A one or two-night gap between bookings is easy to ignore and often can’t be booked at all because it’s shorter than your minimum stay. Enter the gap, your minimum stay, the rate you’d offer and your turnover costs. The calculator tells you whether guests can book it as things stand, what filling it is actually worth after fees and an extra clean, and the lowest rate that still makes it worthwhile.
Assumes your cleaner can turn the property on the same day as check-out and check-in.
A guest can only book a gap if it’s at least as long as the minimum stay that applies to those dates. Filling it usually adds one turnover: the clean after the previous guest happens anyway, but the new guest needs another before the next arrival.
The calculator doesn’t predict whether the gap will be booked. It tells you whether it can be, and whether it’s worth it if it is.
“No” on bookable is the most common answer. Most gap nights sit empty because the minimum stay rules them out. Many pricing tools and PMS platforms can shorten the minimum stay automatically for gaps; Airbnb also lets you set custom minimum stays on specific dates.
Watch the net, not the gross. A one-night gap at a deep discount can earn less than the clean it creates, especially if your cleaning fee is low.
More on this in How to Handle Gap Nights on Airbnb.
A 2-night gap with a 3-night minimum stay can’t be booked. If you open it at $150 less 15% ($127.50 a night) with a $95 cleaning fee, the guest pays $350. After a 15.5% platform fee and an $85 clean, you’d net about $210.75. The gap stops paying for itself below roughly $2.80 a night, so it’s clearly worth opening.
Gap nights (sometimes called orphan nights) are short runs of unbooked nights trapped between two reservations. They’re often shorter than the minimum stay, so guests can’t book them.
Not necessarily. Opening the dates to shorter stays is often enough. A discount helps when the gap is close in time and demand is soft, but check the net after the extra clean.
Compare what 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7-night stays actually earn after turnover costs.
Open tool →Pricing & CalendarFind the lowest nightly rate that still covers your costs.
Open tool →Revenue & PerformanceWork out occupancy from booked, available and blocked nights for any period.
Open tool →Pricing & CalendarFind your true turnover cost and the cleaning fee that recovers it.
Open tool →Thrive Hosts reviews upcoming calendars every week, adjusts minimum stays around gaps and prices them before they go stale.
Results are based on the numbers you enter and are not a guarantee of future short-term rental performance.