Should You Switch to Mid-Term Rentals? The 28-Night Math

    Mid-term furnished rentals sit between nightly and a lease. Lower gross, far lower cost to run, and a completely different risk profile. Here is how to work out whether it beats what you do now.

    By Jae · Founder, Premier Stays

    Published · 2 min read

    Most owners think of their property as either a short-term rental or a long-term one. There is a third mode that quietly outperforms both for certain properties in certain locations: the mid-term furnished stay, roughly one to six months, aimed at relocations, contract workers, medical stays and insurance placements.

    It trades headline revenue for a much lower cost base, and whether that trade is good depends on numbers you can work out in an afternoon.

    28Nights where monthly pricing starts
    1Turnover per month, not twelve
    30+Nights where the levy stops applying
    0One-night gaps in the calendar

    The costs that disappear

    A short-term rental at 75% occupancy with an average stay of three nights turns over about seven or eight times a month. A mid-term rental turns over once. Everything that scales with turnover scales down with it:

    • Cleaning. One deep clean a month instead of eight.
    • Consumables. Coffee, paper, soap and laundry replacement fall sharply.
    • Wear. Doors, floors, keys and appliances age with traffic, not with time.
    • Your attention. One check-in conversation a month instead of eight.
    • Calendar friction. No orphan nights, no minimum-stay gymnastics.

    The revenue that changes shape

    Mid-term gross is lower per night. It is also far more predictable, which changes the risk profile entirely. A short-term rental with a bad February has a bad February. A mid-term rental on a four-month placement does not have a February at all.

    Short-term grossHighest, most variable
    Short-term net after turnover costsDepends entirely on occupancy
    Mid-term netLower ceiling, much higher floor
    Unfurnished long-term netLowest, most stable

    The interesting result is that mid-term net often lands close to short-term net, on a fraction of the operational effort, with much less variance. That is a good trade for most owners and a bad one for a small number with genuinely exceptional short-term performance.

    Mid-term rarely wins on gross. It frequently wins on net, and it almost always wins on how much of your life the property consumes.Premier Stays owner services

    Which properties suit it

    Mid-term demand is not evenly distributed. It concentrates around:

    • Hospitals. Medical stays, visiting clinicians, families of patients.
    • Industrial and energy corridors. Contract crews on multi-month assignments.
    • Post-secondary institutions. Visiting faculty, graduate placements.
    • Anywhere with insurance restoration volume. Displaced families, four to six months at a time.

    Two or three bedrooms with parking and in-suite laundry is the sweet spot. Studios struggle; very large homes work only where crews or displaced families are the market.

    Furnished family home suited to mid-term rental
    Two to three bedrooms, parking, laundry. The mid-term sweet spot.

    You do not have to choose permanently

    The strongest version of this is not switching, it is blending. Run the property short-term through the peak season, then take a mid-term placement through the slow months instead of accepting a soft January and February. The calendar carries both, the furnishings are identical, and the tax and pricing treatment simply follows the length of each stay.

    Run the numbers on your property

    We manage both modes and can model your address either way, with occupancy and net rather than gross. Request an assessment and we will send the comparison in writing.

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