Ask most equipment rental owners how their business is doing and they will give you a revenue number. "I made $4,000 last month." Or maybe a payout total. "Sharegrid sent me $12,000 this quarter." Revenue feels like the definitive answer because it is the number that shows up in your bank account.
But revenue alone is misleading. It tells you what came in. It says nothing about what sat idle, what could have earned more, or which items are carrying dead weight. The metric that fills those gaps is utilization rate, and almost nobody tracks it.
What utilization rate actually is
Utilization rate is the percentage of available days that a piece of equipment was booked during a given period. The formula is straightforward:
Utilization Rate = (Booked Days / Available Days) x 100
If your Sony FX6 was available for rental all 30 days of a month and was booked for 9 of those days, its utilization rate is 30%. If it was only available for 20 days (because you used it on your own shoots for 10 days) and booked for 9 of those 20, its utilization rate is 45%.
The distinction between calendar days and available days matters. A camera you use on your own productions 15 days per month has fewer available rental days, and its utilization should be calculated against the days it was actually available to rent, not against the full calendar.
How to calculate it properly
The concept is simple. Getting accurate numbers requires some care.
Choose your time period
Monthly utilization is useful for tracking trends. Quarterly utilization smooths out noise and gives a more reliable picture. Annual utilization is the definitive number for buy/sell decisions. Calculate all three, but make decisions based on quarterly or annual numbers rather than reacting to any single month.
Count actual booked days
A Sharegrid booking has a start date and end date. Count every calendar day the equipment was out, including travel days. A Friday-to-Monday booking is 4 days of utilization (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday), not 2 shoot days. The gear was unavailable for those 4 calendar days, so that is what counts for utilization.
Define available days honestly
This is where most people get sloppy. If you blocked two weeks for a personal project, those 14 days are not available days. If your camera was in the shop for a week, those 7 days are not available. If you took December off and did not accept bookings, those 31 days are not available.
Being honest about available days gives you a more accurate and more useful utilization number. A camera at 25% utilization over 365 available days is performing differently than one at 25% utilization over 200 available days, even though the rate is the same. The first one had far more opportunity and still only booked 25% of it.
Calculate for every item
Utilization rate is an item-level metric. Portfolio-level averages are useful for benchmarking, but the real insights come from comparing utilization across individual items. Your top earner by revenue might not be your most-utilized item, and that difference tells you something important about your portfolio.
Why it matters more than raw revenue
Here is the example that makes the case. You own two pieces of equipment:
Item A: A RED V-RAPTOR that rents at $800 per day. It booked 4 days last month. Monthly revenue: $3,200. Utilization: 13%.
Item B: A Sony FX3 that rents at $200 per day. It booked 16 days last month. Monthly revenue: $3,200. Utilization: 53%.
Same revenue. Completely different stories.
Item A has a $40,000+ purchase cost, high depreciation, and low demand. At 13% utilization, it is idle 87% of the time. Its high daily rate masks the fact that it barely books. It will take years to reach payback at this pace.
Item B cost $3,900, depreciates moderately, and is in constant demand. At 53% utilization, it is one of the most in-demand items in your market. It probably hit payback months ago and is now generating pure profit.
If you only looked at revenue, these items appear identical. Utilization reveals that one is a cash machine and the other is $40,000 in slowly depreciating dead weight.
Revenue per dollar invested
Utilization connects directly to capital efficiency. Item B generated $3,200 on a $3,900 investment in a single month. Item A generated $3,200 on a $40,000+ investment. The return on invested capital is roughly 10 times better for Item B.
This does not mean expensive gear is always a bad investment. But it means you need to evaluate whether the utilization rate on expensive items justifies the capital commitment. A RED V-RAPTOR at 35% utilization tells a very different story than one at 13%.
What good utilization looks like by equipment type
Benchmarks vary by category because different equipment types have different demand patterns, price points, and competitive dynamics.
Cinema camera bodies
Good: 25% to 40%. A camera body booked 8 to 12 days per month is performing well. Top performers in strong markets can exceed 40%, but this is uncommon and usually limited to specific models in high demand (Sony FX3, ARRI ALEXA Mini).
Average: 15% to 25%. Booked 5 to 8 days per month. Generating income but with significant room for improvement through better pricing, listing optimization, or market positioning.
Concerning: Below 15%. Booked fewer than 5 days per month. At this level, the item is likely not on track to reach payback before meaningful depreciation occurs. Evaluate pricing, demand, and whether the item belongs in your portfolio.
Lenses
Good: 18% to 30%. Lenses booked 5 to 9 days per month are performing well. Lens utilization can be tricky to evaluate because they often rent as part of a camera package rather than individually.
Average: 10% to 18%. Common for specialty lenses or those in competitive markets. Still contributing, especially since lens depreciation is slow.
Concerning: Below 10%. A lens booked fewer than 3 days per month is barely earning. However, lenses hold value well, so a low-utilization lens is less problematic than a low-utilization camera body. The capital is not depreciating away as fast.
