What is the BNBCalc Calculator and what does it estimate?
Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026 by Jeremy Werden
Short answer
The BNBCalc Calculator estimates what a property would earn as a short-term rental and what you'd keep after costs. Enter an address and it returns annual revenue, daily rate and occupancy from nearby comps, then works through expenses, financing, cash flow, returns and US tax savings. A new account gets 2 free analyses; after that it's $30 a month.
Who it's for
The Calculator is built for anyone sizing up one specific property: investors deciding whether to buy, owners thinking of listing a home they already have, people planning to lease a home and sublet it, co-hosts pitching an owner, and realtors running the numbers for a client.
What you give it
Every analysis starts from one address, in the US or abroad, plus a few details about the home: the bedrooms, the bathrooms, how many guests it sleeps and its price, or the monthly rent if you'd lease it. You also pick the kind of deal, Buy, Own, Rent or Cohost, because that decides whether the page models a mortgage, a lease or a commission.
For US addresses, BNBCalc fills in the bedrooms and bathrooms from the property record and the price from the home's estimated value, so you'll mostly be checking them. Outside the US you'll type them in yourself.
What it gives you back
The analysis opens on its own page, and from top to bottom it answers three questions: what the home would earn, what it would cost to run, and what you'd make on the cash you put in.
| Section | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Short Term Rental and Long Term Rental cards (Buy, Own) | A letter grade for each strategy, with the cash-on-cash return and cap rate behind it |
| Annual Revenue | The yearly revenue estimate, its average daily rate and occupancy, and the comps it's built on, in a table and on a map |
| Amenity card (Buy, Own, Rent) | Which amenities, such as a pool or a hot tub, earn more for homes your size in that market |
| Seasonality | How the year's revenue splits across the months, your monthly break-even, and which months make or lose money |
| Profit | Revenue, operating expenses, the mortgage and property tax or your rent, and the cash flow that's left, for a month, a year, 5 years or 10 years |
| Cash Investment | The cash you'd put in up front, such as the down payment, closing costs and furnishing, plus the DSCR on a US Buy analysis |
| Investment Value Over Time (Cashflow Over Time on a Rent analysis) | Cash-on-cash return, plus the cap rate and return on investment (including appreciation and loan paydown) on Buy and Own. A Rent analysis shows the payback period instead. |
| STR Tax Calculator (USA) | Estimated deductions and tax savings from mortgage interest, property tax and depreciation (Buy and Own, US only) |
| Property Overview | Lot size, year built, square footage and other details from the public record (US) |
A Cohost analysis is lighter, since you aren't buying anything: it skips the purchase, the mortgage, the returns and the tax section, and shows your commission and the owner's payout instead.
If you want the math behind these numbers, How does BNBCalc estimate revenue for a property?, How does BNBCalc estimate operating expenses? and How does BNBCalc calculate cash flow and returns? walk through each step with a worked example.
Comparing it with a long-term rental
On a Buy or Own analysis, click the Long Term Rental card to see the same home as an ordinary 12-month rental. The page swaps in a monthly rent estimate with vacancy, a table of nearby rental listings, and long-term versions of the profit and return sections, so you can see whether furnishing it for short stays is worth the extra work. Click Short Term Rental to go back.
Making the numbers your own
None of these numbers are locked. If you created the analysis and you're signed in, you can enter your own revenue, drop comps that aren't a fair match, change any expense and set your real loan terms, and your changes are saved to the analysis. People you share it with can only try numbers on their own screen. Start with How do I change the revenue, daily rate or occupancy in an analysis? and How do I add or edit expenses?.
What it costs
A new account includes 2 free property analyses. After that, the Calculator costs $30 a month or $199 a year, starting with a 7-day free trial, and the Markets plan includes it too. Both paid plans come with unlimited analyses, Excel export, AI Underwriter for US properties and AI expense estimates.
What the Calculator doesn't do
Keep these limits in mind before you lean on an analysis:
- It doesn't find homes for sale. You bring the address, or paste a Zillow listing link, and BNBCalc Markets is where you'd research which area to buy in.
- It doesn't check the rules. It won't tell you whether short-term rentals are allowed at the address, or whether an HOA permits them.
- It analyzes one unit at a time. For a duplex or a small apartment building, run each unit as its own analysis.
- A few parts are US-only: the prefilled property details, the Property Overview, the DSCR, the STR Tax Calculator and AI Underwriter.
Above all, every figure is an estimate built from comparable listings, so check the comps behind it before you rely on it.
Frequently asked questions
Can the BNBCalc Calculator analyze a duplex or multi-unit building?
Not as one analysis. Run each unit as its own analysis, with its own unit number and that unit's share of the price rather than the whole building's. Then add up the units' cash flow yourself, since percentages like the cap rate can't be added together.
Does the BNBCalc Calculator check short-term rental rules?
No. An analysis estimates what a property could earn, not whether you're allowed to rent it short term. Check the city or county rules, and any HOA restrictions, before you buy or sign a lease.
Terms in this article
Related articles
Getting started
How do I analyze my first property?
To analyze a property in BNBCalc, type its address into the "Analyze any city or address" search box and pick it from the Addresses list. Check the bedrooms, bathrooms, guests and price, click Select analysis type, choose Buy, Own, Rent or Cohost, and click Run analysis. A new account includes 2 free analyses.
Property Calculator
What's the difference between Buy, Own, Rent and Cohost analyses?
BNBCalc has four analysis types. Buy models purchasing a home to run as a short-term rental, with a new mortgage. Own models a home you already own. Rent models rental arbitrage, where you lease a home and list it on Airbnb. Cohost models managing someone else's home for a commission. You choose the type before you run the analysis.
Data & methodology
How does BNBCalc estimate revenue for a property?
BNBCalc estimates a property's annual revenue from up to 50 comparable Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com homes nearby, using what each could earn if it were bookable all year. The estimate benchmarks a well-run listing rather than the average, landing around the comps' 70th to 75th percentile, and it's gross revenue with cleaning fees included.
Data & methodology
How accurate are BNBCalc's estimates?
BNBCalc's estimates are built from what comparable homes nearby actually earned, so they're only as good as those comps. They're strongest for common home sizes in active markets, and weakest for very large or unusual homes, rural areas with few listings, and properties unlike anything nearby. Check the comps before you rely on any figure.
Getting started
Which plan is right for me?
Choose the BNBCalc Calculator if you already know where you want to invest and need to analyze specific properties: $30 a month or $199 a year. Choose BNBCalc Markets if you're still deciding where to buy or want to study competitors: $79 a month or $399 a year, with the Calculator included.
Was this helpful?