Airbnb Host Profit Calculator

Why Airbnb Gross Looks Better Than Airbnb Net

A property renting at 150 a night with 70% occupancy looks like a 3,150 monthly business on accommodation revenue alone. Run the tool's loaded figures and the gap becomes concrete: at 60% occupancy the same property grosses 3,420 a month once cleaning fees are counted, and nets 27.40, a net margin of 0.80%. The mortgage, platform commission, cleaning crew, utilities, insurance and supplies absorb almost all of it. Gross revenue and operating profit are different measures, and short-term rental listings are usually quoted on the first. This calculator makes the subtraction explicit so the second is visible.

The Occupancy Rate That Actually Happens

Occupancy is the input the whole result turns on, and it is the one no default can supply. On the loaded figures the property breaks even at 59.3% occupancy. Below that it loses money: 40% occupancy turns the 27.40 monthly profit into a loss of 798.40. Above it the gain is steep: 70% returns 440.30 a month and 100% returns 1,679.00. A ten-point swing in occupancy is worth roughly 413 a month here, more than either the nightly rate or the cleaning margin moves. Platform-level volumes give a sense of the market rather than of any single listing: Eurostat recorded 952 million nights booked through Airbnb, Booking and Expedia across the EU in 2025, 11.4% up on 2024. What a specific listing achieves depends on its city, season and review history, so local comparables are the only useful source for this figure.

Platform Fee Reality

Platform commission varies by platform, by listing type and by which fee structure a host is on, and the published rates change. That is why the calculator takes it as a percentage input rather than assuming one: a host on a low single-digit host-side fee and a host on a mid-teens commission are running different businesses on the same property. The size of that difference shows in the arithmetic. Holding everything else at the defaults, moving the platform fee from 3% to 16% takes monthly profit from 27.40 to a loss of 417.20, a swing of 444.60 a month on the same bookings. Checking the current rate on the platform's own fee page, rather than a figure quoted second-hand, is what keeps the input accurate.

Cleaning Fees Versus Cleaning Costs

Guests are charged a cleaning fee; cleaners charge the host a turnover cost. The gap between the two is margin in one direction or the other, and the calculator takes both so it stays visible. The loaded figures embed a loss: a 120 fee against a 140 cost is 20 down per turnover, and at 18 occupied nights the tool assumes six turnovers, so 120 a month. Closing that gap by raising the fee to 140 lifts monthly profit from 27.40 to 143.80. The increase is 116.40 rather than 120, because the cleaning fee counts as revenue and the platform commission takes 3% of it. Some hosts run cleaning at or below cost to keep the nightly rate competitive, which is a pricing choice rather than an error, provided the nightly rate covers it.

Worked Example

2-bedroom property at 150 a night, 60% occupancy, cleaning fee 120 a stay, cleaning cost 140 a turnover, platform fee 3%, no management company, monthly mortgage 1,800, monthly expenses 650. Occupancy of 60% on a 30-night month is 18 nights, and the tool assumes one stay per three occupied nights, so six turnovers. Accommodation revenue is 18 × 150 = 2,700. Cleaning revenue is 6 × 120 = 720. Gross revenue is 3,420. Platform fee is 3% of that, 102.60. Cleaning costs are 6 × 140 = 840. That leaves 2,477.40 from operations, and after the mortgage and expenses of 2,450 the month ends at 27.40. Raising the nightly rate to 180 adds 523.80 a month, not the full 540 of extra accommodation revenue, because commission takes 3% of it. Moving occupancy to 70% adds 412.90.

What This Calculator Leaves Out

Regulatory costs sit outside the model: short-term rental licences, local occupancy or tourist taxes, and any mandatory insurance. So does depreciation and the eventual replacement of furniture and appliances, and the opportunity cost of the capital tied up in the property. Tax on profit is excluded, and in some jurisdictions short-term rental income is taxed differently from long-term rental income. Major repairs, guest incidents and chargebacks are irregular by nature and do not fit a monthly expense line. Management fees are not on this list, because the calculator takes them as an input: at 25% of gross revenue, the loaded property moves from 27.40 of monthly profit to a loss of 827.60, the single largest swing any one input produces here.