Serviced Accommodation Calculator UK
Turn a nightly rate and an occupancy assumption into monthly revenue, real cashflow after platform fees and cleaning, and your breakeven occupancy, then compare the result against letting the same property on a normal tenancy.
Your numbers
What the property would earn on a normal tenancy.
Operating costs
Airbnb, Booking.com etc.
Your results
- Monthly cashflow
- £664
- Monthly revenue
- £2,344
- Breakeven occupancy
- 36.8%
- Cash-on-cash ROI
- 12.6%
- Cash needed
- £63,500
after platform fees, cleaning, management and mortgage
£28,127 per year
occupancy that covers fixed costs
annual cashflow ÷ cash invested
deposit + tax + costs
- Same property as a single letat £950 rent, typical BTL costs
- £14/mo
- SA cashflow advantage
- +£650/mo
- SDLT (England & N. Ireland)additional-property rates
- £11,500
Free to use, no sign-up needed. Figures are estimates for guidance, not financial or tax advice.
How the serviced accommodation calculator works
Serviced accommodation (short-term lets through platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com) is a revenue business run on a property asset. The numbers behave differently from a tenancy: income varies with occupancy, and every booking carries its own costs. This calculator uses the same engine as Dealist's deal analyser to model that properly.
Revenue
Monthly revenue = nightly rate × 30.44 × occupancy %. Using 30.44 (the average nights per month across the year) keeps the figure honest: it is an annual average, not a July number. Occupancy is the assumption to be most careful with, so the calculator also shows you the occupancy at which the deal stops washing its face.
Operating costs
Five costs scale with the business: platform fees as a percentage of revenue, cleaning charged per changeover (the engine assumes roughly weekly turnovers at your occupancy level), management and maintenance as percentages of revenue, and insurance as a fixed annual premium. The mortgage payment is interest-only on your chosen LTV, the norm for investment lending.
Cashflow and breakeven occupancy
Monthly cashflow = revenue − (mortgage + platform fees + cleaning + management + maintenance + insurance). Breakeven occupancy is the occupancy at which revenue covers the fixed costs of mortgage, management, maintenance and insurance. The gap between your expected occupancy and breakeven is your margin of safety for quiet seasons, competitor pressure and platform algorithm changes.
The single-let comparison
The most useful sanity check in serviced accommodation is the boring alternative. The calculator runs the same property as a standard single let at your comparable rent, with typical buy-to-let costs, and shows both cashflows side by side. If the SA premium is only £100 a month, the extra work and regulatory risk probably are not worth it; if it is £500 or more, the strategy has a case.
Worked example
You buy a two-bed apartment for £200,000 at 75% LTV and run it as serviced accommodation at £110 a night with 70% occupancy. The same flat would rent for £950 a month on a standard tenancy.
| Monthly revenue (£110 × 30.44 × 70%) | £2,344 |
| Platform fees (15%) | £352 |
| Cleaning (£40 per turnover) | £122 |
| Management (15%), maintenance, insurance | £519 |
| Mortgage interest (£150,000 at 5.5%) | £688 |
| SA monthly cashflow | £664 |
| Single-let cashflow on the same flat | £14 |
The serviced route cashflows about £650 a month more than the single let, a 12.6% cash-on-cash return on the £63,500 invested (including £11,500 of stamp duty). Breakeven occupancy is about 37%, so the deal keeps covering its fixed costs even if bookings halve. That margin, not the headline revenue, is what makes this example work.
Frequently asked questions
How is serviced accommodation revenue calculated?
Monthly revenue = nightly rate × 30.44 × occupancy. The 30.44 is the average number of nights in a month (365.25 ÷ 12), so the figure is a true monthly average across the year rather than a best-month number. At £110 a night and 70% occupancy that is about £2,344 a month.
What occupancy rate should I assume?
Established UK serviced accommodation units typically run at 60% to 80% occupancy averaged across the year, with strong city-centre and tourist locations at the top end. New listings usually start lower while reviews build. Model your deal at 60% to 65% first: if it only works at 85%, it does not work.
What is breakeven occupancy?
The occupancy at which revenue exactly covers your fixed costs of mortgage, management, maintenance and insurance. If your breakeven is 37% and you expect 70%, you have a wide safety margin; a breakeven above 60% leaves little room for a quiet season. It is the single best stress-test number for a serviced accommodation deal.
Is serviced accommodation more profitable than a single let?
Usually the gross revenue is two to three times higher, but so are the costs: platform commission, cleaning every changeover, bills, linen and more intensive management. This calculator runs both models on the same property so you can see the genuine cashflow gap rather than comparing revenue with rent. In the default example the SA route cashflows around £650 a month more.
Do I need planning permission or a licence for short lets?
It depends where you are. In London, short lets of an entire home are capped at 90 nights a year without planning permission. Scotland requires a short-term let licence for every unit. Wales and several English councils are introducing registration or planning controls in tourist hotspots. Always check the local authority before committing to the strategy.
What about council tax and business rates?
A UK property let short-term for enough nights a year (in England, available 140 or more nights and actually let 70 or more) can be assessed for business rates instead of council tax, and small business rates relief can reduce the bill to nil in many cases. The rules and thresholds differ across the UK nations and change periodically, so verify the current position for your area.
Which costs does the calculator include, and which should I add?
It includes platform fees, cleaning per changeover, management, maintenance, insurance and the mortgage. It does not have separate fields for utilities, broadband, linen hire or consumables, which often total £150 to £300 a month for a one or two bed unit. Fold those into the management or maintenance percentages so your cashflow stays honest.
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