Airbnb rental arbitrage

The research was done by AI agents that open web pages. Some sites refuse them; where that happened we say so. The small numbers point to the source list at the end. Where a figure is our own sum or guess, it is marked “our estimate” and the basis is given.

The claim

These are examples of the claim, copied from our collection of 28 tweets on this scheme¹. View counts are as collected on 6 October 2026. Dates are worked out from each tweet’s ID number. The page judges the scheme, not the people who tweeted.

“You can start an Airbnb arbitrage business (with $0 down) & make $20,000/month.”

@zafarbnbx, 4 July 2023, 53,414 views¹

“I make $10,000,000+ a year from Airbnb. arbitrage.”

@zafarbnbx, 16 August 2023, 70,407 views¹

“My Airbnb business made me $25,876 last month.”

@jonjfarb, 6 November 2023, 22,915 views¹. The tweet says “Airbnb business” and goes on to offer an arbitrage pitch deck; it does not say the whole sum came from arbitrage⁶⁴.

“Three furnished apartments on Airbnb are generating $41,600 a month

Combined rent on all three: $4,700”

@hxxntrr, 23 June 2026, 11,821 views¹. These are the opening lines of a long tweet. We read the full text, and Step 9 sets its opening figure beside the sum the tweet itself gives lower down⁶⁴.

One account appears twice because its four tweets hold more than half of the views recorded in the collection (151,406 of 272,675)¹. A smaller account, which we do not name, reported $22,791 of arbitrage revenue in one month at a 35% profit margin in March 2025¹. We use that figure in the sums below.

What the scheme is

You sign an ordinary long lease on a flat or house, usually for 12 months. You furnish it. Then you let it by the night on Airbnb or a similar site. You keep what is left after the rent, the platform’s fee, cleaning, bills and insurance. “Arbitrage” is a finance word for profiting from a gap between two prices: here, the monthly rent and the nightly rate.

The mechanism is real. A furnished flat let by the night usually brings in more than the same flat let by the year⁶. The questions are how much more, what it costs to collect, and whether the landlord and the city allow it.

A different practice is sold under the same name: relisting hotel rooms or other people’s listings at a markup. Airbnb’s rules do not allow it: “Hotel rooms must only be listed by the hotel or a professional hospitality business authorized by the hotel”²⁴. This page does not judge that version.

The arithmetic

Step 1: the sum behind every claim

Profit = nights booked x nightly rate, minus Airbnb’s fee, minus cleaning, bills, insurance and tools, minus the rent.

Of the 28 tweets, 12 state an income figure¹. One states a profit margin, one states the rent, two state the money needed to set up, and three give the number of units¹. One tweet, read in full, gives a nightly rate, the share of nights booked, Airbnb’s fee and a cleaning cost for an example flat⁶⁴. In the text we hold for the others, none gives those figures, the city, the lease length, or whether the landlord and the city permit it¹. Most do not say whether the figure is revenue (money in) or profit (money kept)¹. We did not view the images, videos or threads attached to the tweets, and several tweet texts are cut off in our copy.

Step 2: nights and nightly rates

AirDNA is a company that sells short-term rental data. Its figures for the United States in August 2026, across 1.76 million listings of every size⁴:

• Occupancy (the share of available nights that were booked): 57.8%⁴.
• Average nightly rate: $287.34⁴.
• Revenue per available night (rate x occupancy): $166.01⁴.

Our estimate: $166.01 x 31 nights = about $5,146 of bookings for the average listing in a peak-season month. So $22,791 of bookings is about 4 to 5 average listings, not one (22,791 ÷ 5,146 = 4.4). The average includes large houses, so a rented apartment is likely to sit below $287 a night. We found no national figure for small apartments alone.

Occupancy has fallen since the boom. AirDNA’s yearly table gives 65.2% in 2021, 61.0% in 2022, 58.8% in 2023 and 57.0% in 2024, while listings grew from 1.1 million to a forecast 1.77 million in 2026⁵. The same table forecast 56.7% for 2026⁵. A trade site reports that AirDNA’s mid-2026 update raised that to 57.4%⁶⁰. Either way, the average listing is empty more than four nights in ten, and rent is owed for all of them.

Most of the most-viewed tweets date from 2022 and 2023¹. The market was richer then, as Step 4 shows. Where we set an old tweet beside 2026 figures, we say so.

