Short-Term Rental Occupancy Rate

It measures how often your calendar is filled — empty nights are lost revenue you can never recover.

Formal definition

Occupancy rate equals booked nights divided by available nights in the period, expressed as a percentage.

Why it matters

Even a great nightly rate fails if the calendar is empty; most healthy vacation rentals target at least 65% annual occupancy.

Where you see it

• Airbnb and VRBO host dashboards
• Revenue management tools
• Short-term rental investment analysis
• Hospitality asset underwriting
• Travel industry analyst reports

Worked example

1. Nights available in the month: 30.
2. Nights booked: 21.
3. Occupancy = (21 ÷ 30) × 100 = 70%.
4. Interpretation: The property was rented 70% of the time; 9 nights generated no lodging revenue.

How Business metrics calculates it

Nights booked ÷ Nights available × 100.

The range we use for status labels

On Business metrics, the status band for this KPI is roughly 65 to 80. Higher values are generally healthier in this band. Your niche can sit outside it honestly — the label is a prompt to read the coaching, not a certificate.

Where people fool themselves

Occupancy using 365 in the denominator while you blocked 80 days for yourself is a humblebrag. Available nights are nights a guest could have booked.

Run it on your own numbers: the Short-Term Rental calculator.