Airbnb vs Long-Term Rental Income Calculator

This guide is for an owner with one home and one decision: rent it to guests by the night, to a tenant by the year, or to someone in between by the month. You'll be able to run both main models side by side with your own numbers, see the occupancy short-term renting needs to beat the lease, and check the rules, taxes, insurance and hours that can flip the answer.

Every default in the calculator and the worked example is made up to show the math. Replace each one with a quote, a bill or a written estimate for your home, and the result becomes yours.

How Short-Term and Long-Term Rentals Earn Money

The two models earn in different shapes. A lease pays one amount each month, and your main risk is the gap between tenants. A short-term rental earns booked nights times the nightly rate, plus any cleaning fee you charge, minus what the platforms keep, and that income moves with the season, local events and the listings that open near you.

The two also count empty time differently. For leases, the Census Bureau put the U.S. rental vacancy rate at 7.3% in the second quarter of 2026 (Census Bureau, Housing Vacancies and Homeownership). That's the share of the country's rental stock sitting vacant and for rent, not a forecast for your home, so the calculator asks for your own figure as weeks empty between tenants.

For short-term rentals, AirDNA's 2026 midyear outlook forecasts average U.S. occupancy of 57.4% this year, with demand and available listings both growing 2.7% (Short Term Rentalz, reporting AirDNA, July 2026). Put another way, more than four in ten of the nights in that forecast go unbooked, while a leased home earns rent on every night of the lease.

None of these national figures tells you what your home will earn. Use them to sanity-check the numbers you find for your own street, then run the calculator.

Comparison Calculator for Your Home

This is the comparison worksheet with the math done for you. It shows each model's net income a year, the difference between them and the break-even occupancy: the share of open nights a short-term rental must book to net what the lease nets. Think of break-even as the point where the two columns tie.

Leave out costs that stay the same under both models, such as the mortgage and, in most places, property tax and HOA dues, because they don't change which model wins. If one of them does change with the model where you are, such as an HOA rental fee, put the difference in a yearly costs box. Compare like with like on management: to test self-managing, set both management boxes to 0, so neither model carries a fee the other doesn't.

How the Calculator Works

• Booked nights and stays. Nights open times occupancy gives booked nights. Booked nights divided by the average stay gives the number of stays, and each stay is one turnover.
• Short-term revenue. Booked nights times the nightly rate, plus one cleaning fee per stay.
• Platform fee. A share of the nightly price plus the fees you charge, such as cleaning, which matches how Airbnb describes its host fee.
• Co-host or manager. A share of nightly revenue, with cleaning fees left out. Contracts differ, so match the box to the base in yours.
• Fixed short-term costs. Twelve months of utilities and software, the furnishing cost divided by the years it lasts, insurance, and the permits and repairs box.
• Long-term net. Monthly rent times 12, less the weeks between tenants, less the manager's share of rent collected, less the yearly costs box.
• Break-even occupancy. The lease's net plus the fixed short-term costs, divided by what each booked night leaves after the fee, management and cleaning, divided by the nights you keep open.

The lodging tax box only matters when the tax comes out of your price. When guests pay it on top, it passes through you to the tax office, whoever files it, so the first two options give the same net. A 12% tax built into your price is 10.7% of what guests pay (0.12 divided by 1.12), and the third option takes that share out of revenue.

Where to Find Each Input for Your Home

A calculator is only as good as what you type into it. Use two sources for each big number, and take the lower one when they disagree.

Long-Term Rent and Weeks Between Tenants

HUD's Fair Market Rents for fiscal year 2027 took effect on October 1, 2026. Each is HUD's estimate of the 40th percentile gross rent paid by recent movers into standard-quality units, where gross means rent plus utilities, and HUD aims them at modest, non-luxury housing. HUD also publishes Small Area Fair Market Rents for ZIP Code areas (Federal Register notice, September 1, 2026). Subtract the utilities your tenant would pay, and expect a well-finished home to rent above a modest-housing benchmark.

