What Is a Short-Term Rental?

A short-term rental is a furnished home, apartment or room that a host rents to guests for a short period in exchange for payment, which is how EU law defines it. Hotels, motels, hostels and campsites fall outside that definition (Regulation (EU) 2024/1028).

Last updated: November 2026

How a short-term rental works

Stay length is one common dividing line, and each authority draws it for its own purpose. New York City requires short-term rental hosts to register with the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement, and rentals of 30 consecutive days or more fall outside that requirement (NYC Office of Special Enforcement: Short-Term Rental Registration).

Because each authority sets its own line, the same stay can count as a short-term rental in one place and fall outside the rules in another. The definition that applies is the one used where the unit is located, and it can differ for registration, permits and tax.

Hosts often answer to several layers of rules at the same time. Rules can come from the neighborhood, city, county, state, province, territory or country, and local rules can decide whether a property may host guests at all, which permit it needs and which taxes apply (Airbnb Resources: What hosting regulations apply to you).

The EU now sets one framework for the whole bloc. Its regulation lays down how competent authorities collect data on short-term rentals and how online short-term rental platforms share that data with them (Regulation (EU) 2024/1028). The regulation applies from 20 May 2026 (Regulation (EU) 2024/1028).

Why it matters for hotel distribution

In 2024, guests spent 854.1 million nights in EU short-term rental accommodation booked via Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group or TripAdvisor, an 18.8% rise on the 719.0 million nights of 2023 (Eurostat: New records set by online booking platforms in 2024 (Apr 2025)).

In the US, part of the demand that once went to hotels now goes to rentals. Demand for alternative accommodations has grown faster than hotel demand, with the lower hotel segments responsible for most of the shift (CoStar News: Lower-tier US demand shifts from hotels to short-term rentals (Sep 2024)). By mid-2024, 85% of US rental locations had seen demand increases, compared with 38% of hotel locations (CoStar News: Lower-tier US demand shifts from hotels to short-term rentals (Sep 2024)). In the second quarter of 2025, short-term rentals beat hotels on RevPAR in every US region, by an average of nine percentage points in Key Data's reservation data (Hotel Dive: Short-term rentals vs hotels, Q2 2025 (Aug 2025)).

The rules also reach the channels. In New York City, booking services such as Airbnb and Vrbo may not process transactions for short-term rentals that are not registered (NYC Office of Special Enforcement: Short-Term Rental Registration). A missing registration number can therefore close those channels in New York City, so registration, taxes and listing data belong in the same distribution checklist as rates and availability.

Short-term rental compared with hotels, mid-term and long-term rentals

TypeWhat it coversWhere the line sits
Short-term rentalFurnished home or room rented to guests for a short periodSet by each jurisdiction; see How a short-term rental works
HotelHotels and similar accommodation, including resort hotels, suite or apartment hotels and motelsLeft out of the EU definition of a short-term rental unit, along with hostels, campsites, RV parks and trailer parks Regulation (EU) 2024/1028
Mid-term rentalA rental between short-term and long-termLonger than a short-term stay, shorter than a standard lease
Long-term rentalA lease longer than a mid-term rentalBeyond the mid-term range

Frequently asked questions

What is considered a short-term rental?
No single limit applies across the US: each city, county or state draws its own line, so the same stay can count as short-term in one place and not in another. In New York City, for example, the registration rule covers rentals shorter than 30 consecutive days, and a listing must be registered before booking services can process it.
What is considered a short-term rental for tax purposes?
US federal income tax rules look at the average stay. Under the passive-activity rules, renting a property is not treated as a rental activity when the average customer stay is seven days or less, or 30 days or less when significant personal services are provided by or for the owner. Separately, a person who uses a dwelling as a residence and rents it for fewer than 15 days does not report that rental income. A tax adviser should confirm how either rule applies.
What is a short-term rental host?
A host is the person or business that lists a unit and rents it to guests. The scale is large: Airbnb reports more than 5.5 million hosts and more than 9 million active listings in over 220 countries and regions, and more than 2.5 billion guest arrivals in its history, in figures last updated in May 2026. Those numbers cover Airbnb only.
What is a short-term rental property?
Eurostat, the EU statistics office, describes it as accommodation for vacations and other short visits: complete furnished rooms or areas for living, dining and sleeping, with cooking facilities or a fully equipped kitchen, rented to visitors typically by the day or the week.

Related terms

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Where Jetstream fits

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