Short-term rental glossary — every hosting term explained

An OTA is a marketplace where travellers book accommodation — Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and Expedia are the largest for short-term rentals.

A channel manager is software that connects one calendar and price list to multiple OTAs, so availability updates everywhere at once and double bookings are prevented.

A PMS is the operational hub for running rentals: reservations, guest messages, cleaning tasks, invoices and reporting in one system, usually with a channel manager built in.

The extranet is an OTA's back-office website for hosts and hoteliers — where you manage rates, availability and content; Booking.com's admin portal is the best-known example.

Metasearch sites compare prices for the same property across many booking sites — travellers search once and click through to book where it's cheapest.

A direct booking is a reservation made with the host directly — via your own website or repeat-guest contact — with no OTA commission taken.

Rate parity means offering the same nightly price across all channels; some OTA agreements require it, and undercutting can cost ranking or eligibility.

ADR is your average earned price per booked night: total nightly revenue divided by nights sold. It measures price, not how often you're booked.

RevPAR is nightly revenue divided by ALL available nights — booked or not. It equals ADR × occupancy rate and is the single best health metric for a rental.

Occupancy rate is the share of available nights that are actually booked — 20 booked nights in a 30-night month is 67% occupancy.

A comp set is the group of nearby, similar listings you benchmark against — same area, sleeps count, quality tier — used to judge your pricing and occupancy.

Dynamic pricing adjusts your nightly rate continuously based on demand signals — season, day of week, local events, booking pace — instead of one fixed price.

The base price is your reference nightly rate — what a normal, mid-demand night should earn — from which dynamic pricing moves up or down.

A price floor is the minimum nightly rate you'll accept regardless of demand — the safety rail that stops dynamic pricing from selling nights below your worth-it threshold.

Seasonal pricing sets different rate levels for different times of year — peak summer weeks might earn double a shoulder-season night in the same property.

A length-of-stay discount lowers the nightly rate for longer bookings — commonly 10–20% weekly and 25–50% monthly — trading rate for fewer turnovers and gaps.

A minimum stay is the fewest nights a guest may book — commonly 2–3 nights — used to reduce turnover cost and filter one-night party risk.

An orphan night is a lone unbookable gap — a single free night trapped between two bookings that your minimum-stay rule prevents anyone from taking.

The booking window (or lead time) is how far ahead guests book — the gap between reservation date and check-in, typically weeks for cities and months for resort peaks.

Calendar sync keeps availability identical across every channel: when a night books anywhere, it closes everywhere — the mechanism that prevents double bookings.

iCal is a simple calendar-feed format OTAs let you import and export; it syncs availability between platforms for free, but with delays of minutes to hours.

A double booking is two confirmed reservations for the same night — the classic multi-channel failure when calendars sync too slowly.

Instant Book lets guests confirm immediately without host approval; platforms reward it with better search ranking because it converts more searches into bookings.

Blocked dates are nights you close to bookings — for your own stays, maintenance or local rules — synced across every channel like any reservation.

A turnover is the full reset between guests — cleaning, linen change, restock and damage check — done inside the checkout-to-check-in window, usually 4–5 hours.

A changeover day is a fixed weekday when stays must start and end — the traditional Saturday-to-Saturday pattern of resort markets.

Self check-in lets guests enter unaccompanied — via smart lock, keypad or lockbox — removing the meet-and-greet from every arrival.

A smart lock is a connected door lock that issues time-limited entry codes remotely — each guest gets a code valid exactly for their stay.

Key exchange is how guests physically get access — in-person handover, lockbox, concierge/café pickup, or none at all with a smart lock.

House rules are the conditions guests accept when booking — occupancy limits, no parties, quiet hours, pet policy — and the platform's basis for taking your side in disputes.

Guest screening is assessing who's booking before or at reservation time — ID verification, review history, stay-purpose signals — within each platform's rules.

The host service fee is what a platform charges the host per booking. Airbnb moved nearly all hosts to a single host-only fee of 15.5% in late 2025; Booking.com charges hosts roughly 10–25% commission; Vrbo's pay-per-booking is 5% + 3% payment processing.

A guest service fee is charged by the platform to the traveller on top of your rate. Airbnb largely retired it in late 2025 in favour of a host-only fee; some platforms and booking types still carry one.

A payout is the money the platform transfers to the host after a booking — your rate plus guest-paid extras, minus the platform's fees — typically released around check-in, not booking.

A chargeback is a payment reversal a guest obtains from their card issuer, clawing funds back after the stay — rare on OTA bookings, a real risk on direct ones.

A security deposit is a refundable amount held (or claimable) against damage. Most OTAs have replaced literal card holds with claim processes or waiver programmes.

A damage waiver is a small non-refundable guest fee (commonly €25–90) that covers accidental damage up to a set amount, replacing a refundable deposit.

Occupancy or tourist tax is a per-night levy on short stays paid to the city, region or state — a percentage or a fixed amount per person per night, depending on the jurisdiction.

An STR permit is a municipal registration or licence required to rent short-term legally — rules range from a simple registration number to hard caps and outright zone bans.

A cancellation policy defines what a guest gets back when they cancel — from flexible (full refund until shortly before check-in) to strict (limited refund after booking).

The cleaning fee is a per-stay amount the guest pays on top of the nightly rate, intended to cover the turnover clean — passed through to the cleaner, not host profit.

Response rate is the share of new enquiries you answer within 24 hours; response time is how fast. Both feed search ranking, and slow replies lose bookings to the next listing.

Your review score is the running average guests leave after stays — the strongest trust signal on any platform and a direct input to search ranking and badge status.

Superhost is Airbnb's quarterly status badge for hosts meeting thresholds — 4.8+ rating, 90%+ response rate, minimal cancellations, 10+ stays a year — rewarded with a badge, search visibility and perks.

Premier Host is Vrbo's quality programme: hosts meeting review, acceptance and cancellation thresholds get a badge, ranking boost and support perks, reviewed periodically.

Preferred Partner is Booking.com's paid visibility programme: qualifying properties get a thumbs-up badge and ranking boost in exchange for roughly 3 extra points of commission.

A co-host is a person you add to your Airbnb listing with permissions to manage it — answering guests, handling calendars — usually a friend, cleaner or freelance manager paid 10–25%.

The listing description is the written sales copy of your property page — headline, summary and space details — written to convert searchers and set accurate expectations.

Amenities are the checkboxed features of a listing — wifi, parking, washer, hot tub, workspace — and they double as search filters, so unchecked boxes hide you from filtered searches.

A mid-term rental is a furnished stay of one to six months — the lane between short-term nightly stays and a tenancy, serving relocations, travel nurses and remote workers.