How the calculator turns market data into a range, what moves an Edinburgh home's earnings up or down, and every cost between what guests pay and what you keep.
How the Edinburgh Airbnb income calculator works, step by step
The calculator gives a range, not a promise, and it is built to be a little cautious. Here is exactly what happens between choosing your area and seeing the numbers.
| Step | What we use | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Typical listed price | What similar homes in your area and size list at a night, across the next 12 months | PriceLabs market data, September 2026 |
| 2. Nights booked | A share of the year, from 72% to 84% | 72% for Edinburgh short lets overall; 84% for the homes we managed all year |
| 3. A reality adjustment | A reduction so the result matches what guests actually paid | Our own owner statements |
| 4. What you might keep | 51% to 60% of what guests paid | Real statements from summer 2026, on our standard fee |
The first figure you see, what guests could pay in a year, comes from steps 1 to 3. The second, what you might keep, applies step 4. Both are rounded, and the adjustment in step 3 keeps them on the cautious side.
What the calculator can't see
It knows your area and bedrooms. It doesn't know your street, your floor, whether you have a view of the Castle or a lift, how many the home sleeps, or which dates you'd let it. Those details can move a home's earnings well above or below the typical range, which is why the next step is a free plan for your home, using homes like yours on your street, month by month.
For typical nightly prices by area and size, see the area table on our Airbnb management page. That table is where we keep them up to date, month by month.
Listed price versus what guests pay: why we adjust down
A listed nightly price is what a home asks for. It isn't always what guests end up paying, and an honest estimate has to allow for the difference.
Why the two differ
- Discounts for longer stays. Weekly and monthly discounts lower the nightly average, often on exactly the stays that fill a quiet month.
- Prices that move closer to the date. Good pricing lowers a night that hasn't booked as the date approaches, rather than leaving it empty.
- Quiet nights. A Tuesday in February doesn't book at a Saturday-in-August price, and it shouldn't try to.
- Channel offers. Airbnb and Booking.com sometimes run discounts or promotions that lower what a guest pays for the same night.
So after multiplying the listed price by the share of nights booked, we reduce the result to match what our own homes actually earned. It is a deliberate step towards the cautious side. We'd rather you were pleasantly surprised than disappointed.
A common mistake with online estimates
Some online estimates use a peak nightly price for every night of the year. In Edinburgh that gives a very large number that no home earns. Across our homes, winter months earn roughly a third to a half of summer months, so a figure built on summer prices overstates the year by a long way.
If you're comparing our range with another estimate, ask what nightly price it used, what share of nights it assumed were booked, and whether it took off platform fees, cleaning and the Visitor Levy. Our short-let glossary explains each of those terms, and the pricing page shows exactly how our fee is worked out.
Edinburgh short-let occupancy: what moves a home from 72% to 84%
The share of nights booked does as much for a home's earnings as its nightly price. Across Edinburgh short lets overall, 72% of nights were booked last year, according to PriceLabs. In the homes we managed all year, it was 84%. Much of the gap comes from a handful of things that any home can work on.
What fills more nights
- Pricing every night on its own. Not one price for the season, but a price for each date, checked against what's happening in the city that week.
- Sensible minimum stays. Two or three nights for most of the year, longer in August and over New Year, and shorter when a gap appears.
- A calendar open far enough ahead. Fringe and Hogmanay guests book early. Homes that open late miss them.
- Several booking channels. Airbnb, Booking.com and others, with calendars synced so nothing is double-booked.
- Strong reviews. Guests choose between similar homes on rating and what other guests say.
- Quick, warm replies. A question answered in minutes often becomes a booking. One answered the next day often doesn't.
Why the calculator shows a range
We use 72% for the lower end and 84% for the upper end, because a home could sit anywhere between the two depending on how it's run. If you host yourself and want to work on these, our tools, tips and tricks for self-hosts guide is a practical start, and a free listing review will show which of them matter most for your home.
If you'd rather someone else did it, our full management covers every one of these.
Seasonality in Edinburgh, from August and Hogmanay to the quiet months
No other UK city has a year quite like Edinburgh's. A third of a typical year's short-let income can arrive in six weeks of August, when the Fringe, the International Festival and the Tattoo fill the city. Hogmanay is the second peak. In between, the calendar has its own rhythm.
Edinburgh's year, roughly
- January and February: the quietest weeks, lifted by Six Nations weekends at Murrayfield
- Spring: city breaks, long weekends and Easter
- June and July: graduation weeks, summer visitors and the run-up to August. See graduation stays
- August: the peak of the year, with longer minimum stays and prices well above every other month
- Autumn: steady city-break demand, conferences and the October half-term
- December: Christmas markets and Hogmanay
Why this matters for your estimate
Because the year is so uneven, the dates you let the home change everything. A home let only in August earns a large share of what it would earn all year, from a few weeks of letting. That's why some owners choose a temporary exemption for the Fringe rather than a full licence. A home let all year earns more in total, but much of it comes from months that are far quieter than summer.
