Start with contribution, not gross nightly revenue
Gross nightly revenue does not all go toward fixed bills. Bookings can also create platform fees, cleaning costs, consumable use, and transaction charges. The amount left after those variable costs is the contribution available to cover fixed costs.
The break-even calculator calculates that contribution per occupied night. It includes a share of the guest cleaning charge, subtracts a share of turnover and per-booking costs, and applies the percentage fee bases you select.
Spread turnover costs using stay length
If average stays are three nights, one turnover is spread over three occupied nights in the model. A $90 cleaning cost therefore contributes $30 of modeled cost per occupied night. A cleaning charge paid by the guest is spread the same way. If they are equal before fees, they may still differ after deductions from the cleaning revenue.
This is an average-month model. It can show fractional bookings, even though an actual calendar contains whole reservations. Use a realistic average stay and review the outcome against the booking pattern you expect.
Calculate the nights, then occupancy
Illustrative threshold: if the remaining monthly funding gap is $1,000 and contribution is $70 per occupied night, the unrounded threshold is 14.29 nights. You need 15 whole nights in the model. With 30 nights available, required occupancy is 50% using those whole nights.
The funding gap is fixed costs plus any target monthly cash profit, minus net other monthly revenue. A target of zero asks for ordinary operating break-even. A positive target asks for enough contribution to cover costs and leave that additional cash.
Understand the two failure cases
- Contribution is zero or negative: additional bookings cannot close a positive funding gap under the entered assumptions. Increasing occupancy alone does not solve the equation.
- Required nights exceed capacity: the contribution is positive, but there are not enough available nights to reach the target in that month.
The tool labels these cases rather than showing a misleading percentage capped at 100%. It also shows cash profit at full available occupancy, so you can inspect the limit of the current scenario.
Read zero nights carefully
If other net monthly revenue already covers fixed costs and the target, the model can return zero required nights. That does not necessarily make every additional booking beneficial. Negative contribution would reduce cash profit as nights are added, and the result explicitly warns about that case.
After checking the threshold, use the profit calculator to model a specific occupancy. Use the rental supply calculator to ground the consumable quantities behind any per-night supply-cost assumption. Neither tool predicts local demand or guarantees bookings.