Mid-Term Rentals for Travel Nurses: The Lease, the Furnishing Checklist, and the Taxes
By CircleRN Team | Published 2026-10-13 | 9 min read
How to run a mid-term rental for travel nurses: what to put in the lease, whether 30 days gets you out of short-term rental rules and hotel tax (Texas yes, Florida no), why the short-term rental tax loophole does not apply, what you can deduct, and a furnishing checklist from 6,915 listings.
A mid-term rental is a furnished home or room rented for at least 30 days and usually less than a year. Travel nurses on 13-week contracts are its core tenants. Running one is mostly about three things: a lease written for a contract worker, a home furnished so someone can arrive with two suitcases, and taxes that are different from both an Airbnb and a yearly lease. Staying 30 days or more usually takes you out of short-term rental rules and hotel taxes, but not everywhere. It also takes you out of the short-term rental tax loophole.
This guide is for hosts already renting, or about to. If you are still deciding whether to rent to travel nurses and what to charge, start with renting to travel nurses. Tax and local rules vary, so treat this as general information and check your own city, county and state.
What is a mid-term rental?
It is a furnished rental for a stay of a month or more, typically one to six months. "Mid-term" is not a legal category; it is the space between a vacation rental, measured in nights, and a standard lease, measured in years. The tenants are people who need a fully furnished place for a set period: travel nurses and other healthcare travelers above all, plus people relocating for work, between homes, or near a hospital for a family member's treatment.
Travel nurses fit the format exactly. Most contracts run 13 weeks, many extend, and the nurse is paid a housing stipend for the period. On CircleRN, 96 percent of listings are furnished.
How is a mid-term rental different from an Airbnb?
| Short-term (Airbnb-style) | Mid-term | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical stay | A few nights | 1 to 6 months |
| Turnovers a year | Dozens to hundreds | About three to six |
| Short-term rental registration | Often required | Often exempt at 30+ days |
| Hotel or occupancy tax | Usually charged | Often not, but varies by state |
| Guest or tenant | Guest | Often a tenant under state law |
| Short-term rental tax loophole | Can apply | Does not apply |
The trade is less income per night for far less work: fewer cleanings, fewer check-ins, fewer reviews to manage. The bigger difference is legal. A guest who stays past about 30 days is often a tenant, and removing a tenant goes through eviction rules, not hotel rules.
What should a travel nurse lease agreement include?
Use a written lease every time, even for a room in your home. Beyond rent, deposit and the address, a lease for a travel nurse should cover:
- Dates that match the contract, with the facility named, and a move-in date a day or two before the first shift
- Early termination: the notice the nurse gives if the hospital cancels the contract, what they owe, and what proof they provide
- Extensions: how to extend, how much notice you need, and whether the rent changes
- What is included: which utilities, internet, parking, and any utility cap
- Furnishings and condition: an inventory and dated photos at move-in, signed by both of you
- Guests, pets and smoking, in plain terms
- Entry: how much notice you give before entering, within what your state requires
- Move-out: cleaning expectations, key return and when the deposit comes back
Cancellations are the clause hosts most often skip and nurses most often ask about. Hospitals can end a travel contract early, sometimes with little notice. How to handle it is covered in renting to travel nurses. A local landlord-tenant attorney or your state's standard lease form is a good starting point for the rest.
Does a 30-day minimum get you out of short-term rental rules?
Often, because many places define a short-term rental as fewer than 30 days. Three examples:
- New York City. Local Law 18 of 2022 defines a short-term rental as a rental for fewer than 30 consecutive days. The city's registration requirement does not apply to rentals of 30 consecutive days or more.
- Texas. The state hotel occupancy tax defines a short-term rental as a rental to someone who is not a permanent resident. A permanent resident is someone with the right to occupy for at least 30 consecutive days, as long as payment is not interrupted.
- California. The state's tenant chapter covers anyone who rents a dwelling, including boarders and lodgers. It excludes transient occupancy in a hotel or similar facility that is subject to the local transient occupancy tax, which generally stops after 30 days. So a nurse staying more than 30 days is likely to have tenant protections. A single lodger in a home you live in has different removal rules, so check those before you rent a room.
So a 30-day minimum can lift you out of short-term rental registration, but it usually puts you under landlord-tenant law instead. Check your city's definition before you list, because some use a different line, and HOA or condo rules can be stricter than the city's.
Do you charge hotel or occupancy tax on a mid-term rental?
It depends on the state, and two big travel nurse states point in opposite directions.
Texas does not impose its hotel occupancy tax on a person with the right to use a room for at least 30 consecutive days, so long as there is no interruption of payment. A 13-week contract paid without gaps is outside the state tax.
Florida taxes rent on living quarters at 6 percent for stays of six months or less, and treats a house rented to guests or tenants as a rooming house for this purpose. A bona fide written lease for more than six months of continuous residence is exempt. A 13-week travel nurse rental in Florida is therefore generally taxable, and counties may add their own taxes on top.
