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Short-term rentals

Articles tagged Short-term rentals from the Airflow team.

Product

Nobody Should Manage a Night Cap by Hand

Counting nights against a letting limit every month, for every property, forever, is a job that fails quietly. What it takes to hand it over safely — and what should still need your say-so.

Can a night cap be managed automatically? →
Guide

Which Nights Should You Give Up?

If a night cap means closing part of your year, the question is not how many nights but which ones. Rank the year by your own rate card and the answer changes by thousands.

Which nights should I close to stay under a night cap? →
Insights

Your Villa Sleeps Eight. Who Actually Books It?

An average party size hides the shape of who comes. What a group-size breakdown shows, why it changes year to year, and what it means for how you price extra guests.

What size of group actually books my place? →
Product

Open an Airflow Account Without Leaving WhatsApp

Message Airflow on WhatsApp and you can sign up, set up your listing from a link to it, set your price and put your booking page live, all in the chat. Here is how it works, step by step, and what it does not do yet.

Can I open an Airflow account on WhatsApp? →
Guide

The Best Way to Export Rental Financials for Tax Prep

Export one row per booking with gross income, platform fees, taxes and payout kept apart, by property, for the tax year. What your accountant needs, and how to get it out of each platform.

How do I export my rental income for my accountant? →
Industry

Vienna and Berlin: When the Cap Depends on Where You Sleep

In Vienna and Berlin the number of nights you may let depends first on whether the flat is your main home. Why residence is the hinge, what each city allows, and how to set it up.

How many nights can I let in Vienna or Berlin? →
Guide

Cape Town's 50% Rule: Stay Under, or Go Commercial?

Staying under Cape Town's draft 50% letting threshold means closing nights. Crossing it means commercial rates. How to work out which costs you less, with three worked examples, including a family home with a garden cottage.

Should I stay under Cape Town's 50% rule or go commercial? →
Guide

In Namibia, Letting an Unregistered Room Is a Criminal Offence

The Namibia Tourism Board Act makes providing accommodation in an unregistered establishment an offence carrying a fine up to N$20,000 or two years' imprisonment.

Do I need to register my rental with the Namibia Tourism Board? →
Guide

Kenya Plans to Collect Its 2% Tourism Levy at Source

Kenyan short-term rental operators must register with the Tourism Regulatory Authority. A 2% tourism levy deducted by the platforms was due by mid-2026 and had not started by September 2026.

How does Kenya's 2% tourism levy affect my rental? →
Industry

Barcelona's Tourist Licences All Expire in November 2028

Roughly 10,101 HUT licences, none renewable, all gone by November 2028 — upheld by the Constitutional Court. No calendar setting fixes this. What the options actually are.

What happens to Barcelona tourist licences in 2028? →
Guide

Portugal's Alojamento Local, Now That Lisbon Has Stopped Issuing

AL licences became permanent and transferable in 2024 — then Lisbon began closing neighbourhoods to new ones. Why the licence is now the asset, and how containment zones work.

Can I still get an Alojamento Local licence in Lisbon? →
Guide

Greece's AMA Number, and the 60-Day Line That Isn't a Cap

Greece requires an AMA number from AADE on every listing. The 60-day threshold is widely misread as a limit — it is a tax classification boundary, and the difference matters.

Do I need an AMA number in Greece, and is 60 days a limit? →
Guide

Italy's CIN: The Code That Goes on Your Listing and Your Front Door

Italy's national identification code must appear in every advert and physically at the property. What the CIN is, how it differs from the regional CIR, and the €8,000 downside.

What is Italy's CIN code, and where must I show it? →
Guide

Amsterdam's 30 Nights — and 15, If You're in the Wrong Street

Amsterdam caps holiday letting at 30 nights a year, and at 15 in eleven central neighbourhoods since April 2026. Plus the per-booking reporting duty hosts keep missing.

How many nights can I let in Amsterdam? →
Guide

Paris Is 90 Nights Now, Not 120

Paris cut its principal-residence cap from 120 nights to 90 with effect from January 2025. What changed, what the 13-character number is, and how to count it.

How many nights can I let my home in Paris? →
Guide

London's 90 Nights: How to Count Them Before the Council Does

The 90-night rule applies to the property, not to you, resets on 1 January, and has a second condition most hosts have never heard of. How to count it properly.

How do I count London's 90 nights? →
Insights

A Night Cap Is an Accounting Problem, Not a Calendar Problem

Your calendar shows today. It cannot tell you what was available last March — and that is exactly what a night-cap rule asks. Why proving your number needs a ledger.

How do I prove how many nights my property was let? →
Industry

From 20 May 2026, Your Platform Reports Your Nights For You

EU Regulation 2024/1028 makes platforms verify your registration number and report your activity to national authorities every month. What it changes for hosts, and what it does not.

What does the EU short-term rental regulation change for hosts? →
Guide

Short-Term Rental Rules by City, 2026

Night caps, registration numbers and licence freezes across Europe and Africa, with the number, the authority and the date for each — and what actually counts towards your limit.

What are the short-term rental rules in my city? →
Guide

Three Properties, Three Spreadsheets, One Sunday Afternoon

Multi-property owners reconcile by hand because each property lives in a different place. What a portfolio view shows that three spreadsheets cannot, including the pipeline nobody tracks.

How do I see all my properties on one page? →
Insights

Occupancy Was 78%. So Why Was It a Bad Year?

Occupancy and average rate both flatter a bad year. What a per-night value chart shows that neither does, and how to find the months where you discounted and still didn't fill.

