Mid-Term Rental vs Short-Term Rental: When to Switch

If you want to take a furnished unit out of your city’s short-term rental rules, each stay has to be longer than the limit in the city’s definition. In New York City and Austin, that means 30 nights or more. In Nashville and Los Angeles, it means 31 nights or more. Airbnb counts a monthly stay as 28 nights or more, so a 28-night Airbnb booking is still a short-term rental in all 4 cities. In our worked example below, the switch pays when a monthly lease brings in more than $2,737 a month.

A mid-term rental is the same furnished unit rented for a month or more. 3 things change when you switch: The platform fee, the number of cleanings, and the legal position of the guest.

Where Short-Term Ends, by City

Each city writes its own definition, and the 4 below draw the line in 2 different places.

Nashville also caps a short-term guest at 30 consecutive days under Ordinance BL2016-492, effective February 24, 2017. In Nashville and Los Angeles, a 30-night stay is still a short-term rental, which is why the mid-term line there is 31 nights.

Our guide to finding the zoning rules for any short-term rental shows where the definition sits in a city’s code. If you hold a short-term rental license now, read what grandfathering really means for your short-term rental license before you let it lapse. Some grandfather clauses end after a set period without short-term rental use.

What Changes at 30 Nights and Over

The platform fee. Airbnb is moving all home hosts to a single 15.5% host fee, according to its service fee page. The table shows what each platform charges a host.

On Airbnb, a monthly stay keeps the 15.5% fee. Furnished Finder leaves payment terms to each landlord, and the tenant pays for its tenant screening, run through TransUnion SmartMove.

The booking terms. On Airbnb, stays of 28 or more consecutive nights move to a long-term cancellation policy. Under the Firm option, a guest gets a full refund only by canceling at least 30 days before check-in. After that, you are paid for the nights spent plus 30 more. Guests pay a first month up front and the rest in monthly installments, and your payouts arrive monthly.

The guest’s legal position. A guest who stays a month can gain protections that a weekend guest does not have. In New York, the Attorney General’s office states that anyone who has lawfully occupied premises for 30 days is entitled to protection from unlawful eviction. Evicting an occupant without a court order is a class A misdemeanor under section 768 of the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law (RPAPL), added by the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019. Other states write their own rules. Ask a local attorney how your state treats a 30-day occupant before you sign the first lease.

The Break-Even, as an Example Only

Neither Airbnb nor Furnished Finder publishes how far a monthly rate sits below a nightly rate in a given market. The example below uses round numbers. Replace them with your own.

As an example only, take a unit that averages $200 a night on Airbnb and books 18 nights a month.

• Short-term. 18 nights at $200 is $3,600. Airbnb’s 15.5% fee is $558. 6 cleanings at $100 cost $600. That leaves $2,442 a month, or $29,304 a year.
• Mid-term on Furnished Finder. Assume 11 of 12 months leased, 4 turnovers a year at $150 each, and the $199 listing fee. Those costs total $799 a year. To match $29,304, 11 months of rent must bring in $30,103, which is $2,737 a month.
• Mid-term on Airbnb. The 15.5% fee applies to the monthly rent, so the same calculation needs about $3,217 a month.

We leave out the mortgage, utilities, insurance, and furnishings because you pay them under both models, so they do not move the break-even. $2,737 a month is about $91 a night over 30 nights. In this example, a monthly lease at less than half the nightly rate earns the same as the short-term listing, because the 1 empty month and the 4 cleanings cost far less than 12 unbooked nights a month, 72 cleanings a year, and the 15.5% fee on the short-term side.

What the Numbers Say

Count the nights the way your ordinance counts them. Airbnb’s monthly setting starts at 28 nights, New York City and Austin draw the line at 30, and Nashville and Los Angeles treat a 30-night stay as short-term.

The platform decides how low your monthly rent can go. Airbnb takes 15.5% of each booking from most hosts, and Furnished Finder charges $199 a year with no commission. In our example, that difference moves the break-even from $2,737 to $3,217 a month.

A 30-day guest can carry tenant protections. In New York, the Attorney General’s office says an occupant of 30 days is protected from eviction without a court order. For a Furnished Finder or direct booking, use a written lease and a tenant screening. For an Airbnb monthly stay of 28 nights or more, Airbnb’s contracts policy allows a separate rental agreement if you disclose its terms in the designated section of your listing and collect the guest’s signature yourself. Keep personal information out of it, because those terms are public.

Before You Switch

3 checks before you change the minimum stay, in order.

1. Read the definition. Find the section of your city code that defines a short-term rental, and note whether the limit is under 30 nights or 30 nights or fewer.
2. Run the break-even with your own figures. Use your average nightly rate, booked nights, and cleaning cost from the last 12 months. Compare the result with furnished monthly rents listed near your unit.
3. Confirm the loan. Start with the lender locator. If your loan was underwritten on short-term rental income, such as a debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) loan, ask the lender in writing whether monthly leases change its terms.

For the markets AirDNA ranked for short-term and mid-term rentals, see AirDNA’s picks for 2026. For related comparisons, see Airbnb occupancy rates and Airbnb LLC.

Host Camp is not a licensed tax, legal, or financial adviser. Confirm figures for your situation with a professional.

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