Airbnb and short-term rental loans. Use the property's income, not tax returns.
An Airbnb loan, also called a short-term rental loan, finances a property let by the night using the revenue it generates instead of your personal tax returns. The income can be documented with platform revenue statements, a property manager's statements, an existing 12-month operating history, or comparable market data such as AirDNA on select programs. It is a DSCR loan, underwritten for nightly income.
Most lenders are comfortable with a signed 12-month lease and much less comfortable with a calendar full of three-night bookings. This page is about that gap: which evidence of nightly revenue lenders in our network will actually accept, how they adjust the top-line number, and what to have ready before you write an offer.
Who it's for
A fit if you're…
Buying a vacation rental in a market you do not live in
Refinancing an Airbnb that already has a booking history
Holding short-term rentals in an LLC
Turned down because a lender would not count nightly revenue
Buying a condo or condotel intended for nightly letting
Nightly revenue counts as income
Platform statements, manager statements or an existing 12-month operating history.
Market data where there is no history
AirDNA and comparable market revenue accepted on select programs.
No personal tax returns, W-2s or pay stubs
The property's income carries the file, not your paycheck.
No minimum DSCR on select programs
Useful in a market where seasonality pulls the annualised number down.
1-4 units, condos and condotels
Condotels on select programs, which is where lenders differ most.
Close in an LLC
Standard on these programs.
How short-term rental income gets documented
This is the whole question on a short-term rental. There is no lease to hand over, so the file has to prove revenue a different way. There are three sources, in the order lenders generally prefer them. First, the property's own operating history: 12 months of Airbnb or VRBO revenue statements, a property manager's operating statements, or both, ideally with bank statements showing the deposits arriving. Second, a shorter history, which some lenders will accept and annualise, though seasonality makes a partial year easy to misread in either direction. Third, comparable market data such as AirDNA, which reports what similar properties in the same market earn, and which is accepted on select programs where the property has no history of its own. On a property that has never been let nightly, be realistic: market data is accepted on some programs and declined on others, a lender that accepts it may reduce the figure it uses, and nobody should treat a projection as a settled number. We check which lenders will look at your specific evidence before you rely on it.
Strongest: 12 months of platform or property manager revenue statements
Supporting: bank statements showing the payouts landing
Where there is no history: comparable market data such as AirDNA, on select programs
A partial history may be annualised by some lenders, with seasonality taken into account
Acceptable evidence and any reduction applied to it vary by lender
Why nightly underwriting is not long-term underwriting
A long-term rental produces one number every month for a year. A short-term rental produces a peak season, a shoulder season and a quiet stretch, and the same property can look like two different investments depending on which months you look at. Lenders handle that by working from a full year rather than a strong month, and by looking past gross revenue. The headline figure on a platform dashboard is what guests paid, not what reached you: platform fees, cleaning, linens, supplies, utilities, and management if you use a manager all come out of it first. Because those costs are real and vary by property, a lender may apply its own reduction to the top-line revenue before running the ratio, and may also ask for more months of reserves than it would on a long-term rental. None of that is a penalty. It is the lender pricing the fact that this income moves.
A full year of revenue matters more than the best month
Gross booking revenue is not net income: fees, cleaning, supplies and management come out first
A lender may reduce the top-line figure before calculating the ratio
Reserve requirements are often higher than on a long-term rental
Management costs are usually higher, and lenders know it
There is no posted rate for a nightly rental, and anyone quoting one before seeing the property is guessing. Pricing is assembled from the file, and it moves with the market from day to day, so what is useful to know is what pushes it up or down. As a rule, a short-term rental prices above a comparable long-term rental, because the income moves with the season and the lender is pricing that movement.
Operating history: a property with 12 months of documented revenue prices better than one relying on market data
Credit tier: the strongest pricing sits at the top scores, and each tier down costs something
Leverage: less borrowed against the value generally prices better
Property type: a single-family or standard condo prices better than a condotel
Ratio: a file where the revenue comfortably covers the payment prices better than a no-minimum-ratio file
Prepayment structure: a longer prepay period lowers the rate, and buying it down or out raises it
Every lender weights these differently, which is the reason to shop the file rather than take the first quote
Three things trip up more short-term rental purchases than financing ever does. Municipal rules on short-term letting, which differ from city to city and change over time, sometimes with registration, permits or minimum-stay requirements attached. HOA and condo association rules, which can restrict or prohibit nightly letting regardless of what the city allows. And condotel classification, where a property sits close enough to a hotel operation that many lenders treat it as a different asset entirely. We are mortgage brokers, not attorneys, so we will not tell you whether any specific rule permits a short-term rental at a specific address. That is a question for the municipality and for the association, and it is worth confirming in writing before you buy, because the rules are local and they move. What we do is work with the answer: once you know what the property can lawfully do, we know which lenders in our network will finance it on that basis, including condotels on select programs.