Zillow's Observed Rent Index tracks asking rents in the middle of the market for metros, cities and ZIP codes where it has enough data (Zillow Research, ZORI methodology). Asking rents aren't signed leases, so use it as a cross-check, not a quote.

The best long-term input is a written estimate from two local property managers, with their fee schedules. Ask them how long similar homes sat empty between tenants last year, too: that's your vacancy weeks box. This message gets every number in one reply.

Subject: Rent estimate and fees for [Property address]

Hi [Manager's first name],

I own [Property address], a [number]-bedroom, [number]-bath [house or condo], and I'm comparing a 12-month lease with furnished stays of a month or more.

Could you send me, in writing:

1. The monthly rent you would list it at, unfurnished, and how many weeks similar homes you manage sat empty between tenants last year.
2. Your management fee, leasing fee and renewal fee, plus any other charges (setup, inspections, maintenance markup, eviction handling).
3. If you place furnished tenants for 30 nights or more: the monthly rent you would expect and your fee for that.

Photos are attached. I'm comparing two managers and would like to decide by [date].

Thank you,
[Your name]
[Phone]

Nightly Rate and Occupancy

AirDNA's Rentalizer estimates short-term revenue for an address from comparable listings within a 10-mile radius that have similar bedroom, bathroom and guest counts. Its projection assumes the home is available all 365 days, includes the cleaning fee, and leaves out the host fee, other fees and taxes. It also rates each comp set's strength as Low, Medium or High, based on how consistent the comparables' revenue is (AirDNA Help Center, Rentalizer).

So adjust before you copy anything across. Enter the nights you'll keep open, not 365. Check whether the rate you copy already includes cleaning fees; if it does, set the cleaning fee box to 0 so you don't count it twice. Let the calculator take off the platform fee. Then look at five similar listings near you, their prices over the next few months and how often new reviews arrive, as a check on the forecast.

Platform Fees

Airbnb has two fee structures. Under the single fee, most hosts pay 15.5%, and Airbnb says this structure is mandatory for most hosts, including those who use property management software. Under the split fee, most hosts pay 3% and guests pay a service fee of 14.1% to 16.5% of the booking subtotal, and Airbnb says the split fee is being phased out. Host fees are a percentage of the nightly price plus any fees the host charges, such as cleaning, and they exclude taxes (Airbnb Help Center, service fees).

Vrbo is moving hosts to a single 12% commission starting October 29, 2026. Its new Host Terms take effect the same day, list a payment processing fee separately from the commission, and require a listing on Vrbo to be at least as complete, accurate and favorable as on other channels (section 4.5.7), a scope that covers rates, fees and availability (Rental Scale-Up, September 30, 2026). Check the rate shown in your Vrbo dashboard before you rely on 12%.

Our guide to Vrbo's 12% fee and parity terms covers what changes for hosts listed on both platforms.

Mixing channels blends the fee. Half your nights on Airbnb at 15.5% and half on Vrbo at 12% average out at 13.75% before any separate processing fee, which is one of the calculator's options. To see what a fee does to one booking in dollars, try the Airbnb fee calculator.

Cleaning, Utilities and Furnishing

Ask two cleaners for a per-turnover price that includes laundry, and add what you spend restocking toiletries, coffee and paper goods: that's the turnover cost box. The cleaning fee box is what you charge guests, and the platform takes its share of it, so a cleaning fee set equal to your cleaner's price still loses money on every stay. Our guide to running Airbnb turnovers covers the work behind that number.

For utilities, pull a year of bills for the home, add internet, streaming and any pricing or channel software, and divide by 12. For furnishing, price the home room by room, including linens, kitchen kit and the outdoor furniture guests expect, then decide how many years it should last. Our breakdown of what it costs to start an Airbnb lists the setup items.

