A guest books three nights at $200. Your dashboard says $600 and it feels like a win. But $600 is not what you keep — not even close. Understanding what a booking actually nets you is the difference between pricing on hope and pricing on math.
Let's unpack one booking, all the way down.
Follow the money on a $600 booking
What the guest pays isn't what you charge — they also pay a guest service fee and occupancy taxes on top. What you receive is the nightly total plus any cleaning fee, minus the platform's host fee:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Nightly (3 × $200) | $600 |
| Cleaning fee collected | $120 |
| – Host service fee (~3%) | –$22 |
| Payout to you | $698 |
So far, so good. But the payout isn't profit — it's just the top of the cost stack.
Now subtract what the booking actually costs
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Payout to you | $698 |
| – Cleaning (paid to cleaner) | –$110 |
| – Consumables & supplies | –$25 |
| – Utilities (share for the stay) | –$45 |
| – Amenities / wear & restocking | –$20 |
| Net take-home for this booking | $498 |
That confident $600 booking nets around $498 before you've touched the fixed monthly costs (mortgage, insurance, taxes) that every booking has to help cover. On a slow month, that same booking might be carrying a bigger share of those fixed costs and netting far less.
The cleaning-fee trap
Hosts love a high cleaning fee because it feels like "free" margin. Two problems: it can hurt your conversion and search ranking (guests see the all-in price and bounce), and it's taxable income — you don't get to pocket it tax-free just because it's labeled "cleaning." Charge what cleaning actually costs; don't try to hide profit in it.
Price off take-home, not the headline
Once you know a booking's true net, pricing decisions change. A $200 night that nets you $166 after variable costs is a different business than the $200 headline suggests. Knowing that number lets you set minimums, evaluate discounts, and decide whether that "great" long weekend is actually worth the turnover.
Revenue is the headline. Take-home is the story.
This is general education, not financial advice. Fee structures and cost ratios vary — build the math with your own numbers.