If you own a flat and are considering letting it as a holiday rental, the first thing you want to know is how much money you could earn each month, right?
The second question, which is just as important, is: what holiday rental expenses will I have?
In this post, we answer both questions using market figures and plain language, so you will understand:
- The expenses associated with a tourist property, divided into fixed and variable costs
- The costs that are most often overlooked and should be monitored
- How taxation works for the property owner
- A simple calculation of how much the property costs to maintain each year
Here it is…
What expenses does a holiday rental property have?
When discussing the expenses of a tourist property, it is most useful to divide them into three groups:
- Those you always pay (fixed costs)
- Those that depend on each booking (variable costs)
- Those linked to marketing and sales
Organising them this way gives you a clearer picture of what you need to know.
Fixed expenses
Fixed holiday rental expenses are those you pay every month or year, whether or not the property is occupied.
They are your starting point and, fortunately, can be forecast quite accurately:
- Owners’ association fees: the most common range is €50 to €110 per month.
- IBI property tax: this depends on the cadastral value and the rate applied by your municipality, which ranges from 0.4% to 1.10%.
- Waste collection charge: according to the OCU in 2025, the annual cost for the same type of household ranges from €62 to €202 across Spanish provincial capitals.
- Insurance: as a market reference, this costs around €176 to €250 per year. For tourist use, it is advisable to have cover that includes public liability towards guests, so request a quote for your specific circumstances.
- Internet: practically essential if you want guests to rate their stay highly. Basic fibre broadband costs between €120 and €250 per year.
- Software and channel manager: if you manage the property yourself, you will need a tool to centralise listings and calendars. Budget approximately €192 to €278 per year.
Bear in mind an important change: since April 2025, the owners’ association may approve a surcharge of up to 20% on communal expenses for properties used as tourist accommodation.
Therefore, if your building has already voted on it, the fee may differ considerably from what you paid before. It is best to check.
Variable expenses per booking
These are the expenses we mentioned earlier that change with each stay.
They usually include:
- Cleaning: in Spain, market prices range from €30 to €120 per service, depending on the property’s floor area.
- Laundry: suppliers charge from €1 per kg or per item (examples include €0.40 per sheet and €1.49 per towel).
- Replacements and amenities: soap, toilet paper, coffee, bags and the occasional worn towel or sheet. Each item costs little, but together they add up, so it is best to track them from the outset.
Commercial expenses
- Platform commission:
- Airbnb publishes two models:
- Under the split-fee model, most hosts pay 3%
- Under the single-fee model, most pay 15.5% (between 14% and 16%, depending on the circumstances).
- Booking does not set a universal percentage: it depends on the property type and location. If you would like to understand this point better, read this article about Airbnb and Booking commissions.
- Airbnb publishes two models:
- Full property management:
- If you delegate operations to an agency, fees generally range from 9% to 20%, depending on the services included.
- Before comparing percentages, check what each service covers: an 18% management fee that includes dynamic pricing, multilingual support, cleaning coordination and reporting is not the same as a 9% fee that only covers publishing the listing.
Hidden holiday rental expenses
Some costs do not appear on any monthly bill, but it is worth knowing about them from the beginning.
This is not bad news: these costs are precisely what distinguish an owner who controls their business from one operating blindly.
Let us look at them one by one:
The reserve fund:
This covers holiday rental property maintenance expenses such as:
- The boiler
- An appliance
- A fresh coat of paint from time to time.
We always recommend setting aside between 5% and 15% of income to cover these costs.
This is not a tax obligation or anything similar; it is simply a small cushion in case of a breakdown or other unexpected expense.
Double commercial charges:
It is very common to combine a platform fee of 15.5% with an agency fee of 18% without realising that these are two separate commissions charged against the same income base.
The total is not a flat 30%, as it depends on how each fee is calculated and whether one includes services that the other does not.
In any case, view it as something that gives you freedom: you do not have to spend time managing the property, you receive passive income and others do the work for you.
