What does an Auckland short-stay property actually pay?
Most Airbnb calculators show you a gross figure and stop. This one takes off the platform’s cut, the management fee and the nights you will not sell — then puts the answer next to what the same apartment would earn on a normal tenancy.
Every default below is either published by a source you can check yourself, or measured from our own bookings and labelled as such. Sources are listed in full at the bottom.
A central Auckland one-bedroom that charges $200 a night and fills 78.7% of the year grosses about $57,400 in accommodation. After Airbnb’s host-only service fee — published at 15.5%, about 17.8% once GST is added[4] — and a 15% + GST management fee[6], roughly $37,300 is left before the owner’s own running costs. The same apartment on a tenancy at the Auckland Central median of $442 a week[1] pays about $22,100 after two vacant weeks. Short-stay wins that particular comparison by a wide margin — but change the nightly rate to $130, or occupancy to 55%, and it does not. That is the whole point of running your own numbers rather than ours.
Run your own numbers
Nothing is sent anywhere. It calculates in your browser as you type, and we never see what you put in.
Sets the starting rent and cleaning figures. You can change everything below.
Short-stay side
Accommodation only, before the guest-paid cleaning fee. Check comparable listings in your building for a realistic figure.
Our central Auckland portfolio ran 78.7% of listed calendar days in the year to August 2026[5]. A new listing with no reviews will be well below that in year one.
Ours is 15% + GST of accommodation revenue[6]. Set it to 0 if you plan to run the property yourself.
Power, internet, any insurance uplift, listing photography, wear and tear. We have left this at zero rather than invent a figure — it is genuinely property-specific.
Tenancy side
Starts at the Auckland Central apartment median from bond lodgements[1]. Look up your own suburb and replace it.
Turnover, re-letting and the odd bad month. Set it to 0 for a perfect year.
Zero if you manage the tenancy yourself. Auckland letting agents typically charge a percentage of rent plus a one-off letting fee.
Short-stay
Long-term tenancy
Both columns exclude the costs you would pay either way — rates, body corporate levies, base insurance, mortgage and maintenance — because they do not change the comparison. They do change whether either option is worth doing at all.
This is a model, not a forecast, and not financial advice. It is only as good as the nightly rate and occupancy you put into it.
Where each number comes from
Four figures do the work. Three of them are published by somebody other than us.
| What | Rate used | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Airbnb service fee | 17.8% of accommodation | Airbnb publishes a host-only fee of 15.5% and states fees are shown inclusive of GST. 15.5% plus NZ GST is about 17.8%[4] |
| Management fee | Your figure × 1.15 | A management fee quoted as “15% + GST” costs 17.25% of accommodation revenue in practice[6] |
| Nights sold | 365 × your occupancy | Our portfolio figure of 78.7% is of listed calendar days, over the twelve months to 31 August 2026[5] |
| Median weekly rent | $442 / $550 / $698 | Tenancy Services market rent, Auckland Central apartments, 1 February to 31 July 2026, from bond lodgements[1] |
Annualised at 52 weeks. Rent medians are for Auckland Central apartments specifically; your suburb will differ, sometimes a lot.
What this calculator deliberately leaves out
A calculator that flatters you is worse than no calculator. Here is everything we have not counted, including the parts that count against short-stay.
- The guest-paid cleaning fee is on neither side. It is charged to the guest and passed to whoever does the turnover, so it is not owner income. Treating it as income is the most common way these calculators overstate short-stay.
- GST. Short-stay accommodation is a taxable activity; long-term residential rent is not[2][3]. Cross $60,000 of turnover in twelve months and registration is compulsory, which changes the arithmetic materially. The calculator flags it but does not model it.
- Airbnb’s fee on the cleaning portion. The platform takes its percentage of the whole booking, cleaning fee included. We apply it to accommodation only, which understates the cost slightly in short-stay’s favour.
- Furnishing and set-up. A short-stay apartment has to be furnished, equipped and photographed before it earns anything. A tenancy can be let unfurnished.
- Seasonality. The calculator spreads occupancy evenly across the year. Real Auckland demand does not — winter is materially softer than February, and a bad June is normal rather than a failure.
- Whether you are allowed to do it at all. Many Auckland apartment buildings restrict or prohibit short stays in the body corporate rules, and a standard landlord insurance policy may not cover paying guests. Check both before any of this matters.
- Your time. If you set management to zero, you are the manager — the pricing, the messages, the 11pm lockout and the turnover coordination all land on you.
We are cleaners, not accountants. This page is general information, not tax or financial advice, and it is accurate to the sources cited as at 13 September 2026. Tax rules change. Read the IRD pages yourself and take your numbers to your accountant before you commit to either option.
What actually moves the answer
Two inputs dominate everything else. Change either one and the conclusion can flip.
Occupancy, not nightly rate
Owners fixate on the nightly rate because it is the visible number. But a property at $200 a night filling 55% earns less than the same property at $160 filling 80%. Occupancy is where a manager either earns their fee or does not — and it is the number worth asking any manager to define before you believe it.
