A short-term rental, usually abbreviated STR, is a residential property rented to guests for less than 30 consecutive nights at a time. In most U.S. cities and counties that have written a regulation on the category, 30 nights is the cutoff. A handful of jurisdictions use a different threshold, with 90 nights showing up in some markets, but 30 is the most common line.
The reason the definition matters is not academic. Where the line is drawn changes how the property is taxed, how it is regulated, how it must be insured, and how every revenue metric on the owner statement gets calculated. A property running 28-night stays and a property running 32-night stays are two different businesses on paper, even if the unit is identical.
"The 30-night cutoff is not a definition. It is a tax bracket, a regulatory category, and the boundary of which RevPAR formula applies to your book."
How an STR differs from the things it is not
The category sits between several adjacent ones, and the boundaries matter because the rules and the math are different on each side.
STR vs long-term rental (LTR).
A long-term rental is leased for 30 or more nights, usually on a one-year residential lease. Tax treatment, tenancy rights, eviction processes, and revenue math are all different. The same property switching from STR to LTR is a different asset class with different metrics. We cover the revenue side in <a href="/resources/blog/short-term-vs-long-term-rental-revenue">STR vs LTR: the real numbers</a>.
STR vs mid-term rental (MTR).
Mid-term rentals are typically 30 to 89 nights. They are STR-style furnished, often marketed to traveling professionals, traveling nurses, and corporate relocations. They sit outside most STR regulations because they cross the 30-night line, and they earn at a different ADR and LOS profile. A meaningful piece of inventory floats between STR and MTR depending on the season.
STR vs hotel.
A hotel is a commercial lodging operation regulated under hospitality law, with a front desk, daily housekeeping, and central reservation infrastructure. An STR is residential property used for lodging, regulated mostly at the city or county level. They compete for the same guest in many markets and operate under entirely different legal regimes.
STR vs bed and breakfast.
A B&B is a hosted lodging operation where the operator typically lives on-site and provides breakfast. Most STRs are unhosted. The distinction matters in some jurisdictions, where hosted operations are permitted under owner-occupancy rules that unhosted STRs are not.
Why the definition moves your numbers
Once you understand the cutoff, the operational consequences fall out of it.
- 01Tax treatment. STR income is usually subject to occupancy or transient lodging tax that LTR rent is not. Stay length determines which bucket the booking lands in.
- 02Regulatory exposure. Most STR ordinances are written to a specific stay length. Crossing the threshold can move a property in or out of a permitting regime entirely.
- 03Insurance. STR-specific commercial policies are written around short-stay activity. A property running 60-night stays may not be covered by the policy you bought for STR use.
- 04Revenue math. Booked nights, ADR, occupancy, and RevPAR are all calculated against your available-night denominator. Owner-blocked nights, maintenance closures, and stays that cross the cutoff have to be handled consistently or your metrics get noisy.
- 05Channel rules. Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com all have policies that interact with stay length, monthly discounts, and platform fee structures. The way you price 28-night stays versus 32-night stays affects both your ranking and your take.
What an operator should actually do with the definition
Two practical moves cover most of the exposure. First, know the exact stay-length rule in every city or county where you operate, and reflect it in your minimum stay settings and your owner statements. Second, decide whether mid-term is a deliberate part of your strategy or an accidental drift. Some markets reward operators who run a deliberate MTR layer in the shoulders. Others lose money to it. The piece on fees and length of stay covers the LOS lever in detail.
If your portfolio runs across multiple jurisdictions and nobody owns the stay-length rules, that is a quiet category of risk. It is also usually the first thing we fix. A 128-unit Southeast coastal operator started with exactly this kind of cleanup and finished at $60 same-store Adjusted RevPAR, up 30% from $46, with occupancy at 70% versus 52% on a held nightly rate (KeyData, same-store data). The fastest way to learn where your book stands is the no-cost benchmark we open every engagement with. Ask for one.
Adapted from Pacer's editorial archive, February 2026.