If you own a property and are considering letting it as a holiday rental, the first thing you probably want to know is how much money you could earn each month, right?

The second question is just as important: what are the running costs of a holiday rental?

In this guide, we’ll answer both questions using real market figures and straightforward language, so you’ll understand:

• The costs involved in running a holiday let, divided into fixed and variable expenses.
• The costs owners often overlook but should plan for.
• How taxes work for holiday rental owners in Spain.
• A simple calculation of the annual cost of maintaining your property.

Let’s get started.

What Are the Costs of Running a Holiday Rental?

When looking at the expenses associated with a holiday rental property, the easiest approach is to divide them into three categories:

• Costs you pay regardless of bookings (fixed costs)
• Costs that depend on each reservation (variable costs)
• Commercial and marketing costs

Organising your expenses this way gives you a much clearer picture of what to expect.

Fixed Costs

Fixed costs are the expenses you’ll pay every month or every year, whether your property is occupied or sitting empty.

These are the easiest costs to forecast:

Community fees

Typically between €50 and €110 per month, depending on the building and services provided.

Property tax (IBI)

This depends on your property’s cadastral value and the tax rate set by your local council, usually between 0.4% and 1.10%.

Waste collection tax

According to Spain’s OCU (Consumers and Users Organisation), in 2025 annual waste collection charges ranged from €62 to €202 across Spanish provincial capitals for similar homes.

Insurance

Market averages range from €176 to €250 per year.

For holiday rentals, it’s highly advisable to have a policy that includes public liability cover for guests, so it’s worth requesting a tailored quotation.

Internet

Reliable Wi-Fi is practically essential if you want positive guest reviews.

Basic fibre broadband usually costs between €120 and €250 per year.Software y channel manager

Property management software and channel manager

If you manage the property yourself, you’ll likely need software to synchronise calendars and listings across different booking platforms.

Expect to budget around €192 to €278 per year.

An important update

Since April 2025, homeowners’ associations in Spain have been able to approve a surcharge of up to 20% on community fees for tourist accommodation.

If your building has introduced this measure, your monthly fees could be significantly higher than before, so it’s worth checking.

Variable Costs Per Booking

These are the expenses that change with every guest stay.

They generally include:

Cleaning

Cleaning costs in Spain typically range between €30 and €120 per service, depending on the property’s size.

Laundry

Laundry providers may charge from €1 per kilogram, or by individual item, with examples such as €0.40 per bed sheet and €1.49 per towel.

Replacements and guest amenities

Soap, toilet paper, coffee, rubbish bags, as well as replacing worn towels or bed linen.

Each item may seem inexpensive, but together they become a significant ongoing cost, so it’s worth budgeting for them from the start.

Commercial Costs

Booking platform commissions

Airbnb currently operates two commission models:

• Under the split-fee model, most hosts pay around 3%.
• Under the host-only model, most hosts pay 15.5%, typically ranging between 14% and 16%.

Booking.com does not apply a universal commission rate, as it varies depending on the property’s location and type.

If you’d like to understand this in more detail, we recommend reading our guide to Airbnb and Booking.com commissions.

Full-service property management

If you hire a professional management company, fees typically range from 9% to 20%, depending on the services included.

Rather than comparing percentages alone, always check what’s actually included.

An agency charging 18% that provides dynamic pricing, multilingual guest support, cleaning coordination and performance reporting offers something very different from one charging 9% that simply lists your property online.

Hidden Holiday Rental Costs

Careful financial planning makes your holiday rental more profitable, predictable and easier to manage from day one.

There are also several expenses that won’t appear on a monthly bill but are worth considering from the outset.

These aren’t bad news — they’re simply what separates well-prepared property owners from those running their business blindly.

Let’s look at them one by one.

A maintenance reserve fund

This covers ongoing property maintenance, including:

• Boiler repairs or replacement
• Household appliances
• Repainting every few years

We generally recommend setting aside between 5% and 15% of your rental income.

This isn’t a legal requirement; it’s simply a financial cushion for unexpected repairs or emergencies.

Double commission costs

It’s surprisingly common to combine a booking platform charging 15.5% with a management agency charging 18%, without fully appreciating that these are separate commissions calculated on the same rental income.

The total isn’t simply 33.5%, as the calculation depends on how each fee is applied and whether one includes services that the other doesn’t.

However, many owners see this as worthwhile because it allows them to earn passive income while professionals handle the day-to-day management.

Regulatory compliance

Spain’s Ministry of the Interior operates the SES.HOSPEDAJES system, requiring guest details to be submitted within 24 hours of each booking.

