Rental Property Income and Expense Tracker for Short Term Rental Hosts
Your payout is not your profit. Here is how to track every dollar in and out of a vacation rental, so you know what each property really earns.
The number Airbnb shows you is not what you keep. Platform fees come out first, then cleaning, supplies, utilities, repairs and everything else. Without a simple income and expense log, it is easy to think a property is doing great when it is barely breaking even.
Log every dollar in
Record each payout on the day it arrives, with the date, the property and a short note like the booking code and number of nights. Use the payout amount, not the listed price. Airbnb takes its host fee out before it pays you, and Airbnb's Help Center says most hosts on the host only fee pay about 15.5%. Check your own payout details for your real rate.
Log every dollar out
Use the same handful of categories every time, so the totals mean something:
- Cleaning
- Supplies
- Utilities
- Platform fees, if any are charged separately
- Repairs
- Furnishings
- Mortgage or rent
- Insurance
- Taxes and licenses
- Other
Keep a short description on each line, like "Costco restock" or "new patio chairs." Six months later you will be glad you did.
See profit by month and by property
Once everything is logged, total income minus total expenses for each month. If you have more than one rental, filter by property too. Patterns show up fast: a slow month you should price lower, a utility bill that keeps climbing, or a home where repairs eat most of the profit.
Keep a small reserve
Things break. Towels get ruined, a lamp gets knocked over, the dishwasher dies. Set aside part of each month's profit for normal replacements, so small losses never feel like a crisis.
Make tax time easier
A clean log with categories makes your tax return much simpler. Keep receipts with your records, and ask a tax professional how to report your rental income and expenses, since the rules depend on your situation.
Income and Expense Tracker
The Income and Expenses tab in my Host Operations Tracker logs every payout and cost, then shows income, expenses and profit by month, by category and by property for any year you choose. It works in Excel and Google Sheets and is part of the Host Operations Kit.
See the Host Operations Kit