The calculator shows a typical full year. Your free plan shows the months you choose, one by one, so you can see the quiet months as clearly as the busy ones.
East Lothian is different
On the coast, summer and the school holidays matter most, and golf brings visitors through much of the year. See golf holiday homes in East Lothian and the North Berwick area notes.
What drives Airbnb earnings across Edinburgh's neighbourhoods
The calculator covers 15 areas, from the Old Town to North Berwick, and five sizes of home. Within any one of them, some homes earn far more than others. These are the things that make the difference.
Location within the area
A flat a short walk from the Royal Mile and one at the far edge of the same postcode are not the same to a guest. Neither are a quiet street and one above a late bar. Areas with their own pull, like Leith's restaurants, Stockbridge's Sunday market or Murrayfield on match days, have their own busy dates on top of the city's.
How many it sleeps
Bedrooms matter, but beds matter too. A two-bedroom flat that sleeps six with a good sofa bed reaches families and groups that a home sleeping four can't. The licence sets the most guests you can take, so this is worth planning before you apply.
The home itself
- A view, a garden, parking or a lift
- The floor, and how many stairs
- Bathrooms: a second shower room changes who books a larger home
- Light, warmth and a kitchen people can actually cook in
- Photos that show all of it honestly
Who it suits
Some homes do best with families and groups, some with couples on city breaks, and some with people in Edinburgh for work, booked by their company. Our pages on company accommodation and contractor stays show the kind of guests who fill the quieter months in the right home.
Your plan compares your home with ones like it nearby, not the area average, so these details are counted.
From what guests pay to what you keep: every deduction
The second number in the calculator, what you might keep, is the one owners care about most. It's based on what owners on our standard fee kept of what guests paid on real statements from summer 2026: between 51% and 60%. Here's where the rest goes.
Deductions before the money reaches you
- Platform fees. Airbnb, Booking.com and other channels take their share.
- Cleaning. Guests pay a cleaning fee on most bookings, which covers the clean, linen and restocking.
- The Visitor Levy. 5% of the accommodation price for the first five nights, on stays in the City of Edinburgh from 24 July 2026. It's the guest's money, collected for the council. Read the Visitor Levy guide.
- Our fee. From 15% + VAT of net booking revenue, which is 18% including VAT. New owners who sign a one-year agreement by 31 December 2026 pay 10% + VAT for their first four months.
Costs after that, which the range doesn't include
- Energy, water and broadband
- Insurance that covers short lets
- The licence and the certificates behind it. See licence costs
- Council tax or business rates. See which applies, and the council tax premium on second homes from 2027
- Repairs and replacements
Your plan lists each one for your home, so you see a figure for what you'd keep after everything, not just before running costs.
Tax
What you keep is before tax. How short-let income is taxed changed in April 2025, and our free guide on short-let tax after April 2025 explains the basics. Your accountant has the final word.
When the calculator's range won't fit your home
The calculator works best for an ordinary home let all year. Some situations need a different starting point, and it's worth knowing if yours is one of them.
- You'd only let it for the Fringe or a few weeks. A temporary exemption covers up to six weeks a year. The yearly range won't apply, but August figures will. Read about temporary exemptions and licences.
- It's your own home, let while you're away. Earnings depend on which dates you're away. Our page on letting your home while abroad explains how this works.
- It's a student flat free over the summer. June to August only, then back to the students. See summer lets for student landlords.
- It's an HMO. HMO homes have their own rules. Our guide on short lets for HMO landlords covers them.
- It has six bedrooms or more. The calculator stops at five, and there are fewer large homes to compare with, so typical figures are less reliable. We'll look at it individually.
- It's outside our 15 areas. Choose the nearest one for a rough idea, then ask for a plan and we'll use the homes closest to yours.
- It doesn't have planning or a licence yet. In Edinburgh, a home you don't live in needs planning permission, or a Certificate of Lawfulness, before a licence. Earnings mean nothing until that's clear. See secondary letting and planning.
Comparing with a long let
Some owners use the calculator to decide between a short let and a long let. That's a fair question, but the comparison needs the costs of both: furnishing, cleaning and the licence on one side, and voids, repairs and tenancy rules on the other. Our guide Short let or long let? The Edinburgh numbers sets both out side by side.
When you'd like a figure made for your home, book a short call or start your free plan.
For the full picture behind these numbers, read how much does an Airbnb earn in Edinburgh? on our blog.
Book a 15-minute call with one of the co-founders, or get a free plan for your home: what it could earn, the licence route and every cost.