Lodging Tax

Short stays usually owe lodging tax and long leases usually don't, with the cut-off set by each state and city (see the rules table further down). Airbnb collects and remits occupancy tax for hosts in some places and says hosts there remain responsible for any other tax obligations (Airbnb Help Center, occupancy tax). Where a platform doesn't collect it, you register, collect and file it yourself.

Either way, tax that guests pay on top of your price passes through you, so it doesn't change your net. It only becomes a cost when you build it into your nightly rate, which is what the third lodging tax option models.

Worked Example With a Mid-Term Third Column

Example: every input below is made up to show the arithmetic, and none of it is market data. The home is a three-bedroom house in a leisure market. Mortgage, property tax and HOA dues are assumed to be the same under every model, so they're left out. Each model runs hands-off first, with a co-host or manager, and the last row shows the net if you manage it yourself.

• Short-term: open 340 nights (25 blocked for owner use and upkeep), 55% booked at $300 a night, average stay 3.4 nights. That's 187 booked nights and 55 stays, all on Airbnb's 15.5% host-only fee. Cleaning fee $150 a stay, each turnover costs $165, and a co-host takes 20% of nightly revenue.
• Mid-term: furnished at $3,800 a month with utilities included, booked 10 months a year in three stays, listed on Furnished Finder at $199 a year, with a manager taking 15% of rent.
• Long-term: unfurnished at $2,600 a month, three weeks empty a year between tenants, with a manager taking 10% of rent collected. The tenant pays most utilities; the owner pays water and trash.

The long-term rent line is $2,600 times 12, less three of 52 weeks. The calculator above starts with the short-term and long-term columns of this table, so you can change any line and watch the totals move.

What the Example Shows

• Gross isn't net. Short-term takes in $64,350 against the lease's $29,400, more than twice as much. With a co-host it still nets $5,079 less than the lease with a manager.
• Who does the work can flip the answer. Self-managed, short-term nets $27,501 against $24,300 for a self-managed lease, $3,201 more a year. Whether that's worth it depends on your hours, and the time calculator further down prices them.
• Cleaning loses money on every stay here. Each $150 cleaning fee keeps $126.75 after Airbnb's 15.5%, and the turnover costs $165, so each stay loses $38.25 before the nightly rent counts. Raising the cleaning fee or cutting the turnover cost changes that line.
• Mid-term trades fees and cleanings for furnishing and utilities. It pays $199 in listing fees against $9,974 on Airbnb, and three cleanings against 55, but it still carries the $6,000 furnishing share and $4,800 of utilities. In this example, mid-term only matches the managed lease at a furnished rent of about $4,460 a month.

How to Find Your Break-Even Occupancy

If similar listings near you book well above your break-even occupancy, short-term has room to win. If they book below it, the lease wins on money. Here's the calculation by hand with the hands-off example, so you can check the calculator or rebuild it in a spreadsheet.

1. Take the lease's net. $21,360.
2. Add the short-term costs that don't depend on bookings. Utilities and software $4,800, furnishing $6,000, insurance $2,700, and permits, repairs and other costs $4,300 come to $17,800.
3. Work out what each booked night leaves. The $300 rate keeps $193.50 after the 15.5% host fee and the 20% co-host share ($300 times 0.645). Each stay's cleaning loses $38.25, which is $11.25 a night over a 3.4-night stay. So each booked night leaves $182.25.
4. Divide, then divide again. $21,360 plus $17,800 is $39,160, and $39,160 divided by $182.25 is 215 booked nights. Divided by 340 open nights, that's 63%.

Self-managed on both sides, each booked night leaves $242.25 and the lease nets $24,300, so break-even falls to 174 nights, or 51% of open nights. One figure sits above AirDNA's 57.4% national forecast and one below it, which is why local comparables, not national averages, should settle the question.

How Rate and Occupancy Move the Result

Rate and occupancy move the result more than any cost line. Here's the hands-off short-term net at other rates and occupancies, with every other example input unchanged. The managed lease nets $21,360, so any cell above that is where short-term wins.

