Is the Airbnb spreadsheet really free?

Yes — no email gate, no catch. Most hosts start with spreadsheets, so we made a genuinely good free one; Black Cat Analytics is there when you outgrow it and want automated bank-sync tracking.

Is a spreadsheet enough for Airbnb bookkeeping, or do I need software?

For one property and a disciplined weekly habit, a spreadsheet genuinely works. It breaks down with scale: more properties multiply manual entry, and unlogged expenses become missed deductions. Software's advantage is automatic capture from your bank — no typing.

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The Free Airbnb Spreadsheet for Profit & Expenses

A complete Airbnb spreadsheet template for Excel and Google Sheets: every dollar in and out, expenses organized by Schedule E category, per-property profit, and a tax report that builds itself.

Download Free Spreadsheet

Downloads as a regular .xlsx file — your own private copy, nothing shared or tracked. Works in Excel, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice. No signup, no email required.

Revenue & Expense Log

Log every payout and expense with dropdown categories, property names, and tax-deductible flags.

Monthly Dashboard

Auto-calculated monthly revenue, expenses, net profit, and profit margin. Updates as you log entries.

Per-Property Breakdown

See revenue, expenses, profit, and margin for each listing. Find which property is actually making money.

Schedule E Tax Report

Expenses auto-mapped to IRS Schedule E line items. Handles rental-use ratios and deductible amounts.

Cleaning Cost Tracker

Track per-turnover costs, cleaner ratings, and hours. Auto-calculates your average cost per clean.

Sample Data Included

Pre-filled with realistic 3-property sample data so you can see exactly how everything works before entering your own.

Spreadsheet vs. Full App

Feature	Free Spreadsheet	Black Cat App
Revenue & expense tracking	✓	✓
Per-property profit breakdown	✓	✓
Schedule E tax report	✓	✓
Cleaning cost tracker	✓	✓
Auto CSV import from Airbnb	—	✓
AI-powered profit insights	—	✓
Real-time dashboard	—	✓
Multi-device access	—	✓
Cleaner management & scheduling	—	✓
Price	$0	From $29/mo

What an Airbnb Spreadsheet Needs to Track (and Why Most Templates Fall Short)

Most free Airbnb spreadsheet templates are a rate column, an expense column, and a sum. That tells you what you spent — not what you earned, and not what to hand your accountant in April. A spreadsheet that actually replaces bookkeeping needs four things, and this template is built around them:

1. Expense categories that map to Schedule E. If your categories match the IRS form lines (cleaning, repairs, insurance, utilities, commissions…), your year-end totals drop straight into your tax return. If they don't, you'll re-categorize everything in April. Every category in this sheet maps to a Schedule E line — the mapping is printed on the Instructions tab. (New to the form? Start with our Schedule E guide.)

2. Gross payouts and platform fees, separately. Your 1099-K reports what guests paid; your bank receives what's left after Airbnb's cut — and from September 15, 2026 that cut becomes a 15.5% host-only fee, five times the old 3%. Log both numbers per booking (the sample rows show how) or your records will mismatch IRS data. The full story is in our 15.5% fee explainer.

3. Per-property separation. Schedule E is filed per property, and "which unit actually makes money" is the question this whole exercise exists to answer. One combined pile of transactions can't answer it; the Per-Property tab can.

4. Cleaning economics per turnover. Cleaning is most hosts' largest variable cost, and it hides in totals. Tracking per-turnover cost against the cleaning fee you charge shows whether every booking's cleaning is profit or loss — our cleaning-cost guide covers the method the tracker tab implements.

If you'd rather see the numbers without maintaining a sheet at all, the honest comparison of both approaches is in spreadsheets vs. profit-tracking software.

FAQ

Does it work in Google Sheets? +

Yes. Upload the .xlsx to Google Drive and open with Google Sheets. All formulas and dropdowns work. You can also use it in Excel, LibreOffice, or Numbers.

Do I need to delete the sample data? +

We recommend it. The sample data is there to show you how the spreadsheet works. Clear the "Revenue & Expenses" rows and the "Cleaning Tracker" rows, then start entering your own. All dashboard formulas will update automatically.

Can I add more properties? +

Yes. Just type any property name in the "Property" column. The Monthly Dashboard pulls from all entries. For the Per-Property sheet, add a new row and copy the formulas from the row above it.

Is this really free? What's the catch? +

No catch, no email gate. The spreadsheet is genuinely free. We built it because most hosts start with spreadsheets — and when they outgrow it, Black Cat Analytics is there to upgrade them to automated tracking with AI insights.

What should an Airbnb spreadsheet track? +

At minimum: every payout (gross and after platform fees, separately), every expense with a category that maps to a Schedule E line, which property each transaction belongs to, and cleaning cost per turnover. Those four things turn a spreadsheet from a spending log into real bookkeeping — and they're exactly what this template's tabs are built around.

Is a spreadsheet enough, or do I need software? +

For one property and a disciplined weekly habit, a spreadsheet genuinely works — that's why this one exists. The system breaks down with scale: more properties multiply the manual entry, and unlogged expenses become missed deductions. Software's advantage is capture-at-source — transactions import from your bank automatically instead of waiting for you to type them. When you hit that wall, that's what Black Cat does.

Want an answer faster than a spreadsheet? The free Airbnb profit calculator gives you the monthly profit number in two minutes — the spreadsheet then keeps it current.

Outgrown the spreadsheet?

When manual entry gets old, Black Cat Analytics auto-imports your Airbnb CSV, tracks profit in real-time, and gives you AI-powered insights. Free to start.

Try the App Free See the Demo