Free tool
Short-term rental calculator
Put in a price, a nightly rate and an occupancy to see what an Airbnb or VRBO actually returns — monthly cash flow, cash-on-cash, cap rate, DSCR, and the occupancy you need just to break even. No signup, and nothing is sent anywhere.
$467/mo
You keep $5,601 a year after the mortgage and every bill.
Cash-on-cash
4.2%
yr 1 return on cash
Cap rate
7.3%
NOI ÷ price
Annual revenue
$58,400
gross bookings
NOI
$28,075
before mortgage
DSCR
1.25×
NOI ÷ debt
Cash invested
$133,950
down + setup
Break-even occupancy
Margin of safetyYou need 56% occupancy to break even. You assumed 64% — a cushion of 8.7 points.
Bookings can fall by 31 nights a year (14% of your projection) before the property stops paying for itself.
Free account
Keep this analysis — and stop guessing the two numbers that matter
This page forgets everything the moment you close it. A free account remembers each deal by address and fills in the nightly rate and occupancy from what comparable listings nearby actually achieve.
- Saved by address. Every deal you run is kept in your history — long-term and short-term side by side — to reopen, re-run or delete whenever you like.
- Real nightly rates. Occupancy and nightly rate pulled from comparable short-term listings near the address, instead of a figure you hoped for.
- More on the property. Asking-price history, past sales and the comparable listings behind the estimate, so you can see where the numbers came from.
- A link to send. Share a finished analysis with a partner, agent or lender without them needing an account.
ProAt tax time, export your figures straight onto Schedule E — or Form 8825 if the property is held in an LLC or partnership — with every expense already sitting on the right line, depreciation included.
No card. 10 address lookups a day on the free plan, and the calculator above keeps working whether you sign up or not.
Already have an account? Sign inHow each number is calculated
Everything runs on a 365-night year. Revenue and the costs that scale with it — management, lodging tax, cleaning — move with occupancy; the rest are owed whether the place is booked or empty.
- Annual revenue
- nightly rate × 365 × occupancy
- Operating expenses
- Management % and lodging tax % of revenue, plus cleaning × stays (stays = booked nights ÷ average stay), plus property tax, insurance, maintenance, utilities, HOA and other.
- NOI
- revenue − operating expenses. Net operating income ignores the mortgage, so it describes the property rather than your financing.
- Monthly cash flow
- (NOI − annual mortgage) ÷ 12. The mortgage is principal and interest on price × (1 − down %) over the term, plus PMI if the down payment is under 20%.
- Cash invested
- down payment + closing costs at 2% of price + furniture and setup. The 2% is an estimate; raise the setup figure if your closing costs run higher.
- Cash-on-cash return
- annual cash flow ÷ cash invested
- Cap rate
- NOI ÷ purchase price. Useful for comparing two properties, less telling for a short-term rental than the figures above it.
- DSCR
- NOI ÷ annual mortgage. Above 1.00 the property covers its own debt; many DSCR lenders want 1.20 or more.
- Break-even occupancy
- the occupancy at which cash flow is exactly zero: (fixed costs + mortgage) ÷ (365 × (nightly rate × (1 − mgmt % − tax %) − cleaning ÷ average stay)).
What is a good cash-on-cash return for a short-term rental?
There is no universal number, but short-term rentals are more work and more volatile than a long-term lease, so investors expect to be paid more for them. A rough way to read your result:
| Cash-on-cash | How it is commonly read |
|---|---|
| Below 0% | The property costs you money every month. Walk away unless you are buying purely for appreciation and can carry the loss indefinitely. |
| 0–5% | Thin. A slow season, a new competitor or one bad review can tip it negative. |
| 5–10% | Workable — if your nightly rate and occupancy came from real comparables rather than hope. |
| 10%+ | Strong, and worth double-checking. Re-run it at a lower occupancy and see what survives. |
Cash-on-cash also depends on how you count your own time. If you self-manage, set management to 0% — then try 20% to see what the deal is worth if you ever hand it off.
Why break-even occupancy matters more than average occupancy
Average occupancy for a market tells you what a typical listing does. It says nothing about whether your deal survives a bad year. Break-even occupancy does: it is the share of nights you have to book just to cover the mortgage and every bill.
The gap between the two is your margin of safety. A deal that breaks even at 45% and is underwritten at 65% can lose a fifth of its bookings and still pay for itself. A deal that breaks even at 62% and is underwritten at 65% is a coin flip dressed up as an investment — one new competitor down the street, a rule change or a soft summer and you are feeding it from your salary.
An average also hides the months that hurt. A property averaging 65% across a year might run at 85% in July and 40% in February, and it is February that decides whether you are writing cheques.
What this cannot tell you
Whether the city will let you. Short-term letting is restricted, licensed or banned outright in a growing number of places, and a rule can change after you buy. No return justifies a use you are not permitted.
What the nightly rate really is. It is the figure people are most optimistic about and the one the whole model rests on. A rate 15% below your estimate moves break-even occupancy further than any cost on this page.
Your tax position. Depreciation, the short-term rental loophole and material participation can change the answer substantially. That is a conversation with an accountant, not a field in a form.
Questions investors ask
Is this calculator really free?
Yes. No account, no email, and no limit on how many deals you run — every figure is arithmetic on what you typed, so nothing is sent anywhere. A free PacRent account is optional and only adds market-based nightly rate and occupancy for a specific address.
Does it work for Airbnb and VRBO?
Yes. The maths is the same for any nightly rental platform. Enter your average nightly rate after any host fees the platform deducts, or fold those fees into the management percentage.
What occupancy rate should I use?
What comparable listings near the address actually achieve over a full year, not their best month. If you are unsure, run the deal at a conservative number and watch the break-even gauge — if a small drop puts you in the red, the deal is fragile regardless of what the headline return says.
Why is cleaning entered per stay?
Because cleaning follows turnovers, not the calendar. More bookings mean more cleans, so entering it per stay alongside an average stay length gives an honest break-even occupancy — the cost moves with the very thing you are solving for. If you charge guests a cleaning fee, include it in your average nightly rate.
Should I include lodging tax?
Only if you collect and remit it yourself out of the nightly rate you entered. If Airbnb or VRBO collects and remits occupancy tax on your behalf, leave it at 0%.
What costs do people forget on a short-term rental?
Furnishing is the big one, and it is why a setup field exists here — a three-bedroom house can take $20,000 to $30,000 before the first guest arrives. After that: lodging tax, insurance well above a standard landlord policy, utilities you keep paying between bookings, and soft furnishings replaced far sooner than in a long-term let.
Does cash flow include appreciation or tax benefits?
No. It is the cash left after every bill and the mortgage. Appreciation, loan paydown and depreciation are real, but they do not pay this month's bills, so they are left out deliberately.
What DSCR do lenders want for a short-term rental?
It varies, but many DSCR loan programmes look for 1.00 to 1.25 or higher, and some underwrite on long-term market rent rather than your projected nightly income. Check with your lender before relying on short-term income to qualify.
Analysing a long-term let instead? See the rental property calculator. Estimates only — general information, not financial or legal advice.