per stay, plus the platform fee and any property manager fee.
- Enter your monthly mortgage or rent, utilities, supplies, insurance and taxes and fees. Every default is an example.
- Optionally add a long-term rent in the advanced options to compare. Read the monthly and yearly profit, the break-even occupancy and the comparison.
Formula
Booked nights = 365 x occupancy
Stays = booked nights / average stay
Revenue = nights x rate + stays x cleaning fee
Profit = revenue - platform fee - manager fee - stays x cleaning cost - 12 x monthly costs
Break-even occupancy = yearly fixed costs / (365 x profit per booked night). Profit per booked night = (rate + cleaning fee / stay) x (1 - percent fees) - cleaning cost / stay.
Worked example
At $150 a night, 65% occupancy and 3 night stays, you book 237.25 nights across 79.08 stays. Revenue is $42,705 a year. The platform fee of 3% is $1,281.15 and a manager at 10% is $4,270.50. Cleaning costs $6,326.67, and fixed costs of $2,430 a month come to $29,160.
Profit is $1,666.68 a year, or $138.89 a month, and break-even occupancy is 61.49%. A long-term rental at $2,100 with half a month empty and $2,080 a month of costs loses $810 a year, so the short-term plan is ahead by $2,476.68 on these inputs.
Where the money goes
Short-term rentals earn more per night but carry costs that long-term leases push to the tenant: utilities, supplies, cleaning and platform fees. Occupancy matters because fixed costs such as the mortgage do not change when nights go unbooked. The break-even occupancy shows how much of the year must be booked before the property pays for itself.
Comparing with a long-term lease
The comparison uses your own long-term rent, your own months empty, and the monthly costs you would still pay. Those inputs decide the answer, so test a range. For a full return on a purchase, including appreciation and financing, see the rental property calculator, and for the price you should ask on a lease see the net effective rent calculator.
What to check before relying on it
Local rules, permits, lodging taxes and insurance requirements differ by city and can change your costs or rule out short stays entirely. Furnishing and startup costs, seasonal rates, income tax and your own time are not modeled. Replace each example value with a figure you trust, such as your platform statements and bills.
Assumptions and limits
- The year has 365 nights. Occupancy is applied evenly, with one rate for every night, and stays are not rounded to whole numbers.
- The platform fee and the manager fee are percentages of nightly income plus cleaning fees collected. Fixed costs are the same every month.
- No rate here is typical for any market. Every default is an example for you to replace with your own figure.
- Lodging taxes, income tax, furnishing, startup costs, seasonality and local rules are not modeled. This is arithmetic, not tax or investment advice.
Frequently asked questions
How is Airbnb profit calculated?
Add nightly income and cleaning fees to get revenue, then subtract platform fees, any manager fee, cleaning costs and fixed monthly costs. What is left is profit.
What is break-even occupancy?
It is the share of nights you must book for profit to reach zero. Below it you lose money, and above it each extra booked night adds the profit per night shown in the steps.
Why can break-even occupancy be above 100%?
If your fixed costs are larger than the profit all 365 nights could earn, no booking level covers them. The calculator shows the number so you can see how far off the plan is.
How should I compare short-term and long-term rent?
Put the same costs on both sides. Enter the long-term rent, the months it may sit empty and only the monthly costs you would still pay, since a tenant often covers utilities.