Step 3: Airbnb’s fee

Airbnb’s fee help page says: “Most hosts pay 15.5%, remaining hosts typically pay 14%-16%”, and “the entire fee is deducted from the host’s payout”³. Until recently most hosts paid about 3% and the guest paid a separate fee on top. Airbnb is merging the two into one fee charged to the host, and it is mandatory for most hosts³.

Airbnb’s announcement explains the change with an example. Under the old split: “if you set your price at $100 USD, guests see $115 after the guest fee is added, and you earn $97 after the host fee is deducted.” Under the single fee: “if you set your price at $115, guests see $115 and you earn $97”². So the new fee is not a new 12-point cost if the host raises the listed price by about 15%. The guest pays the same total and the host keeps the same amount. A host who leaves the price at $100 keeps $84.50 (our sum) instead of $97.

Airbnb gave hosts a deadline in 2026 to adjust their prices: “September 15 if you live outside the European Economic Area and October 13 if you live within it or in Switzerland”². Trade sources say hosts who use property-management software were moved earlier, on 27 October 2025⁶¹.

What this means for a sum:

• A sum built on the price the guest pays must take off about 15.5%. A guide that takes 3% off the guest’s price is out of date.
• A sum built on older revenue data may already be on the old host-price basis. AirDNA says its revenue figures are “the sum of nightly rates and cleaning fees minus host discounts and OTA service fees”⁶⁶. (OTA means an online travel agency such as Airbnb.) We could not tell from that page exactly which fees are taken off. So in Step 6 we show our estimates both ways.

On the $22,791 tweet: 3% is about $684 and 15.5% is about $3,533 (our sums). The tweet dates from March 2025, before the change, so its 35% margin may rest on the old fee¹.

Step 4: bookings against rent

This is the ratio that decides the result. AirDNA calls it the “STR premium”: how far short-term rental revenue exceeds long-term rent for the same kind of home.

• In 2025 the US average premium was 138%, which means revenue of about 2.4 times the rent⁶.
• It was 141% in 2024 and 214% at the 2021 peak, which is about 3.1 times the rent⁶.
• For apartment buildings it was 141% in 2025, or 2.41 times the rent⁶.
• Some markets are far higher: “several of these markets are pushing past 200%, with Charleston topping 300%”⁶.

This premium is before furnishing, utilities, cleaning and insurance⁶.

A second data vendor, AirROI, shows much lower ratios. In March 2026 it set the average two-bedroom listing’s revenue against the median two-bedroom rent in nine cities popular with arbitrage sellers. Revenue ran from about 1.0 to 2.3 times the rent (our sums from its table, for example $3,382 against $1,500 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee)⁶⁵. AirROI’s averages cover every listing, including ones let only part of the year, so a full-time operator may beat them. We could not reconcile the two vendors’ figures.

For the rent side, Apartment List’s national median in September 2026 was $1,388 a month: $1,220 for one bedroom and $1,374 for two, with 7% of apartments vacant⁷. (The median is the middle result: half are above it and half below.) Tourist districts usually rent above the median; we have no figure for how much.

Step 5: the other running costs

AirDNA’s figures, from an article written for owners in December 2024¹²:

• Cleaning: $75 to $300 or more for each turnover, meaning each time a guest leaves and the home is cleaned¹².
• Insurance: an ordinary home policy averages about $2,800 a year and a short-term rental policy about $3,900¹². These are owners’ policies. We found no insurer’s price for tenants.
• A property manager: “typically charge between 20-30% of your booking revenue, though fees can range from 15-40%”¹². A co-host (someone who handles guests for you): 10% to 20%¹².

AirDNA sums it up: “Service fees, property management, cleaning and insurance typically consume 25-40% of your revenue”¹². That is before rent. The article predates the fee change and uses 3%¹².

Tools add a little: PriceLabs, which adjusts prices daily, is “$14.49 per listing per month, plus taxes”¹³. AirDNA’s market research is $125 a month, or $400 a year paid annually¹⁴. Income tax comes on top: the US tax authority says a host who provides hotel-like services reports the income as a business³⁶.

Step 6: what one unit keeps

No dataset measures what arbitrage operators actually keep. These are the figures we found. Models come first, then our own estimates, then individuals’ statements.

