A mid-term rental sits between the two things most people compare. The tenant stays a month or several, the place comes furnished, and nobody is checking in on a Friday night. On the house below it earns more than eight times what the lease does, and it gets there on about $2,050 a month less income than the nightly version.
What counts as a mid-term rental?
There is no single legal definition, but the mortgage rules draw the line at the same place. Fannie Mae’s selling guide, updated effective September 2, 2026, defines a short-term rental as “a furnished, residential property rented for brief periods, typically less than 30 consecutive days, rather than with a standard long-term lease agreement” (B3-3.8-03). Anything from 30 days up is not a short-term rental by that test.
Airbnb draws its own line four nights earlier. Reservations of “28 or more consecutive nights” are monthly stays, and they run on a long-term cancellation policy instead of the nightly one: on the firm version a guest has to cancel at least 30 days before check-in for a full refund, and after that the host is paid “100% for all nights spent, plus 30 additional nights” (Airbnb’s cancellation policies).
Those two thresholds are why the stays in the example are 30 nights. A 30-night booking clears the mortgage definition of short-term, which matters for insurance and for local rules, and it sits inside the longer cancellation terms, which is most of why mid-term income is steadier than nightly income.
Who rents them: people on work contracts, travelling medical staff, families between houses, anyone relocating before they buy. They want a furnished place and a bill they do not have to split.
One $240,000 house, run three ways
The purchase is the same every time: $240,000 with 20% down on a 30-year loan at 7%, closing costs of 3%, and $18,000 to furnish it. Property tax is $2,880 a year. Insurance is $2,400 for the two furnished versions and $1,500 on the lease.
The nightly listing averages $235 a night and is booked 68% of the year, 248 nights across stays averaging three nights. It pays a 20% co-host, $340 a month for cleaning after guest cleaning fees come in, $150 of supplies and $320 of utilities. The 30-night stays are priced at $105 a night, $3,150 for a stay, with 88% of the year let, and they pay 10% for management, $55 of cleaning, $45 of supplies and the same $320 of utilities. The example assumes those stays are booked direct or through a flat-fee listing site, so no percentage comes off the top. The lease is $2,150 a month with 5% set aside for empty months and 8% for a manager. All three set aside 5% of income for maintenance and 5% for big repairs.
| Nightly, 68% booked | 30-night stays | 12-month lease | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booking income or rent | $4,860 | $2,810 | $2,150 |
| Empty months (5% of rent) | – | – | −$108 |
| Airbnb’s fee (15.5%) | −$753 | – | – |
| Co-host or manager | −$972 | −$281 | −$172 |
| Repairs and big repairs (10%) | −$486 | −$281 | −$215 |
| Cleaning and supplies | −$490 | −$100 | – |
| Utilities | −$320 | −$320 | – |
| Property taxes and insurance | −$440 | −$440 | −$365 |
| Mortgage | −$1,277 | −$1,277 | −$1,277 |
| Cash flow each month | +$122 | +$111 | +$13 |
These are example figures, not a forecast for any market.
The nightly column brings in $2,050 a month more and keeps $11 more. Everything it earns above the 30-night version goes back out again: Airbnb takes 15.5% of the whole booking, the co-host takes a fifth because somebody has to answer messages and turn the place over about eighty times a year, and the cleaner takes the rest.
The 30-night version charges $3,150 for a stay against a $2,150 lease, a premium of about 47%, and it turns the house over about eleven times a year instead of eighty. That is the entire mechanism. It is not a higher rate so much as a higher rate you get to keep.
How many nights does each one need?
The nightly listing has to be busy before it earns anything. The 30-night version has to be nearly full, which sounds harder and is not, because one booking fills a month.
| Option | Nights let a year | Cash flow | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nightly, 60% booked | 219 | −$190 | |
| Nightly, 65% booked | 237 | +$5 | |
| Nightly, 68% booked | 248 | +$122 | |
| 30-night stays, 80% let | 292 | −$93 | |
| 30-night stays, 85% let | 310 | +$34 | |
| 30-night stays, 88% let | 321 | +$111 |
The nightly listing needs about 237 booked nights to cover its own costs, and hosts routinely plan for 70% and get less. The 30-night version needs about 305, which is ten months let. Miss by one month and average cash flow drops $213. The risk has not gone away; it has changed shape, from eighty small bets to about eleven large ones. For the nightly case on its own, see what occupancy an Airbnb needs to break even.
What does listing a 30-night stay on Airbnb cost?
A lot, on these numbers. Airbnb’s help centre says most hosts on its single fee pay 15.5%, taken from the nightly price and any fees the host charges (service fees). Apply that to the 30-night version and $436 a month comes off the top, which turns $111 of cash flow into a loss of $325.
That is the real reason mid-term operators chase direct bookings and flat-fee listing sites. On a nightly listing a percentage fee buys you a stream of guests you could not find yourself. On one booking a month it buys you one phone call. Price the fee before you choose where to list, because it is the largest single difference between the two furnished columns above.
What does a lender do with mid-term income?
Less than you would hope, and it depends on the lease. Fannie Mae counts short-term rental income on a one-unit investment property at 50% of the monthly gross, then subtracts the property’s own principal, interest, taxes, insurance and association dues; whatever is left can only offset that property’s payment, not boost your income (B3-3.8-03). Long-term leases are treated on a different and more generous basis, covered in using rental income to qualify for a mortgage.
A 30-day lease is not a short-term rental under the definition above, but it is not a 12-month lease either, and underwriters differ on what documents they will accept for it. Ask the lender what they want to see before you count the income, and ask a tax professional how stays of a month or more are reported, because the answer turns on what services you provide rather than on the length of the stay.
Which one should you run?
Three numbers decide it, and two of them are local. What a furnished month rents for near this address, how many months a year somebody wants one, and what a 12-month lease would pay. Where the furnished premium is small, the lease wins on effort alone, and the Airbnb against a lease comparison shows how far a nightly listing has to be booked to beat one. Where it is 40% or better and the demand is year-round, the 30-night version is hard to beat, and it beats the nightly listing without a hundred turnovers.
Run your own house both ways. Put the nightly rate and booking rate into the short-term rental calculator first, then run it again with the monthly rate divided by 30 as the nightly rate, a far higher occupancy, and the cleaning and platform lines cut to what one booking a month actually costs. If the second answer is bigger, see the full Airbnb method for the costs the nightly version still has to carry.