Break-even occupancy calculator
How full does this have to be before it stops costing me money?
Your result
Break-even occupancy
43.33%
- 13 nights
Full breakdown
- $185.00
- 13 nights
- 43.33%
What this assumes
- Contribution per night = rate + ((cleaning fee − turnover cost) ÷ average stay). The fee is collected and the turnover spent once per stay, so longer stays carry less of either per night.
- Nights needed = fixed costs ÷ contribution per night, rounded up.
- Break-even occupancy = nights needed ÷ nights available.
- Excludes platform commission and tax. Both push the real figure higher.
- Treats every night as worth the same. If your weekends carry the month, the true break-even is lower than this and more fragile.
An estimate, not advice. It cannot know your market, your local rules or your tax position. Check the figures against your own booking data before acting on them.
How it works
This break-even occupancy calculator shows the share of nights your listing has to book before it stops costing you money. Break-even occupancy is the number that decides whether a quiet season is uncomfortable or fatal. It is not the same as your average occupancy, and hosts who only track the average find out the difference in their quietest month.
Two of the answers here are not percentages. If a turnover costs more than a stay earns, cleaning fee included, no occupancy rescues the listing. If break-even needs more nights than the month contains, the numbers do not close. Both cases are stated in words rather than printed as a large figure, because a large figure reads like something you could work towards.
How to calculate break-even occupancy
Start with what one booked night contributes: the nightly rate, plus the cleaning fee minus the turnover cost, spread across the average stay. Divide your short-term rental fixed costs for the month by that contribution and round up. That gives the nights to break even. Divide those nights by the nights available and you have break-even occupancy.
This break-even occupancy formula leaves out platform commission and income tax, and both push the real figure higher. It also treats every night as worth the same, so if weekends carry your month, the true figure is lower and more fragile.
A worked example of break-even occupancy
Take the example figures: a 180 nightly rate, 2,400 of fixed costs a month, a 70 turnover, an 85 cleaning fee and three-night stays. Each booked night contributes 180 + (85 − 70) ÷ 3 = 185. Then 2,400 ÷ 185 is 12.97, so you need 13 nights. With 30 nights available, break-even occupancy is 13 ÷ 30 = 43.33%. Below that the month costs you money; above it, the month earns.
If you rent the place and sublet it, the same sum gives your rental arbitrage break-even: the rent is simply the largest of the fixed costs. It works as an Airbnb break-even calculator, and for any other platform, because nothing in it depends on where the booking came from.
Common questions
What occupancy do I need to break even?
Enough booked nights to cover your fixed costs once each night has paid for its share of cleaning. With the example figures that is 13 of 30 nights, 43.33%. Your own figure depends mostly on your fixed costs and your nightly rate.
How do I calculate break-even occupancy?
Divide a month of fixed costs by what one booked night contributes (the rate, plus the cleaning fee minus the turnover cost spread over the average stay), round up to whole nights, then divide by the nights available.
What if break-even needs more nights than the month has?
Then the listing cannot cover itself at these costs, however well it sells, and the calculator says so in words. Something structural has to change: the fixed costs, the rate or the turnover cost.
Does a longer average stay lower break-even occupancy?
Usually a little. Each stay carries one turnover, so longer stays spread that cost over more nights. Whether it helps depends on whether your cleaning fee covers the turnover: if it does, longer stays make little difference.
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