Rental Break-Even Calculator
Rentals needed to recover what a garment cost.
Calculate how many rentals it takes to recover a garment's purchase price, and whether it will get there before it wears out.
15-30 for a well-made occasion dress, fewer for beading, sequins or anything white.
Rentals to break even
11
inside a 20 rental lifespan
Break-even sits inside the garment's expected life, so the remaining rentals are profit. A comfortable margin is break-even at a third of the lifespan or less.
How the Rental Break-Even Calculator works
A rental garment has two clocks running: how many rentals it needs to repay its cost, and how many rentals it will survive. If the first number is larger than the second, the piece never pays for itself no matter how popular it is — and that comparison is the whole decision.
Also known as: rental payback calculator · rental ROI calculator
Two clocks, and the one that stops first
A rental garment has to repay its purchase price out of net income per rental, and it has to do so before it wears out. Those are two independent numbers, and the piece only works if the first is comfortably smaller than the second.
Net income per rental is the rental price less the platform's cut less cleaning. Cleaning is the line that decides most cases, because it is a largely fixed cost against a rental price that varies with the garment's value.
Where cleaning exceeds the net rental, there is no break-even at all: each rental loses money and more rentals make it worse. That case is worth identifying before buying stock rather than after.
A worked example
A £400 dress renting at £60, on a platform taking 12%, with £15 dry cleaning. Net per rental is £60 × 0.88 − £15, which is £37.80. Break-even is £400 ÷ £37.80, so 11 rentals.
Against a realistic lifespan of 20 rentals, that leaves nine profitable rentals worth £340. The same dress renting at £35 nets £15.80 a rental and needs 26 to break even — beyond its life, so it never pays for itself however popular it is.
Where the answer misleads
Rentals per year is the number people overestimate most. Occasion wear rents seasonally — wedding season, party season — and a dress that rents eight times a year is doing well. Assuming monthly rentals produces a break-even that arrives twice as fast as reality.
Lifespan varies enormously with construction. Beading, sequins, delicate silks and anything white age visibly and quickly; a well-made crepe or wool piece survives far more outings. The generic 15 to 30 range hides a genuinely wide spread.
Damage and non-return are absent from the arithmetic entirely. Both happen, both are partly covered by deposits and platform policies, and neither is fully recovered in practice.
Frequently asked questions
How many rentals does it take to break even?
Purchase price divided by the net income per rental. A £400 dress netting £38 a rental breaks even at 11. Against a realistic lifespan of 20 to 30 rentals, that leaves genuine profit; against a lifespan of 12, it does not.
What if cleaning costs more than the rental nets?
Then it never breaks even, and more rentals make it worse rather than better. That is the case worth catching before buying stock, and it is common for lower-priced pieces where cleaning is a fixed cost against a small rental fee.
How many rentals will a garment survive?
Roughly 15 to 30 for a well-made occasion dress, fewer for beading, sequins, delicate silks or anything white. Repairs extend it somewhat; the practical end is usually when photographs stop looking new.
Should I buy specifically to rent?
Only where the break-even is comfortably inside the expected lifespan — a third of it or less is a reasonable margin. Renting out something you already own is a different and much better proposition, since the purchase cost is already sunk.