Guides to tracking short-term-rental hours
Plain-English explainers on the records the material-participation and real-estate-professional tests call for — and how to keep them.
6 min read
How to Keep a Material Participation Log (Template + Method)
A step-by-step method for keeping a material participation log for a short-term rental — what to record, how to structure it, and a free template for the 100-hour and 750-hour tests.
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The 750-Hour Test and Real Estate Professional Status, Explained
What the 750-hour test is, how real estate professional status (REPS) works, and how to document the hours that support it with a contemporaneous log.
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The Short-Term Rental Tax Strategy and the 100-Hour Test
How the short-term rental “loophole” works, why the 100-hour material participation test is the crux, and how to track the hours that make the position defensible.
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The Short-Term Rental Loophole, Explained (2026)
What the short-term rental “loophole” actually is, the two conditions it depends on, who it works for, and the record-keeping that decides whether it survives review.
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The 100-Hour Material Participation Test (And Its Second Half)
The 100-hour test has two halves, and the second one is where most short-term rental owners fail: you must also participate more than any other individual, including cleaners and property managers.
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The 7-Day Average Stay Test for Short-Term Rentals
How to calculate the average period of customer use for a short-term rental, why it is measured on actual bookings rather than your listing minimum, and what pushes a property over the line.
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What Counts as Material Participation (and What Does Not)
A practical breakdown of which short-term rental activities count toward material participation hours, which are excluded as investor activity, and how to describe them in a log.
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Does Cleaning Count Toward Material Participation Hours?
Cleaning your own short-term rental generally counts toward material participation — but hiring a cleaner creates the comparison problem that decides the 100-hour test.
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Reconstructed vs Contemporaneous Logs: Why the Difference Decides It
Why a log written as the work happens is treated so differently from one rebuilt at filing time, what makes a reconstruction weak, and what to do if that is all you have.
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Documentation to Keep for a Short-Term Rental Tax Position
The records that support a short-term rental material participation position — hours, other participants, booking history, and corroborating evidence — and how long to keep them.
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Do My Spouse’s Hours Count Toward Material Participation?
How a spouse’s participation is treated under the material participation tests, why you should still track each person separately, and what that means for the 100-hour comparison.
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Cost Segregation and the Short-Term Rental Strategy
How a cost segregation study interacts with the short-term rental material participation position, why the two are usually discussed together, and what the hours log has to do with it.
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Year-End Checklist: Will Your Hours Hold Up?
A short-term rental checklist to run in the autumn, while there is still time to fix a shortfall in hours, an average-stay problem, or a gap in your records.
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