What did each night of my year actually earn? →
Insights

Airbnb Says 15%. Your Books Say 18.4%.

Headline commission is not what you pay. A breakdown of what each booking channel actually costs once service fees and taxes are out, and how to see your own number.

What does each booking channel really cost me? →
Industry

Will My Garden Cottage Be Affected by Cape Town's 50% Availability Rule?

You live in the five-bedroom house and let the two-bedroom cottage. Under Cape Town's draft by-law the erf is one property, so the cottage borrows the whole house's capacity — and the answer flips entirely if the City counts it the other way.

Will Cape Town's 50% rule affect my garden cottage? →
Industry

Short-term Letting in the City of Cape Town

What the City of Cape Town's draft Short-Term Letting By-Law, 2026 actually requires: registration, a registration number on every listing, availability and occupancy data sharing, and the 50% room-nights rates threshold. Comment closed on 5 October 2026; rating changes are due from 1 July 2027.

What does Cape Town's draft short-term letting by-law require? →
Guide

Copenhagen's 70 Nights and the Reporting Condition

Denmark lets you rent out your whole home for 70 days a year only when every booking goes through a platform that reports your income to the tax agency. Otherwise it is 30.

How many nights can I let my home in Copenhagen? →
Guide

Tourist Tax and City Tax on Short-Term Rentals: How to Charge It Properly

How tourist, city and occupancy taxes on short-term rentals are worked out, who collects them, and how to charge them correctly on your direct bookings.

How do I charge tourist tax on a short-term rental? →
Tips

Your Guests Keep Asking the Same Five Questions

The five questions every short-term rental guest asks before arrival, and how to answer each one once, in a place guests can find, instead of in every inbox.

How do I stop answering the same guest questions? →
Guide

What to Show an Inspector: A Night-by-Night Letting Statement

If a council asks how many nights your property was let or offered, a screenshot of today's calendar proves nothing. What a letting statement should contain, and how to download one.

What do I show an inspector who asks about my letting nights? →
Guide

The Plan Has a Price. What Did Last Month Actually Cost?

What running an Airflow account costs in a quiet month and a busy one, which work uses automated tasks and which is free, and where to read your own number in the portal.

What does an Airflow account really cost each month? →
Guide

South African Short-Term Rental Tax and Rates

Crossing Cape Town's 50% threshold makes you a commercial operator. Here's what changes for rates, income tax, VAT and capital gains — and what to track.

What tax and rates apply to a South African short-term rental? →
Industry

Staying Under Cape Town's 50% Letting Threshold

The draft by-law counts nights your property is available, not nights it's booked. Here's how the 50% maths works and what it means for your rates bill.

How do I stay under Cape Town's 50% letting threshold? →
Guide

No-Shows and Guests Who Never Pay

Abandoned checkouts, offers that expire, and the stay nobody turned up for. What each one should do to your calendar, your books and your task allowance.

What should happen when a guest never pays or never arrives? →
Guide

How to Take a Deposit on a Direct Booking

How much to ask for, when the balance should fall due, and the edge case that trips up every booking system: a guest who books inside your own balance window.

How do I take a deposit on a direct booking? →
Guide

What to Do When a Guest Hasn't Paid the Balance

The balance was due last Tuesday and nothing happened. How to chase it, how to reach a guest whose email you never got, and what to automate.

What do I do when a guest hasn't paid the balance? →
Guide

Setting a Cancellation Policy for Direct Bookings

Free cancellation until when? What to charge, what to put in writing, and the one safeguard that stops a guest's throwaway email cancelling a real booking.

How do I set a cancellation policy for direct bookings? →
Guide

What Happens to Your Invoice When a Guest Cancels

A cancelled booking can leave a live invoice in your accounts. Whether to delete, void or credit-note it depends on one thing: its real status.

What happens to the invoice when a guest cancels? →
Guide

Show Airbnb and Google Reviews on Your Website

Your best reviews sit on a channel that charges commission. How to get them onto your own site, what each platform's terms allow, and four pitfalls.

How do I show Airbnb and Google reviews on my website? →
Guide

How to Set Seasonal Rates for a Short-Term Rental

Fixed rack rates or a percentage off a base? Recurring seasons, minimum stays, discount stacking, and a yearly increase that compounds correctly.

How do I set seasonal rates for a short-term rental? →
Guide

Import Airbnb Booking History into Xero

Importing years of past bookings can raise hundreds of draft invoices dated today. The safe order to do it in, and which bookings to leave out.

How do I import past Airbnb bookings into Xero? →
Insights

One Resource or One Hundred

Airflow works the same whether you run a single room or a hundred properties. Start small, grow without re-platforming, and never change how you work.

Does Airflow work for one room as well as a hundred properties? →
Insights

See Your Whole Business in One Place

Bookings, revenue, clients and activity across every property — and every business you run — on a single dashboard. No more flicking between tabs.

How do I see my whole business on one dashboard? →
Guide

Accounting for Short-Term Rentals: OTA Income, Fees & Reconciliation (The Complete Guide)

A complete guide to short-term rental accounting: why OTA income never matches your bank, how to structure your books, and how to reconcile Airbnb and Booking.com payouts.

How should I do the accounting for a short-term rental? →
Guide

Xero + Short-Term Rentals: The Setup Nobody Teaches You

Xero is powerful accounting software. But setting it up for short-term rental income — with multiple properties, platforms, currencies, and fee structures — is harder than it should be. Here's the right way.

How do I set up Xero for short-term rentals? →
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