The STR Tracker blog
A new article every day for short-term rental owners: what counts as an hour, how the tests work, and how to keep a record your CPA can actually use.
· 6 min read
The Facts and Circumstances Participation Test
Treas. Reg. 1.469-5T(a)(7) allows participation on a facts-and-circumstances basis, with a 100-hour floor and limits that surprise most owners.
Read· 6 min read
Significant Participation: The Other 500-Hour Rule
Treas. Reg. 1.469-5T(a)(4) adds up activities of more than 100 hours each toward 500. What the test is, and when a short-term rental fits it.
Read· 7 min read
Do Storm Damage and Insurance Claim Hours Count?
Damage closes a property but not the work. How repair, adjuster and claim hours read against the material participation tests, and how to log them.
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· 6 min read
Amending a Return After Rebuilding an Hours Log
What changes and what does not when a rebuilt hours log supports a different position on a filed return, and why the rebuild matters most.
Read· 6 min read
Form 8582 for Short-Term Rental Owners
Where a short-term rental shows up on Form 8582, why a non-passive STR may not appear on it at all, and which hours records sit behind the answer.
Read· 6 min read
Rental Arbitrage: Hours When You Do Not Own It
Subletting a leased property short-term changes the hours question. What the rental definition and the participation tests look at when there is no title.
Read· 6 min read
How Long Should You Keep Your STR Hours Log?
Hours records support a return, and some matter for years after. General retention periods, and why an hours log outlives the usual three years.
Read· 6 min read
No Bookings This Year: Where Do You Stand?
A property that was available but never booked has hours and no guests. What the average-stay test measures when there is no customer use at all.
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· 7 min read
Seasonal STR: Reaching the Hours in a Short Season
A rental open five months a year faces the same annual hour thresholds as one open twelve. Where off-season hours come from, and how to log them.
Read· 6 min read
Do Permit and City Compliance Hours Count?
Registrations, inspections, HOA approvals and lodging tax filings take real time. How those compliance hours read against the participation tests.
Read· 5 min read
Do Bookkeeping Hours Count Toward the Tests?
Bookkeeping, categorizing expenses and CPA meetings all take time. Which of those hours the regulations treat as participation, and which they do not.
Read· 6 min read
Sold Your STR Mid-Year: What Your Hours Log Needs
A sale ends the activity but not the record-keeping. Which hours still count in the year of sale, and the package to keep after the property is gone.
Read· 6 min read
STR in a Self-Directed IRA: Can Your Hours Count?
A rental held inside a retirement account raises a different question than material participation. Why the hours tests generally do not reach it.
Read· 6 min read
Grouping Multiple STRs: What It Does to Your Hours
The section 469 grouping rules can combine properties into one activity. What grouping changes about the hours tests, and what your log needs either way.
Read· 6 min read
Do Pricing and Calendar Hours Count as Participation?
Revenue management is real work on a short-term rental. Which pricing, calendar and listing hours read as operations and which read as investing.
Read· 6 min read
Photos, Timestamps and GPS as Proof of Your Hours
A log states your hours; corroboration makes them credible. Which everyday digital traces support an entry, and what each one actually proves.
Read· 6 min read
Do Supply Runs Count as Material Participation?
Shopping for a short-term rental generally counts, but padded and commingled errand entries are where logs lose credibility. How to record a supply run.
Read· 6 min read
Converting Your Home to an STR: When Hours Start
A house that becomes a rental mid-year has a conversion date. What counts before it, what counts after, and what the first partial year needs in the log.
Read· 6 min read
STR in an LLC: Whose Hours Count for the Tests?
Holding a short-term rental in an LLC or partnership does not create or pool hours. Who gets measured, which tests narrow, and how many logs you need.
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· 6 min read
Peak Season: Logging Hours When Turnovers Are Daily
Peak weeks produce most of a short-term rental's hours and its weakest entries. A same-day batching routine that keeps the log credible without extra work.
Read· 6 min read
Do Hours Spent Shopping for Your Next STR Count?
Touring properties and underwriting deals is investor work for an activity you do not own yet. Where acquisition hours can and cannot go.
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· 6 min read
Do Automated Guest Messages Still Count as Hours?
Scheduled messages and AI replies cut the minutes you actually spend. What remains loggable, and why a full inbox is not a full hours column.
