Occupancy rate, ADR and RevPAR for Airbnb: what the numbers mean and what counts as good

Occupancy rate is nights booked divided by nights available to be booked. ADR, average daily rate, is revenue divided by nights booked. RevPAR, revenue per available night, is revenue divided by nights available, which is the same as ADR multiplied by occupancy.¹ A good number is one that beats similar listings nearby in the same months, not a national average. Occupancy alone is the weakest of the three, and under a night cap, such as Amsterdam’s 30 or 15 nights a year, it stops meaning much at all.⁹

In this guide

1. The three formulas, exactly
2. Why occupancy on its own misleads
3. What counts as good
4. Worked example
5. Reporting the numbers to an owner
6. Questions people ask
7. Sources

The three formulas, exactly

The definitions are simple. The arguments start over what goes into the top and the bottom of each fraction, so agree those with the owner before the first report.

Available nights and blocked nights

Airbnb’s Insights page describes average occupancy as “the number of nights booked divided by total nights available to be booked”.¹ On the same page, nights blocked, manually or by default, count as unbooked nights, so they show up next to occupancy rather than inside the booked total.¹

PriceLabs, a pricing tool vendor, describes the two ways people count: over total calendar nights, including nights blocked for personal use or maintenance, or over guest-available nights, which “excludes owner blocks and maintenance days entirely”.⁴ AirDNA counts only active listing nights: a night that is not blocked and is either reserved or available, and a listing fully blocked for a month is not treated as active that month.²

For an owner report, the guest-available version is fairest to you: you cannot sell a night the owner kept for family. Show the calendar version as well when the owner compares the unit with a long-term let, because a tenant pays for every night. The worked example shows both.

ADR with or without the cleaning fee

Airbnb calculates its average nightly rate as “total nightly revenue divided by the number of booked listing nights”.¹ AirDNA’s ADR includes the cleaning fee set by the host and excludes Airbnb service fees; its own example is 5 nights at $250 with a $200 cleaning fee, giving an ADR of $290.³

Both are fine; mixing them is not. In this guide and in the revenue calculator, ADR means the nightly rate without the cleaning fee, and cleaning is a separate line. That keeps the cost of extra turnovers visible. When you quote a figure from a data tool, add “including cleaning” or “excluding cleaning” in the same sentence.

Also state whether ADR is before or after the platform fee. Under Airbnb’s host-only fee, the price a guest pays and what reaches you differ, so quote ADR on the price set in the listing and handle fees in the cost stack.

Why occupancy on its own misleads

Owners like occupancy because it is easy to picture: a full calendar feels like success. It is the metric most easily bought with a lower price.

• High occupancy can mean the price is too low. A unit booked solid weeks ahead is often leaving money on the table, as the dynamic pricing guide shows with two months of the same flat.
• Every booked night has a cost. More, shorter stays mean more cleaning, more linen and more wear. Occupancy does not show that; ADR minus cleaning per night does.
• The bottom of the fraction moves. An owner who blocks August for family raises the occupancy rate over available nights while the unit earns less.
• It hides the price. Two units at 80% can earn very different amounts.

RevPAR fixes most of this, because a night sold too cheaply and a night left empty both pull it down. It still says nothing about costs, so read it next to turnovers per month.

What counts as good

The benchmark question, honestly

PriceLabs calls 65% or higher “generally solid” as a rough benchmark, writes that high-demand tourist destinations often exceed 70% in peak season, and that quieter markets or off-peak periods commonly land at 50–60%.⁴ It also recommends comparing with similar local listings rather than national averages.⁴ Treat those figures as a vendor’s rule of thumb, not a Benelux benchmark.

We could not find a trustworthy, public occupancy or ADR benchmark for Belgian or Dutch cities as of 31 October 2026. The sources that exist each answer a different question:

Eurostat is still useful for context: guests spent 951.6 million nights in EU short-stay accommodation booked online in 2025, 11.4% more than in 2024.⁶ That tells an owner demand is growing in Europe. It does not tell them whether 62% is good for a two-bedroom in Ghent.

Build your own benchmark from comparables

When no published figure fits, make one. It takes an hour and it is the only benchmark an owner can check.

