Airbnb income and expense tracker: how to track a short-term rental in a spreadsheet

If you rent out one to five properties on a platform like Airbnb, the number that matters is what each property keeps after fees and costs. This page lists what an income and expense tracker should record, shows the formulas, and walks through one booking with invented numbers.

What to record for every booking

One booking per row keeps the log simple and lets you filter by property or month later.

• Property. Needed as soon as you have more than one.
• Check-in and check-out dates. Nights come from these two dates.
• Gross amount. What the guest paid for the stay, as shown in your booking record.
• Platform fee. Taken from the fee row you picked, or typed in when you know the real amount.
• Payout. Gross minus fee.
• Average nightly rate. Gross divided by nights, useful for comparing stays of different length.

What to record for every expense

Costs belong in a separate log with a date, the property (or "shared" for costs that serve all of them), a category and an amount. Keep the category list short and editable, for example cleaning, supplies, utilities, repairs, software and insurance. Ten categories are plenty. Too many categories make the monthly view harder to read.

The formulas

Every number in the dashboard comes from a few steps.

• Fee = gross x fee rate for the row you picked.
• Payout = gross - fee.
• Profit = payout - expenses for the same property and month.
• Occupancy = booked nights in the month / nights in the month.
• Average nightly rate = gross / nights.

Worked example (invented numbers)

These figures are made up. The fee rate below is an editable example of 15.5 percent. It does not reflect any platform's current fees. Check your own payout breakdown and enter the rate that applies to you.

One property, one booking in a 31-night month. The stay is 4 nights and the guest paid 520.00 in total. Cleaning cost 60.00 and supplies cost 15.00.

1. Fee: 15.5 percent of 520.00 is 80.60.
2. Payout: 520.00 - 80.60 = 439.40.
3. Profit: 439.40 - 60.00 - 15.00 = 364.40.
4. Average nightly rate: 520.00 / 4 = 130.00.
5. Occupancy: 4 / 31 = 12.9 percent.

Change the rate to see how much one percentage point moves the payout.

Why nights must be split across months

A stay from the 29th of one month to the 3rd of the next belongs partly to each month. If the whole stay lands in the month of check-in, that month shows too high an occupancy and the next one too low. A good tracker counts nights by the real overlap with each month, so the monthly view stays honest.

Common mistakes

• Using one fee rate forever. Rates change and differ by account. Check them against a real payout.
• Mixing properties in one total. A strong property can hide a weak one. Keep a view per property.
• Skipping shared costs. Software or insurance that covers all properties still counts. Log them as shared.
• Logging only paid bookings. Cancellations and refunds change the real result. Enter the net amount you actually received.
• Letting the log fall behind. Ten minutes after each stay is easier than a weekend at year end.

Build it yourself or use a ready template

The formulas above fit into a plain spreadsheet, and building your own is a fair way to start. A ready template saves the setup time.

The Short-Term Rental Income & Expense Tracker is an Excel workbook with 11 tabs: Instructions, Settings, Bookings, Expenses, Monthly, five property tabs and a Dashboard. The bookings tab holds 400 rows and the expenses tab 500 rows with 10 editable categories. The fee table is editable and starts with a single host fee of 15.5 percent, a legacy split fee of 3 percent, direct bookings at 0 percent and three free rows for other platforms, as a snapshot of October 2026. You can override the fee on any booking. Nights are split across months by real overlap. The dashboard shows year totals, results by property, expenses by category and a monthly chart. Example data is included and marked, so you can delete it before real use. It has no macros and opens in Excel and LibreOffice.

What it does not model

Version one does not model taxes of any kind, currency conversion, refunds and cancellations (enter the net amount), depreciation, mortgage splits or owner payouts. It is a record-keeping aid, not financial, tax, accounting or legal advice. Airbnb and Microsoft Excel are trademarks of their owners, and Size Run Studio has no affiliation with either.

Get the tracker

The Short-Term Rental Income & Expense Tracker is a paid digital download. You get the Excel workbook with clearly marked example data and a one-page Quick Start PDF. Nothing is shipped.

See the Short-Term Rental Income & Expense Tracker

Frequently asked questions

What should an Airbnb income and expense tracker record?

For each booking: property, check-in and check-out dates, nights, gross amount, platform fee and payout. For each cost: date, property or shared, category and amount. From these you get payout, profit, occupancy and average nightly rate per month and per property.

How do I calculate occupancy for a month?

Divide the booked nights that fall inside the month by the nights available in that month. A stay that crosses a month end has to be split by the real overlap, otherwise one month looks too full and the next too empty.

Why should the host fee be an editable cell?

Fee structures differ by account, country and date, and they change. Keep each rate in one editable cell, compare it with your own payout breakdown and override the fee on any booking where the real amount differs.

Is this tax or accounting advice?

No. A tracker is a record-keeping aid. Ask a qualified adviser how to treat income, expenses, depreciation and taxes in your country.