Koh Samui villa rental yield: what owners really earn, gross and net

A Koh Samui villa rental yield of 8–9% gross is achievable. What the owner keeps is usually 3–5% net. The gap is channel commission, management fees, running costs and Thai tax, and it consumes roughly 60% of gross booking revenue. Below is the full stack, applied to one worked example.

We build and sell villas, and we also operate one. The numbers here are the ones we use ourselves, with every rate traced to a source you can check.

What occupancy can a Koh Samui villa really expect?

Across the twelve months to July 2026, AirROI recorded 834 active short-term rental listings on Koh Samui running at an average occupancy of 40.1%, an average daily rate of $361 (about ฿11,800 at ฿32.7 to the dollar), and average annual revenue of $34,438 — around ฿1.13 million per listing.

That is a long way from the 70%-plus figures that circulate on property marketing pages. Both can be true at once. A high occupancy figure usually describes either the top decile of listings or occupancy of nights actually made available, after the owner has blocked out the quiet months. Occupancy across all 365 days is the number that determines your income, and on Samui it is closer to 40%.

The seasonality is severe and it works against you twice. In January the island averaged 60.3% occupancy at an ADR of $371. In June it averaged 27.2% occupancy at $278. Fewer nights and a lower rate on each of them.

None of that reflects weak demand for the island. C9 Hotelworks recorded 2.78 million air arrivals into Samui in 2024, up 21% year on year and ahead of 2019, with 1,127,832 passengers in January to April 2025 alone, up 9%. Registered accommodation stood at 634 providers and 24,188 keys, growing at about 1% a year. Demand is rising against nearly flat licensed supply. The competition your villa faces is the other 800-odd private listings, and that is a marketing and management problem rather than a market one.

What comes out of the gross?

• Channel commission. Airbnb's host-only fee is 15.5% for most hosts, in a 14–16% band. The alternative split-fee model charges the host only 3%, but Airbnb requires host-only fees from anyone using property management software — which is every professional villa manager. Booking.com typically runs around 15% before payment processing.
• Management. Published Koh Samui villa management fees run 15–25% of gross rental income. Around 20% is normal for full service — guest communication, check-in, staffing, maintenance coordination and dynamic pricing.
• Running the house. Housekeeping and laundry between stays, consumables, pool chemicals and servicing, gardening, electricity (guests run air conditioning far harder than owners do), repairs, linen and soft furnishing replacement, and insurance.
• Land and Building Tax. A villa let to guests is not taxed as a home. It falls under 'purposes other than agricultural or residential', which carries an applied rate of 0.3–0.7% of appraised value against a 1.2% ceiling — as against 0.02–0.1% for residential use. Assessments are issued before 28 February and payment is due by 30 April.
• Income tax on the rent, covered below.
• The hotel licence. Any paid stay under 30 days is a hotel business under the Hotel Act. Licensing, or the exemption certificate available to small properties, carries cost and lead time — and operating without either is the single largest unpriced risk in most yield projections.

A worked example: ฿28M villa, gross to net

Assume a four-bedroom pool villa bought for ฿28 million, letting at ฿15,000 a night — a premium to the island's ฿11,800 average, which a new four-bedroom villa should command — at 45% occupancy, slightly ahead of the island's measured 40.1%. Both are assumptions. Replace them with quotes from a real manager for a real villa before you rely on anything below.

• Gross booking revenue: 164 nights at ฿15,000 = ฿2,460,000. On a ฿28M purchase that is 8.8% gross — squarely in the range the brochures quote.
• Less channel commission at 15.5%: ฿381,300. Running balance ฿2,078,700.
• Less management at 20% of gross: ฿492,000. Running balance ฿1,586,700.
• Less housekeeping, laundry, consumables, pool and garden, electricity, repairs and insurance: ฿600,000. Running balance ฿986,700.
• Less Land and Building Tax at 0.3% of appraised value, assumed here at ฿40,000. Running balance ฿946,700.
• Less personal income tax of ฿92,340, calculated below. Net: ฿854,360.

฿854,360 on a ฿28,000,000 villa is a net yield of 3.1%. The same villa is honestly described as returning 8.8% gross. Neither number is a lie. Only one of them reaches your account.

How is Thai tax calculated on villa rental income?

Rent from a building is assessable income, and Thailand's Revenue Department allows a flat 30% deduction against it with no receipts required, or actual documented expenses instead. On a short-let villa, real operating costs run 55–65% of gross — far above 30% — so claiming actual expenses is materially better, provided you have kept the invoices. That is the practical argument for using a manager who issues proper documentation rather than settling in cash.

In the example above, actual expenses of ฿1,513,300 leave ฿946,700, less a ฿60,000 personal allowance, giving ฿886,700 taxable. Thailand's progressive bands take nothing on the first ฿150,000, then 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% on successive slices, producing ฿92,340. Rates climb to 35% above ฿5 million of net income.

If you spend fewer than 180 days a year in Thailand and are not a tax resident, a 15% withholding applies to Thai-source rent. On ฿2,460,000 of gross that is ฿369,000 withheld against an actual liability nearer ฿92,000. It is not a final tax, but you only recover the difference by filing a return. Owners who do not file simply lose it. This is general information, not tax advice — take Thai advice on your own position.

What this example leaves out

Three things, all of which move the answer.

It excludes capital growth. Yield is not total return, and for most Samui owners over the last decade the land has done more work than the rental. It also excludes purchase costs and the fit-out — a villa cannot let at ฿15,000 a night unfurnished, and furniture is real capital that belongs in the denominator. And it assumes you never use the villa. Six weeks of owner stays, taken in high season as they always are, removes roughly 25 of the most valuable nights and takes the net closer to 2.5%.

Here is the part we would rather you took away than any single figure. A villa returning 3% net while covering its own running costs, holding its condition and being available to you whenever you want it is a perfectly good asset. It is a house that largely pays for itself. What goes wrong is buying it on the strength of a 9% number, budgeting against that number, and discovering the gap in year two.

What is a realistic net rental yield on a Koh Samui villa?

For a professionally managed villa let short-term, 3–5% net is a realistic planning range once channel commission, management, running costs and Thai tax are deducted. Gross figures of 8–10% are achievable and are not dishonest — they are simply measured before roughly 60% of revenue leaves.

Is long-term letting better than short-term?

Often, on a net basis. Monthly lets to residents produce lower gross revenue but avoid channel commission, cut management and housekeeping sharply, sit outside the Hotel Act, and may keep the property in the residential Land and Building Tax band at 0.02–0.1% rather than 0.3–0.7%. The trade-off is that you cannot use the villa yourself.

Do I need a hotel licence to rent my Samui villa on Airbnb?

Any paid stay under 30 days is a hotel business under the Hotel Act B.E. 2547 and requires a licence, or an exemption certificate for small properties. Letting for 30 days or more is a tenancy and falls outside the Act. Any yield projection that ignores this is incomplete.

Which months are worth blocking out for my own use?

Financially, the cheapest weeks to take are the ones the market does not want. June ran at 27.2% occupancy and $278 ADR across the island, against 60.3% and $371 in January. Taking your holiday in the low season costs you roughly a third of what taking it at New Year does.