Free tool · no market data · no advice

The nightly rate below which a booked night costs you money

The Break-Even Night Sheet computes that floor from one listing’s own costs. Free Google Sheet, five tabs, every default sourced.

Came from a NightlyDesk video? This is the sheet behind FLOOR. Same figures, same sources, nothing extra to do.

What the night pays

$142

Nightly rate on the calendar, after the platform fee is taken out

Worked example — placeholder inputs

What the night costs

$175

Cost floor per booked night, once fixed costs are spread over the nights actually sold

Worked example — placeholder inputs

Every night sold at that rate removes $33.
The calendar still says “booked”.

Illustrative figures. The sheet returns the same two numbers from the costs entered on the INPUTS tab.

Three things a spend tracker never computes

Real cost per booked night

A mortgage does not divide by 30. It divides by the nights actually sold. The same monthly cost carried over fewer booked nights raises the floor every time.
Empty nights

At 55% occupancy, 45% of the month still carries the mortgage, the insurance and the permit. That gap is what most spreadsheets leave out, and it is the largest single term in the floor.
Orphan nights

A single vacant night between two bookings, shorter than the minimum-stay setting, has a different floor: the fixed costs for that month are already committed. Priced against the wrong floor, it stays unsold at zero.

Orphan / gap-night definition — PriceLabs

Four numbers out

Cost floor
What one booked night costs, per booked night, after fixed costs are spread across expected occupancy.
Break-even rate
That floor grossed up for the platform fee, any co-host share, and any occupancy tax remitted by the host.
Margin rates
The rate required for 15%, 25% and 35% net margin.
Gap-night floor
A separate, lower floor for single vacant nights, where fixed costs are already sunk.

Worked example

Placeholder figures. The sheet uses the numbers entered on the INPUTS tab.

FIXED COSTS $2,840 / month VARIABLE PER TURNOVER $118 / turn CLEANING FEE CHARGED $ 95 / stay REVENUE LEAKAGE 15.5% (platform host fee only) OCCUPANCY 55% AVERAGE LENGTH OF STAY 3.0 nights -------------------------------------------------- BOOKED NIGHTS / MONTH 16.7 COST FLOOR PER BOOKED NIGHT $175.44 BREAK-EVEN NIGHTLY RATE $207.62 RATE AT 25% NET MARGIN $295.02 -------------------------------------------------- GAP-NIGHT FLOOR (new booking) $34.91 GAP-NIGHT FLOOR (extended stay) $ 9.47

The two gap-night figures sit an order of magnitude below the main floor. That difference is the entire point of the fourth tab.

15.5% platform host fee — Hostfully, TabiVista

Five tabs

READ ME — what the model does, and what it refuses to do.
INPUTS — 24 entries, one listing. Every pre-filled default is a documented market figure with a source, meant to be overwritten.
FLOOR — the four outputs, the gap against the current minimum-price setting, and an occupancy sensitivity table.
GAP NIGHTS — marginal-cost floor, plus a table testing which discount levels still clear it.
SOURCES — every external figure, with its URL and whether it is a primary or secondary source.

One file per listing. Blended numbers across listings produce a floor that is wrong for every listing.

What this is not

It holds no market data

The sheet contains no competitor rates, no seasonality curve, no event calendar and no revenue forecast. It computes the bottom of the range from the operator’s own cost base. Everything above the bottom is a market question, and a static file cannot answer it.

It is a calculator and a set of definitions. It is not pricing, financial, tax or legal advice, and it is not personalised to any listing or jurisdiction. No number it returns is a recommendation to charge anything.

Regulations, tax collection rules and platform fee structures differ by state, county and city, and they change. Verification against the applicable jurisdiction and against the platform’s current terms is the operator’s responsibility.

Every default, with its source

These are the pre-filled values in the sheet. They are placeholders to overwrite, not estimates of any particular listing.

15.5% Airbnb host-only service fee — Hostfully, TabiVista
~3% Airbnb split-fee alternative, host side — PriceLabs
20% Default orphan-gap discount when the feature is switched on — PriceLabs documentation
3–15%+ US lodging / occupancy tax range, and where the platform collects — Avalara MyLodgeTax
10–25%+ Co-host share of gross, reported bands — NowIStay
55% Occupancy placeholder — not a market figure. A starting value to replace with the listing’s own booked-night history.

Get the Break-Even Night Sheet

Google Sheet plus a 1-page PDF. One email, then one short data brief per week.