IndustriesShort-term rental
A short-term rental business plan a lender will read past the first page
Short-term rental plans live and die on two numbers a lender already knows how to check: occupancy and average daily rate. The regulatory position is the other half — a city that restricts nightly letting can end the business between underwriting and drawdown.
Written for an SBA or bank loan, which is where most plans in this sector goNAICS 721199
Where the money goes
Typical shares of revenue in this sector. Shown as a starting point to argue with, never as a target to hit — your own figures replace all of these at intake.
- Cleaning and turnover
- 18%
- Per stay, not per month. Shorter stays cost materially more per night.
- Platform fees
- 14%
- Host fee plus payment processing. Direct booking reduces it and costs marketing.
- Utilities and supplies
- 9%
- Guests use more of everything than tenants do.
- Maintenance and refresh
- 6%
- Soft furnishings on a two-to-three year cycle, not a ten-year one.
A worked model
One plausible short-term rental, built out in full.
Not an illustration. These assumptions were run through the same engine the product uses, and the plan review was run over the result. It is here so you can see the shape of the answer before you start.
- Year 1 revenue
- $182.7K
- Year 3 revenue
- $216.6K
- Operating profit from
- Month 2
- Year 3 net margin
- 13.5%
- Coverage, first full year
- 2.03×EBITDA less tax, over debt service
Balance sheet ties in all 60 periodsNo blocking findings — this model would exportLowest cash $272.1K in month 1
The revenue build
Not a growth rate. These are the drivers a reader can argue with, which is the only kind worth putting in a plan.
Nightly stays
Units × price
- Units in month one
- 62
- Price per unit
- $245
- Cost per unit
- $44
- Monthly growth
- 0.0%
Sixty months of it
Monthly revenue against monthly EBITDA. Both are flows, so they share an axis honestly — plotting a cumulative cash balance beside a monthly figure would flatten the one that matters. The cash trough is in the strip above.
- Monthly revenue
- Monthly EBITDA
Year by year
| Year | Revenue | EBITDA | Net income | Closing cash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $182.7K | $52.1K | $13.8K | $300.7K |
| Year 2 | $205.3K | $65K | $24.3K | $330.6K |
| Year 3 | $216.6K | $70.8K | $29.2K | $364.9K |
| Year 4 | $227K | $76K | $33.7K | $403.2K |
| Year 5 | $236.7K | $80.7K | $37.9K | $445.2K |
Sources and uses: $240K debt, $85K owner capital, $48K of fit-out and equipment. 1 people on the payroll by month 36.
Against the short-term rental band
Benchmarks warn; they never overwrite. An assumption outside the band is flagged with its source so you can justify it — substituting an industry median would destroy the specificity that makes a plan credible.
- Gross margin
- 82.0%in band
- 68.0%median 78.0%88.0%
- Net margin
- 13.5%in band
- 4.0%median 14.0%26.0%
Source: Short-term rental operator data, 2026 · NAICS 721199 · secondary tier. Secondary-tier bands are usable as ranges, not as something a lender will read; where a figure has to survive scrutiny we substitute RMA Annual Statement Studies or IRS SOI data. Platform fees, cleaning and turnover supplies sit above the gross line. Debt service on the property, not margin, is usually what decides the net.
What they will ask first
A plan that answers these before they are asked reads as competent. One that does not gets sent back with them attached.
- What occupancy and ADR, and from what comparable?
- Market data for the specific submarket, not a city-wide average. Seasonality matters more here than in almost any other small business.
- Is nightly letting permitted, and for how long will it be?
- Registration caps, primary-residence rules and outright bans are common and change quickly. A plan that does not address the local ordinance is incomplete.
Where these plans get sent back
Regulatory reversal
The single largest risk in the sector. A reader wants to see the long-term-let fallback modelled, not asserted.
Platform dependency
One algorithm change or account suspension removes the entire booking channel. Direct booking share is the mitigation.
Licences and filings to budget for
These belong in the use of funds, not in a footnote. A missing permit line is the cheapest possible reason to be sent back.
- Short-term rental registration or permit, where the jurisdiction requires one
- Transient occupancy or lodging tax collection and remittance
- Life-safety requirements — smoke, carbon monoxide, egress — often inspected
- HOA or lease provisions, which frequently prohibit nightly letting outright
Requirements vary by state, county and city, and they change. Treat this as the list to go and verify locally rather than as legal advice — the product tracks the dated ones as configuration with a source and an effective date, and prints which version it assumed.
Start from these defaults, then make them yours.
The intake pre-fills this sector’s drivers and tags each one as your figure or an industry default — and says which in the finished plan.