Notes on the table:

• AirROI’s nine cities. At average performance the model gives Gatlinburg +$698, Gulf Shores +$482, Destin +$423, Nashville +$73, Scottsdale -$45, Kissimmee -$445, Myrtle Beach -$445, San Antonio -$502 and Austin -$561 a month⁶⁵. AirROI’s words: “only 3 markets produce reliable positive margins”⁶⁵. The model takes 35% of revenue for all running costs and counts Airbnb’s fee at 3%⁶⁵. These are market-wide averages, so they describe an ordinary listing, not a well-run one. AirROI sells rental data.
• The Nashville model. This one takes off the 15.5% fee⁸. At a rent of $3,290, the median year grosses $6,193 a month. (“Gross” means before any costs.) The break-even is 49% of nights booked against 51% at the median, and four months of the year lose money, January by $1,402 and February by $1,362⁸. AirROI’s words: “At the 75th percentile, what a well-run 3-bedroom here reaches, the year grosses $102,283 and that rent leaves +$1,540 a month. The median year clears +$132.”⁸ The rent is a government benchmark that includes utilities, not a quoted lease. AirROI adds that “a landlord who allows hosting may ask more. Each $100 of rent above it takes $100 a month off the profit”⁸. Two neighbouring ZIP codes with lower benchmark rents clear $422 and $672 at the median⁸. So the single figure is fragile in both directions.
• Our first estimate. Take revenue of 2.41 times rent for apartments⁶ and running costs of about 35% of revenue (cost shares from AirROI’s models⁸⁶⁵). If the host keeps the price unchanged and pays the full 15.5%: 2.41 - 0.37 (fee) - 0.84 (costs) - 1.00 (rent) = about 0.19 of the rent. That is about $265 a month on the $1,374 median two-bedroom rent⁷ and about $350 on $1,800. If the 2025 revenue is already on the host-price basis, so that only about 3% comes off: 2.41 - 0.07 - 0.84 - 1.00 = about 0.49 of the rent, or about $680 and $890. It mixes three datasets and is rough.
• Our second estimate. Rent $1,800; bookings at the all-homes average of 2.38 times rent, about $4,280⁶; minus rent, cleaning of about $800 (eight turnovers at $100¹²), and about $500 of utilities, supplies and insurance, which are our assumptions. With a 15.5% fee of about $660 that leaves about $500. With a 3% fee of about $130 it leaves about $1,050. If bookings are only twice the rent, the same sum runs from a small loss to about $400.
• Where break-even sits. AirROI’s calculator says “a lease breaks even at about 1.8x the rent with utilities in it, or 2.0x the rent alone”⁸. Its article gives a “2.5x rule of thumb” for a workable margin⁶⁵.
• Rakidzich’s range. Sean Rakidzich writes at rakidzich.com as a “155-property operator”, and the site sells his courses⁹. His page says: “Rental arbitrage operators earn a net margin of roughly $700 to $1,400 per unit per month in well-performing markets.”⁹ The $700 floor is close to the figure he gives for the best city in the data, Gatlinburg at $698⁹⁶⁵. His own worked example, a Columbus flat at $1,800 rent, nets “approximately $400” using a fee of “roughly $175 at 6%”⁹. At 15.5% the same example nets about $120 (our sum). His second article says: “For most readers in most cities, the honest answer is no. Five of nine studied markets lose money.”¹⁰ The city ratios in that article differ from AirROI’s published table, for example 3.1 times rent for Gatlinburg against about 2.3¹⁰⁶⁵.
• The 2022 essay. A host with listings in St. Louis, Missouri wrote that her one-bedroom units “usually cost about $1,500 in monthly expenses and bring in anywhere from $2,500 to $3,000 a month — netting up to $1,500 a month”⁴⁰. The expenses are “rent, utilities, cleaning services, and automation tools”⁴⁰. It is self-reported, from 2022, by a host who also coaches³⁹.
• The forum post. The post lists rent, cleaning, utilities, software and insurance but no Airbnb fee, and its bookings are only about twice the rent⁶². With a 15.5% fee its own figures give about -$75 to +$680 a unit (our sum). The site shows generated profile pictures and inconsistent dates. We give it little weight and leave it out of Step 7.

Running it hands-off costs more. AirROI’s model puts a manager at 20% of revenue, “$1,239 at the median” in the Nashville example, against a profit of $132⁸. AirDNA’s typical range of 20% to 30% would be about $1,240 to $1,860 on that revenue (our sum)¹².

