How do you track STR and LTR properties side by side?

Question

For those with both short-term and long-term rentals, do you manage them in the same system? Bookings, cleaning schedules and platform payouts look nothing like rent rolls and leases.

What's your setup, and what's the one thing it still can't do without a manual workaround?

Ashish Acharya · Answer

Eric, I think the key is keeping them in the same overall accounting system without making them look identical in the books.

For STRs, I'd want platform payouts, cleaning, supplies, turnover costs, and other property expenses tracked separately from the rent and lease activity you'd see with an LTR. That makes it much easier to see the true performance of each property.

I'd also be careful when a property switches between STR and LTR. Documenting when that change happens and keeping the activity separated makes the tax side much cleaner later.

The ideal setup, to me, is one system that gives you a portfolio-level view while still letting you drill down to exactly what happened at each property. Happy to connect!

Tyler Sorenson · Answer

Keeping them separate works fine until a unit switches stay types. We run about 30 furnished units that move between nightly, 30+ night and lease stays, so what works for us is one ledger per property with a tag for the stay type. That way a unit can go from STR to MTR to LTR without starting new books. Nightly stays get booked from the platform payout reports and lease stays from a rent schedule. Security deposits sit as a liability until the stay closes out, not as income.

The part that still needs a manual workaround for most people is the middle, the 30 to 90 night stays. STR software handles the booking but not really the lease, deposit and monthly rent, and LTR software handles the lease but not the cleanings and turnovers. So month-end ends up being two exports stitched together in a spreadsheet. If I were setting it up fresh I'd decide upfront which system owns the money on those mid-length stays and treat the other one as just a calendar.

Andrew Steffens · Answer

I no longer have any LTR's but I managed them completely separately when I did have both.

How do you track STR and LTR properties side by side?

How do you track STR and LTR properties side by side?

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