Regulatory compliance:
The Ministry of the Interior provides SES.HOSPEDAJES for traveller registration, with an obligation to submit the data within 24 hours of the booking. Since 1 July 2025, there has also been a short-term rental registration number that platforms verify.
It does not always involve a direct payment, but it does require time or an administrative adviser, and in business that is also a cost.
There is, however, one detail you should review as soon as possible: in 2025, the Spanish Data Protection Agency reiterated that requesting a copy of a guest’s Spanish ID card or passport is not permitted.
Therefore, if your check-in process relies on photographs of identification documents sent via WhatsApp, now is a good time to adjust it.
Apportioning vacant days
Many owners believe they can deduct expenses for the entire year even if the flat was only rented for a few months. In reality, the Spanish Tax Agency requires expenses to be apportioned according to the days on which the property was actually let.
Impuestos vivienda vacacional España
Taxation is not excessively complicated, but there is confusing information circulating online. We will simplify it as much as possible:
Personal income tax: property income or economic activity
Holiday rental income is taxed under personal income tax as income from property. It is only considered an economic activity if you provide hotel-type services (a permanent reception, linen changes during the stay or catering), or if you employ someone full-time for the activity.
The good news is that many holiday rental expenses are deductible: financing interest, maintenance and repairs, IBI property tax, waste collection charges, insurance, legal defence and depreciation.
Be clear about one distinction that confuses many people: a repair, for example, is deducted as an expense for the year, whereas an improvement that increases the property’s value is recovered through depreciation.
If you would like to see the tax return in detail, we explain it further in this article on how to declare holiday rental income.
VAT or transfer tax
If you do not provide hotel services, the rental is exempt from VAT and subject to transfer tax. If you do provide them, it is subject to 10% VAT.
One detail that reassures owners when they ask us: cleaning at check-in and check-out, or changing linen between guests, does not turn your flat into a hotel. What changes the tax treatment is providing a regular service during the stay.
Depreciation
For the property, you can depreciate up to 3% per year based on the higher of the purchase cost and the cadastral value, excluding the land.
For furniture and household items supplied with the property, the simplified table allows depreciation of up to 10% per year.
Regional tourist tax
This varies considerably by autonomous community:
- In Catalonia, for example, the guest pays it, but you collect and declare it.
- The Balearic Islands operate in a similar way, with their own online declaration.
If you operate in one of these regions, treat it as another expense that must be managed.
How much does it cost to maintain a tourist flat?
We have reached the key question. The best way to determine total holiday rental property costs is not to give a single figure, but to calculate the cost per occupied night.
This allows you to compare scenarios and set prices sensibly.
Consider a property in a medium-sized Spanish city, occupied for 200 nights per year with an average stay of 3.5 nights:
- Annual fixed costs: owners’ association fees (around €1,200), waste collection (€120), insurance (€200), internet (€180) and software (€240). Indicative total excluding IBI: approximately €1,940 per year.
- Variable costs per booking: with 57 changeovers per year and cleaning costing €60 per changeover, the total is €3,420. Add a further €400 to €600 for laundry and replacements.
- Utilities: electricity may cost around €1,400 per year based on IDAE residential consumption and 2025 prices. Water adds between €150 and €300, depending on turnover.
- Commercial costs: a platform charging 15.5% on gross income of €15,000 costs approximately €2,325.
Adding these items together, the tourist flat expenses in this example exceed €9,000 per year.
Divided across 200 nights, this amounts to more than €45 per occupied night.
The positive side is that once you have this breakdown for your specific property (your city, occupancy and type of asset) you can start setting prices that leave you with a genuine margin.
That is what it means to have your business under control.
Would you like to see the figures for your property?
As you can see, holiday rental expenses can be calculated relatively easily: they form a list that can be organised, forecast and optimised. Once the figures are clear, the business stops relying on intuition and starts relying on data.
If you would like to know how much your property would really leave you, Home2Book can calculate it with you. We manage more than 600 properties and know the real figures that can serve as a reference.
Would you like to discuss your circumstances with our holiday rental management experts?