Step 7: how many units the claim needs

These are our sums: income wanted ÷ profit per unit, rounded up to whole units. In the five cities where AirROI’s average is negative, no number of units reaches any of these targets⁶⁵.

So $1,000 a month is one to four units where the market works at all. $10,000 a month is roughly 7 to 20 units if they are run well in a good market, and far more at the median.

Step 8: the money needed first

The sources disagree, mostly because of furniture.

• AirDNA’s start-up article says arbitrage “requires first and last month’s rent plus security deposits. That usually totals $5,000-$10,000”, and gives a total for arbitrage of “$5,000 to $15,000”¹¹. The same article says furnishing “a one-bedroom apartment typically requires $15,000-$25,000”¹¹. A later AirDNA article puts furniture at $3,000 to $5,000 for a small place on a budget¹¹. AirDNA’s 2026 arbitrage article says $3,000 to $10,000 in all⁶.
• Rakidzich: furnishing a two-bedroom “runs $8,000 to $14,000”, and “Your day-zero capital sits between $12,000 and $22,000 per door”¹⁰.
• A forum operator in the San Francisco area: “It also costs $5K-$20K to launch each unit”⁴¹.
• The 2022 essay: “I normally allot $8,000 to $15,000 to set up each new listing”⁴⁰.
• AirROI’s Nashville example shows $10,142 of cash needed before furnishing, for a three-bedroom⁸.
• A course company’s page says $3,000 to $15,000⁴⁴.
• The @hxxntrr tweet gives $38,400 for three flats, which is $12,800 each⁶⁴.

Our estimate: about $8,000 to $22,000 per unit, depending on size and how much is kept in reserve. The low end is a small flat furnished cheaply.

None of these is zero. We found no source for “$0 down” other than borrowing. The same tweet says “Every dollar came from 0% business cards”⁶⁴. Those are credit cards that charge no interest for an opening period, 9 to 12 months in the tweet’s own examples; after that, normal card interest applies⁶⁴. Borrowed money falls due whether or not the flats book.

Our estimate for ten units: $80,000 to $220,000 up front, plus signed leases worth $216,000 a year at $1,800 a unit (1,800 x 10 x 12).

Step 9: the tweets against these figures

• $22,791 at 35%. That is about $7,977 of profit (our sum). At the per-unit figures above it fits an operator with several units in a good month. The tweet does not give the unit count¹.
• $41,600 from three flats on $4,700 rent. The opening figure is $13,867 per flat, or 8.9 times the rent (our sums). The national average is about 2.4 times and AirDNA’s best named market is a little over 4 times⁶. Lower down, the tweet’s own worked example is far smaller. It is written as a scenario for the reader: a two-bedroom at $1,600 rent that “averages $190/night at 73% occupancy. That’s $4,161/month in gross bookings”, then “$1,493/month net per apartment. Three units = $4,479/month”⁶⁴. That is bookings of 2.6 times the rent and about $12,500 for three flats (our sums), under a third of the opening figure. The tweet does not explain the gap. Its sum takes off $48 for Airbnb’s fee, counts no utilities or insurance, and says “Airbnb takes 3%”⁶⁴. At 15.5% of the same bookings the fee is about $645 and the result about $900 a flat (our sum). The tweet also says: “The landlords think they have long-term tenants.”⁶⁴ That is the version without the landlord’s consent, which Airbnb’s host standard does not allow²⁴.
• “$5,000/month in profit on average with one unit”. A May 2022 tweet by @MrFourToEight forecasts this for a student¹⁶⁴. It was posted when AirDNA’s premium was nearer its 214% peak than today’s 138%⁶, and we have no 2022 per-unit figures to set beside it. Even so, it is more than three times the well-run unit in the Nashville model⁸ and the top of Rakidzich’s range⁹.
• $10,000 to $20,000 a month as a “side hustle”. At the per-unit figures we found, that is roughly 7 to 40 leases in a market that works (Step 7). The San Francisco forum operator wrote: “I am part of a community of 200 rental arbitragers, and don’t know anyone who has achieved six figures of annual profit in year 1 or year 2, including 2 mentors who are among the best and have been doing this for 5-10 years”⁴¹. That is one person’s unverified statement from about 2019. The $20,000 tweets date from 2023, when the premium was above today’s¹⁶.

