Apollo Advising

Short-term or medium-term? What your Airbnb would really earn as a 30-day rental

A free five-page guide for Airbnb and Vrbo owners thinking about Furnished Finder or other 30-day furnished rentals. It uses the same method as Denver's paid client reports.

By Denver McClure, founder of Apollo Advising. Updated October 12, 2026.

Short answer. A switch to 30-day stays cuts cleaning, supplies, occupancy tax and platform fees, but it also ends the cleaning and pet fees guests pay you, and one empty month between tenants costs a full month of fixed costs. Run both sides, find your breakeven rent, and test flexing only your slowest months before converting the whole year.

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The five steps

  1. Sort your costs into two columns

    Fixed costs come with owning the house: mortgage interest, taxes, insurance, utilities, repairs. Short-term costs come with nightly turnover: cleaning, supplies, occupancy tax, software. Only the second column changes when you switch.

  2. Subtract the revenue you would lose

    Guests already pay back much of your short-term costs through cleaning fees, pet fees and occupancy tax. In the example, a switch avoids $20,351 of costs but gives up $16,170 of that revenue, so the real gain is $4,181.

  3. Add back the platform fees

    Airbnb and Vrbo host fees disappear on a flat-fee listing like Furnished Finder. In the example they were $7,800 a year.

  4. Find your breakeven monthly rent

    (Fixed costs + medium-term costs) divided by months occupied. In the example that is $3,657 a month with no vacancy and $3,989 with one empty month.

  5. Test the hybrid

    Flex only your slowest months to 30-day stays. In the example, flexing four months moves the year from −$3,860 to +$2,853, while a full switch swings from +$1,721 to −$2,079 on a single empty month.

The guide adds the six things a profit and loss statement will not show you (taxes, occupancy-tax paperwork, insurance, city and HOA rules, lead times, and tenant screening) and a worksheet to run your own numbers in about 20 minutes. You can also compare all three strategies with the rental strategy calculator.

Want it run on your property?

The $99 written property analysis does the full comparison with your real numbers and comparable rents, no call needed. See a sample report.

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This page is general education, not legal, tax, investment, insurance, or lending advice. See our disclosures. The example property is fictional. By signing up you agree to our privacy policy.