Daylet
Most holiday let income estimates come from one of two places: a Facebook group post ("my 2-bed does about £25k a year"), or a single week checked on Airbnb during peak season. Neither gives you a number you can plan around. Here's how to get one that holds up — and the one line item almost every back-of-envelope estimate leaves out.
Gross income, net income, and profit are three different numbers
Search for a "holiday let income calculator" and you'll find pages calling themselves income calculators, profit calculators, and yield calculators — often for the same underlying number. They're not interchangeable:
- Gross income — what guests pay you, in total, before anything comes out. This is average daily rate × nights booked.
- Net income — gross income minus the direct costs of running the let: cleaning, linen, utilities, platform commission, insurance, maintenance.
- Profit / yield — net income measured against what the property cost you (purchase price, mortgage, or opportunity cost), usually expressed as a percentage.
A calculator that only asks for postcode and bedroom count can only ever give you the first number — gross. Anything claiming to hand you a "profit" figure from three inputs is skipping your actual costs, which vary too much between properties to estimate generically. Daylet's rental income calculator is upfront about this: it shows gross revenue, because that's the only figure real market data can support without knowing your specific costs.
The three numbers that actually drive the estimate
Gross income comes down to three variables:
- Average daily rate (ADR) — what a night in your property typically sells for.
- Occupancy rate — the share of available nights actually booked.
- Nights available — usually 365, minus any weeks you block for personal use or maintenance.
As a worked example: a cottage with a £120 median nightly rate and 45% occupancy across the year books roughly 164 nights. That's £120 × 164 = £19,680 gross for the year. Change the occupancy to 60% (a strong summer-heavy coastal property) and the same nightly rate produces closer to £26,300. The nightly rate rarely moves the estimate as much as occupancy does — which is why the next section matters more than most owners expect.
Where to find real ADR and occupancy data for your area
The number that makes or breaks this estimate is occupancy, and it's the one owners guess wrong most often — usually by looking at how full their calendar is in August and assuming that's normal.
A few ways to get a realistic figure:
- Look at comparable listings, not just any listing. Filter by your property type, bedroom count, and immediate area — a 3-bed farmhouse and a 1-bed coastal flat 20 minutes away have different demand curves entirely.
- Use the median, not the average. A handful of superhosts running near 90% occupancy will drag an average upward and make your estimate optimistic. Median is more resistant to those outliers.
- Account for seasonality across the full year, not just the weeks you'd choose to book it yourself. A property that's full in July and empty in February still averages out lower than it feels.
- Or skip the manual research — Daylet's calculator pulls median ADR and occupancy from real Airbnb and Booking.com listings matched to your location, property type, bedrooms and guest count, and shows a confidence score based on how many comparable listings it found.
Gross isn't what you keep: the costs to subtract
Once you have a gross figure, profit means subtracting what it actually costs to run the let:
- Cleaning and linen between every stay
- Utilities (heating a holiday cottage through winter voids adds up)
- Insurance specific to short-let use
- Maintenance and general wear
- Platform commission — Airbnb's host-only fee is currently 15.5%, and Booking.com typically charges a similar range
That last one is worth sitting with. On a £900 week, a 15.5% fee is roughly £140 gone before any other cost is subtracted — purely for the booking to have happened through the platform. Ten weeks a year like that is over £1,400, which is more than most owners would pay for a whole year of direct-booking software. It's not a reason to leave Airbnb — exposure from OTAs is still valuable — but it's a real cost that most gross-income estimates quietly ignore.
Why the same property earns differently depending on the channel
This is the part a pure income calculator can't show you, because it depends on a choice, not a market. A booking taken directly — through your own booking page rather than a marketplace listing — keeps the full nightly rate; Daylet doesn't charge a commission on bookings, only a flat subscription. A booking taken through Airbnb or Booking.com loses that 15%+ cut regardless of how well-priced the stay was.
Run the same £19,680 gross estimate through a 50/50 split between direct and marketplace bookings, and the direct half keeps its full value while the marketplace half loses roughly £1,525 to commission — over £1,500 difference for identical nights, just from where the booking came in. Daylet's calculator includes a slider on your results specifically to show this split, because the honest answer to "how much could this property earn" always depends partly on channel mix, not just location and bedrooms.
Common mistakes when estimating holiday let income
- Using peak-season rate as if it applied all year. A summer week's nightly rate isn't the annual average — shoulder and off-season rates pull it down.
- Ignoring turnaround gaps. Cleaning and changeover time between bookings reduces the nights actually available, even at high demand.
- Averaging instead of using the median. A few standout listings can make an entire area look more profitable than it typically is.
- Comparing gross income to a mortgage or purchase decision. Gross isn't profit — run your actual running costs before treating a number as an investment case.
FAQ
How do I calculate my holiday let's potential income?
Multiply the median nightly rate for comparable properties in your area by the number of nights you expect to be booked (occupancy rate × nights available). That gives gross income. Subtract cleaning, utilities, insurance, maintenance, and platform commission to get closer to what you'd actually keep.
What's a good occupancy rate for a holiday let?
It varies heavily by location and season, which is why a single "good" number is misleading — a rural off-peak cottage and a coastal summer let have very different realistic ceilings. Compare against similar properties in your specific area rather than a national average.
Is a holiday let profit calculator different from an income calculator?
Yes. An income calculator estimates gross revenue from market data (nightly rate × occupancy). A profit calculator needs your actual running costs on top of that — cleaning, insurance, maintenance, commission — which vary too much between properties for a generic tool to estimate accurately.
How much commission does Airbnb take from a booking?
Airbnb currently charges hosts a flat 15.5% host-only fee per booking. Booking.com's commission is typically in a similar range, varying by market and agreement.
Keep Airbnb. Add a direct channel too.
None of this is an argument for leaving Airbnb or Booking.com — they're still where most first-time guests find a new listing. It's an argument for knowing the real number behind "how much could this property earn," and for routing more of your already-booked nights through a channel that doesn't take a cut.
Try the calculator with your own property's details, or read how to grow your direct booking share alongside the platforms you already use.