Nightly ProfitAirbnb Pricing Strategy: A Simple Spreadsheet Method for Small Hosts
Most small hosts price their listing once, copy a few competitors, and then either leave money on the table in busy weeks or sit empty in quiet ones. Dynamic pricing tools can help, but they work best when you already know your own numbers: the lowest price you can accept, what your busy and quiet seasons look like, and whether last month's prices actually worked. You can do all of that in a simple spreadsheet. Here's the method, step by step, with a worked example.
Step 1: Set your floor price
Your floor is the lowest nightly price you'll accept. Below it, a booking costs you money. Work it out from your own costs:
- Fixed costs per booked night. Add up your monthly fixed costs for the listing (rent or mortgage, utilities, internet, insurance, software) and divide by the number of nights you realistically expect to book.
- Per-stay costs per night. Cleaning (if your cleaning fee doesn't fully cover it), laundry and consumables, divided by your average stay length.
- Platform fee. Divide the total by (1 − your fee rate). Use the actual fee from your payout report.
Worked example: $2,400 of fixed costs a month and 20 expected booked nights is $120 a night. Supplies and the part of cleaning your fee doesn't cover add $38 a night on an average 3-night stay. With a 3% host fee, the floor is ($120 + $38) ÷ 0.97 ≈ $163.
We go through this calculation in detail in how to set a minimum nightly price for your Airbnb.
Step 2: Choose a base rate
Your base rate is what you charge on an ordinary weeknight in an ordinary month. Look at 5–10 listings that are genuinely comparable (same guest count, similar location, similar amenities and reviews) for dates a few weeks out, and note what they charge. Start your base rate around the middle of that range, and never below your floor.
Step 3: Build seasonal tiers
Most markets have three or four seasons. Put them in your sheet as months with a multiplier on your base rate:
| Season | Months (example) | Multiplier | Weeknight rate (base $190) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peak | Jul–Aug, holidays | 1.35 | $257 |
| High | Jun, Sep | 1.15 | $219 |
| Shoulder | Apr–May, Oct | 1.00 | $190 |
| Low | Nov–Mar | 0.88 | $167 (still above the $163 floor) |
The multipliers above are only an example. Use your own booking history: the months that filled earliest and at the highest rates last year are your peak.
Step 4: Add weekend and event premiums
In leisure markets, Friday and Saturday nights usually book first. Add a weekend premium (for example 15–25%) as a separate column, and mark local events, holidays and festivals on a calendar tab with their own premium. In business-travel markets, the pattern can be the opposite, so check your own data before copying anyone's rule of thumb.
Step 5: Use discounts and stay rules on purpose
Every discount should have a job:
- Weekly and monthly discounts reward longer stays, which mean fewer turnovers and lower cleaning costs per night.
- Last-minute discounts can fill dates that are still open close to arrival. Make sure the discounted price stays above your floor.
- Minimum-night rules protect busy weekends. Shorten them for awkward one- or two-night gaps between bookings so those nights can still sell.
Write each discount and rule in your sheet with the reason next to it. If you can't name the reason, you probably don't need the discount.
Step 6: Review your numbers every month
This is the step most hosts skip, and it's what turns guessing into a strategy. At the start of each month, calculate three numbers for the month that just ended:
- Occupancy = booked nights ÷ available nights
- ADR (average daily rate) = accommodation revenue ÷ booked nights
- RevPAR (revenue per available night) = accommodation revenue ÷ available nights (equal to occupancy × ADR)
Example: in a 31-night month you booked 20 nights for $3,600 of accommodation revenue. Occupancy is 20 ÷ 31 = 64.5%, ADR is $3,600 ÷ 20 = $180, and RevPAR is $3,600 ÷ 31 ≈ $116.
RevPAR is the one to watch, because it balances price against occupancy. Lowering prices can raise occupancy but lower RevPAR. Raising prices can lower occupancy but still raise RevPAR.
What to change, and when
| What you see | What it usually means | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| Dates booked far ahead, very high occupancy | You're priced below demand | Raise future rates 5–10% for that season |
| Weekends full, weeknights empty | The weekday rate is too high, or minimums are too long | Lower weeknights or shorten minimums |
| Open dates two weeks out in peak season | The rate is too high for this year's demand | Small, targeted reductions, never below your floor |
| High occupancy but falling RevPAR | Discounts are doing too much | Trim discounts and check ADR |
Change one or two things at a time and note them in the sheet, so next month you can see what worked.
Keep it in one place
You can build all of this in a blank spreadsheet: a settings tab for your floor and base rate, a calendar tab for seasons and events, and a monthly tab that calculates occupancy, ADR and RevPAR from your bookings. If you'd like a quick floor-price check first, our free Turnover Checklist + Pricing Sanity Check PDF is on our homepage.
Prefer it built for you? The Rental Host Ops & Profit Kit is an Excel and Google Sheets workbook that calculates occupancy, ADR and RevPAR per property and per month from the bookings you log, handling long stays and owner blocks. It also gives you a monthly P&L per property, so you can see whether your prices are actually profitable. US$34, one-time, for hosts with 1–10 listings.
General information, not tax, legal or financial advice. Any figures in examples are made up to illustrate the math. Nightly Profit is not affiliated with Airbnb, Vrbo or Booking.com.