1. Pick 8–12 comparables. Same neighbourhood, same bedrooms and guest count, similar standard and reviews: the listings a guest would weigh against this one.
2. Use one source for all of them. Either one data tool or your own calendar checks, never a mix, so the definitions match.
3. Record each one by month. Occupancy, ADR and RevPAR, with the source’s definitions written at the top.
4. Take the middle, not the best. The median of the set is “normal”; the top third is “strong”.
5. Place your unit. Above the median on RevPAR is good, whatever the occupancy. Above on occupancy and below on RevPAR usually means the price is too low.
6. Date it. Markets move; redo the set each quarter or when the rules change.

The same comparables are the base of a projection for a new owner, so the work pays twice.

Seasonality and the same-month rule

A city flat in the Benelux will not sell February like May. Seasonality means a single yearly occupancy figure hides months that are very different. Two rules keep reports honest:

• Compare like with like. This October against last October, or against comparables in October.
• Report RevPAR by month. A quiet month with a higher ADR and lower occupancy can be the right result. The shape of the year matters more than its average.

Eurostat’s monthly series by country shows the seasonal shape of platform nights, which helps when an owner asks whether a slow month is the unit or the market.⁶

Night caps change what good means

In Amsterdam, holiday letting has been limited to 30 nights a year, and since 1 April 2026 to 15 nights a year in eight neighbourhoods: Burgwallen-Nieuwe Zijde, De Weteringschans, Grachtengordel-West, Grachtengordel-Zuid, Haarlemmerbuurt, Jordaan, Nieuwmarkt/Lastage and Oude Pijp.⁹ Under such a night cap, occupancy over the calendar year can never pass about 8% (30 of 365 nights) or about 4% (15 of 365). It says nothing about performance.

Under a cap, report two things instead: how many of the allowed nights were sold, and the ADR on those nights. Because the number of nights is fixed, revenue rises only with price, so a cap turns the job into pricing the best dates. Check the current rules for each address in Airbnb rules in Belgium and the Netherlands before you set any target.

Worked example

To see what the first flat leaves for the owner after Airbnb’s fee, VAT on it, cleaning and commission, open the revenue calculator with these values. The calculator counts occupancy over 365 nights, so enter the calendar figure, 61.4%, not 70%. Its RevPAR line divides accommodation revenue by the nights the unit may be let.

Reporting the numbers to an owner

An owner report that uses these metrics well is short and repeats the same definitions every month.

• State the definitions once, at the top. “Occupancy over guest-available nights. ADR excluding cleaning, on the listed price before platform fees.”
• Show nights blocked by the owner as their own line, so a low month caused by family use is not read as poor performance.¹
• Lead with RevPAR, then ADR and occupancy, for this month, the same month last year and the comparables.
• Add turnovers and average length of stay, so the owner sees what extra occupancy costs.
• Put revenue in the same terms as the agreement. If commission is on accommodation revenue, report that figure; how the base is defined is covered in the co-host fees guide.

When the owner asks “is that good?”, the answer is the comparables table, not a percentage from an article. To move the numbers rather than report them, see dynamic pricing for Airbnb.

Questions people ask

Sources

All sources checked 31 October 2026.

1. Airbnb Help Centre, “How do I read my performance data for occupancy and rates?”
2. AirDNA Help Center, “How does AirDNA calculate occupancy rate?”, Market data vendor, updated 20 August 2026
3. AirDNA Help Center, “How does AirDNA calculate Average Daily Rate (ADR)?”, Market data vendor, updated 22 May 2026
4. PriceLabs, “How to calculate occupancy rate?”, Pricing tool vendor blog, updated 27 September 2026
5. PriceLabs, “Market Dashboards”, Pricing and data vendor, product page
6. Eurostat, “Tourism nights booked via platforms hit nearly 1 billion”, News release, 1 April 2026; datasets tour_ce_omr and tour_ce_omn12
7. Inside Airbnb, “Data assumptions”, Independent data project
8. Inside Airbnb, “Get the data”, Snapshots for Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent dated September 2026
9. Gemeente Amsterdam, “Eerste aanwijzingsbesluit 15-nachtencriterium vakantieverhuur Amsterdam (Gemeenteblad 2026, 151001)”, In force 1 April 2026, in Dutch

We check every figure against the sources above. Spotted something out of date? Email systemen@hostproacademy.com with the guide title.