What people who tried it report

Nobody publishes outcomes. We found no study, platform figure or survey that gives the median income of arbitrage operators, the share who profit, or how many give up. Business Insider wrote in 2024: “There’s no way to know for sure how popular Airbnb arbitrage is. Airbnb did not provide data on the number of hosts who engage in arbitrage”³⁹. AirDNA’s data does not separate leased homes from owned ones.

The one audited record is a large company, and it lost money. Sonder Holdings leased its properties, mostly at fixed rent, and let them by the night. Its annual report for 2024 shows 80.9% occupancy, a $196 nightly rate and about 9,900 units in 41 cities¹⁵. That occupancy is well above the national average in Step 2. It still lost $224.1 million on $621.3 million of revenue¹⁵. The report says: “We have incurred net losses and negative cash flow each year since our inception”, with an accumulated deficit of $1.6 billion¹⁵. It names the mechanism: “As a result of our fixed lease expenses, if we are unable to maintain sufficient Occupancy Rates and pricing, our lease expenses may exceed our revenue.”¹⁵ On 14 November 2025 it filed for liquidation under chapter 7 of US bankruptcy law, a week after Marriott ended a licence agreement with it¹⁶.

Sonder is not a solo operator. It carried head-office costs of 19.9% of revenue and marketing of 13.6%¹⁵. It shows the risk of fixed rent against variable bookings, not that a careful operator with a few units fails.

Other large operators closed too. AirDNA’s chief economist told Business Insider that the pandemic led some of the largest arbitrage companies to fail³⁹. A trade article on Sonder quotes one surviving operator: “You have to be a strong operator first. You can’t outgrow a weak operating model.”⁵⁸

Individual accounts, none of them checked by a third party.

• The San Francisco forum operator, posting in a thread started in April 2019, wrote: “Even the most successful arbitragers I know are spending $50K of start-up funds in year 1 to make $30K in profit(or $100K to make $80K)and are putting a lot of work into it.”⁴¹ He put payback at 6 to 12 months and the work at 30 minutes to 3 hours a week per unit when self-managed⁴¹. He added that operators who run it hands-off “typically pay out 25-50% of their potential profits” to managers, assistants and tools⁴¹. On landlords he was positive: “After 15 months in this business,all of my new units are coming as referrals from the landlords who are my partners already.”⁴¹ The forum marks the post as seven years old, so it predates the 2021 peak and the squeeze since. We could not check who he is.
• A writer on Substack in December 2022 described one beach apartment let on stays of more than 28 days, which his city exempts from its short-term rules⁴³. The lease did not prohibit it, and the landlord was not told: the piece is titled “Don’t tell my landlord” and calls the tactics “extremely ‘grey hat’”⁴³. He reports “just over $2000 net profit” in the first month and “just over $4000 net profit” in the next, on rent of just under $2,000 and a set-up of under $1,000⁴³. He then could not repeat it: “all the lease agreements we reviewed have expressly prohibited us from operating an Airbnb. Unless we find another unicorn, like the one we currently rent, Airbnb arbitrage might be dead for us”⁴³. We did not confirm the country or the currency, and found no follow-up.
• In a 2023 forum thread, a landlord described an arbitrage tenant who stayed for years and absorbed two 8% rent rises⁴². Another landlord wrote: “I know multiple LL [landlords] that have got burned by arbitragers in the last few years in my market.”⁴² A former operator there said the spreads he saw in 2016 and 2017 no longer existed in his Florida market⁴².
• Rakidzich writes that leases signed at 2022 rents in some large cities are “bleeding $400 to $900 per month per door”¹⁰. He gives no data for it.

Accounts from people who also sell coaching are under “The upside”.

What the rules allow now

Airbnb’s rules

Airbnb does not ban arbitrage. It puts the responsibility on the host. Its Terms, last updated 5 February 2026, say: “You are responsible for understanding and complying with any laws, rules, regulations, and contracts with third parties that apply to your Listing or Host Services. For example: Some landlords and leases, or homeowner and condominium association rules, restrict or prohibit subletting, short-term rentals and/or longer-term stays.”²³ Its host standards say: “Hosts must be authorized to host and comply with all applicable laws.”²⁴ Its help pages tell tenants: “Read your lease agreement and check with your landlord if applicable.”²⁷

So the permitted version needs the landlord’s consent. AirDNA puts it this way: “your landlord must explicitly approve short-term rental use in writing”⁶. A version that depends on the landlord not knowing is outside Airbnb’s standard, and outside the lease wherever the lease restricts subletting.

