Airbnb Calculator
Revenue, costs and cash flow, free and without a sign-up
Nightly rate and occupancy in, annual revenue out, with the operating costs short term rentals actually carry and a side by side against renting the same house long term.
Bookings
What you charge and how often it is full
Running costs
The part that separates gross revenue from money kept
Zero if you run it yourself.
The property
For the returns and the long term comparison
From the rent estimate calculator.
Annual revenue
- Room revenue$46,574
- Cleaning fees collected$8,468
- Operating costs-$31,483
- Net operating income$23,559
After the mortgage
- Cash on cash1.2%
- Cap rate5.6%
- Costs as share of revenue57%
Short term against long term, same house
| Short term | Long term | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross revenue | $55,042 | $27,600 |
| Operating costs | $31,483 | $9,660 |
| Cash flow after mortgage | $1,359 | -$4,260 |
The short term column grosses about 2.0 times the long term one here, which is the number people quote. The row that decides it is the last one, because short term costs scale with bookings while long term costs mostly do not. The long term side assumes 35 percent of rent goes to expenses, a common planning figure.
How this is calculated
- Booked nights are 365 times occupancy, and stays are booked nights divided by the average stay length, which sets how many cleans you pay for.
- Gross revenue is room revenue plus the cleaning fees guests pay, because both arrive in your account and both are taxed.
- The platform fee is taken at 3 percent of gross, the standard host service fee for the split fee structure.
- Net operating income is gross minus every operating cost, before the mortgage. Cap rate divides it by the purchase price.
- Cash on cash divides the cash flow after the mortgage by the cash you actually put in.
The figures here are the ones you enter. For a nightly rate and occupancy drawn from real listings near a specific address rather than your own estimate, that is what Resideline STR analysis does.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate Airbnb revenue?
Annual revenue is the average nightly rate multiplied by the nights you are booked. Nights booked is 365 times your occupancy rate, so a 220 dollar nightly rate at 62 percent occupancy is about 226 booked nights and roughly 49,700 dollars a year before any costs.
What occupancy rate should I assume?
Whole home listings in most US markets run between 50 and 70 percent across a full year, with the low end in seasonal destinations that are empty for months and the high end in cities with steady business travel. Model 55 percent before you have a track record, and treat anything above 70 as a claim that needs evidence.
What costs should come out of Airbnb revenue?
Cleaning between stays, the platform fee of about 3 percent for hosts, supplies and consumables, utilities and internet which the host pays rather than the tenant, furnishing replacement, higher insurance, and management at 15 to 25 percent if you are not doing it yourself. Together they commonly take 35 to 50 percent of gross revenue before the mortgage.
Is short term renting worth more than a long term tenant?
Sometimes, and the gap is smaller than the headline suggests. Gross short term revenue often runs two to three times the long term rent, but the costs above eat most of that difference, and the income is seasonal rather than steady. This calculator shows both so you can compare them on the same property.
What is a good cash on cash return for a short term rental?
Investors typically look for eight percent or better on cash invested, because the operational effort is far higher than a long term rental. A short term rental that returns the same as a long term one is usually not worth the extra work and risk.
Do short term rental rules affect the numbers?
They can end the project entirely. Many cities cap nights per year, require the owner to live on site, or ban whole home short term rentals in some zones. Check the local ordinance and the homeowner association rules before you underwrite anything.
Related calculators
- Rental Property Calculator: the long term version in full
- Rent Estimate Calculator: what it rents for on a lease
- Cap Rate Calculator: the same NOI arithmetic
- Cash-on-Cash Calculator: isolate the return on cash
Your assumptions decide the answer here. Run the address through Resideline to replace them with what comparable properties actually earn.