I ran the numbers on my own two apartments.
Here's what actually happened.

Every hosting company — us included — has a headline stat. Ours is "+210% average revenue uplift." It's true, but it's also an average, and averages are easy to be skeptical of. I know, because I'd be skeptical of it too.

So instead of asking you to trust the average, I pulled the real numbers on my own two apartments in Essen — actual occupancy, actual costs, actual net income, no projections. Not the best-performing month I could find. Just what happened.

Two apartments, two different stories

Both properties sit near Messe Essen. Both switched from long-term rental to Dropby-managed short-term rental. Beyond that, they're genuinely different — different size, different character, different guests — which is exactly why I wanted to show both rather than just the one with the better number.

Premium Stay Essen – Near Messe (1-Bedroom, sleeps 4)

As a long-term rental, this apartment brought in €1,000 per month, cold — the tenant covers their own utilities on top, as is standard in Germany. As a Dropby-managed short-term rental, it now runs at roughly 79% occupancy, around 24 booked nights a month at €130/night.

"I'd priced the Hausgeld and the cleaning costs into my head as 'roughly this much.' Actually laying it out line by line, the real net number was better than my rough mental math — and I run this business."

The second apartment tells a different story

The studio is smaller, simpler, and — going in — I honestly expected a less dramatic result from it. That's not what happened.

Studio at a Prime Location Near Messe (sleeps 2)

Long-term, this unit brought in €850 per month, cold. As a short-term rental, it runs slightly fuller than the 1-bedroom — about 82% occupancy, roughly 25 booked nights a month at €110/night.

A smaller footprint doesn't mean a smaller result. If anything, the studio's lower cleaning and utility overhead per booking is part of why its net multiplier holds up so close to the 1-bedroom's, despite a much lower nightly rate.

What actually made the difference

It wasn't one thing. It was the accumulation of small operational decisions running continuously, month after month — pricing adjusted daily instead of set once and forgotten, guest messages answered fast enough that a booking doesn't quietly slip away, a cleaning schedule tight enough that a gap night doesn't become two. None of that shows up in a single "before and after" photo. It shows up in the number at the bottom of the table.

That's really the whole premise behind Dropby: not a one-time setup, but a continuous push — the same property, run a little better every month than the month before. Growth as an ongoing job, not a switch you flip once.