How much weekly discount should an Airbnb offer?

The basics

A weekly guest replaces several shorter bookings. That means fewer turnovers and often fewer empty nights between stays. A discount pays for itself when it costs you no more than those savings.

On Airbnb, weekly and monthly discounts (opens in a new tab) apply to stays of 7 or more nights and 28 or more nights. The page also says "Discounts of 10% or more will be displayed in search results," and that after a discount your minimum daily price must be at least $10.

What a long stay saves you

1. Turnovers. Each short stay ends with a turnover. Your cleaning fee pays for part of it, but if the fee keeps less than the turnover costs after the platform fee, the rest comes out of your nightly income.
2. Gap nights. Short stays often leave single nights empty between them. One booking for the whole week doesn't.
3. Time. Fewer check-ins and fewer messages. That's real, but this page leaves it out of the math.

The formula

For a weekly stay of N nights replacing shorter stays of average length L:

1. Short stays replaced: k = filled nights ÷ L.
2. Short-stay profit = (1 − fee rate) × (filled nights × nightly rate + k × cleaning fee) − k × turnover cost.
3. Long-stay profit = (1 − fee rate) × (N × nightly rate × (1 − discount) + cleaning fee) − turnover cost.
4. Break-even discount = the discount where the two are equal.

When the short stays would fill every night, that works out to:

Break-even discount = (k − 1) × (turnover cost − (1 − fee rate) × cleaning fee) ÷ ((1 − fee rate) × N × nightly rate)

This model applies the discount to the nightly price only and the platform fee to nights and cleaning. Check your own price breakdown to confirm how your discount and fee are applied.

A worked example

Hypothetical numbers for one rental:

Seven nights as 3-night stays, every night filled:

1. Stays: 7 ÷ 3 = 2.3333.
2. Stay totals: 7 × $140 + 2.3333 × $80 = $980 + $186.67 = $1,166.67.
3. Payout: $1,166.67 × 0.845 = $985.83.
4. Turnovers: 2.3333 × $110 = $256.67.
5. Profit: $985.83 − $256.67 = $729.17.

One 7-night stay with no discount:

1. Stay total: $980 + $80 = $1,060.
2. Payout: $1,060 × 0.845 = $895.70.
3. Profit: $895.70 − $110 = $785.70.

The weekly stay leaves $56.53 more ($785.70 − $729.17). That's the room you have for a discount. As a share of the nightly price after the platform fee ($980 × 0.845 = $828.10), it is $56.53 ÷ $828.10 = 6.83%. Round down to 6.8% so the discount never costs more than it saves.

Check at 6.8%: $980 × 0.932 = $913.36 for the nights, plus $80 cleaning is $993.36. The payout is $839.39 and the profit $729.39, just above the $729.17 from short stays.

Now suppose 3-night stays would only fill 6 of the 7 nights, leaving one gap night:

1. Stays: 6 ÷ 3 = 2.
2. Stay totals: 6 × $140 + 2 × $80 = $1,000.
3. Payout: $1,000 × 0.845 = $845.00.
4. Profit: $845.00 − 2 × $110 = $625.00.

The weekly stay now has $160.70 of room ($785.70 − $625.00). That's $160.70 ÷ $828.10 = 19.41%, or 19.4% rounded down.

Break-even discount by short-stay length

Same example, rounded down to one decimal:

In this example, gap nights matter more than turnovers. If your calendar rarely has empty nights between bookings, a large weekly discount gives money away. If it often does, a weekly booking that fills them is worth a lot more.

Caveats before you set a number

• Occupancy risk. The math assumes you'd book the week either way. If a long stay takes dates you could sell at full price as short stays, the discount costs you more than shown.
• Demand you'd get anyway. A discount only pays if it brings bookings you wouldn't have had, or replaces worse ones.
• Per-night costs. Power, water and consumables are the same per night either way, so they're left out. Long stays can add wear and a mid-stay clean, which push the safe discount down.
• Season. Your gap nights and rates change through the year. Work out the number for busy and slow months.

When a guest asks for a discount

A standing weekly discount in your listing answers the question before it's asked. When a guest asks for more, the discount request reply helps you say yes or no through the platform, and the extend stay reply covers guests who want to stay longer. To see what any one booking leaves you, use the stay profit calculator. For the short-stay side of the same math, see are one-night stays worth it.