Short-Term Rental Calculator

See what an Airbnb or VRBO earns once fees, cleaning and empty nights are counted.

Sample$350,000 home at $375 a night, 65% booked

This deal works

This works as a short-term rental, with room in the occupancy assumption.

$828

a month at 65% booked, after fees and all costs, on $105,500 of your cash

Biggest risk

It stops working if occupancy falls below 51.7%.

The numbers behind it

Cap rate9.2%

The return if you paid cash, so two different prices can be compared.

Cash-on-cash return9.4%

Your yearly profit measured against the cash you actually put in.

Revenue per available night$244

What each night earns once the empty nights are counted.

How the short-term rental calculator works

The short-term rental calculator turns a nightly rate and an occupancy rate into a year of bookings, takes out the platform’s fee, cleaning, management and the other costs of renting by the night, and shows what is left each month. The sample is booked 65% of nights and keeps $828 a month.

How is short-term rental income worked out?

Multiply the nightly rate by the nights you expect to be booked, then take off the costs of running it.

On the sample, $375 a night at 65% occupancy is about 237 booked nights a year, or $7,414 a month. The platform’s 15.5% fee, management at 20%, cleaning, supplies, utilities, taxes, insurance, repairs and replacements take $4,723. The mortgage takes $1,863, so $828 a month is left.

When does DealLevel say a short-term rental works?

This deal works when it makes money every month, the cash you put in (furnishing included) earns at least 8% a year, and bookings cover the mortgage at least 1.25 times after running costs.
Cutting it close when it makes money but misses one of those bars. Then a long-term tenant may earn about the same with far less work.
This deal doesn’t work when it loses money at the occupancy you assumed.

The sample earns 9.4% a year on $105,500 of cash in, including $25,000 of furnishing.

What would make it stop working?

For the sample it is occupancy. It loses money if it is booked less than 51.7% of nights, against the 65% assumed. Slow seasons count: a year’s occupancy is the average of the good months and the bad ones. How to find a property’s break-even occupancy.

Which numbers make a short-term rental look better than it is?

Taking occupancy from the busiest months. Use a full year, slow season included.
Using an old platform fee. What Airbnb’s host fee takes now.
Leaving out furnishing. It is cash you put in before the first guest: $25,000 on the sample.
Counting on nightly rentals where the city limits them. Check the local rules before you count on the income.

Articles on this

How to analyze an Airbnb property before you buy
Check the local rules, estimate a year of bookings, take out every cost and the mortgage, then find the booking rate that breaks the deal. In this example, a $400,000 house booked 60% of nights brings in $104,025 a year, leaves $570 a month, and starts losing money below about 51% booked.
Airbnb break-even occupancy: how to find it
Break-even occupancy is the share of nights that must be booked before the income covers every cost. At $300 a night, an example $350,000 Airbnb needs about 71%, roughly 258 nights a year, because Airbnb’s fee, a co-host, cleaning and the mortgage come out first.
Airbnb host fees in 2026: what the 15.5% fee takes
Most hosts now pay Airbnb a single 15.5% fee, taken from the nightly price and any fees they add, such as cleaning, and guests pay no service fee on top. In this example, a 20-night month at $200 paid the host $3,880 on the old split fee and pays $3,380 on the single fee. Raising the price to $230 brings the payout back to $3,887.
Airbnb vs. long-term rental: which earns more?
Find the booking rate at which the Airbnb catches the lease. In this example, a $250,000 house that leases for $2,400 a month has to be booked about 60% of nights, around 220 a year, before the Airbnb earns more, and it takes $20,000 more cash to set up.
Airbnb arbitrage: the numbers on one apartment
Airbnb arbitrage is leasing a home and renting it out by the night, which takes your landlord’s permission first. In this example a one-bedroom leased at $2,400 and listed at $175 a night loses $549 a month at 65% booked, and needs $210 a night to break even.