Five of the twelve cells beat the lease, and one misses by $255. In this example, a $40 change in the nightly rate moves the yearly net by $3,947 to $6,579, depending on occupancy, and ten points of occupancy at $300 a night is 34 nights, worth about $6,200. That's why the rate and occupancy you type in deserve more checking than any cost line.

Mid-Term Rentals of 30 Nights or More

Mid-term renting means furnished stays of a month or more, for people who need a home for a while: a work contract, a move or a renovation. It keeps the short-term model's furnishing and utility bills, but it cuts turnovers to a few a year, lowers platform costs and, in some places, sits outside short-term rental rules and lodging tax.

Listing costs can be low. Furnished Finder, a listing site for furnished monthly rentals, charges $199 a year per property with no booking commission, at prices that took effect on January 2, 2026, and Hostfully cites the company's report of an average stay of 102 days (Hostfully, October 2026). Three or four stays a year means three or four cleanings instead of dozens.

The catch is tenant law. Airbnb warns that a guest who stays a month or longer may establish rights as a tenant, with the threshold set by each jurisdiction: in California, Illinois and New York, a residential tenancy may be created after 30 consecutive days, and a guest who won't leave may need to be removed through an eviction. Airbnb also suggests considering a written rental agreement and notes that local rent control laws can override state law (Airbnb Help Center, monthly stays). Ask a local landlord-tenant lawyer before your first stay of 30 nights or more.

Testing Mid-Term for Your Home

The quickest test is the furnished rent that matches your lease. Add the lease's net to the mid-term yearly costs (listing fees, cleanings, utilities, the furnishing share, insurance and repairs), then divide by the months you expect to fill, after the manager's share. In the example, that's $21,360 plus $16,549, divided by 10 months times 0.85, or about $4,460 a month. If furnished homes like yours rent well above that figure near you, mid-term deserves its own column in your spreadsheet.

Check how lodging tax treats a 30-night stay where you are, because some states tax stays well past a month. Our midterm rental strategy guide covers where these guests search and how hosts set up for them.

Permits, Lodging Tax and Tenant Rules by Stay Length

Short-term rental rules can change after you've bought the furniture. Cities cap permits, require the host to live on site or limit which zones allow short stays, and when a rule like that reaches your address, the short-term column drops to zero until you switch models. Before you price that column, check the thresholds below against your own city and state.

The Texas and Florida rows show how far apart states sit: in Texas a house leased for more than 30 consecutive days is outside the state hotel tax, while in Florida a three-month furnished stay is still taxable. In Texas, if a platform collects the state tax for you, you don't collect it yourself, but bookings through your own website are yours to collect and report.

New York City shows how tight local rules can get. Short-term hosts must register with the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement, and booking platforms can't process transactions for unregistered rentals, while stays of 30 consecutive days or more are exempt (NYC Office of Special Enforcement, registration).

Registered NYC hosts can only host in the unit where they live, must stay there during the booking and can host no more than two guests, not counting children under 4 (NYC Office of Special Enforcement, dos and don'ts). A rule like that turns a whole-home short-term plan into a lease or a mid-term plan overnight.

Permit records show where licenses are scarce. Cavmir™ publishes a short-term rental permit data hub built from the permit and license records that official state, city and county registries publish. Look up your area before you count on a permit, and treat a long list of applications with few active licenses as a warning.

Then check the rules that sit above the city's. HOA and condo rules can set minimum stays or ban rentals, and a deed restriction can bind you even where the city allows short stays. Send your city or county this message, and ask your HOA the same questions in writing.

Subject: Short-term rental rules for [Property address]

Hello,

I own [Property address], parcel [parcel number, if you have it], and I'm deciding whether to rent it by the night, by the month or on a 12-month lease. Could you tell me:

1. Can this address get a short-term rental permit or registration today? Is there a cap or a waiting list?
2. What stay length counts as short-term here?
3. What are the yearly permit, registration and inspection fees?
4. Which lodging or occupancy taxes apply, and where do I register to file them?
5. Are any changes to these rules scheduled or under discussion?

