The right question is not the one everybody asks
The question is not "which earns more". It is "which earns more net, for my home, in my area, with the time I have". The comparison is made between two net figures, not two gross rents: from the short let you take out cleaning, linen, utilities, platform commissions, more frequent maintenance and your own time; from the long let you take out the risk of arrears, the loss of the use of the home, and the maintenance you keep deferring until it lands all at once. Two flats in the same building can give opposite answers.
You will not find a percentage here that works for everyone, because there is no such thing. You will find the method for setting the sum up properly, and the points where I see almost everybody go wrong.
1. The gross figure is useless
The comparison people usually make puts the monthly rent of a long contract times twelve on one side, and the nightly rate of a short let times the nights they hope to sell on the other. Those two numbers are not on the same footing, and that is the error that makes everything after it worthless.
In a short let, between what you collect and what you keep there are items that simply do not exist in a long let: cleaning at every changeover, linen, utilities that stay with you, platform commissions, more frequent maintenance because the home is lived in far more, and time: replying to guests, check-ins, evening emergencies.
In a long let the rent looks clean, but clean it is not. There is the risk of arrears, which is not only the missing income but the months it takes to get the property back. There is the loss of use of the home, which has a value even if it has no price. And there is deferred maintenance: the property wears out without you seeing it, and when it is handed back the bill comes in one go.
| Item | Short let | Long let |
|---|---|---|
| Cleaning and linen | at every changeover | not applicable |
| Utilities | paid by you | paid by the tenant |
| Channel commissions | on every booking | initial agency fee only |
| Maintenance | frequent and spread out | deferred, all at handover |
| Risk of not being paid | unsold nights | arrears and repossession times |
| Owner's time | continuous | close to nil |
2. Seasonality changes the whole argument
For a home by the sea in Sardinia the issue is not the nightly rate, it is how many months actually work. Income concentrates into a short window, while fixed costs run for twelve months: service charges, taxes, insurance, maintenance, having someone on the ground.
Out of this comes the most common bad habit: people look at a week in August, multiply it in their heads, and short letting looks unbeatable. The real sum is done across the whole year, empty months included. Where the season is long, short letting takes a structural advantage; where the window is very narrow, that advantage thins out, and sometimes disappears.
Seasonality also affects wear: a home that turns over many times in a few weeks ages quickly, and that belongs in the budget. On how the potential of a property is estimated I have written a separate guide.
3. The home, when you need it yourself
This is the point owners put last and that often decides the matter on its own. With a short let you keep your own weeks, as long as you block them in good time: the best dates sell months ahead. With a long let the home is not yours for the duration of the contract: under the standard formula, four years plus another four on renewal.
If it is the family home, where you intend to spend a few weeks a year anyway, the financial comparison is not enough to decide. There is one more question to add: what does it really cost you, not to be able to go there any more.
4. The tax picture, in two lines
Both formulas can sit under the flat tax, but under different rules. On short lets the rates and the two-flat threshold apply, as explained in the guide on the flat tax, and the taxable base is the full rent, without the 5% flat deduction. On an ordinary tenancy that deduction exists.
I stop here on purpose: the difference in taxable base weighs differently depending on your total income, and it is not a sum you do in one line. If the decision turns on this, it is made with an accountant, and we will arrange that conversation for you.
5. The obligations only the short let carries
Short letting brings with it a list of obligations a long let does not have, and they belong in the sum beforehand, not afterwards: the CIN to apply for and display in listings, the guest notifications to the police for every arrival, the tourist tax to collect and pay over to the municipality under rules that change from one town to the next, and the safety requirements, from gas and carbon monoxide detectors to fire extinguishers.
None of them is complicated on its own. Together they are continuous work, and that is why many owners start with short lets and go back to a long one after two seasons: not because it earned less, but because they could not keep the pace.
6. When the long let is simply the right call
I will say it without dressing it up, even though we live on short lets: in three cases the long let is the better answer.
The first: the home is in a city, outside tourist flows, and demand for short stays is thin all year. The second: you want neither the management nor the contact with guests, and you do not intend to delegate it. The third: the property does not meet the standard guests expect today, and putting it right would cost more than short letting could give back within a reasonable time.
7. The method, in four steps
First: look at your area, not at the market. Find homes comparable to yours in location, size and condition, and see how many weeks they are occupied across a full year, not on peak days.
Second: build two honest gross figures. On one side the annual rent your home genuinely achieves on a long contract. On the other the annual short-let income, with the nights you sell and not the ones you would like to.
Third: take out the costs, all of them. Item by item, using the table above. Estimates are made conservatively on income and generously on costs: if the sum still holds, the decision is solid.
Fourth: put your own weeks and your own time on the table. If the net figure from short letting does not clearly beat the long let, staying long is a legitimate choice. If it does beat it, one question remains: do you want to do that management yourself or delegate it? The questions to ask a manager are in the guide on how to choose a property manager.
Last updated in August 2026. We review figures, rules and references periodically; before making tax or operational decisions, check the linked sources and your circumstances with a qualified adviser.
Read these next
- How much a home in Sardinia really earnsHow the potential of a property is estimated, item by item.
- Flat tax 2026: when it actually pays offRates, the two-flat threshold, taxable base.
- How to choose a property managerThe questions to ask before signing a mandate.
- Your first year with a manager, month by monthFrom onboarding to the close of the first season.
- All the owner guidesEight guides on tax, obligations, returns and management.
Want the comparison on your own home? Ask for the free valuation: we set the sum up on the net figure, with the real cost items for your area. The page for owners explains how we work.