Management Control Exercises

Dott.House Academy

Management control for short-term rentals: educational exercises

Management control for short-term rentals is the practice of measuring how much each apartment actually earns, net of all costs. Looking at Airbnb or Booking revenue isn't enough: a property that takes in €30,000 a year can easily end up at a loss once cleaning, utilities, OTA commissions and management costs eat into the residual rent.

These two interactive exercises walk you through computing a per-booking Profit & Loss and the occupancy break-even using realistic data for an Italian apartment. Change the values in real time and watch net margin, ADR and minimum nights-sold-to-break-even update live.

Glossary

ADR (Average Daily Rate): : average revenue per booked night. Computed as revenue ÷ nights sold.
Net margin: : profit left after subtracting OTA commissions, cleaning, utilities and other variable expenses from gross revenue.
Occupancy break-even: : minimum nights per month you need to sell to cover fixed costs (rent, condo fees, baseline utilities).
Per-booking P&L: : detailed income statement for a single stay: shows whether that booking is profitable or unprofitable.
OTA commissions: : percentage kept by platforms (Airbnb ~3-5% host-side, Booking.com ~15-18%) on the booking total.
Fixed vs variable costs: : fixed: rent, condo fees, subscriptions (you pay every month regardless of occupancy). Variable: cleaning, check-in, marginal utilities (scale with bookings).