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.
Gas, electricity, water, council tax, broadband and similar operator-paid costs.
Your results
- Monthly cashflow
- £364
- Monthly revenue
- £2,344
- Breakeven occupancy
- 51.8%
- Cash-on-cash ROI
- 6.9%
- Cash needed
- £63,500
after the operating and finance costs entered
£28,127 per year
occupancy at which the cashflow is £0
annual cashflow ÷ cash invested
deposit + tax + costs
- Same property as a single letat £950 rent, 12% management, 2 void weeks, the same mortgage, maintenance and insurance, no bills
- £14/mo
- SA cashflow advantage
- +£350/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
Four costs rise and fall with bookings: platform fees as a percentage of revenue, cleaning charged per changeover (the engine assumes roughly weekly turnovers at your occupancy level), and management and maintenance as percentages of revenue. The rest are fixed whatever the occupancy: insurance as an annual premium, bills and utilities as a monthly figure, and the mortgage payment, which is interest-only on your chosen LTV.
Cashflow and breakeven occupancy
Monthly cashflow = revenue − (mortgage + platform fees + cleaning + management + maintenance + insurance + bills). Breakeven occupancy is the occupancy at which the monthly cashflow is £0: revenue then covers the fixed mortgage, insurance and bills as well as the costs that come with each booking. 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, on the same mortgage, maintenance percentage and insurance as the serviced accommodation case, with 12% management and 2 void weeks a year, and no platform fees, cleaning or bills, which the comparison assumes the tenant pays. Keeping the shared costs the same isolates the difference the letting strategy makes. If the SA premium is small, the extra work and regulatory risk may not be worth it; the larger it is, the stronger the 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, paying £300 a month for bills and utilities. 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 |
| Bills and utilities | £300 |
| Mortgage interest (£150,000 at 5.5%) | £688 |
| SA monthly cashflow | £364 |
| Single-let cashflow on the same flat | £14 |
The serviced route cashflows about £350 a month more than the single let, a cash-on-cash return of 6.9% on the £63,500 invested (including £11,500 of stamp duty). Breakeven occupancy is about 52%, so occupancy can fall by about 18 percentage points from the 70% assumed before the cashflow reaches £0. That margin, not the headline revenue, is what to stress-test. Figures are rounded to the nearest pound.
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?
There is no official benchmark: occupancy depends on the location, the season and how established the listing is, and a new listing has no reviews yet. Test the deal at a conservative occupancy, for example 60%, before anything higher: if it only works at 85%, it does not work.
What is breakeven occupancy?
The occupancy at which the monthly cashflow is £0. The calculator treats the mortgage, insurance and bills as fixed, and management, maintenance, platform fees and cleaning as costs that rise and fall with bookings. The gap between breakeven and the occupancy you expect is your safety margin: the further breakeven sits below it, the more room you have for a quiet season, which makes it a useful number to stress-test.
Is serviced accommodation more profitable than a single let?
Gross revenue can be much 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 about £350 a month more than the single let.
Do I need planning permission or a licence for short lets?
It depends where you are. In London, using a home for short stays (under 90 consecutive nights by the same guest) counts as a change of use that needs planning permission, unless the nights total 90 or fewer in the calendar year and the person letting it is liable for council tax on it. That exemption can also be switched off for particular homes or areas. Scotland requires a short-term let licence for all short-term let accommodation. In Wales, the provider of visitor accommodation (the person responsible for it, such as the owner or tenant) who takes bookings of 31 nights or less must register with the Welsh Revenue Authority by 31 March 2027. England is introducing a mandatory national register for short-term lets, which GOV.UK says is expected to begin in March 2027. Always check with the local council before committing to the strategy.
What about council tax and business rates?
In England, a self-catering property can be assessed for business rates instead of council tax if it is available to let commercially for at least 140 nights in a 12-month period, actually let commercially for at least 70 nights in the same period, and you intend to make it available for 140 nights in the next 12 months. Small business rate relief removes the bill on a property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less if it is the only property the business uses, and tapers from 100% to nothing between £12,001 and £15,000. A business that gets a second property keeps the relief on its main property for 36 months (12 months if it got the second property before 27 November 2025); after that, it keeps it only if none of its other properties has a rateable value above £2,899 and the total rateable value is under £20,000 (£28,000 in London), so an operator with several units can lose it. In London, a unit assessed for business rates instead of council tax falls outside the 90-night planning exemption above. 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, bills and utilities, and the mortgage. Linen hire and consumables have no field of their own: add them to the monthly bills figure so your cashflow stays honest. Management and maintenance are charged as percentages of the revenue at your occupancy.
Sources
The stamp duty in this calculator uses the rates each tax authority publishes, applied to the nation you choose. Everything else, such as rent, mortgage rate and costs, is an assumption you set. The other rules this page describes come from the official pages listed under Other rules on this page. Last reviewed . Rates can change at a Budget, so confirm the current figure with the tax authority or your conveyancer before you commit to a purchase.
England and Northern Ireland (Stamp Duty Land Tax)
- Stamp Duty Land Tax: residential property rates (opens in a new tab) · HMRC, GOV.UK
- Higher rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax (opens in a new tab) · HMRC, GOV.UK
- Rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax for non-UK residents (opens in a new tab) · HMRC, GOV.UK
- Stamp Duty Land Tax: corporate bodies (opens in a new tab) · HMRC, GOV.UK
Scotland (Land and Buildings Transaction Tax)
- LBTT residential property rates and bands (opens in a new tab) · Revenue Scotland
- The Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) (opens in a new tab) · Revenue Scotland
Wales (Land Transaction Tax)
- Land Transaction Tax rates and bands (opens in a new tab) · Welsh Revenue Authority, GOV.WALES
- Higher rates of Land Transaction Tax: overview (opens in a new tab) · Welsh Revenue Authority, GOV.WALES
Other rules on this page
- Deregulation Act 2015, section 44: short-term use of London homes (opens in a new tab) · legislation.gov.uk
- Deregulation Act 2015, explanatory notes on section 44 (London temporary sleeping accommodation) (opens in a new tab) · legislation.gov.uk
- Short-term lets licensing scheme (opens in a new tab) · Scottish Government, GOV.SCOT
- Registering visitor accommodation (opens in a new tab) · Welsh Revenue Authority, GOV.WALES
- Letting out a self-catering holiday home in England: rules and regulations (opens in a new tab) · GOV.UK
- Apply for business rates for a self-catering property in England (opens in a new tab) · HMRC, GOV.UK
- Small business rate relief (opens in a new tab) · GOV.UK
- Local Government Finance Act 1992, section 3: meaning of dwelling (opens in a new tab) · legislation.gov.uk
Related guides
More free calculators
Analyse full deals and generate investor packs with Dealist
The same engines behind this calculator power Dealist's five-strategy deal analyser, jurisdiction-aware stamp duty, PDF deal packs (white-label on Solo and Team) and view tracking. Free plan, no card required.
Get started free