What Airbnb can do under its terms:

• It “may, with or without prior notice: suspend or limit your access”, remove listings and “cancel pending or confirmed bookings” when a host breaks the terms, the law or someone else’s rights²³. It can also end any account for any reason on 30 days’ notice²³. We found no figures on how often it does this.
• Its payments arm “may temporarily place a hold, suspend, or cancel any Payout” during an investigation²⁵.
• Its damage cover has limits: “The Host Damage Protection guarantee is not insurance or an offer to insure”²⁶. The Terms require hosts to carry their own liability insurance²³. The Insurance Information Institute says: “Standard homeowners and renters insurance policies are designed for personal risks, not commercial risks.”³⁵

The rent stays due if any of these happens.

Airbnb’s own route for renters

Airbnb runs a programme of “Airbnb-friendly” apartment buildings where the lease allows hosting²¹. It is built for part-time hosting of the flat you live in. Building rules “may include a limit on the number of nights residents can host per year” and on how many residents host at once²¹. The building can take “an agreed portion of the resident’s hosting earnings” and change that share on 30 days’ notice²¹. TechCrunch reported at the 2022 launch that owners take 20% to 25% of bookings; Airbnb’s page gives no percentage²².

The earnings Airbnb has published for it are small. Hosts in these buildings earned about $1.5 million together in 2022, “with the typical Host earning $4,500”²⁰. A year after launch, “The typical AFA Host has earned approximately $3,500” over about 30 nights²⁰. One building’s page, read this week, advertises: “Hosts like Gina, in downtown San Diego, earned an average of $16,942 per year”¹⁹. These are bookings before rent and costs.

City law

• New York City. “You cannot rent out an entire apartment or home to visitors for less than 30 days, even if you own or live in the building.”²⁸ A host must live in the home and be present, with at most two paying guests, and booking sites may not process unregistered listings²⁸. Penalties are “the lesser of either $5,000 per transaction or triple the revenue the host generated”²⁸. About three years in, the city reports more than 3,500 registered hosts, and “more than 14,000 property owners and managers have placed their buildings on the prohibited list”²⁹.
• Los Angeles. The city’s programme “restricts eligibility to Angelenos’ primary residences”, and a tenant needs “the notarized signature of the property owner on the Landlord Affidavit”³¹. Leasing extra flats to list them is outside it.
• Scottsdale, Arizona. Allowed, as a licensed business. Every property rented for under 30 days needs a city licence, county registration and “liability coverage of at least $500,000”³³.
• Europe. A news report says Airbnb removed nearly 65,000 unregistered listings in Spain in 2025 at a ministry’s request³⁷. The EU’s short-term rental regulation says: “It shall apply from 20 May 2026.”³⁸

We checked only these places.

Court and regulator cases

These cases concern only the people and companies named in them. We do not suggest any connection with any account quoted on this page.

• Los Angeles, pending as far as we could find. On 10 July 2024 the Los Angeles City Attorney filed a civil case (Superior Court number 24STCV15416) against operators alleged to have leased at least 30 homes and let them on Airbnb without city registration³². The release describes “leasing properties from owners on a long-term basis and then turning around and offering them as short-term rentals on Airbnb and other platforms - a scheme known as ‘short-term rental arbitrage’”, alleges earnings of more than $4 million, and seeks up to $15 million in penalties³². It uses the words “fraudulent and illegal business practices”³². These are allegations. We did not find the outcome or the defendants’ reply.
• New York City, settled. On 20 March 2024 the city announced an $845,000 settlement with Mega Home, Inc. and a broker over short-term lets of four housing units in two Manhattan buildings³⁰. The city says “Airbnb disbursed more than $2 million to the defendants” between 2019 and 2022³⁰. The page does not say whether the units were leased or owned.
• An eviction. A New York appeals court in 2017 ordered the eviction of a rent-stabilised tenant (one whose rent is capped by law), reversing a lower court, after she hosted 93 guests over 338 days in 2011 and 2012³⁴. We read a law-school summary, not the ruling. It is one case under New York’s rent rules, not a general rule.