A link to the ordinance would help too.

Thank you,
[Your name]
[Phone]

Plan the fallback too. If short-term rules tighten after you furnish, your options become a mid-term or long-term tenant, and the furniture turns into either a selling point for monthly stays or a cost you recover at a loss. For city-by-city changes, see our guide to U.S. short-term rental rules in 2026.

Income Tax Differences in Plain Words

The two models can land on different tax forms and rules, and the difference can be worth more than a few points of occupancy. This is general information from IRS publications, not tax advice, and it applies to U.S. federal income tax. Take your calculator results to your accountant before you decide.

• Which schedule. If you provide substantial services mainly for your guests' convenience, such as regular cleaning, changing linen or maid service, IRS Publication 527 says you report the income and expenses on Schedule C instead of Schedule E, and you may owe self-employment tax on it (IRS Publication 527).
• The seven-day rule. Under the passive activity rules, an activity isn't a rental activity if the average period of customer use is seven days or less, or 30 days or less when you provide significant personal services. You figure the average by dividing the total days in all rental periods by the number of rentals (IRS Publication 925). A nightly rental with stays like the example's 3.4 nights falls under it; a 12-month lease doesn't.
• Losses on a lease. Publication 925 treats rental activities as passive even when you materially participate, unless you qualify as a real estate professional. If you actively participate in a rental real estate activity, you can deduct up to $25,000 of its losses from nonpassive income, reduced by half of your modified adjusted gross income above $100,000 and generally unavailable at $150,000 or more.
• Personal use. If you use the home yourself for more than 14 days, or more than 10% of the days it's rented at a fair rental price, whichever is greater, it counts as used as a home for the year, which can limit your rental deductions. Rent it for fewer than 15 days and you don't report the rent or deduct rental expenses (Publication 527).
• Depreciation. Publication 527 lists 27.5 years for residential rental buildings and puts furniture, appliances and carpeting used in residential rental real estate in the 5-year class. Separately, the IRS says the 2025 tax law made a 100% first-year depreciation deduction permanent for qualified property acquired after January 19, 2025 (IRS, Notice 2026-11). Which assets qualify, and how they apply to a furnished rental, are questions for your accountant.

Lodging tax is separate from income tax and sits in the rules table above. Our guide to Airbnb taxes for hosts covers record-keeping and what to hand your accountant.

Insurance, Lender Rules and Your Time

Insurance

The Insurance Information Institute says standard homeowners policies don't cover business activities in the home, that renting to a series of guests on a regular basis is treated as a business, and that some insurers allow a short-term rental only with notice or an endorsement. For a lease, it says landlord policies generally cost about 25% more than a standard homeowners policy, and most cover lost rent for a set period while the home is repaired after a covered loss (Insurance Information Institute, coverage for renting out your home).

Airbnb's AirCover for Hosts includes $3 million in host damage protection and $1 million in host liability insurance. Airbnb says it isn't a substitute for personal insurance and that hosts should ask their insurer how their policy overlaps with it (Airbnb Help Center, AirCover for Hosts). Get quotes for both models on the same address before you fill in the insurance boxes. This request gets two quotes you can compare line by line.

Subject: Two quotes for [Property address]

Hi [Agent's first name],

I'm deciding how to rent [Property address], a [number]-bedroom [house or condo] built in [year]. Could you quote both of these for the same home?

1. A landlord (dwelling) policy for a 12-month unfurnished lease.
2. A policy or endorsement that covers short-term guest stays, with furnished contents worth about [furnishing value].

For each one, please list the yearly premium, the deductible, the liability limit, any loss-of-rent cover and any exclusions for guest stays. Please also tell me what my current homeowners policy covers if I rent the home before a new policy starts.

Thank you,
[Your name]
[Phone]

Our guide to Airbnb insurance for hosts explains the policy types and what to ask about exclusions.