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· 5 min read
Suspended Losses From Past Years: Getting Them Out
Losses disallowed in earlier years do not disappear. How they carry forward, what releases them, and why the hours record matters retroactively.
Read· 6 min read
Asked for Your Hours Log: What Gets Requested
What an examiner typically asks for when material participation is at issue, in what order, and how a log answers each request without extra work.
Read· 6 min read
Personal-Use Days vs Logged Hours: The Overlap
A night you stay at your rental can be a personal-use day and still contain real work hours. How the two records differ and why both are needed.
Read· 6 min read
Cost Segregation and Hours: Which Comes First?
A cost segregation study sizes the deduction; your hours decide whether it can land against non-passive income. How the two pieces depend on each other.
Read· 6 min read
Is There an Income Limit for the STR Loophole?
The $25,000 rental allowance phases out between $100k and $150k, but the short-term rental exception has no income cap. Here is what does limit a loss.
Read· 6 min read
Tax Deadlines for STR Hosts: Oct 2026 to Oct 2027
The dates a short-term rental host works to from October 2026 through October 2027, and the hours-log checkpoint that belongs with each one.
Read· 6 min read
Two Hosts, One Log: How Couples Track Hours
Married co-owners can combine hours for material participation but not for the 750-hour test. How to log each person so both can be computed.
Read· 5 min read
Is Google Calendar Good Enough for Your Hours Log?
Calendar entries have timestamps but lack per-property totals, other participants and exports. Where a calendar works, where it fails, how to bridge.
Read· 6 min read
Do Courses, Podcasts and Research Count as Hours?
Courses, podcasts and market research are usually investor activity, not participation. What the regulation says, and the exceptions worth logging.
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· 6 min read
DIY Repairs: How to Log Them So They Hold Up
Repairs are usually the most believable hours in a host's log. How to record a repair with proportionate time, parts receipts and before-and-after photos.
Read· 6 min read
First-Year Airbnb Host: What to Log From Day One
The five numbers your first short-term rental tax return will ask for: your hours, everyone else's hours, stays and nights, personal-use days, receipts.
Read· 6 min read
Do Setup Hours Before Your First Guest Count?
Furnishing, photographing and listing a new short-term rental takes dozens of hours. Whether pre-opening hours count, and why placed in service matters.
Read· 6 min read
Do Hours Supervising Contractors Count?
Actively directing a contractor at your short-term rental can count toward material participation. Standing by while they work generally does not.
Read· 6 min read
The 30-Day Rule and Substantial Services, Explained
The second exception in Treas. Reg. 1.469-1T(e)(3): average stays of 30 days or less plus significant personal services, what counts, and the trade-off.
Read· 6 min read
How to Track Your Cleaner's Hours (and Why You Must)
The 100-hour test compares your hours to every individual, including your cleaner. How to estimate and document a cleaner's or handyman's time defensibly.
Read· 6 min read
Can a Full-Time W-2 Employee Qualify for REPS?
The more-than-half test makes real estate professional status very hard to reach with a full-time job. What the two prongs require and what to log.
Read· 6 min read
Can Airbnb or PMS Data Prove Your Hours?
Booking exports, message timestamps and PMS task logs corroborate a short-term rental hours log but cannot replace it. What to export, and how often.
Read· 4 min read
Anatomy of a Log Entry That Holds Up
Ten short-term rental log entries rewritten from vague to credible, with the five fields every entry needs and the patterns the Tax Court has criticised.
Read· 5 min read
100 vs 500 Hours: Which Material Participation Test?
The 500-hour test, the 100-hour-and-more-than-anyone test, and the substantially-all test compared for short-term rental owners, with the log each one needs.
Read· 5 min read
Per Property or Combined? Hours Across Multiple STRs
Whether material participation hours are counted per short-term rental or across all of them, what a grouping election changes, and how to log so either answer works.
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· 6 min read
Out-of-State STR: Can You Still Materially Participate?
Owning a short-term rental hundreds of miles away does not bar material participation, but it changes which hours you can claim and how you prove them.
Read· 6 min read
STR Loophole for Physicians: The Hours Problem
High-W-2 physicians hear about the STR strategy first. The part that fails is finding and proving 100+ hours around a clinical schedule. A realistic plan.
Read· 5 min read
Do Guest Messages Count as Material Participation?
