Nightly, monthly, both, or yearly? What a year of our own bookings and costs says

"Should I rent my villa by the night on Airbnb, or by the month?"

Owners usually ask it as an either/or. When I put a year of our own bookings side by side, nightly and monthly together earned the most. When I then took away what it actually costs to run a villa for guests, the answer changed again: a yearly lease, with the tenant paying their own bills, kept the most. If you can fill it.

What I looked at

216 paid stays across the villas the team runs: one-bedroom apartments and townhouses, a few larger villas, all in Canggu, Pererenan and Buduk. I split them in two:

• Nightly: stays under 28 nights. 176 of them, mostly through Airbnb.
• Monthly: stays of 28 nights or more. 36 of them, mostly booked directly or through a rental agent.

I left out one very long, unusually cheap lease that started in 2024, because it would have dragged the monthly average down on its own, and four stays with no rate on file.

1. Nightly pays more per night. Less than you'd think.

On the headline rate, nightly is about 16% higher. After the platform fees, the gap shrinks to about 9%. Nightly stays here were mostly sold through Airbnb, where most hosts now pay a single service fee of around 15.5% (Airbnb's own published figure). Monthly stays were mostly sold directly or through an agent, at a far lower cost per night.

2. Monthly fills the calendar. Nightly leaves holes.

The rate per night is only half the story. The other half is how many nights get booked at all.

Across the year, the months in which a villa had only nightly guests were 51.2% occupied on average. The months in which it had only a monthly tenant were 78.9% occupied.

Nightly guests arrive in clusters: school holidays, Christmas, the dry season. Between them, nights go unsold. A monthly tenant does not care that it is February.

3. Both together earned the most

This was the finding that surprised me. When I grouped every villa's months by what was booked in them:

(This table counts every paid stay, the long 2024 lease included, so if anything it understates the monthly side.)

Months that combined a monthly tenant with nightly guests in the gaps earned about 24% more than nightly-only months, and about 17% more than monthly-only months.

The pattern behind it is simple. A monthly tenant from the 8th covers most of the month at a steady rate. Airbnb fills the 1st to the 7th at the higher nightly price. The calendar is nearly full, and a good part of it is at the premium rate.

4. The work is not the same

One more number matters to anyone who has run a villa. Nightly guests meant a turnover clean every 6.9 nights on average. Monthly tenants meant one every 37.9 nights.

Every turnover is a clean, a check-in, a key handover and a set of fresh questions. The team feels it every week, even where the statements below cannot fully price it.

5. Take away the running costs, and add a yearly lease

Earnings are only half of it. When a villa is rented by the night or by the month with everything included, the owner pays to run it: housekeeping, laundry, electricity, water, internet and the little things guests use up. A yearly lease in Bali usually works the other way. The rent is lower, but the tenant pays their own bills and cleaning, and the owner keeps only the costs every villa has anyway: the pool, the garden, repairs.

So I took the owner statements for the same villas, January to September 2026, subtracted the platform fees, commissions and running costs from each month, and added a fourth option: the same villas on a yearly lease at their listed yearly price, with no inclusions and a 10% agent commission inside the price.

(These months are the ones with statements on file, so the earnings differ slightly from the table above.)

Three things stand out.

• Monthly beat nightly once costs came in, by IDR 3,660,373 a month. Nightly earns more per night, but it pays for every one of those turnovers.
• "Both" lost its lead. Mixing nightly guests into a monthly month earned more, and then cost more to run. Across all the villas it kept less than a monthly-only month; on the villas with the most complete statements, the two were almost level.
• A yearly lease kept the most, because it is full all year and the tenant carries the running costs.

That last one comes with a large "if". The yearly figure is modelled, not booked: it assumes the villa is let for all twelve months at its listed yearly price. It still kept the most with one empty month between tenants (IDR 17,690,913). It only falls behind a monthly tenant if the yearly rent you can actually get is about 15% below your listed yearly price, and behind nightly-only if it is about 33% lower.

What I would not conclude

I want to be honest about the limits.

• Thirty mixed months is a signal, not proof. It is a year of one small portfolio, not the whole of Bali.
• The statements are partial. They cover January to September 2026 only, several villas for just a few months, and some of the apartments show no housekeeping or pool lines, so their costs are probably understated. Leave them out and nightly, monthly and both come out almost level (IDR 13,589,984, IDR 14,137,717 and IDR 14,273,038 kept per 30 days), while yearly still keeps the most (IDR 19,515,181).
• Running costs are mostly fixed salaries and bills, so they do not rise neatly with each turnover. The real cost of nightly guests is probably higher than shown.
• The yearly lease is a model, at full occupancy and the listed price. Finding that tenant, and keeping them for twelve months, is the hard part.
• All figures are before any management fee.
• Some agent commissions on direct bookings were not recorded, which flatters monthly a little.
• Several villas joined partway through the year, so seasonality and new villas are mixed together.

What I would tell an owner

• If you can find a yearly tenant at a fair price, take it. On our numbers it keeps the most and asks the least of you.
• If not, aim for monthly. It kept more than nightly once the running costs were in, and fills the calendar far better.
• Use Airbnb to fill the gaps, not to fill the year. Short stays between long ones still earn, but every extra turnover has a cost.

Whatever you choose, the tenants for yearly and monthly leases mostly come through rental agents. Keep your calendars synced so nothing double-books, and list the villa where those agents can see it.