Your Mortgage

If the home has a mortgage, read its occupancy terms before you rent it in any form. A loan made for a primary home or a second home can carry occupancy terms that a lease or nightly rentals may break, so ask your lender in writing which use your loan allows, and keep the reply.

Your Time

Short-term renting is a hospitality job: guest messages, reviews, pricing, cleaner schedules, restocking and repairs between stays. A lease means a few busy weeks when a tenant changes and quiet months in between. If you pay a co-host, the calculator already prices that work. If you'll do it yourself, price your hours here.

In the example, self-managing short-term nets $3,201 more a year than self-managing the lease, and 17 extra hours a month turn that into $15.69 an hour. Self-managing instead of paying the co-host saves $11,220 a year in the same example, which is the number to weigh against your hours if you'd go short-term either way.

Which Model Fits and What to Do This Week

The calculator gives you the money answer. These factors tell you whether it holds up for your home and your life.

Start with the checks below this week. Most take one email or one phone call, and together they replace every example input with a real one. Do the rules group first: one answer from the city can settle the short-term question before you spend anything.

If the short-term column wins, the inputs that carry it are the nightly rate and occupancy, and both depend on guests finding your home and choosing it. That's the work Cavmir does for luxury rentals, through websites with direct booking, search, AI-answer visibility and digital PR, as our marketing services page describes.

Keep one rule in view as you plan. Airbnb's Off-Platform and Fee Transparency Policy bans asking or encouraging guests to book off Airbnb, offering them discounts to do so and using their contact details for marketing, and violations can get listings deactivated (Airbnb Help Center, off-platform policy). Payment for an Airbnb booking stays on Airbnb.

Direct bookings come from people who find your own website, brand and search listings. Our direct booking strategy explains how to reach them.

If the long-term column wins, you've saved the cost of furnishing a house for a business that wouldn't cover its costs. Rerun the numbers when your market, your local rules or your platform fees change. If you're still deciding whether to buy, our short-term rental ROI guide covers the purchase side.

Sources

Every figure in this guide comes from these sources, checked in October 2026.

• Airbnb Help Center, "Airbnb service fees", October 2026: airbnb.com
• Rental Scale-Up, "Vrbo Moves All Hosts to a Single 12% Commission: What Changes on October 29", September 30, 2026: rentalscaleup.com
• Short Term Rentalz, report on AirDNA's 2026 Midyear Outlook, July 9, 2026: shorttermrentalz.com
• U.S. Census Bureau, "Quarterly Residential Vacancies and Homeownership, Second Quarter 2026", July 28, 2026: census.gov
• AirDNA Help Center, "Rentalizer revenue calculator", October 2026: help.airdna.co
• Hostfully, guide to Furnished Finder fees, October 1, 2026: hostfully.com
• HUD, "Fair Market Rents for Fiscal Year 2027", Federal Register notice, September 1, 2026: federalregister.gov
• Zillow Research, "Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI) methodology": zillow.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "Occupancy tax collection and remittance by Airbnb": airbnb.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "Things to consider before hosting monthly stays", October 2026: airbnb.com
• IRS, "Publication 925 (2025), Passive Activity and At-Risk Rules": irs.gov
• IRS, "Publication 527 (2025), Residential Rental Property": irs.gov
• IRS, "Treasury, IRS issue guidance on the additional first year depreciation deduction" (Notice 2026-11), January 14, 2026: irs.gov
• NYC Office of Special Enforcement, "Registration Law": nyc.gov
• NYC Office of Special Enforcement, "Dos and don'ts for hosts": nyc.gov
• Texas Comptroller, "Hotel Occupancy Tax Frequently Asked Questions": comptroller.texas.gov
• Florida Department of Revenue, "Sales and Use Tax on Rental of Living or Sleeping Accommodations" (GT-800034): floridarevenue.com
• Insurance Information Institute, "Coverage for renting out your home": iii.org
• Airbnb Help Center, "AirCover for Hosts", October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "Off-Platform and Fee Transparency Policy": airbnb.com