How a participant loses money

The lease is the exposure. Rent is owed for the whole term; bookings are not guaranteed. Rakidzich puts it at: “The cost of a wrong 12-month lease is $5,000 to $11,000.”¹⁰ The other routes are a listing removed by Airbnb²³, a city rule change, an eviction where the lease did not allow it³⁴, and damage or injury that insurance does not cover²⁶³⁵.

Who makes money from it

In our 28 tweets. 14 are attached to something on offer or a way to collect contacts: a “reply and I’ll message you” guide, a mentorship link, a “book a call” page, a course, a funding service or a planned paid PDF¹. One more links to an article¹. The other 13 show nothing on offer¹. Two accounts, @zafarbnbx and @jonjfarb, wrote seven of the tweets and hold about 83% of the recorded views (226,635 of 272,675, our sum)¹. Four tweets have no view count in our copy, so the true share is somewhat lower¹. We saw no affiliate links, meaning links that pay the poster a commission.

What the quoted accounts offer.

• The @zafarbnbx profile reads “$10,000,000/Year on @Airbnb | I teach 9-5ers how to make $20k/month in 15 days | Mentorship below” and links to a page that offers the “Airbnb Accelerator”⁴⁷. The page lists three packages: $4,000, $9,800, and “Platinum Mentorship Retail: $40,000 This Page Only: $22,499 or 2 installments of $13,000”⁴⁷. Two instalments come to $26,000. It says: “ALL SALES ARE FINAL, NO REFUNDS.”⁴⁷ Its guarantee is further coaching, not money back⁴⁷. The page footer is dated 2022, and we did not confirm that these prices apply today. The same page describes the business behind the claim: “scale from $0 - $450,000 in monthly revenue, expand to four states including Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Iowa, build a 16 member team”⁴⁷. $450,000 a month is $5.4 million a year (our sum), on a page dated 2022; the tweets a year later say $10 million¹. Neither is stated as profit. The top package includes “Access to our Private Lenders that will help you get 0% APR Business Funding”, meaning loans or cards with no interest for an opening period⁴⁷.
• The @MrFourToEight tweet about a student mentions “finishing course”¹. A review site lists a course called “BNB Profits”, which it attributes to the owner of that account, at $6,000 with “No refunds, all sales are final”, on a page updated in June 2023⁴⁹. The review’s author promotes his own, unrelated coaching programme⁴⁹. We did not find the course’s own sales page. The account’s profile today reads “I like old porsches and steak” and links to Instagram; it shows no course⁶⁴.
• The @jonjfarb tweets offered free landlord scripts and a pitch deck in return for a like, a comment and a follow¹⁶⁴. We could not see what the message led to, and we saw no paid product from this account. The profile today advertises bookkeeping for property investors, not an Airbnb product⁶³.
• The @hxxntrr tweet ends: “dm me “funding” and i’ll build your card stack for this exact play”⁶⁴. The profile reads “0% Business Funding” and links to scalewithcredit.com⁴⁸. That site offers help getting business credit cards for a flat fee given only on a call, and says: “The ‘$100K to $300K’ figure represents what some qualified applicants have accessed and is not typical or promised.”⁴⁸
• A small account in the set invites readers to book a free call and links to a sign-up page for a free video; no price is shown⁵¹.

What courses cost. Two lists, both by people who sell their own programmes, put named arbitrage courses between about $1,500 and $25,000, with cheap video courses at $39 to $56⁴⁹⁵⁰. We did not check those prices on each seller’s own page. A mentorship on the marketplace Whop was listed at $200 a month⁵².

The only outcome statistic comes from a seller. The course company 10XBNB publishes its own comparison of arbitrage courses, in which it ranks itself first with “Total: 25/25”⁴⁴. That page says: “In its 2026 internal student survey of 1,247 active operators, 73% reached profitability within 90 days, with an average of $2,100 in monthly profit per active unit. Students have launched more than 155 properties”⁴⁴. It adds: “Individual results vary and are not typical”⁴⁴. The survey covers active operators only, so anyone who stopped is left out. No method is published, and the page does not explain how 1,247 surveyed operators relate to “more than 155 properties”. On Trustpilot the company shows 4.8 of 5 from 418 reviews; the dozen or so recent reviews we read praise the coaching and do not report earnings⁴⁵.

Who is paid before the operator.

