Airbnb split calculator

Sometimes an even split doesn't cut it. Enter what your Airbnb costs and each open spot on the trip's accommodations: private bathroom? Bed or couch? Sharing or private room to themselves?

This calculator works out what each spot in the Airbnb should cost, weighted by the three things that matter most. And it gives you a message you can paste straight into the group chat so you can decide who goes where before booking.

It's free, and there's no signup required.

Airbnb cost

$

Cleaning & fees

$

People

−

+

Which common spaces are there?✓Living area10% of cost✓Kitchen5% of costCommon area bathrooms5% of cost

Each person owes $0 for common spaces

What accommodations are available in this Airbnb?

Spots

Own bathroom?

Bed or other (i.e. Couch)? i

Sharing? i

Owes all-in i

1

YesNo

BedOther

YesNo

$0

2

YesNo

BedOther

YesNo

$0

3

YesNo

BedOther

YesNo

$0

4

YesNo

BedOther

YesNo

$0

Send the details to your friends. Confirm who's going where before booking.

Here are the cost options for each spot in the Airbnb calculated using Tabster. Which option do you prefer so we can figure out who goes where? There's a shared living area and kitchen. Spot 1: No private bathroom, Bed, Not sharing — $0 Spot 2: No private bathroom, Bed, Not sharing — $0 Spot 3: No private bathroom, Bed, Not sharing — $0 Spot 4: No private bathroom, Bed, Not sharing — $0

Copy message

Going on a trip? Use Tabster to consolidate and divvy up trip expenses with the group. 100% free on web, Android, and iOS.

How the split works

The total is divided into two pots. The first is shared space — the kitchen, the living area, the bathrooms everyone uses — which is split evenly by headcount, because everyone uses it the same amount. You choose which of those the place actually has, and together they account for at most 20% of the cost.

The rest is sleeping arrangements, and that's where the spots differ. Each one is weighted (1 vs 2 weight) on whether the room has its own bathroom and whether it's a real bed or a couch. If the spot is a shared area so whoever takes it does not get a private room, the summed weights are divided by 2. A spot with a private space, private bathroom and its own bed carries the most; a couch in a common room carries the least. Cleaning and service fees, if you enter them, are split evenly on top — everyone triggers those equally.

When you don't need this

Most groups should just split evenly, and most of them do. If the bedrooms are broadly comparable and you're there two or three nights, the gap between an even split and a perfectly fair one is usually twenty or thirty dollars a head — less than the conversation costs. It's worth doing the math when one room is a genuinely different experience, when it's a long stay, or when someone on the trip is watching their budget.

The longer version of that argument, along with what to do about late arrivals, kids and the person who fronted the booking, is in how to split an Airbnb when the rooms aren't equal.

Then there's the rest of the trip

The house is one number, agreed once. The bulk of the splitting is everything after it — groceries, dinners, the boat rental, the person who covered gas twice. Tabster keeps a running tab for the whole trip: everyone adds receipts as they go, claims what they actually had, and it settles at the end without a spreadsheet.

See how trip mode works, or how to split expenses on a group trip.