Local short-term letting rules vary by municipality and change over time
Confirm the current rules directly with the municipality before you buy
Confirm HOA or condo association rules separately, as they can be stricter
Condotel eligibility varies widely by lender and is available on select programs
We underwrite around the rules that apply to your property, we do not advise on them
A quiet season, a lender's reduction to gross revenue, or a high insurance and tax bill can all pull the annual figure below the payment. That does not end the file. Select programs carry no minimum ratio at all, which means the revenue does not have to cover the payment for the loan to work. If your numbers land short, read no-ratio DSCR loans, which have no minimum ratio on select programs and see what you would trade in leverage and pricing to get there.
We are licensed in Florida and Texas. Florida's vacation and coastal markets are where most short-term rental files start, and insurance is usually the line item that decides them, so read how Florida insurance and flood coverage affect the numbers. In Texas, the property tax bill does the same job, covered in Texas DSCR loans. If you also own long-term rentals, the underlying product is explained in full on DSCR loans.
Pricing is typically higher than on a comparable long-term rental, because the income moves with the season.
A lender may reduce gross booking revenue before calculating the ratio, so the figure on your platform dashboard is not the figure that qualifies you.
Reserve requirements are commonly higher than on a long-term rental.
A property with no operating history is harder to place, and market data is accepted on select programs rather than universally.
Local letting rules and HOA restrictions are yours to confirm with the municipality and the association, and they change.
Condotel eligibility, acceptable income evidence, credit minimums and leverage vary by lender and by file, and nothing here is a commitment to lend.
FAQ
Questions buyers actually ask
Can I use AirDNA data to qualify?+
Yes, on select programs. AirDNA reports what comparable short-term rentals in the same market actually earn, and several lenders in our network will use that market data as the income figure when a property has no rental history of its own. Not every lender accepts it, and the ones that do may apply their own reduction to the number, so it is worth checking before you write an offer.
Do I need 12 months of rental history?+
Not always. Where the property already has a 12-month operating history, that history is usually the strongest evidence and lenders tend to prefer it. Where there is none, select programs will work from market data instead. Requirements vary by lender, and a property with real history generally sees better pricing and leverage than one without.
What if the property has never been rented short-term?+
It can still be financed on select programs, using comparable market revenue for the area rather than the property's own numbers. Expect closer scrutiny of the figures, and expect some lenders to decline a property with no track record. We check which lenders in our network will consider it before you commit to anything.
Do Airbnb or VRBO statements count?+
Yes. Platform revenue statements from Airbnb or VRBO are a standard way to document what the property has earned, and lenders typically want to see them alongside bank statements showing the deposits landing. If you use a property manager, their operating statements serve the same purpose.
Are condotels eligible?+
On select programs, yes, along with 1-4 unit properties and standard condos. Condotel eligibility is one of the areas where lenders differ most, so the property type often decides which lenders can look at the file.
What happens if my city restricts short-term rentals?+
Local short-term letting rules vary by municipality and change over time, and it is your responsibility to confirm the current rules with the municipality and with any HOA or condo association. From the financing side, what matters is that the income the loan relies on is income the property can lawfully earn, so a lender will look at the rules that apply to your address. We underwrite around those rules; we do not advise on them.
Do short-term rental loans need bigger reserves?+
Often, yes. Because nightly income moves with the season, lenders commonly ask for more months of reserves than they would on a long-term rental. The exact requirement varies by lender, by leverage and by the property's history.
Can I close in an LLC?+
Yes, title can typically be held in an LLC on these programs, which is how most investors prefer to hold short-term rentals.
Can I get a DSCR loan for an Airbnb?+
Yes. An Airbnb is financed with a DSCR loan on select programs, using nightly revenue in place of a signed lease. The income can come from Airbnb or VRBO revenue statements, a property manager's statements, an existing 12-month operating history, or comparable market data such as AirDNA where the property has no history of its own.
What are Airbnb loan rates?+
We do not publish a rate, because pricing on a short-term rental is built from the file and moves with the market daily. It is typically higher than on a comparable long-term rental, because nightly income varies with the season. Credit, leverage, property type, whether the property has an operating history, and the prepayment structure all move it. We shop the file across our lender network and show you the actual numbers side by side.
How is this different from a regular DSCR loan?+
It is the same kind of loan, qualified on the property's income rather than yours. The difference is entirely in how that income is proved: nightly revenue from platform statements or market data instead of a signed 12-month lease, with more attention to seasonality, operating costs and local rules. The underlying product is a DSCR loan.
Let's run your nightly numbers.
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