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Thrive Hosts

Free tool · Revenue & Performance

STR Profitability Calculator: Airbnb Profit and Break-Even

Plug in your nightly rate, occupancy, fees and running costs to see what a short-term rental actually earns each month after the platform, the cleaner and the bills are paid. The calculator also shows your RevPAR, profit margin and the occupancy you need just to break even, so you can test a price change or a new cost before it hits your bank account.

  • Monthly & annual profit
  • Break-even occupancy
  • Break-even nightly rate
  • RevPAR & margin

Profit and break-even calculator

Use monthly averages. Start with the example numbers, then replace them with your own.

Bookings
Exclude nights you block for yourself.
Per stay. Enter 0 if you build cleaning into the rate.
Per-booking costs
Airbnb’s host-only fee is 15.5% for most hosts; split-fee hosts usually pay 3%. Use a blended rate across channels.
Applied to booking revenue (nightly + cleaning fees).
What you pay the cleaner, laundry included.
Monthly running costs
PMS, pricing tool, smart lock apps.

Your estimate

Monthly profit—
Gross booking revenue—per month
Operating costs—per month
Booked nights—
Profit margin—of gross revenue
RevPAR—revenue per available night
Break-even occupancy—
Break-even nightly rate—at your current occupancy

Your inputs are processed in your browser and are not stored.

How the calculator works

Everything is calculated per month from the numbers you enter. Platform and management fees are applied to booking revenue (nightly rate plus cleaning fees). Taxes collected from guests are left out because they pass through to the authorities.

Booked nights = nights available × occupancy %
Stays = booked nights ÷ average length of stay
Gross revenue = (ADR × booked nights) + (cleaning fee × stays)
Operating costs = platform fee + management fee + (cleaning cost × stays) + monthly running costs
Profit = gross revenue − operating costs
RevPAR = accommodation revenue ÷ nights available

Break-even occupancy divides your monthly running costs by what each booked night contributes after fees and cleaning. Break-even nightly rate keeps your occupancy fixed and solves for the rate where profit is zero.

Profit here is operating profit before income tax, depreciation and loan principal. If you want a cash-flow view, include your full mortgage payment in the first running-cost field.

What the numbers tell you

Break-even occupancy is your safety margin. If you need 58% occupancy to break even and you usually run 65%, a slow month can wipe out your profit quickly. The wider the gap, the more resilient the property.

Margin shows how efficiently revenue turns into profit. A thin margin with high occupancy often means the rate is too low or turnovers are eating the gains, which is common with lots of one and two-night stays.

RevPAR lets you compare months fairly. It blends rate and occupancy into one number, so you can tell whether a busy month at a lower price actually earned more per available night.

Illustrative example

A one-bedroom with 30 available nights, a $185 ADR, 65% occupancy and 3-night average stays books about 19.5 nights and 6.5 stays a month. With a $95 cleaning fee, gross revenue is about $4,225. After a 15.5% platform fee, $85 cleanings and $2,690 of monthly running costs, profit lands near $328 a month (about $3,930 a year), a 7.8% margin. Break-even occupancy is about 58%, and the break-even nightly rate at 65% occupancy is about $165.

Common questions

What is a good profit margin for an Airbnb?

It depends heavily on whether you own outright, carry a mortgage or rent the property for arbitrage. Instead of chasing a universal benchmark, compare your margin month to month and watch how far you sit above break-even occupancy.

Should I include my mortgage in the calculation?

Include it if you want to know whether the property covers its own costs each month. Leave the principal out if you want an operating profit figure closer to what an accountant would report.

Why does my profit fall when I lower my minimum stay?

Shorter stays mean more turnovers. Each one adds a cleaning cost, and if your cleaning fee doesn’t fully cover it, the extra bookings earn less than they appear to.

Need help managing the numbers behind the calendar?

Thrive Hosts runs pricing, calendar decisions and guest operations day to day, and reports the results back to you in plain numbers.

See Airbnb co-hosting

Estimates are based on the numbers you enter and are not a guarantee of future short-term rental performance. They are not tax or financial advice.

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