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?

Jason Kuennen · Answer

From the tax side, the manual workaround that matters most is reconciling platform payouts to gross income. Airbnb and VRBO deposit the net after their fees, but the 1099-K and the return work from gross bookings, so record gross rent and the platform fee as separate lines. If the books only show net deposits, the income won't tie to the 1099-K at tax time.

Two other things a property manager system usually won't track for you, per property:

• Average guest stay for the year (rented days divided by number of stays). That number decides whether an STR is treated as a rental activity at all, which decides whether its losses can offset other income.
• 2. Your own hours, with dates and what you did. Material participation is tested property by property, and the log needs to exist during the year, not be rebuilt in April.

Average guest stay for the year (rented days divided by number of stays). That number decides whether an STR is treated as a rental activity at all, which decides whether its losses can offset other income.

2. Your own hours, with dates and what you did. Material participation is tested property by property, and the log needs to exist during the year, not be rebuilt in April.

The LTRs don't need either one, which is another reason to keep the two groups separate in the books even if they live in the same system.

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!

Brian Le Vu · Answer

I keep the books together and the hours log apart, per property.

The reason is the tests run property by property. The average stay for the year is a per-property number, and the hours test is checked against that property too. One combined log blurs both.

So each property gets its own simple log: date, who did the work, what it was, how long. The accounting system holds the money side fine. It was never built to hold this, and a log rebuilt in April is a weak thing to hand anyone.

Aleena Merilien · Answer

I'd keep one accounting file but separate systems for operations. The bookkeeping can live together with a class or tag per property and per strategy (STR or LTR), so you can compare net income by door. Operations are different: use a PMS or channel manager for STR calendars, messaging, and cleaner scheduling, and a rent-roll tool for leases and rent. The manual workaround that usually remains is reconciling platform payouts, which land net of fees and in batches, against the bank deposits. A monthly reconciliation tab with payout date, gross, fees, and net solves most of it.

Eric Kleinsasser · Answer

What type of RE Management software do your clients typically use Jason?

Eric Kleinsasser · Answer

Hi Matthew, What app or software do you use to manage all this?

Matthew Tregoning · Answer

The first thing I’d standardize is the property names across every system. The same unit name on a cleaner invoice, platform payout and maintenance bill makes the monthly review much easier. I’d also want one open-maintenance list across both STRs and LTRs, with who’s handling each item and when it’s due. That’s the shared view I’d miss most if the day-to-day tools stayed separate.

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.

Eric Kleinsasser · Answer

Hi Tyler,

Thank you for the response. Do you think an custom software/app that would help you manage both would be useful for your company? I'm trying to gauge what the need for this is out in the RE markets.

I look forward to hearing from you.

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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