Whether you are the manager
Set the management fee to zero and short-stay looks dramatically better on paper. That figure is not free — it is your evenings and weekends, all year. The honest version of this calculator is to run it both ways and decide which number you are actually being paid.
The first year is not a normal year
A new listing with no reviews prices below the market until it has a history. Plan on a first year well under the portfolio figure, and judge the decision on year two.
If the numbers work, the next question is who runs it
We clean central Auckland short-stay properties and have done since 2012, and we run turnovers for a boutique operator’s portfolio continuously since 2018 — which is where the occupancy figure on this page comes from. If you want the arithmetic checked against your actual property rather than a median, send us the address and the listing and we will tell you what we think, including if we think a tenancy is the better answer.
Talk about my propertyHow management works
Related: furnished management across short, mid and long stays · Airbnb vs a long-term tenancy in Auckland — the full comparison behind this calculator · what Airbnb cleaning actually costs.
Sources
Check every one of them. Where a figure is ours rather than somebody else’s, we say so and explain how we got it.
- 1 Tenancy Services (MBIE) — Market rent, Auckland – Auckland Central, apartments, period 1 February to 31 July 2026. Medians used: $442 (1 bed), $550 (2 bed), $698 (3 bed). tenancy.govt.nz/rent-bond-and-bills/market-rent Official median weekly rents calculated from bond lodgements, not advertised prices. Updated monthly. Search your own suburb on that page. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- 2 Inland Revenue — GST and your short-stay rental income. ird.govt.nz — GST and your short-stay rental income Source of the $60,000 registration threshold and the treatment of short-stay accommodation as a taxable activity. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- 3 Inland Revenue — GST and renting out residential property. ird.govt.nz — GST and renting out residential property Source for long-term residential rent being exempt rather than taxable. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- 4 Airbnb Help Centre — What are Airbnb service fees? (article 1857). airbnb.co.nz/help/article/1857 Airbnb publishes a host-only service fee of 15.5% for most stays and states that service fees are displayed inclusive of VAT or GST where it applies. 15.5% plus New Zealand GST is approximately 17.8%, which is the figure used here. Your own listing’s fee structure may differ — check it in your Airbnb account. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- 5 Our own booking records — not a published dataset. Occupancy of 78.7% is nights sold as a share of listed calendar days across a central Auckland short-stay portfolio we clean, for the twelve months to 31 August 2026: 5,344 nights sold across 6,793 listed calendar days. Measured on the same basis as the figures on our Airbnb vs long-term rental page, where the two possible denominators are explained in full. It is one portfolio in one part of one city, and it is not a market average.
- 6 Our own published pricing. Full management — 15% + GST of accommodation revenue and our published cleaning rates. The management default in the calculator is our own rate, which is why it is set to 15%. Other Auckland managers charge more and some charge less, and several do not publish a figure at all — put whatever you have actually been quoted into the field.
Questions owners ask
How much can I make on Airbnb in Auckland?
It depends almost entirely on two numbers: your average nightly rate and the share of nights you actually sell. A central Auckland one-bedroom at $200 a night filling 78.7% of the year grosses about $57,400 in accommodation, of which roughly $37,300 is left after Airbnb’s 17.8% service fee and a 15% + GST management fee, before your own running costs. Change the rate to $130 or occupancy to 55% and the answer changes completely, which is why the calculator on this page takes your numbers rather than showing you ours.
Is Airbnb better than renting long term in Auckland?
Often, but not always, and not automatically. Short-stay charges far more per night but does not fill every night, pays a platform fee of about 17.8%, is a taxable activity for GST once turnover passes $60,000, and requires the property to be furnished and actively run. A tenancy pays less but pays it from one tenant with almost no empty nights and no GST. Properties in buildings that restrict short stays, or in suburbs with thin visitor demand, are usually better tenanted.
What percentage does Airbnb take in New Zealand?
Airbnb publishes a host-only service fee of 15.5% for most stays, and states that service fees are shown inclusive of GST where it applies, which makes it about 17.8% in New Zealand. Some hosts are on a split-fee structure instead, where the host pays around 3% and the guest pays the rest. Check which one your listing uses in your Airbnb account rather than assuming.
Do I have to pay GST on Airbnb income in New Zealand?
Short-stay accommodation is a taxable activity for GST, unlike long-term residential rent, and registration becomes compulsory once turnover passes $60,000 in any twelve-month period. There are also platform rules that affect hosts who are not registered. This is the single biggest structural difference between the two options and it is worth taking to an accountant before you start — see Inland Revenue’s own pages, linked in the sources above.
What occupancy should I expect in my first year?
Lower than an established listing. A property with no reviews has to price below the market until it has a booking history, so a first year well under the 78.7% portfolio figure on this page is normal. Judge the decision on year two rather than year one.
Does the cleaning fee count as income?
No, and treating it as income is the most common way Airbnb calculators overstate returns. The cleaning fee is charged to the guest and passed to whoever performs the turnover, along with linen and guest consumables. It is excluded from both sides of the calculator on this page for that reason.