CAC measures how efficiently you fill empty beds. It includes paid acquisition (Google Ads, Meta, OTA fees), content + organic costs (SEO, social), and any sales/community-team time attributable to acquisition.
For coliving, CAC interacts with ALOS to determine lifetime unit economics. CAC of €400 with ALOS of 4 months = €100/month CAC drag. The same CAC with ALOS of 8 months = €50/month drag. Doubling ALOS halves CAC's revenue impact, which is why ALOS optimization is often more leveraged than CAC optimization.
CAC by channel for coliving operators (Q1 2026 benchmark): paid Google search €250-450 per booked tenant, paid Meta/Instagram €180-320, OTA distribution (Spotahome, Nestpick) €120-240 + 8-12% commission, organic SEO at scale €40-90 (loaded with content production cost), referrals €30-80. Most operators hit a CAC wall around 50-150 beds where Meta + Google diminish in efficiency and organic + referrals haven't yet compounded. The two-year operator playbook: years 1-2 burn paid acquisition to fill, year 2-3 invest aggressively in SEO and content, year 3+ shift mix to 50-60% organic/referral with paid topping up seasonal gaps. Operators that don't make this shift typically see CAC creep to €500+ by year 3.
Formula
CAC = Total Acquisition Spend ÷ New Tenants Acquired
Worked example: Property: €4,500 monthly marketing spend + €1,500 attributed sales-team cost = €6,000. New tenants acquired = 12. CAC = €6,000 ÷ 12 = €500.
In the field
European coliving CAC: €300-€800 depending on channel mix. OTA-heavy (Booking.com) CAC €400-€700 (15-18% commission). Direct-traffic-heavy (Outsite, Habyt direct sites) CAC €200-€450. CAC payback period typically 1.5-3 months.
Common pitfalls
- ×Including only paid spend, ignoring sales-team cost dramatically understates CAC.
- ×Calculating CAC over short periods, month-to-month CAC is volatile; trailing-12-month is meaningful.
- ×Mixing acquisition CAC and retention CAC, re-bookings have different economics.
- ×Not segmenting by channel, blended CAC obscures which channels work.