To Airbnb? Factors Impacting Short-Term Leasing Preference

The growth of Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms have presented absentee owners of urban residential properties with a choice of leasing strategy: traditional long-term rental or a short-term approach, known as "Airbnb-ing." In this paper we identify those situations-location, structure type, and property characteristics-that lead to the highest likelihood of favoring a short-term strategy over a long-term one. Additionally, we test the impacts of hosting policies the results of which suggest that even the right property may need the right owner(s) or strategy to make short-term rental the more profitable approach.