Free Tool
Airbnb vs Long-Term Rental Calculator
Compare the same property let nightly and let to a tenant — annual net cash flow both ways, the occupancy the short-term let needs just to break even against the rent, and what each strategy actually pays per hour of your own time.
Short-term let
Long-term rental
| Per year | Short-term let | Long-term rental |
|---|---|---|
| Nights booked | 0 | — |
| Separate stays (turnovers) | 0 | — |
| Revenue collected (after vacancy / unbooked nights) | $0 | $0 |
| Rent lost to vacancy | — | $0 |
| Platform fees | $0 | — |
| Cleaning costs | $0 | — |
| Supplies & utilities | $0 | — |
| Management fees | $0 | $0 |
| Maintenance reserve | — | $0 |
| Property tax | $0 | $0 |
| Insurance | $0 | $0 |
| HOA / body corporate fees | $0 | $0 |
| Total operating costs | $0 | $0 |
| Net operating income (before mortgage) | $0 | $0 |
| Mortgage payments | $0 | $0 |
| Net annual cash flow | $0 | $0 |
Assumptions: Short-term side — nights booked = nights available × occupancy; turnovers = nights booked ÷ average stay length, so cleaning costs scale with how often guests change over rather than with nights. The platform fee and any short-term management fee are both applied to total booking revenue, nightly charges plus the cleaning fee you charge, which is how most host-side commissions and full-service managers bill; if your manager charges on net-of-platform revenue instead, the result here is slightly conservative. Long-term side — the management fee and maintenance reserve are both taken as a percentage of rent actually collected, i.e. after the vacancy allowance. Both sides — mortgage, property tax, insurance and HOA are treated as identical either way, so they cancel out of the break-even calculation; if your insurer charges more for short-term letting, run the tool twice and compare. Net yield is net operating income ÷ property value, before mortgage payments, so it is comparable between the two strategies and independent of how much you borrowed. Everything is one year of operating cash flow: no income tax, no furnishing or set-up cost, no mortgage principal paydown, no appreciation, no seasonality. Tax rules, letting regulations and typical fee levels vary by country and change over time — every figure above is an input precisely so you can use your own.
Airbnb vs long-term rental: which one actually leaves you with more money?
The short-term letting pitch is always framed in gross revenue: on the default figures loaded into the calculator above, the same flat that rents for $2,600 a month bills close to $42,000 a year on a nightly platform. Both numbers can be true and still tell you nothing, because they aren't the same kind of number. The rent figure is nearly all yours; the nightly figure is gross booking revenue before platform commission, cleaning, consumables, utilities you no longer pass to a tenant, and dramatically more of your own time.
To decide properly you need net against net. On the short-term side, start from nights available × occupancy, because your real revenue driver is filled nights, not headline rate. Turnovers matter separately: a three-night average stay means roughly 79 cleans a year at 65% occupancy, and at typical cleaner rates that line item alone can run into thousands — enter your own cost per turnover and the table below shows exactly where it lands against your other costs. Add platform commission, restocking and utilities, and any management fee. On the long-term side, take the rent, subtract a vacancy allowance, the agent's percentage, and a maintenance reserve. Mortgage, property tax, insurance and HOA sit on both sides — which is exactly why they cancel out of the comparison, even though they dominate both bottom lines.
Break-even occupancy is the single most useful output. It's the occupancy at which the short-term let produces the same net cash flow as the tenant would. If the answer is 49% and comparable listings in your area run at 65%, you have real headroom. If the answer is 78%, you're betting your cash flow on staying near the top of your local market every month of the year, including February. That's a much more honest way to look at the decision than comparing a gross short-term figure to a net long-term one, and it's stable — because the shared costs drop out, it doesn't move around when interest rates or your mortgage change.
The second output worth sitting with is dollars per hour of your own time. Short-term letting is a small hospitality business: messaging, turnovers, restocking, pricing, reviews. Long-term letting is mostly a standing order. A short-term let that earns $7,000 more per year but eats ten extra hours a month is paying you about $58 an hour for the extra work — worth knowing before you commit, and worth comparing against what a full-service short-term manager would charge to take those hours back. Model that by entering their percentage and dropping your hours accordingly.
Two things this comparison deliberately leaves out: furnishing and equipping a short-term let is a real up-front cost, and many cities license, cap, or ban nightly letting outright — as do plenty of mortgages and HOA agreements. Check what applies to your property before you run the numbers on a strategy you're not permitted to use. For the buy-side view of the same property, see the Rental Property ROI Calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Does Airbnb always earn more than a long-term rental?
Gross revenue is usually higher on a short-term let, but net cash flow often isn't. Short-term letting adds platform fees, cleaning, consumables, furnishing, and utilities you'd otherwise pass to a tenant, plus far more of your own time. The calculator on this page subtracts all of those so you compare net against net rather than a short-term gross headline against a long-term net figure.
What is break-even occupancy for a short-term rental?
It's the percentage of your available nights you'd have to fill for the short-term let to produce exactly the same annual net cash flow as renting the same property long-term. Because the mortgage, tax, insurance and HOA are the same either way, they cancel out of the comparison: break-even occupancy depends on your nightly rate, cleaning economics, platform and management fees, short-term-only running costs, and the rent you'd otherwise collect.
Why does the calculator ask how many hours I'd spend on each?
Because short-term letting is a job and long-term letting mostly isn't. Messaging guests, coordinating turnovers, restocking, and handling reviews take real hours every month. Dividing each strategy's net cash flow by the hours it costs you gives an effective hourly rate, which is often the number that changes a landlord's mind when the cash-flow gap looks attractive on its own.
What isn't included in this comparison?
This tool compares operating cash flow for one year. It doesn't model income tax, the up-front cost of furnishing and equipping a short-term let, mortgage principal paydown, property appreciation, seasonality month by month, or local rules — many cities cap or license short-term letting, and some mortgages and HOA agreements prohibit it outright. Check the rules that apply to your property, and speak to a qualified accountant about the tax treatment where you live.
Want the full system, not just this one comparison?
This calculator compares one property, one year, on figures you estimate up front. The Rental Property Manager Toolkit is for what happens after you've decided: tracking rent, expenses, tenants, and maintenance across up to 8 properties, with a dashboard showing the cash flow and net income that actually landed — so next year you're comparing strategies on your own recorded numbers instead of assumptions.
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