Airbnb Profit / Loss Calculator
Project short-term rental income, costs, and profit against a long-term let.
Details
Across the whole year, not peak season
Per stay, paid by the guest
Monthly profit
$2,815
Cash-on-cash
–
RevPAR
$160
Stays a year
76
Break-even occupancy
18.3%
Nights booked
228
Long-term profit / yr
-$9,000
Short-term ahead by
$42,784
This projects income and costs for a short-term rental from your nightly rate and occupancy, down to the annual profit.
It counts the costs that only apply to short-term letting, such as platform fees, cleaning, utilities and management.
Short-term rental income
A short-term rental can gross far more than a long-term let of the same property, and it also costs far more to run. The gross comparison is misleading and the net one is usually much closer.
Income is nightly rate times occupied nights, so both numbers matter equally. Occupancy is the one people overestimate, because a rate that fills a calendar in July says nothing about February.
The costs are what separate it from a normal rental: platform fees, cleaning between every stay, all utilities and internet, furnishing and restocking, higher insurance, and either your own time or 20% to 25% for a management company.
Short-term grosses 58% more and nets about $4,100 more. Real, but nowhere near what the gross figures imply, and it comes with cleaning, guest communication and regulatory risk.
What to enter
- Nightly rate
- Your average across the year, not your peak-season rate. Seasonal markets swing enormously.
- Occupancy rate
- The share of nights booked. 65% is a reasonable planning figure in an established market; new listings usually start lower.
- Cleaning fee and cost
- What you charge guests and what you actually pay. If the cost exceeds the fee, every booking quietly loses money.
- Platform fee
- Airbnb's host service fee is commonly around 3% of the booking subtotal on the split-fee structure.
- Management
- 20-25% of revenue for a full-service company. Self-managing saves it but is a genuine part-time job.
What this assumes
Occupancy is treated as an annual average. Seasonal markets can be near-full for three months and near-empty for six.
Local rules are not modelled. Many cities restrict or ban short-term rentals, and rules change with little warning.
How to calculate profit on a short-term rental
Project the revenue from rate and occupancy, then subtract every category of cost including the ones a long-term rental does not have.
- occupancy rate
- As a decimal, so 65% is 0.65
- 365 × occupancy
- The number of nights actually booked
Project the revenue. Rate times 365 times occupancy. At $200 and 65% that is 237 nights and $47,450.
Take off the platform and management fees. Around 3% to the platform, and 20-25% to a manager if you use one. Together they can be a quarter of revenue.
Add the short-term-only costs. Utilities, internet, supplies, restocking and insurance. A long-term tenant pays most of these; a guest does not.
Compare against the long-term rent. Work out what the same property would net as a normal rental. That is the only comparison that tells you whether the extra work is worth it.
See a worked example: $47,450 of revenue that becomes $861 of profit
- Rate
- $200 a night at 65% occupancy
- Property
- $400,000 with a $2,023 monthly mortgage
- Management
- 20% of revenue
Revenue: $200 × 365 × 0.65 = $47,450 across 237 nights.
Platform fee at 3%: $1,424. Management at 20%: $9,490.
Mortgage $24,276, taxes and insurance $6,000, utilities and internet $3,600, supplies $1,800.
Total costs $46,590, leaving $861 of profit.
The same property let long-term at $2,500 a month grosses $30,000 and nets about −$3,276. Short-term wins by roughly $4,100 a year, for a great deal more work.
$861 profit, against −$3,276 long-term
Frequently asked questions
Around 65% is a fair planning figure for an established listing in a market with real demand. Strong listings in tourist destinations run higher; new listings almost always run lower for the first year.
Check what comparable listings in your area are actually achieving rather than using a national average. Occupancy varies more by location than almost any other input.
Usually yes on gross, and much less so on net. In the example the gap is $47,450 against $30,000 on gross, but $861 against −$3,276 on profit.
It is also a different job. A long-term rental is largely passive; a short-term one means cleaning turnarounds, guest messages, restocking and reviews, or paying a fifth of your revenue to someone who does it.
Utilities and internet, which a long-term tenant would pay. Restocking consumables. Furnishing and replacing what guests break. Higher insurance, since standard landlord policies often exclude short-term letting.
And the vacancy pattern. A 65% occupancy means 128 empty nights a year, and the mortgage is due on every one of them.
This is the largest risk and it is not a number. Many cities cap the number of nights, require registration and a permit, restrict letting to a primary residence, or ban short-term rentals in some zones outright.
Rules change, sometimes quickly, and they can change after you have bought and furnished. Check your city's current position before you commit, and treat a regulatory shift as a real possibility rather than an edge case.
Most hosts are on the split-fee structure, where the host service fee is commonly around 3% of the booking subtotal and the guest pays a separate fee on top.
Some hosts use a host-only structure with a higher percentage and no guest fee. Check your current rate in your account rather than relying on a figure you read somewhere, since it varies by listing type and region.
Problems people actually run into
Judging the strategy on gross revenue
$47,450 against $30,000 makes short-term letting look decisively better, and that comparison is the one most people run.
Net, the same property makes $861 rather than losing $3,276, a gap of about $4,100. Worth having, but a long way from what the gross suggests, and it comes with an ongoing workload.
Assuming peak-season rates all year
A beach property at $400 a night in August is not a $400 property. Averaged across the year it may be closer to $180.
Use an annual average rate and an annual occupancy figure. Modelling twelve months of your best month is how short-term rental projections end up twice as high as the reality.
Results are estimates for general information only and are not professional financial, medical, or legal advice. Read our full disclaimer.
Last updated: September 4, 2026