In addition, since 1 July 2025, all short-term rental properties require an official registration number that booking platforms must verify.

These obligations may not always involve direct costs, but they certainly require time or professional assistance—and time is also a business expense.

One further point deserves attention.

In 2025, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) confirmed that property owners must not request copies of guests’ passports or identity cards.

If your current check-in process relies on guests sending photographs of their ID via WhatsApp, now is a good time to update your procedures.

Accounting for vacant days

Many owners assume they can deduct a full year’s expenses even if the property was only rented for part of the year.

In reality, the Spanish tax authorities require deductible expenses to be apportioned according to the number of days the property was actually rented.

Holiday Rental Taxes in Spain

The tax rules themselves aren’t especially complicated, although there’s a lot of misleading information online.

Let’s simplify the essentials.

Income tax (IRPF): rental income or business activity?

In most cases, holiday rental income is taxed under Spanish personal income tax (IRPF) as income from real estate capital.

It is only treated as a business activity if you provide hotel-style services, such as:

• Permanent reception services
• Changing bed linen during guests’ stay
• Catering or food services

Alternatively, it may qualify as a business if you employ a full-time member of staff specifically for the rental activity.

The good news is that many holiday rental expenses are tax deductible, including:

• Mortgage interest
• Maintenance and repair costs
• Property tax (IBI)
• Waste collection charges
• Insurance
• Legal expenses
• Depreciation

It’s also important to distinguish between repairs and improvements.

Repairs are deductible in the year they’re carried out, whereas improvements that increase the property’s value are deducted gradually through depreciation.

For a more detailed explanation, see our guide to declaring holiday rental income in Spain.

VAT or Property Transfer Tax (ITP)

If you do not provide hotel-style services, holiday rentals are generally exempt from VAT and instead fall under Property Transfer Tax (ITP).

If you do provide hotel services, the rental becomes subject to 10% VAT.

One point that often reassures owners:

Cleaning before check-in and after check-out, or changing bed linen between guests, does not make your property equivalent to a hotel.

The tax treatment only changes when hotel-style services are provided during the guest’s stay.

Depreciation

For the building itself, you can generally claim annual depreciation of up to 3%, calculated on the higher of either the purchase price or the cadastral value (excluding the land value).

Furniture, appliances and household equipment supplied with the property can generally be depreciated at up to 10% per year under Spain’s simplified depreciation tables.

Regional tourist tax

This depends entirely on the autonomous region where your property is located.

For example:

• In Catalonia, the guest pays the tourist tax, but the property owner collects and declares it.
• The Balearic Islands operate a similar system with their own online declaration process.

If your property is located in one of these regions, you should factor this into your overall operating costs.

How Much Does It Cost to Run a Holiday Rental?

This is the question every owner wants answered.

Rather than focusing on a single annual figure, the most useful approach is to calculate the cost per occupied night.

That makes it much easier to compare different scenarios and set profitable nightly rates.

Let’s look at a typical example.

Imagine a holiday rental in a medium-sized Spanish city with:

• 200 occupied nights per year
• Average stay of 3.5 nights

Annual fixed costs

• Community fees: approximately €1,200
• Waste collection: approximately €120
• Insurance: approximately €200
• Internet: approximately €180
• Property management software: approximately €240

Estimated annual total (excluding IBI): around €1,940.

Variable costs

With 57 bookings per year and €60 cleaning per stay, annual cleaning costs reach approximately €3,420.

Laundry and replacement items add another €400 to €600.

Utilities

Electricity could amount to around €1,400 per year, based on average residential consumption and 2025 electricity prices.

Water typically adds between €150 and €300, depending on guest turnover.

Commercial costs

A booking platform charging 15.5% on €15,000 in gross rental income would cost around €2,325.

Adding everything together, the annual running costs in this example exceed €9,000.

Spread across 200 occupied nights, that’s more than €45 per occupied night.

The positive side is that once you’ve calculated these figures for your own property—taking into account your location, occupancy rate and property type—you’ll be able to set prices that genuinely protect your profit margins.

That’s when your holiday rental becomes a properly managed business.

Want to Calculate the Costs for Your Property

As you’ve seen, estimating the costs of running a holiday rental isn’t particularly complicated.

Once you organise your expenses, they become much easier to forecast, manage and optimise.

And once you understand your real costs, your decisions are driven by data rather than guesswork.

At Home2Book, we can help you calculate exactly what your property could generate.

We currently manage more than 600 holiday rental properties, giving us access to real market data that can help you make informed decisions.

Would you like to discuss your property with one of our holiday rental management specialists?cacional?