Everywhere else, look up your state's sales or lodging tax on rentals and your county's transient or tourist tax. The usual line is 30 days, but it is not universal.
Does the short-term rental tax loophole work for mid-term rentals?
No. The "short-term rental loophole" comes from a Treasury regulation that says an activity is not a rental activity if the average period of customer use is seven days or less, or 30 days or less with significant personal services. Outside the rental-activity rules, an owner who materially participates can use losses, often from depreciation, against wages and other income.
A rental whose stays average more than 30 days meets neither test, so it is a rental activity, and rental activities are passive under the tax code by default. Losses generally offset only passive income, subject to the separate allowances for rental real estate. The average covers every stay in the year, so mixing in short stays only changes this if it brings the average to seven days or less, or 30 or less with significant personal services. If you have been told a 13-week rental gets the same treatment as an Airbnb, it does not.
One more rule hosts ask about: if you rent your home for fewer than 15 days a year, you do not report the rent. A single travel nurse stay is longer than that, so it does not apply.
What can you deduct on a mid-term rental?
You report all the rent as income. IRS Publication 527 says that in most cases you must include in your gross income all amounts you receive as rent. Against it you can deduct ordinary rental expenses, including:
- Depreciation on the building, over 27.5 years for residential rental property
- Depreciation on furniture, appliances and carpeting, over 5 years
- Utilities, internet and insurance you pay for the rental
- Cleaning, repairs and supplies between tenants
- Mortgage interest and property tax for the rental share
- Listing and advertising costs
If you rent a room in your home, Publication 527 says to divide shared expenses between the rental part and your personal part as if they were two properties. The two common methods are by number of rooms and by square footage. And if you also use the place yourself, check the personal-use rule: a dwelling counts as your home if your personal days exceed the greater of 14 days or 10 percent of the days it is rented at a fair price, which limits what you can deduct. Fair price here means what someone unrelated to you would pay; the local benchmarks are in what travel nurses pay for rent. A tax professional is worth it in the first year, when the depreciation schedule is set.
What should a furnished mid-term rental include?
Everything a nurse needs on the first night, because they arrive after a long drive with what fits in a car. Here is what CircleRN listings offer:
| Amenity | Share of CircleRN listings |
|---|---|
| Wi-Fi | 97% |
| Heating | 96% |
| Air conditioning | 91% |
| Parking | 86% |
| Laundry | 84% |
| Dishwasher | 67% |
| Pets allowed | 29% |
Wi-Fi, heat, air conditioning, parking and laundry are expected. Beyond those, the checklist:
- Bedroom: a good mattress, two sets of sheets, pillows, blackout curtains for day sleepers after a night shift
- Bathroom: towels, a shower curtain, a hair dryer, starter toiletries
- Kitchen: pots and pans, knives, plates and cups for four, a coffee maker, a microwave, food storage
- Work and rest: a desk or table for charting and continuing education, a couch, a TV or streaming device
- Practical: an iron, a vacuum, a first aid kit, a smoke and carbon monoxide detector, spare keys or a keypad lock
- A welcome sheet: Wi-Fi password, trash days, parking rules, and the drive time to the nearest hospital
Furniture and appliances are depreciated over five years. Durable pieces that outlast that schedule cost less than replacing cheap ones every few tenants. To see what listings near you include, browse the housing page for your city.
Bottom Line
A mid-term rental sits between an Airbnb and a yearly lease, and the rules sit there too. Thirty days or more usually removes short-term rental registration and, in states like Texas, hotel tax. Florida still taxes stays of six months or less. The tenant is likely to have tenant protections, and the short-term rental tax loophole does not apply. Write a lease that covers cancellations and extensions, furnish for the first night, and keep records for depreciation from day one.
Ready to list? Estimate your rent and list free on CircleRN, check what nearby places ask on the housing pages, and see the stipend a nurse has to spend in your area with the stipend calculator.
Sources
- 26 CFR § 1.469-1T(e)(3)(ii) (when an activity is not a rental activity: average customer use of 7 days or less, or 30 days or less with significant personal services)
- 26 U.S.C. § 280A(g) (dwelling rented for fewer than 15 days)
- IRS Publication 527, Residential Rental Property (rental income, Table 2-1 recovery periods, renting part of property, dwelling used as a home)
- Florida Statutes § 212.03 (transient rentals tax; exemption for written leases over six months)
- Texas Tax Code chapter 156 (§ 156.101, permanent residents; § 156.001, short-term rental)
- NYC Office of Special Enforcement, Short-Term Rental Registration (Local Law 18 of 2022; rentals of 30 consecutive days or more exempt)
- California Civil Code § 1940 (who the tenant chapter covers, and the transient occupancy exclusion)
- CircleRN active listings with a monthly rent, October 13, 2026 (6,915 listings; amenity shares)