Request advice on short term rentals

[Bunti Papu]

I have been an landlord for 6 years and own 6 properties. All of my tenants are long term tenants and my property is managed by a property management company. So all the rental income is passive for tax purposes. 
I also make W2 income. I would like to purchase short term rentals and be able to qualify as a real estate professional and deduct against by active income taxes. I am thinking of purchasing an airbnb/vrbo property and have several questions.

1. Can I hire a property management company to run my airbnb or can I at least hire a company for cleaning and maintaining?

2. How do I show that I have worked for at least 100 hours per year to qualify as real estate professional?

3. Where can I learn more about this topics on saving taxes using short term rentals?

Thank you,

Brad

[Andrew Steffens]

I am not an expert in this arena but I do have some clients that are using us for limited service (guest communications, marketing, and pricing functions) and managing their own housekeeping and maintenance so they can count those hours for REPS