Money & tax
How to Prorate Rent for Move-Ins and Move-Outs (3 Methods)
How to calculate prorated rent for a partial month: the days-in-month, 30-day and 365-day methods, worked examples for move-in and move-out, and which to use.
In corporate housing, occupancy is the number that decides whether a leased unit makes money. A unit you pay rent on every month earns nothing on the nights it sits empty. Here is how to measure it properly and what moves it.
The formula
Occupancy rate = occupied unit-nights ÷ available unit-nights × 100
- Available unit-nights = units in service × nights in the period.
- Occupied unit-nights = nights a resident was in a unit (or paying for it).
Example
You run 20 units. March has 31 nights, so you had 20 × 31 = 620 available unit-nights. Residents occupied 527 of them.
527 ÷ 620 = 0.85, so occupancy was 85%.
Decide what counts, then stay consistent
- Units out of service. If a unit is offline for a renovation, most operators remove it from available nights for that period. Say so in your reports.
- Turn days. The night between stays is a vacant night. Counting it honestly is what shows you how much turnovers cost.
- Paid but empty. A resident who pays through the end of the month but leaves early is usually counted as occupied for revenue reporting.
- Physical vs economic occupancy. Physical occupancy counts nights someone stayed; economic occupancy counts nights you were paid for. Track both if they differ.
The numbers that go with occupancy
| Metric | Formula | With the example ($88,000 revenue) |
|---|---|---|
| Occupancy | Occupied nights ÷ available nights | 527 ÷ 620 = 85% |
| Average daily rate (ADR) | Revenue ÷ occupied nights | $88,000 ÷ 527 = $166.98 |
| Revenue per available night (RevPAR) | Revenue ÷ available nights | $88,000 ÷ 620 = $141.94 |
| Average length of stay | Occupied nights ÷ number of stays | 527 ÷ 9 = 58.6 nights |
| Vacant nights | Available − occupied | 93 |
RevPAR ties the first two together: it equals ADR × occupancy. A high rate with low occupancy can earn less than a fair rate with high occupancy.
What good looks like
Corporate housing has historically run at high occupancy. Surveys by the Corporate Housing Providers Association reported national occupancy around 88% to 89% in 2008 to 2010. Those figures are dated, and your market and model will differ. The more useful benchmark is your own trend: month over month, unit by unit.
Seven ways to raise occupancy
- Shorten turns. Every day between stays is lost. Schedule cleaning, inspection and any furniture work against the move-out date, not after it.
- Get notice early. A notice period in your agreement (for example 14 or 30 days) gives sales time to fill the next stay.
- Sell the gaps. A schedule board that shows gaps by unit lets you offer short stays to fill them where your rules allow.
- Make extensions easy. The cheapest stay to sell is the one already in the unit. Ask before the move-out date.
- Price by season and lead time. Demand from interns, project crews and relocations is seasonal. Price for it.
- Watch unit-level results. One unit that sits empty drags down a whole building. Profit and loss by unit shows which ones to reprice or let go.
- Answer inquiries fast. In corporate housing, the first provider to send a clear quote often gets the booking.
Measure it without a spreadsheet
Spreadsheets can calculate occupancy, but only from data someone kept up to date. In Staylio, the schedule board shows occupancy and gaps across months as bookings change, and profit and loss by unit shows what each one actually earns.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate occupancy rate?
Divide the occupied unit-nights by the available unit-nights for the period and multiply by 100. For example, 527 occupied nights out of 620 available is 85%.
What is a good occupancy rate for corporate housing?
It depends on your market and model, but corporate housing has historically run at high occupancy, with industry surveys around 88% to 89% in 2008 to 2010. Compare yourself with your own trend and your break-even occupancy.
What is the difference between occupancy and RevPAR?
Occupancy measures how many nights were filled. RevPAR, revenue per available night, combines how full you were with what you charged: it equals average daily rate times occupancy.