Average length of stay
Also called length of stay, average stay length, stay length, ALOS. Last reviewed Oct 21, 2026 by Jeremy Werden
Average length of stay is the average number of nights in a short-term rental reservation. BNBCalc Markets shows it for each listing as Average stay length and on a market page as Length of stay by bedroom, both over the past 12 months, so you can see how often homes like yours turn over.
Average length of stay = nights booked ÷ number of reservations
Where does BNBCalc show length of stay?
BNBCalc Markets reports length of stay over the past 12 months in three places:
- Length of stay by bedroom, on a market's Marketwide Stats tab, averages the listings' stay lengths for each bedroom count. It covers the same listings as the market's Listings map, so private and shared rooms are left out, along with homes open fewer than 127 nights a year or booked on fewer than 30% of their open nights. It doesn't change with the performance tier or bedroom selectors at the top of the page.
- Average stay length appears in each listing's details under Past 12 months, to one decimal place.
- Stay length in a comp set and Avg stay length on an operator's profile average the listings that have one.
Why does length of stay matter for an Airbnb?
Every stay ends with a turnover: a clean, fresh linens and a check of the home before the next guest arrives. So two homes with the same occupancy can have very different running costs if one averages two-night stays and the other averages six.
Say a home is booked 240 nights a year. At an average stay of 3 nights that's about 80 turnovers, while at 6 nights it's about 40, and at $150 a clean the difference is $6,000 a year. Shorter stays also mean more check-ins to manage and more guest messages, even though they can fill gaps that a long minimum stay would leave empty.
How do I use length of stay in a BNBCalc analysis?
A BNBCalc property analysis models cleaning as a percentage of revenue, at 8% to start in the US, rather than as a cost per stay. If the market page shows that homes like yours book much shorter or longer stays than you'd expect, adjust Cleaning Cost % in the analysis's expenses so the cost of turnovers matches how guests in that market book. To work it out, multiply a year's turnovers by your cleaner's rate and divide by the yearly revenue: 80 turnovers × $150 ÷ $60,000 = 20%.