Lighting and grip
Good: 15% to 25%. Lighting gear at this level is pulling its weight. Given the lower daily rates, high utilization is necessary to generate meaningful revenue.
Average: 8% to 15%. Common for lighting items in moderately active markets. Acceptable if the gear has low depreciation and minimal maintenance costs.
Concerning: Below 8%. At $50 to $100 per day rates, an item booked 2 days per month is earning $100 to $200. That barely covers its share of insurance and storage costs.
Accessories and support
Good: 20% to 35%. In-demand accessories (wireless follow focus systems, production monitors, wireless video transmitters) can be surprisingly strong performers relative to their purchase cost.
Average: 10% to 20%. Standard for most accessories. Given their lower purchase costs, even moderate utilization often leads to fast payback.
Concerning: Below 10%. Evaluate whether the item is still relevant. Accessories have the fastest obsolescence rate of any equipment category. A gimbal or monitor from three years ago may simply have no demand.
The relationship between utilization and pricing
Utilization rate is not just a performance metric. It is a pricing signal.
Low utilization might mean you are priced too high
If your gear is in good condition, well-listed, and in a category with active demand, but utilization is below the benchmarks above, pricing is the first variable to examine. Drop your daily rate by 10% to 15% and monitor the effect over 60 days. A $350 per day camera that books 4 days per month ($1,400) might book 8 days at $300 ($2,400). Lower rate, higher revenue, better utilization.
Very high utilization might mean you are priced too low
If an item is at 45% utilization or above, you may have room to increase your rate. Demand is clearly strong. Test a 10% increase and see if utilization drops proportionally. If it drops from 45% to 40% but revenue increases because of the higher rate, you are better off.
The pricing sweet spot
The ideal price point maximizes total revenue, not utilization or daily rate independently. Having a pricing formula that works gives you a starting point, but the general principle holds: track utilization at different price points and let the data guide your pricing.
Most owners set a price once and never adjust it. Markets change, competition shifts, and new models alter demand dynamics. Reviewing pricing quarterly and adjusting based on utilization data is one of the highest-impact things you can do for your rental income.
How utilization changes buy and sell decisions
Utilization data transforms how you think about your portfolio.
What to buy
Look at which categories and specific items in your inventory have the highest utilization. If your camera bodies are at 30% and your lighting is at 8%, your next dollar should go toward camera inventory, not lighting. More specifically, if your Sony FX3 is at 40% utilization and you are turning away bookings, buying a second one is likely a better investment than diversifying into a new category.
What to sell
Items with declining utilization over 6 to 12 months are sell candidates, especially if they have already reached payback. Knowing what to buy, keep, and sell based on these trends is the difference between a growing portfolio and a stagnant one. A camera that went from 28% utilization to 14% utilization over the past two quarters is losing demand. If it has paid for itself, sell while it still holds resale value. If it has not paid for itself, the decision is harder, but the trend is telling you something important.
What to hold
Items with stable utilization, even if moderate, are holds. Consistency is valuable. A lens at steady 15% utilization for 12 months is doing its job predictably. As long as depreciation is not outpacing earnings, stability is a reason to keep it.
Tracking utilization over time to spot trends
A single month's utilization number is noisy. Seasonal patterns, random booking clustering, and one-off events can distort any given month. The value of utilization tracking comes from the trend line over time.
Monthly tracking
Record each item's utilization monthly. After 6 months, you will see patterns. Some items are seasonal (lighting spikes during winter production season). Some are declining (older camera bodies losing demand to newer models). Some are consistently strong. These patterns inform every decision you make about your inventory.
Seasonal adjustment
If your market has strong seasonal patterns, compare utilization year-over-year or against the same quarter last year rather than against last month. A Q1 dip is normal in most markets and does not mean an item is underperforming.
Early warning signals
A two-quarter decline in utilization is a signal worth investigating. It could mean a competitor entered your market with the same gear at lower rates. It could mean a new model is drawing demand away. It could mean your listing has been buried in search results. Whatever the cause, catching it early gives you time to respond before the trend becomes a loss.
Rental IQ calculates utilization automatically for every item in your portfolio based on your Sharegrid transaction data. The revenue dashboard shows per-item utilization, portfolio averages, and trends over time without manual tracking or spreadsheets. Combined with payback and earnings data, plus a bookings calendar that visualizes your rental density, it gives you a complete picture of which items are working and which need attention. The platform is $10 per month, free during beta.
Start tracking today
You do not need a tool to start tracking utilization. A simple spreadsheet with columns for item name, month, booked days, available days, and utilization percentage will get you going. Update it monthly. After three months, you will already see patterns you did not know existed.
The owners who track utilization make consistently better decisions about pricing, buying, selling, and capital allocation. The ones who only watch revenue keep wondering why their bank account does not reflect the size of their equipment investment. The difference is one metric that takes five minutes per month to update.
