Short-term rental calculator: income, costs and real profit
A holiday let can look lucrative at a glance — nightly rate times nights — until platform commission, cleaning, supplies, bills and empty nights are taken out. This short-term rental calculator works through all of it: enter your nightly rate, occupancy, average stay and cleaning fee, the platform fee and your running costs, and it shows booking revenue, every deduction, the profit a year and a month, the break-even occupancy and how profit moves from 30% to 90% occupancy.
It is built for hosts and would-be buyers in the US, the UK, India, the UAE and Australia, with local currency, example figures and a note on rules such as London’s 90-night limit. Everything is based on your own numbers and runs in your browser — no live market data is fetched, and no listing site is involved. Treat the result as an estimate, not financial or tax advice.
How to use the Short-Term Rental Profit Calculator
- Choose your Country to load local example figures and currency.
- Enter the average Nightly rate, expected Occupancy, Nights available a year and Average stay.
- Add the Cleaning fee charged to guests and the Platform fee (tap Host-only 15.5% or Split fee 3%), plus any management percentage.
- Fill in Running costs: cleaning per stay, supplies per night, rent or mortgage, utilities, insurance and yearly costs.
- Read the profit, break-even occupancy and fee breakdown; enter a Long-term rent instead to compare with an ordinary let.
Short-Term Rental Profit Calculator features
Per-stay and per-night costs
Cleaning scales with the number of bookings and supplies with booked nights, so shorter stays cost more to run.
Platform fee presets
One tap for the host-only model (about 15.5% of the booking) or the older split-fee model (about 3%), or type your own rate.
Break-even occupancy
The occupancy at which bookings cover every fixed cost — the single most useful number before you buy or sign a lease.
Occupancy table
Profit at 30% to 90% occupancy shows how sensitive the plan is to a quiet season.
Long-term let comparison
Compares short-term income before rent or mortgage with a year of ordinary rent.
How short-term rental profit is calculated
Booked nights = nights available × occupancy. Stays = booked nights ÷ average stay. Booking revenue = booked nights × nightly rate + stays × cleaning fee. Platform and management fees are a percentage of booking revenue. Profit = booking revenue − fees − cleaning per stay − supplies per night − fixed costs (12 months of rent or mortgage, utilities, insurance and other monthly costs, plus yearly costs).
Break-even occupancy: each booked night contributes nightly rate × (1 − fee %) + (cleaning fee × (1 − fee %) − cleaning cost) ÷ average stay − supplies. Fixed costs ÷ that contribution gives the booked nights needed; divide by nights available.
Worked example
A US flat at $200 a night, 65% occupancy and three-night stays is booked 237 nights in 79 stays. Nightly revenue is $47,450 and cleaning fees add $7,908, for $55,358 of bookings. A 15.5% host-only fee takes $8,581, cleaning at $85 a stay and $10 a night of supplies take $9,095, and $29,700 of rent, bills and yearly costs leaves $7,983 profit — about $665 a month, a 14.4% margin. Break-even occupancy is 51.2%; at 40% the same flat loses $6,510.
Before rent, the flat earns $30,783 a year, $1,983 more than letting it for $2,400 a month — a thin premium for far more work, which is why the comparison matters.
| Occupancy | Booked nights | Bookings | Profit a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40% | 146 | $34,067 | −$6,510 |
| 51.2% (break-even) | 187 | $43,631 | $0 |
| 65% | 237 | $55,358 | $7,983 |
| 80% | 292 | $68,133 | $16,679 |
Fees and rules to check (as of October 2026)
- Platform fees: vacation-rental software providers report that the largest booking platform moved most hosts to a single host-only fee of about 15.5% of the booking subtotal from 27 October 2025, replacing the split model in which hosts paid about 3% and guests the rest. Rates differ by market and by platform; use the figure on your own payout statement.
- Night caps: in Greater London, whole homes can be let short-term for up to 90 nights a year without planning permission (Greater London Authority guidance). Other cities set their own caps or registration rules.
- UK tax: the furnished holiday lettings regime ended on 6 April 2025, so holiday-let profits are taxed like other property income.
- Compare with a long-term investment using the cap rate calculator, or check financing with the mortgage calculator.
Short-Term Rental Profit Calculator FAQ
How much can I make from a short-term rental?
Multiply your nightly rate by expected booked nights, add cleaning fees, then subtract platform fees, cleaning, supplies and all fixed costs. This short-term rental calculator does that and shows the result per year and per month.
What occupancy rate should I assume?
Use real data for comparable listings in your area, and test a lower figure too. The occupancy table shows how profit changes from 30% to 90%.
Is the platform fee charged on the cleaning fee?
Usually yes — the host fee is a percentage of the booking subtotal, which includes the cleaning fee. The calculator applies it to both.
Can I use this as a holiday let calculator in the UK?
Yes. Choose United Kingdom for £ and UK example costs. If the property is in Greater London and let as a whole home, set nights available to 90 unless you have planning permission.
Does it work for homestays in India?
Yes. Choose India for ₹ figures with lakh grouping. Check state homestay registration, society rules and GST with a local adviser.
Why is my profit negative?
Fixed costs such as rent or a mortgage often need more booked nights than expected. Check the break-even occupancy: if it is above what similar listings achieve, the plan needs a higher rate, lower costs or a different property.