PROP HOURS BLOG
Airbnb Tax Deductions: The Complete Checklist
Maya hosted her lake cabin on Airbnb for its first full year — 212 nights booked, $58,000 in gross revenue. When her CPA finished the return, the tax bill was $4,300 lower than she had braced for. Not because of anything clever. Because she had the receipts: every turnover clean, every lightbulb, every bag of coffee pods, the new mattress, the plumber in July. Most Airbnb hosts overpay for one boring reason. They forget what they spent.
This is the full checklist — every deduction an Airbnb host can realistically claim, the ones people miss, and the ones the IRS will not allow. Go through it line by line before you file.
1. Cleaning and turnover costs
The biggest line item for most hosts, and the easiest to document. Every professional turnover clean is deductible — the $145 your cleaner charges per stay, the laundry service, the restocking runs. If you clean it yourself, the supplies are deductible but your own labor is not (more on that below).
Maya's numbers: 68 turnovers at $140 each came to $9,520 — her single largest deduction. The proof was already sitting in her bank statements and the cleaner's invoices.
2. Repairs and maintenance
The plumber who fixed the garbage disposal in July ($289). The HVAC filter swaps. The handyman who re-caulked the shower. The locksmith after a guest lost the key. Anything that keeps the property in working order — not better than before, just working — is a current-year deduction.
The line the IRS draws is between a repair and an improvement. Fixing the deck railing is a repair. Replacing the entire deck is an improvement, and improvements get depreciated instead of deducted (see #7). When in doubt, ask your CPA before you categorize — this is one of the most common audit adjustments for rental owners.
3. Supplies and consumables
The unglamorous stuff adds up fast: toilet paper, paper towels, coffee, tea, soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, trash bags, lightbulbs, batteries, printer paper for the house manual. Maya spent $2,100 on consumables her first year and almost didn't bother tracking it. That is $2,100 of deductions she would have donated to the Treasury.
Keep it simple: one credit card for all property purchases, and the statements become your backup log.
4. Mortgage interest and property taxes
If the property is financed, the mortgage interest allocable to the rental use is deductible, as are the property taxes. For a 100% rental property, it is the full amount. If you also use the place personally, you allocate — say you rented it 212 nights and used it yourself 20, roughly 91% of the year was rental use, and the deductions get prorated accordingly.
Personal-use allocation is where hosts get sloppy. Pick a method, document the nights, and use it consistently. Your CPA will ask for the night count anyway.
5. Insurance
Landlord or STR-specific insurance premiums are deductible. Standard homeowner's policies often exclude short-term rental activity, so many hosts carry a dedicated STR policy or an endorsement — either way, the premium is a business expense. Umbrella policies allocable to the rental count too.
6. Utilities and internet
Electric, gas, water, trash, sewer, and the high-speed internet your guests expect — all deductible for the rental portion. If utilities are in your name and the property is 100% rental, deduct the full bills. The smart lock subscription, the noise monitor, the thermostat service: same category.
7. Depreciation — and the shortcut most hosts miss
The building itself gets depreciated over 27.5 years, which is slow. The shortcut is a cost segregation study: it reclassifies things like appliances, flooring, landscaping, and furniture into 5- or 7-year property, and bonus depreciation can let you write much of it off in year one. On a $400,000 cabin, a study routinely moves $60,000–$100,000 of value into faster schedules.
Run your own numbers first with our cost segregation calculator — it takes about two minutes and tells you whether a study is worth paying for.
8. Furniture and furnishings
The mattress, the couch, the kitchenware, the linens, the TV, the patio set — everything you bought to furnish the rental is deductible, either through depreciation or, for many items, bonus depreciation in the year you placed them in service. Keep the receipts with the purchase dates; "placed in service" timing is what your CPA needs.
9. Platform and management fees
Airbnb's 3% host service fee on every payout is deductible — on $58,000 of revenue, that is $1,740 most hosts never think to add up. Same for Vrbo fees, your channel manager subscription, your dynamic pricing tool, and your co-host or property manager's cut.
10. Advertising and listing costs
Professional photography for the listing ($400–$800 and worth every penny), your direct-booking website hosting, logo design, business cards for the local market — all ordinary business expenses.
11. The deduction most hosts leave on the table: your hours
Here is the one that dwarfs the rest. If your average guest stay is 7 days or less, the short-term rental tax loophole can let your rental losses offset your W-2 or business income — but only if you materially participate. That means proving your hours: more than 100 hours with nobody else working more than you, or more than 500 hours outright.
Maya's $9,520 of cleaning deductions saved her maybe $2,500 in tax. Qualifying for the STR loophole let her deduct a $31,000 paper loss — mostly depreciation — against her salary. The hours were the key that unlocked everything else on this list. Our guide to how to prove material participation shows exactly what a log entry that holds up looks like.
What you cannot deduct
Your own labor. The Saturday you spent painting is worth nothing as a deduction — only what you paid someone else counts. (Those hours do count toward material participation, though. Log them.)
Personal-use portion. The weekends you stayed there yourself are not deductible. Neither is the portion of the property that is exclusively your private storage.
Improvements, in the year you pay for them. The new roof and the full kitchen remodel get depreciated over years, not deducted now. Do not mix these with repairs.
Commuting and "research." Driving to the property to do actual work is fine; driving around "checking on the market" is not. Hours spent scrolling listings or reading about STR strategy are investor activity — not deductible travel, and not material participation hours either.
Are Airbnb cleaning fees tax deductible?
Yes. Every turnover clean you pay for — professional cleaners, laundry services, restocking — is a deductible rental expense. If you clean the property yourself, the supplies are deductible but the value of your own time is not.
Can I deduct my mortgage interest on an Airbnb?
Yes, the portion allocable to rental use. For a property rented 100% of the time, that is the full interest amount. If you also use it personally, you prorate based on rental versus personal-use days.
What is the 14-day rule for Airbnb taxes?
If you rent your home for 14 days or fewer in a year, the rental income is tax-free under the Augusta rule — but you also cannot deduct rental expenses. Most full-time hosts blow past 14 days quickly, so this rule rarely applies to serious Airbnb operators.
Can I write off furniture I bought for my Airbnb?
Yes. Furniture, appliances, linens, and housewares for the rental are depreciable business assets, and many qualify for bonus depreciation in the year you put them in service. Keep purchase receipts with dates.
Do I need receipts for every Airbnb expense?
The IRS expects you to substantiate deductions, and receipts are the standard proof. A dedicated credit card for the property plus photos of paper receipts covers nearly everything. Estimates from memory are the weakest form of documentation — the same is true for your hour log.
One last thing
Print this checklist in February, not April. Go through your bank and credit card statements month by month, match every charge to a line above, and put the receipts in one folder — digital or physical. The hosts who pay the least tax are not the ones with the cleverest strategies. They are the ones with the most complete records.
PropHours handles the half of this equation most hosts ignore: the hours. A timer when the work starts, a photo of the receipt when it ends, and a log your CPA can actually read. The deductions are yours to claim — make sure you can prove them.
Related reading
See how your hours unlock the bigger write-offs in the short-term rental tax loophole guide, learn what a defensible log looks like in how to prove material participation, and check whether a cost segregation study makes sense for your property with our STR tax savings calculator.
This article describes rental expense deductions in general terms and is not tax advice. Deductibility depends on your facts, including personal-use allocation and current bonus depreciation rules; consult a qualified tax professional. PropHours records the work and expenses you log — it does not determine tax eligibility.