Short-Term Rental Break-Even Nightly Rate
Find the nightly rate that covers the mortgage, cleaning, platform commission and occupancy tax — then see how that number moves as peak season turns into shoulder and off season.
Break-even means zero profit — costs covered, nothing left over. Price above it. Occupancy tax rules and platform fees vary by city and listing type. For planning purposes only, not tax or investment advice.
Each season’s rate is what it would take to carry the property on its own that month. Peak subsidising off season is normal — the blended rate is the one to price against.
| Occupancy | Nights / Yr | Break-Even | Gross Rev Needed |
|---|
At $3,180/mo fixed cost and a 3.2-night average stay. Occupancy moves this number far more than any fee does.
How to use the Airbnb break-even calculator
Enter what the property costs to run, how guests book it, and how full it stays across the year. The calculator returns the nightly rate that covers everything with nothing left over — your floor — plus a season-by-season rate plan to price around it.
Enter fixed monthly costs
Mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, wifi, HOA and a repair reserve — everything you pay whether or not anyone books.
Add per-stay & platform costs
Average length of stay, cleaning fee and cost, supplies, your booking channel, and any management fee.
Set tax & seasons
Occupancy tax and how it’s collected, then months and occupancy for peak, shoulder and off season.
Read the rate & save a PDF
See the blended break-even, each season’s carrying rate, and how the number moves with occupancy.
How the break-even rate is built
Break-even means zero profit: revenue exactly equals cost. The calculator spreads your fixed costs over the nights you actually book, layers on the per-stay costs, grosses the total up so the platform’s cut still leaves you whole, then credits the cleaning fee you collect. Whatever nightly rate makes the year net out is the floor.
Worked example — $3,180/mo to carry, 58% booked
Fixed cost: $3,180/mo × 12 = $38,160/yr, spread over ~211 booked nights → $180.53/night
Cleaning + supplies over a 3.2-night stay: ($150 + $22) ÷ 3.2 = $53.75/night
Grossed up for the 3% platform fee (÷ 0.97) → $241.53/night
Less the cleaning fee collected ($165 ÷ 3.2 = $51.56) → break-even ≈ $189.97/night
Price above that or the year nets you nothing. On Airbnb’s newer ~15.5% host-only fee, the same property breaks even nearer $226/night — pick the channel you’ll actually book on.
Break-even reference charts
How the rate moves with occupancy, which levers actually shift it, and what the booking channels really cost in 2026. The baseline below is the calculator’s default property — change any input and the numbers move with it.
| Annual occupancy | Booked nights | Break-even rate | Gross bookings needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30% | 110 | $363.12 | $45,410 |
| 45% | 164 | $243.37 | $48,440 |
| 60% | 219 | $183.49 | $51,480 |
| 75% | 274 | $147.56 | $54,510 |
| 90% | 329 | $123.61 | $57,540 |
At $3,180/mo fixed cost, a 3.2-night average stay, a 3% platform fee and a pass-through occupancy tax. Occupancy moves the rate more than anything else on this page: going from 45% to 60% booked knocks about $60 a night off the number. Gross bookings needed rises with occupancy only because more stays mean more cleanings to cover — the rate itself falls.
| Change from the baseline | Break-even rate | Shift |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline — 3% platform, tax passed on | $189.97 | — |
| Airbnb host-only fee (~15.5%) | $225.70 | +$35.73 |
| Add 20% property management | $252.70 | +$62.73 |
| Absorb the 12% occupancy tax | $224.06 | +$34.09 |
| Longer stays (5 nights vs 3.2) | $188.58 | −$1.39 |
Each change is applied on its own, at the default ~58% blended occupancy. Length of stay barely moves this example because the $165 cleaning fee already covers the $150 cleaner — it matters far more when your fee falls short of what you pay. None of these fee levers rivals occupancy.
| Channel | Host fee | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Airbnb host-only fee | ~15.5% | Paid entirely by the host on the whole subtotal incl. cleaning; the guest sees no separate fee. Now the standard for most hosts. |
| Airbnb split fee | ~3% host | Host pays ~3%, the guest pays ~14–16% on top. Being retired — most hosts are moving to host-only through 2026. |
| Vrbo / Expedia | ~8% | Roughly a 5% commission plus 3% payment processing on each booking. |
| Direct booking site | ~2–3% | Payment processing only — the cheapest channel, but you have to supply the traffic yourself. |
Airbnb is consolidating everyone onto the host-only fee (around 15.5%, applied to your cleaning fee too), with final migration deadlines in September and October 2026. If you list on Airbnb, model the host-only fee rather than the old 3% split — it’s the number most hosts now pay.
| How the 12% tax is handled | Effect on your break-even | What the guest pays |
|---|---|---|
| Added on top (guest pays it) | No change — stays $189.97 | Higher total; you just remit the tax |
| Baked into your nightly rate | Rises to $224.06 (+18%) | Lower headline total; you eat the tax |
A pass-through tax flows through you untouched, so it never belongs in your break-even. Only tax you absorb into the advertised rate reduces your take — and then the rate has to climb to cover it. Confirm how your city and platform collect lodging tax before you price.
Your mortgage and insurance don’t take the winter off. When the off season books at 35%, the same fixed costs get spread over a third as many nights, so each night has to carry far more — here, $312 against $131 in peak.
