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 so the per-night contribution margin (revenue minus variable costs like owner payout and cleaning) covers fixed costs.
- 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 15.5% host-side for accounts connected to a PMS/channel manager, 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).