Childcare vacancy cost calculator
Four numbers tell you what your empty places are worth, what they cost you every month, and how many enquiries it takes to fill them. No email needed.
Built by Martin Niedenfuhr, founder of Enrolment Boost. 15+ years in Australian childcare marketing, 300+ centres supported since 2019.
Step 1. Your centre
Average booked places a day divided by licensed places
National average is $146 a day
Filling 12 more places a day is worth $438,000 a year in fees.
Every month you stay at 70% costs you about $36,500.
Based on Department of Education fee data and ACECQA ratios. See our sources.
Your places today
Step 2. What it takes, each month
Leave blank if you're not sure.
That's about 3 a month to grow and 3 a month to replace families who leave for school or move away.
What this tells us
About half the enrolments you need just replace families who leave. That's the part most owners miss. Lift tour-to-enrolment from 50% to 60% and you'd need about 5 fewer enquiries a month for the same result.
Use your own conversion rates
About 60% book a tour and 75% of those attend
A mid-range figure. Top performers reach about 75%.
Real result: one centre went from 71% to 84% occupancy in four months on about $600 a month in ads. Read the case study
Go deeper: by room, with educator ratios
Sets the ACECQA educator ratio for each room
| Room | Places | Daily fee | Now % | Target % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nursery | ||||
| Toddlers | ||||
| Preschool |
Cert III award $32.47 an hour × 7.6 hours, plus about 25% on-costs. Enter your own.
Food, nappies and consumables. Estimate, enter your own.
Fees attached to your room gaps each year
$538,740
14.8 extra booked places a day across 3 rooms, at each room's own fee. Fee revenue before costs.
Your places today, by room
Nursery, 11 of 12 booked, 1 educator to 4
Toddlers, 16 of 20 booked, 1 educator to 4
Preschool, 26 of 48 booked, 1 educator to 11
Estimated margin after extra educators
$354,220
| Room | Extra places a day | Extra educators | Free now | Fees a year | Margin a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nursery | 0.4 | 0 | 0 | $13,140 | $12,420 |
| Toddlers | 2.4 | 1 | 0 | $87,600 | $5,300 |
| Preschool | 12 | 1 | 6 | $438,000 | $336,500 |
Free now is how many more children a day each room can take before it needs another educator at current staffing. Rooms with free capacity are where marketing pays back fastest. Ratios legally apply across the whole service, so treating rooms separately is a cautious simplification.
Change our assumptions
Most centres open Monday to Friday
Centres must open at least 48 weeks. Most close over Christmas.
National average is about 3 days a week
Also sets how many children leave each year
Want these numbers checked against your centre?
The free Occupancy Health Audit scores six areas, from being found to enrolling. Ask for a personal video review and Martin will look at where your gap sits, by room and by day, within 1 to 2 business days.
How the calculator works
Occupancy here means average booked daily places divided by licensed daily places. The gap is the difference between your target and where you are now.
Extra places a day = licensed places × (target occupancy − current occupancy)
Fees a year = extra places a day × daily fee × days open a week × weeks open a year
A worked example
An 80-place centre at 70% occupancy charging the national average of $146 a day, lifting to 85%, gains 12 booked places a day. 12 × $146 × 5 days × 50 weeks is $438,000 a year in fees. One full-time place at that fee is worth $36,500 a year.
Why places and children are different numbers
Most children don't attend five days a week. The national average is about 3 days, so 12 extra daily places means about 20 new children, not 12.
Why the planner counts families who leave
Children start school and families move. If families stay 2.5 years on average, about 40% of your children are replaced every year. To lift occupancy you have to replace them as well as fill the gap.
What this number is not
It is fee revenue before costs, not profit, and it assumes the target is held for the whole year. The By room view estimates margin after extra educators and per-child costs, using average daily attendance. Real rostering, breaks, peak days and mixed-age rooms will differ. These are estimates to help you plan, not financial advice.
Where our starting figures come from
| Figure | Starting value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Daily fee | $146 | Centre based day care averaged $14.60 an hour in the June quarter 2026 (Department of Education, Child Care Subsidy data report). 10 hours is the most common session length (Australian Institute of Family Studies). |
| Days per child | 3 | Centre based day care averaged 31.9 hours per child a week, about 3 days (Department of Education). |
| Weeks open | 50 | Centres must operate at least 48 weeks a year (Department of Education). |
| Educator cost | $310 a day | Children's Services Award, Level 3 Qualified Educator, $32.47 an hour from 1 July 2026, × 7.6 hours, plus our estimate of about 25% on-costs. |
| Cost per child | $8 a day | Food averaged $2.00 per child per day at 2017 prices in a study of Perth long day care services. Nappies and consumables are our estimate. |
| Enquiry to attended tour | 45% | About 60% of enquiries book a tour and about 75% of tours go ahead (LineLeader benchmark data, mostly North American centres). |
| Tour to enrolment | 50% | Our mid-range figure. LineLeader's top performers convert 76% of completed tours to enrolled or waitlisted. |
| Years a family stays | 2.5 | Our estimate. No national figure is published. Most children join between 1 and 3 and leave for school at 5. |
| Cost per enquiry | $25 | Enrolment Boost case studies, $22 to $25 per lead. |
| Ratios | By state | ACECQA educator to child ratios. |
Last reviewed September 2026. Every starting figure can be changed to match your centre.
Questions about vacancy cost
How do you calculate the cost of an empty childcare place?
Multiply the extra booked places a day by your daily fee, the days you're open each week and the weeks you're open each year. The result is annual fee revenue before costs.
How much is one childcare place worth a year?
A full-time place is your daily fee × days open a week × weeks open a year. At the national average of $146 a day, 5 days a week and 50 weeks, that's $36,500 a year in fees.
How many enquiries do I need to fill my centre?
Work out the new children you need, add the families likely to leave in that time, then divide by your tour-to-enrolment rate and your enquiry-to-tour rate. At 45% and 50%, every enrolment takes about 4 to 5 enquiries.
Is vacancy cost the same as lost profit?
No. It's fee revenue. Some extra places need another educator and every child adds food and consumable costs, so profit rises by less. The By room view estimates that margin.
Does filling places always mean hiring another educator?
No. Ratios work in steps. A preschool room at 1 to 11 with 18 children already needs 2 educators, so it can take 4 more children before a third is required. Filling those spots first is where marketing returns the most.
Why does occupancy by room matter more than the average?
An average hides where the empty places sit. A centre at 80% may have a full nursery and a half-empty preschool room, and only those specific room-days can be filled.
Built by Enrolment Boost, childcare marketing for Australian centres since 2019. Figures are estimates to help you plan, not financial advice.
What your gap costs you
$36,500 a month