What Deductions Can I Claim for My Airbnb Property?
Most Airbnb hosts can deduct ordinary and necessary expenses incurred to operate the property, but not every cash outflow is a current deduction. The core split is between current expenses like supplies and utilities, and capital costs like furniture, roofs, and renovations that must be depreciated or recovered under capitalization rules.
Current operating deductions are the first layer
If your STR generated $150,000 of gross rent, the obvious deductions usually include platform fees, cleaning, trash service, internet, streaming services, utilities, linens, toiletries, pest control, landscaping, small tools, and repairs. Professional fees for bookkeeping, tax preparation, and legal work tied to the rental activity are also commonly deductible. Interest on rental debt and property insurance belong in the same core bucket. These are the categories that should reconcile cleanly to the annual ledger your CPA sees.
Capital items do not become immediate deductions just because you paid cash
A new HVAC system, roof replacement, major deck rebuild, or $25,000 furniture package is usually not a same-year expense. Those costs often become depreciable assets, sometimes with shorter class lives for personal property and sometimes with 27.5-year residential rental life for structural building components. The timing difference matters because a host can spend $40,000 in one quarter and still get only a fraction of that as a current-year deduction if the costs are capital. That is where /learn/str-depreciation-explained and /learn/cost-segregation-str-tax become more useful than a generic bookkeeping article.
| Cost | Typical treatment | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Restocking paper goods | Current expense | $480 of guest supplies deducted this year |
| Replacing broken lockset | Usually repair | $220 repair expense |
| Installing new smart-lock system across property | Often capitalized | $2,400 recovered through depreciation |
| New roof | Capital improvement | $18,000 added to basis |
Mixed-use properties need allocation
If you also use the property personally, deductions must usually be allocated between rental and personal use. A beach condo rented 180 days and used personally 30 days does not get the same deduction profile as a full-time guest property with zero owner stays. The denominator matters, and the IRS will expect the logs to match the calendar. If the property is mixed-use, the wrong allocation can quietly overstate deductions by thousands of dollars.
FAQ
Related questions
Yes, platform commissions and host fees are normally deductible business or rental expenses if they relate to taxable rental activity.
Usually yes, but not always as an immediate expense. Furniture is typically capitalized and depreciated, though accelerated depreciation may be available depending on the asset and year placed in service.
They can be if the primary purpose is managing, maintaining, or improving the rental. Poor documentation turns a legitimate deduction into an audit problem quickly.