Replying to guests, inquiries and reviews is operational work. How to log messaging time by event, not in blocks, and how platform timestamps back it up.
Read· 5 min read
Does Being "On Call" Count as Material Participation?
Being available for guest emergencies is not participation. What Moss and Mirch said about on-call hours, and how to log the time you actually work.
Read· 6 min read
100% Bonus Depreciation Is Back: What STR Hosts Must Prove
100% bonus depreciation returned for property acquired after Jan 19, 2025. Why the deduction still hinges on material participation hours, not the cost seg.
Read· 6 min read
Bought an STR in the Fall? Can You Still Qualify This Year?
What placed-in-service date, partial-year hours and the 7-day average mean if you close on a short-term rental in September through December.
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· 5 min read
Do Co-Host Hours Count Against You? 100-Hour Test
If your Airbnb co-host logs more hours than you, the "more than anyone else" prong fails. How to track a co-host's time and keep the 100-hour test.
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· 7 min read
Why 932 Logged Hours Still Failed: Hairston
Hairston v. Commissioner (2019): 932 hours, log still rejected. One-hour entries for trivial tasks, "watching paint dry," and 150 hours of inflation.
Read· 6 min read
How STR Losses Reach Your W-2 Income on the Return
Follow a short-term rental loss from Schedule E through Form 8582 to Form 1040, and see exactly where material participation hours decide the outcome.
Read· 5 min read
How to Log Turnover Hours for Your Short-Term Rental
A turnover is the most common STR hour. How to log cleaning, inspection, restock and laundry so entries are specific, proportionate and corroborated.
Read· 6 min read
Investor Hours Don't Count. Here's the Line
Reviewing statements, researching markets and analyzing deals are "investor" hours the IRS excludes from material participation. What to log instead.
Read· 6 min read
Mirch v. Commissioner: 944.5 STR Hours, Under 100 Counted
A 2025 Tax Court case where a short-term rental owner's log claimed 944.5 hours and fell short of 100. What the log looked like, why "on call" failed, and the cleaning contradiction.
Read· 5 min read
One Long Booking Can Break Your 7-Day Average Stay
How a single 30-day off-season booking can push your average stay over 7 days and flip the activity to passive. How to monitor the average all year.
Read· 6 min read
Behind on Hours in Q4? A 12-Week Catch-Up Plan
A week-by-week plan to finish the 100-hour test honestly before December 31: which real tasks generate hours, and what not to do to pad the log.
Read· 6 min read
Forgot to Log? Rebuilding STR Hours From Real Evidence
How to rebuild short-term rental hours from platform messages, booking calendars, receipts and photos, and why courts accept some rebuilds and not others.
Read· 6 min read
REPS vs the STR Loophole: Which One Do You Need?
Real estate professional status and the short-term rental exception solve different problems. Why STR hours may not count to 750, and which log to keep.
Read· 5 min read
What to Send Your CPA: The STR Hours Package
The files a CPA needs to defend STR material participation: dated hours log, per-property totals, other participants, average-stay math, and receipts.
Read· 5 min read
Airbnb on Schedule C or Schedule E? The Services Test
Why most short-term rentals report on Schedule E, when substantial services push you to Schedule C, and why the answer changes your hours log and SE tax.
Read· 6 min read
7 Situations Where the STR Loophole Does Not Work
The short-term rental loophole fails more often than it succeeds: average stay over 7 days, no material participation, personal use, state non-conformity.
Read· 6 min read
Can You Pass the 100-Hour Test With a Property Manager?
How the "more than any other individual" test works when a property manager or co-host runs your STR, what Pohoski decided, and which hours are yours.
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· 5 min read
Spreadsheet vs App for Material Participation Hours
An honest comparison of a spreadsheet, a calendar and a dedicated app for tracking short-term rental material participation hours - timestamps, per-property totals, other participants and exports.
Read· 5 min read
Does Travel Time Count Toward Material Participation?
Whether drive time to your short-term rental counts as material participation hours, how the Tax Court has split on it, and how to log a trip so the work survives even if the drive does not.
Read· 5 min read
Sorting STR Hours: What Counts, What Does Not, Grey Areas
Which activities count toward the 100-hour and 750-hour tests for a short-term rental, which do not, and how to write them down so they hold up.
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