These are the questions we hear most often from people running their first short-term rental income estimate. Each answer is meant to explain the reasoning behind the calculator, not to give you a specific number to plug in — those numbers depend on your property and your market, and should be verified locally.
What's a realistic occupancy rate for my property? +
Occupancy varies enormously by market, season, property type, and how new your listing is. Rather than guessing a single number, look at actively booked comparable listings in your specific area, factor in that new listings typically start slower and build up as reviews accumulate, and consider running the calculator twice — once with a conservative low-season estimate and once with a stronger peak-season estimate — so you see a realistic range instead of one optimistic number.
Does this include local taxes, permits, or registration fees? +
No. Short-term-rental licensing requirements, registration fees, zoning rules, homeowners association restrictions, and lodging or occupancy taxes vary enormously from one city or county to the next and change over time, so this calculator deliberately does not attempt to model them. Always verify current requirements directly with your city, county, HOA, and a qualified local professional before assuming a property is eligible for short-term rental use.
Is my data stored anywhere? +
No. Every calculation runs locally in your own browser using JavaScript — the numbers you type in are never transmitted to a server, stored in a database, or shared with anyone. Closing or refreshing the page clears everything you entered.
What's the difference between gross and net income in this calculator? +
Gross revenue is your rental revenue plus cleaning-fee revenue, before anything is subtracted. Net income is what's left after the platform fee and your monthly fixed costs are subtracted from that gross figure. Net income here is still "net before debt" in the sense that it does not separately break out mortgage interest, income taxes, or a maintenance reserve — it only reflects what you've entered as fixed costs.
Why does the calculator ask for a cleaning fee if the guest pays it? +
A cleaning fee charged to guests is revenue that flows through your account, so it belongs in a gross-revenue calculation. But it's important to enter a figure that reflects what cleaning and turnover actually cost you (cleaner's time, laundry, restocking supplies), not simply the amount you decide to charge guests — if you charge more than your real cost, that difference becomes extra profit; if you charge less, it quietly reduces your net income.
Should I use my best month or a typical month for occupancy? +
Use a typical or blended average, not your best month. Short-term rental demand is seasonal almost everywhere, and estimating from a single strong month is the most common way hosts overstate what a property will earn across a full year. A more reliable approach is to run the calculator with a conservative estimate and a strong estimate separately, then treat the true annual average as somewhere between the two.
Does the platform fee account for every booking platform's fee structure? +
No single percentage can represent every platform. Fee structures differ between booking platforms and can also depend on your host account type, and payment processing costs are not broken out as a separate line here. Treat the platform fee field as an adjustable placeholder for whatever percentage your specific platform and account type actually charges, and update it if your real rate changes.
What expenses are NOT included in this calculator? +
This tool does not calculate income taxes, does not separate mortgage principal from interest, does not model insurance premiums or a maintenance reserve separately from your entered fixed costs, does not account for one-time startup costs like furnishing or photography, and does not assess whether short-term renting is legally permitted at your address. It is a starting-point arithmetic tool, not a full financial model.
How often should I re-run the numbers? +
Any time one of your real inputs changes meaningfully — a seasonal shift in demand, a change to your nightly rate strategy, a new cleaning vendor, a change in fixed costs, or a change in the platform's fee structure. Because short-term rental income is inherently seasonal, many hosts find it useful to re-check their estimate at the start of each season rather than relying on a single calculation made once.
Is this financial, legal, or tax advice? +
No. This calculator and the content on this site are educational tools meant to help you understand short-term rental income mechanics. They are not financial, legal, investment, or tax advice, and they do not replace a conversation with a licensed accountant, attorney, or local housing authority before you make a real financial or regulatory decision.
Why do my results look different from what a listing site or a market-data tool shows me? +
Market-data platforms often build their estimates from address-level comparable listings, historical booking data, and proprietary demand models covering a large number of markets. This calculator does none of that — it only does arithmetic on the five numbers you type in. That's a deliberate tradeoff: you get full transparency into exactly how the number was produced and full control to change any assumption, but you lose the market-specific data those larger platforms rely on. Treat this tool as a way to understand the mechanics and test scenarios quickly, and treat address-level market-data tools as a complementary source for the occupancy and rate assumptions you feed in here.