Airbnb maintenance costs: what to budget for per property per year

Category: Operations & Cleaning

By: Michael Thompson

Posted: 2025-11-30T09:20:39.145Z

I'm a new host trying to build a realistic budget. Everyone talks about revenue but nobody shares what maintenance and upkeep ACTUALLY costs for an STR. Can experienced hosts share their annual maintenance costs? Not just the big stuff — I want to know about EVERYTHING. Consumables, replacements, repairs, the works.

Reply by Ryan Tanaka:

3 years of obsessive expense tracking across 5 properties. I'll give you real numbers. For a typical 2BR/2BA, consumables (TP, paper towels, soap, coffee, cleaning supplies, welcome snacks, etc.) run about $1,800-2,400 a year. Sounds like a lot but it breaks down to like $12-15 per turnover when you buy in bulk from Costco or Amazon Subscribe & Save. Shampoo/conditioner dispensers instead of individual bottles saves a fortune. Linen replacement is another $400-600/year. I replace 1-2 sheet sets, 3-4 towels, all pillows annually, and mattress pads every couple years. STR linens wear out roughly 3x faster than residential use. Small repairs are the stuff nobody warns you about: $800-1,500/year for running toilets, dripping faucets, appliance fixes, door hardware wearing out, paint touch-ups, wobbly furniture. It's constant small stuff. Seasonal maintenance (HVAC filters, tune-ups, gutter cleaning, pest control, power washing) adds $600-1,000. And then you have to amortize the big-ticket replacements — mattresses every 5-7 years, sofas, TVs, appliances, water heater, HVAC — which works out to roughly $500-1,000/year depending on the age of everything. All in: $4,100-6,500 per year per property. Rule of thumb is 5-8% of gross revenue, so if you're making $50K/year, budget $2,500-4,000 for maintenance. Track all of it in Stessa (https://stessa.com, free) because every dollar of maintenance is tax-deductible. DIY what you can from YouTube and you'll save a ton on the smaller repairs. For modeling these costs against your revenue: https://strspecialist.com/tools/cleaning-fee-calculator.

Reply by Priya Nair:

Adding unexpected costs that bit me in Year 1: 1. **Guest lockouts** — $150 per locksmith visit until I switched to a smart lock ($200 one-time) that eliminated this entirely 2. **Clogged drains** — $150-250 per plumber visit. Now I have drain screens ($5 each) and snake my drains quarterly 3. **Broken wine glasses/dishes** — stopped buying glass, switched to unbreakable polycarbonate "glasses" ($25 for a set of 8). Guests can't tell the difference. 4. **Remote batteries** — seems trivial but dead remotes = guest complaints. I now replace ALL remote batteries on a quarterly schedule regardless of charge level 5. **Grout cleaning** — bathroom grout gets gross with high turnover. $200/year for professional grout cleaning vs $50 DIY with a steam cleaner ($80 purchase) The general principle: **anything that can break or run out WILL break or run out, faster than you expect, because guests use things differently than residents.** Plan for everything to need replacement at 3x the normal residential rate. A towel that lasts 5 years in your home lasts 18 months in an STR.