Turn your average nightly rate and occupancy into gross revenue, net income, and a short-term cap rate. Your assumptions, the math done for you.
Your average nightly rate across the year, after discounts.
Share of available nights you expect to book. US short-term rentals commonly run 50–70%.
Nights the property is listed and bookable. Subtract any personal-use or blocked nights (this also keeps you clear of the §280A cliff).
Cleaning, channel/host fees, utilities, supplies, management, taxes, insurance — everything except the mortgage. Short-term rentals run higher than long-term here.
Short-Term Cap Rate
7.06%
7–10% is strong cash yield for a short-term rental — usually a well-located property with healthy occupancy and a nightly rate that clears the operating drag.
Short-term cap rate uses the same NOI ÷ value math as long-term — but the income swings more with season and occupancy.
Nightly rate and costs held fixed, occupancy varied. Use it to find the occupancy you'd need to clear a target return. The amber dot is your numbers.
For informational purposes only. Computed from the data you provide; not investment, tax, or financial advice. Consult a qualified advisor before acting on any figure.
Keystone IQ tracks ADR, RevPAR, Occupancy, and Average Length of Stay (ALOS) for every short-term property — in the same dashboard as your long-term rentals — plus a §280A personal-use day counter and an automatic Schedule E vs Schedule C verdict from your actual bookings. Long-term, short-term, or both, in one ledger.
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This calculator turns your own assumptions into numbers — it doesn't predict what a property will earn in your market (tools like AirDNA do that with proprietary booking data). You bring the average daily rate (ADR) and occupancy you expect; it does the rest.
Booked nights are your available nights multiplied by occupancy. Gross annual revenue is your ADR times booked nights. Net operating income (NOI) is gross revenue minus annual operating expenses — and for a short-term rental that expense line is heavier than a long-term lease: cleaning between every stay, channel and host fees, utilities, supplies, and often management. The headline short-term cap rate is NOI divided by the property value, the same yield math used for long-term rentals.
Three metrics carry most of the signal for a short-term rental. Average Daily Rate (ADR) is your booking revenue divided by booked nights — the short-term equivalent of "rent per month." Occupancy is the share of available nights you actually book. Revenue Per Available Night (RevPAR) combines the two — ADR times occupancy — and is the single best measure of per-night performance, because a high nightly rate at low occupancy and a modest rate at high occupancy can land in very different places.
Short-term returns are far more sensitive to occupancy than long-term rentals are to anything, which is why the chart above sweeps occupancy specifically. A ten-point swing in occupancy moves your revenue — and your cap rate — meaningfully, so it pays to be conservative with the occupancy you plug in.
A long-term rental collects a steady lease payment with predictable costs. A short-term rental's revenue rises and falls with season, local events, pricing, and reviews — and its costs scale with bookings (more stays means more cleaning and more channel fees). The same property can show a great cap rate in a strong summer and a thin one in a slow winter.
That's why a single-number short-term cap rate is a starting point, not a verdict. Run it with a conservative full-year occupancy, load the expense line with realistic cleaning, fees, utilities, and management, and treat a result that only works at 80%+ occupancy with skepticism.
Short-term rentals carry a tax wrinkle long-term rentals don't. Whether your rental income lands on Schedule E (passive rental) or Schedule C (active business) turns on average length of stay and whether you provide "substantial services" — things like daily housekeeping, meals, or concierge service. Stays averaging seven days or fewer, especially with substantial services, can push the income onto Schedule C, which changes the tax treatment materially.
There's also IRC §280A: if you use the property personally for more than 14 days (or 10% of the days it's rented, whichever is greater), your deductions get capped at gross rental income. That's why this calculator asks for available nights rather than assuming 365 — your personal-use nights come out of the count, and crossing the line is a real cash cost. These determinations are property-specific and genuinely hard. Not tax advice. Consult a qualified tax advisor for your specific situation.
It depends almost entirely on your nightly rate and occupancy: gross revenue is ADR × booked nights, and booked nights are your available nights × occupancy. This calculator does that math on the numbers you enter — it doesn't predict your market (tools like AirDNA estimate revenue from booking data). To get a realistic figure, use a conservative full-year occupancy and a nightly rate net of discounts, then subtract a full short-term expense load to see what you actually keep.
US short-term rentals commonly run 50–70% occupancy across a full year, though it varies enormously by market, seasonality, and how actively the listing is priced and managed. Be conservative when modeling a property you don't own yet — short-term returns are very occupancy-sensitive, and a deal that only works above 80% occupancy is a fragile one.
ADR (Average Daily Rate) is your booking revenue divided by the number of nights booked — the average price guests pay per night. RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Night) is ADR multiplied by occupancy, so it reflects both your pricing and how full you keep the calendar. RevPAR is the best single number for comparing two short-term rentals, because it captures the tradeoff between charging more and booking more.
It depends on average length of stay and whether you provide substantial services (daily housekeeping, meals, concierge, etc.). Short average stays — roughly seven days or fewer — combined with substantial services can move the income from Schedule E (passive rental) to Schedule C (active business), which changes how it's taxed. The determination is property-specific. Not tax advice. Consult a qualified tax advisor for your specific situation.
Under IRC §280A, if you personally use a dwelling for more than 14 days — or more than 10% of the days it's rented, whichever is greater — your rental deductions get capped at your gross rental income, which can cost you real money at tax time. That's why this calculator asks for available (bookable) nights rather than assuming 365: your personal-use nights should come out of the count. Not tax advice. Consult a qualified tax advisor for your specific situation.
No — and that's deliberate. Those tools estimate revenue for a specific address from proprietary booking datasets. This calculator does the math on the ADR and occupancy you provide, so the output is only as good as your assumptions. Use a market data tool to source a realistic ADR and occupancy, then bring those numbers here to see the full picture: revenue, NOI, RevPAR, and short-term cap rate.
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