How to track holiday home income and expenses in Dubai, unit by unit

Booking platforms usually pay out the guest’s booking value minus their commission and sometimes minus taxes or fees they collect. If you book only the net payout, your revenue is understated and your commission cost disappears. Record the gross booking value as income and the platform commission as an expense, so the bank deposit reconciles to the net figure.

Download the platform’s payout report each month. It lists each reservation, dates, gross amount, commission and payout. That report is your source document, and it should be attached to the deposit in the ledger.

Set up each apartment or villa as a class or project. Then cleaning, linen, utilities, service charges, maintenance and furnishing costs all carry a unit tag. Shared costs, such as a property manager’s salary or a cleaning team on a monthly contract, can be split by nights booked or by unit count. Pick one method and keep it.

Our view: unit-level profit is the only number that should drive whether you renew a lease or buy a second unit in the same building. Portfolio averages hide the one apartment that loses money every summer.

• Income: gross bookings, cleaning fees charged to guests, damage recoveries
• Direct costs: platform commission, cleaning, laundry, consumables
• Unit costs: rent or service charges, DEWA, internet, district cooling
• Overheads: permits, software, staff, insurance

In March a one-bedroom unit has 24 booked nights at an average of AED 650: gross bookings AED 15,600. Platform commission at the rate on the payout report comes to AED 2,340. Cleaning for nine stays at AED 180 is AED 1,620. DEWA and cooling are AED 1,150, internet AED 399, consumables AED 410, and the monthly share of the annual lease (AED 120,000 ÷ 12) is AED 10,000.

Unit result for March: AED 15,600 minus AED 15,919 = a loss of AED 319. The same unit in August, with 14 nights at AED 420, would lose far more. The point is not that the unit is bad; the point is that you can now see the annual picture and price the low season accordingly.

Residential leases are generally exempt from VAT, but the Executive Regulation’s definition of a residential building excludes hotels, serviced apartments and similar accommodation. Short-stay holiday lets are therefore commonly treated as standard-rated hospitality supplies. Whether that applies to your units, and whether you must register once taxable supplies pass AED 375,000 in a 12-month period, are questions to settle with a tax agent and the FTA’s guidance.

If you operate through a company, its holiday home profit falls under corporate tax, at 9% on taxable income above AED 375,000. Individuals letting property are treated differently under the Corporate Tax Law. Do not guess here: ask an adviser which regime applies to your structure.

The tedious part is matching platform payouts to reservations and cleaning invoices to stays. In HelloBooks you upload the monthly bank statement (PDF, CSV or Excel from any UAE bank) and the payout report; the AI agent matches deposits to bookings, grosses up the commission, and reads cleaners’ and maintenance bills from photos, including Arabic ones. It suggests the unit tag from the address or the description, and you confirm.

Then ask “which unit had the lowest profit per booked night this quarter?” and get an answer in plain English, built from the same ledger your accountant uses.