How the two rental models stack up
A short-term rental sells your calendar one stay at a time. A long-term rental sells months at a stretch, with a very different service commitment. The comparison worth making is the money left after you've done each job, on the same property, with every cost counted.
Build bookings from the full year
Nightly rate × available nights × booked share gives you lodging revenue. This tool runs on an annual calendar, so fold closures and blocked nights into the occupancy you enter. A summer weekend rate isn't a full-year average. Check permits, local rules, your lease, and any HOA restrictions early, while it's still cheap to find out the listing isn't allowed.
Match the fees and costs
Guest cleaning fees are revenue; cleaning labor and supplies are expense. Longer stays spread each turnover over more nights, which is why average stay length moves the result so much. Count furnishing, utilities, internet, repairs, insurance written for the way you'll use the place, taxes, and management labor. Platform fees vary by account and setup, so pull your own instead of borrowing a percentage. Airbnb's current fee explanation walks through the different structures.
Read the comparison
Both cash-flow figures are monthly. Cash-on-cash takes the annual modeled cash flow and divides it by the cash you've put in here, with no resale gain baked in. Add capital reserves, income taxes, and any setup costs the inputs miss before you crown a winner.
Then run the soft version: fewer bookings, a lower average rate, more cleaning turns. The higher-revenue option sometimes leaves less cash and takes more of your evenings. The rental property calculator gives you a fuller long-term expense budget, and the glamping profitability example shows how cost per stay and seasonal break-even fit together.
Run it both ways tonight and you'll know which of the two jobs you're signing up for.