What Is a Mid-Term Rental?

A mid-term rental is a furnished stay of about one to 12 months, longer than a nightly short-term rental and shorter than a standard lease. On Airbnb, the threshold is 28 nights: any reservation of that length or longer counts as a monthly stay (Regulatory Crackdown Drives Shift to Midterm Rentals (Skift, 2024)) (Benefits of booking a monthly stay (Airbnb Help Center)).

Last updated: November 2026

How a mid-term rental works

Booking.com uses the same 28-night line for its monthly rate plan, which requires a minimum stay of 28 nights against seven for its weekly plan, as announced at launch in 2020 (Booking.com introduces long-stay rates (Booking.com press release, 2020)).

Length limits differ by channel too. A Booking.com property accepts stays of up to 30 days by default, and a connectivity partner can raise that limit to 45, 60, 75 or 90 days through the API, subject to local law (Enable long stay bookings (Booking.com Connectivity docs)).

Once a stay crosses the threshold on Airbnb, the commercial terms change. Home reservations of 28 nights or longer fall under a long-term cancellation policy, and after the trip starts, the following month of the reservation is nonrefundable (Monthly stay cancellations by guest (Airbnb Help Center)). That policy generally requires 30 days' notice of changes to the reservation (Benefits of booking a monthly stay (Airbnb Help Center)). Payment changes as well: Airbnb collects and releases monthly-stay payments in monthly installments rather than all at once (Host monthly stays (Airbnb Help Center)).

Why mid-term rentals matter for hotel distribution

Long stays are a steady part of one major channel's business. On Airbnb, long-term stays (trips of 28 days or more) were 23% of gross nights booked in North America in Q3 2024, largely unchanged from a year earlier (Airbnb Q3 2024 Shareholder Letter (SEC filing)). Through Q4 2025, Airbnb reported that growth in short-term stays continued to outpace long-term stays in North America (Airbnb Q4 2025 Shareholder Letter (SEC filing)). These are Airbnb's own figures and cover Airbnb only.

In the US, monthly rentals are scaling faster than short-term rentals, driven by affordability, mobility and regulatory shifts (Monthly Rental Market Trends Report (AirDNA and Furnished Finder)).

For a property, selling monthly stays is a setup task on each channel. One channel needs its maximum stay raised, another needs a rate plan with a 28-night minimum, and each applies its own cancellation and payout terms to the booking. A property that sells through several channels therefore holds several versions of the same long-stay offer, and each one has to match its rooms, rates and availability. For how stay length is measured across a property's bookings, see average length of stay; for pricing longer stays, read our post on pricing strategies for mid-term and long-term stays.

Mid-term rental compared with other stay types

 Mid-term rentalShort-term rentalLong-term lease
Typical lengthAbout 1 to 12 months, furnishedNightly12 months or more
What defines itLength of stayNightly staysLength of tenancy

Sources for the table: Regulatory Crackdown Drives Shift to Midterm Rentals (Skift, 2024).

Frequently asked questions

What does mid-term rental mean?
The "mid" places the stay between the nightly short-term rental and the standard lease, and the label describes how long the guest stays in a furnished home.
What is considered a mid-term rental?
It depends on who draws the line. The platform rules described above start at 28 nights, while some cities use 30 days: in New York City, rentals of 30 consecutive days or more are exempt from the short-term rental host registration requirement. At the other end, a stay of 12 months or more is usually treated as a standard lease.
What is a mid-term rental used for?
As a temporary furnished home. Monthly-stay listings on Airbnb typically offer the essentials for living somewhere over a longer period, such as kitchens, wifi, washer/dryers and workspaces.
Can a mid-term rental guest gain tenant rights?
In some places, yes. Airbnb warns hosts that in some jurisdictions a guest may establish rights as a tenant after a month, so the answer depends on local law. Hosts and properties planning to sell stays of a month or longer should check the rules where the property sits before opening long stays on any channel.
Do mid-term rentals earn more than short-term rentals?
Generally less, in Skift's 2024 reporting. Short-term rental regulation, in New York and elsewhere, has pushed hosts toward longer furnished stays, but these stays are a less lucrative investment than nightly short-term rentals. A host weighing the switch is comparing a lower return with the regulatory pressure on nightly stays in its own market.

Related terms

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Where Jetstream fits

A long-stay offer only works when every channel shows the same version of it: the right maximum stay, the right monthly rate and the right availability for the weeks a guest wants. Jetstream builds an AI channel manager that connects a property's systems to the channels where guests book, and keeps rooms, rates and availability accurate on each one, managed from one place.

See Jetstream's AI channel manager Book a demo