- The off-season rate is rarely achievable — guests won’t pay peak-plus prices in the slow months, so you can’t make each season stand alone.
- Peak subsidizes off — the strong months have to bank enough margin to carry the weak ones. That’s normal, not a red flag.
- Price against the blended rate — the one number that holds all year. Let peak run above it and off-season dip toward it, never through it.
Everything the calculator works out
One set of costs gives you the floor rate, a line-by-line cost-per-night build-up, a season-by-season plan, and the operating figures that decide whether the year works — plus a report to keep with the deal.
The figures behind the floor rate
*From the worked example — a $3,180/mo property at 58% blended occupancy. These recompute live for the exact costs and seasons you enter.
Built for anyone pricing a short-term rental
Whether you’re buying your first listing, comparing markets, or re-pricing one you already run, the break-even rate is the number every other decision hangs off — before dynamic pricing, before profit targets.
Working out whether the nightly rate a place can realistically get will actually cover the mortgage once cleaning, fees and tax come out.
- Include a repair reserve — guests break things
- Price above break-even, never at it
- Confirm your city allows short-term rentals
Testing whether a market’s achievable nightly rate clears break-even at honest occupancy, not the rosy number a listing pack promises.
- Model blended occupancy, not peak
- Use the host-only fee you’ll actually pay
- Don’t underwrite to 90% occupancy
Setting a floor and seasonal rates for a listing that’s live, especially after Airbnb’s fee change reshuffled the math.
- Set the blended rate as your hard floor
- Let peak season subsidize the off months
- Watch the cleaning fee vs cost gap
7 things to know about break-even pricing
The assumptions that quietly sink a short-term rental’s numbers — and the checks that keep the nightly rate honest.
Short-term rental break-even FAQ
The pricing questions hosts ask most when they work out what a listing actually has to earn to cover itself.
It’s the nightly rate at which your total revenue exactly covers your total costs over the year — zero profit. It’s a floor to price above, not a target. Below it the property loses money for the year; at it, you’ve done all the work for nothing.
The calculator spreads your fixed costs over the nights you actually book, adds the per-stay costs, grosses the total up for fees, and subtracts the cleaning fee you collect — the result is the rate that zeroes out the year.
Spread annual fixed costs — mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, reserves — over your booked nights to get a fixed cost per night. Add cleaning and supplies per night, gross the total up to cover platform commission, management and any absorbed tax, then subtract the cleaning fee you charge guests.
Booked nights come from your season mix: each season’s months × about 30.4 nights × its occupancy. Fewer booked nights means each one has to carry more fixed cost, which pushes the rate up.
Only if you absorb it. When the transient occupancy (lodging) tax is added on top and the guest pays it, you simply collect and remit it — it never touches your break-even. That’s a pass-through.
If you bake the tax into your advertised nightly rate instead, it comes out of your take, and your break-even has to rise to cover it. At a 12% tax, absorbing it rather than passing it through can lift the rate by roughly 18%.
Because your fixed costs don’t shrink when the bookings do. The same mortgage and insurance get spread over far fewer booked nights, so each night has to carry more of them.
A property that breaks even around $130 a night in peak can need $300 or more to carry itself in the off season. That’s why peak-season income has to subsidize the slow months, and why the blended rate across the whole year is the number to price against.
Occupancy, by a wide margin. Moving from 45% to 60% booked can drop the break-even rate by $50–$60 a night, while switching platforms or absorbing the lodging tax moves it by a fraction of that.
Chase bookings and longer stays before you agonize over commission points. The one big exception is a jump in platform commission — Airbnb’s shift to a ~15.5% host-only fee is large enough to matter on its own.
Most hosts price dynamically — higher in peak, lower in the off season — but the blended break-even is the number that has to hold across the whole year.
Use the blended rate as your floor, let peak nights run well above it, and let off-season nights dip toward it without falling through. Pricing every night at the flat blended rate also works; it just leaves money on the table in peak season.
Every turnover costs a cleaning. Longer average stays spread one cleaning over more nights and cut supplies and turnover labor, which lowers the rate you need.
The effect is largest when your cleaning fee doesn’t fully cover what you pay the cleaner. If your cleaning fee already covers the cost, length of stay barely moves the number — the leak it plugs simply isn’t there.
No. Break-even is the point where you’ve covered your costs and earned nothing. Real returns come from pricing above it — plus the loan paydown and any appreciation that never show up in a nightly rate.
Treat break-even as the line you must clear every year, then judge the deal on how far above it the market will let you price.
Estimation Only — Not Investment or Tax Advice: This calculator estimates the nightly rate at which a short-term rental’s revenue covers its costs, based entirely on the figures you enter. Break-even means zero profit — it is a floor, not a forecast of earnings. Real results depend on the occupancy you actually achieve, seasonal demand, competition, dynamic pricing, and costs that shift over time. Platform commissions and how they are charged change — Airbnb is moving hosts to a host-only fee of around 15.5% through 2026 — and occupancy or lodging tax rules vary by city, county and listing type. The estimate does not include income tax, one-time setup or furnishing costs, financing terms beyond the payment you enter, vacancy beyond your occupancy inputs, or appreciation. Short-term rentals are restricted or banned in many areas; confirm local permits and rules before you buy. Nothing here is investment, tax, legal or accounting advice. For planning purposes only; confirm costs, fees, taxes and local regulations with the relevant professionals and authorities before making a decision.