• Airbnb takes about 15.5% of every booking, whether or not the unit ends the month in profit³. It earns nothing from an empty night. It also pays a cash reward for referring new hosts, capped at 25 rewarded referrals; the amount is not published⁵³.
• The landlord gets the full rent whatever the bookings. In Airbnb-friendly buildings the building also takes a share of bookings²¹.
• Tool sellers charge by the month¹³¹⁴.
• Course and funding sellers are paid before the buyer signs a lease.

The operator is paid last, from what is left.

Regulators and sellers. In two searches we found no action by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or a state attorney general against a seller of lease-based arbitrage courses. That may be a gap in our search. In January 2025 the FTC proposed extending its rule on earnings disclosures to “money-making opportunities, such as business coaching and investment opportunities”⁵⁵. We did not confirm whether that became final. The FTC’s nearest completed cases concern house-flipping training, a different product⁵⁴.

A different product under the same name. CNBC reported in February 2024 on a lawsuit against Hands-Free Automation. CNBC wrote that the company “required a payment of between $20,000 and $30,000 to effectively own a piece of Airbnb listings”, which were relisted from “hotel booking and short-term rental sites”, not leased flats⁴⁶. The report says: “22 plaintiffs saying they received fewer than five bookings each, including 16 who said they had no bookings at all”⁴⁶. These are allegations in a case that was still proceeding then; we did not find the outcome. The company’s lawyer told CNBC it “doesn’t have investors, but rather has clients who pay a ‘flat fee’” and said “We have always honored our fiduciary obligations”⁴⁶. CNBC noted that the company had not been charged by any agency⁴⁶. The case concerns only that company.

The upside

Arbitrage does pay some people. This section sets out the best cases we found and marks who checked each one. No individual operator’s income that we found was verified by a third party.

What the market data supports

• AirDNA’s verdict in March 2026: “Arbitrage still works in 2026. Premiums above 100% leave room to cover expenses and generate profit. However, because the cushion is thinner than it was a few years ago, you really need to have your operations and budgets down pat in order to be profitable.”⁶ AirDNA sells data to people entering this market, so it gains when they do.
• In AirDNA’s strongest markets, bookings run at three to four times rent⁶. Our estimate, using both Step 6 sums at three times an $1,800 rent ($5,400 of bookings): about $870 to $1,460 a unit a month if the full 15.5% comes off those bookings, and about $1,550 to $2,140 if only 3% does. The sums are 5,400 x 0.495 - 1,800 and 5,400 - 1,800 - 837 - 800 - 500 for the first pair, and the same with a fee of $162 for the second. More bookings also mean more cleaning, which these sums hold flat.
• AirROI’s best city averages $698 a unit, and a well-run unit in its Nashville example reaches $1,540⁸⁶⁵.
• Demand is steady, not collapsing: occupancy is forecast to hold near 57%⁵⁶⁰.

Companies that work with landlords

• Blueground leases apartments, furnishes them and lets them, mostly for a month or longer. TechCrunch reported in March 2024: “Sales jumped by 70% to $560 million in 2023”, and “Gross margin - that’s after it pays landlords for leases - is approximately 35%”⁵⁷. These are the chief executive’s statements about a private company, not audited accounts. Gross margin is before staff, furniture and overheads. The same article names rivals that “shut their doors and returned the keys”⁵⁷. We did not check later results.
• Lodgeur, founded in Houston in 2019, reports four Houston properties and “occupancy above 90%”, serving business and medical stays⁵⁹. Its release says: “The company leases or revenue-shares furnished units directly with ownership”⁵⁹. Its founder says: “We’re not subletting. We’re building long-term relationships with assets that align with our standard.”⁵⁹ So this is the landlord-partnered version, not a tenant’s sublet. These are the company’s own claims, and it publishes no profit figure.

Operators’ own statements

• A host profiled by Business Insider in 2024 runs nearly 50 units. The article reports: “She says she pays about $100,000 in rent to her many landlords each month but can pocket as much as $80,000 during busy travel seasons”³⁹. Her courses “cost as much as $2,000”³⁹. The article does not say the figures were checked. It quotes her: “it’s not get-rich-quick, easy money”³⁹. Of this group of hosts it says: “It’s often difficult to tell from their videos what takes precedence: the hosting or the coaching.”³⁹
• The St. Louis host wrote in December 2022 that she took $375,000 in revenue that year, starting in May 2021⁴⁰. Beside the one-bedroom figures in Step 6, she says her largest listing “costs about $3,500 a month to run and brings in around $7,500 to $10,000”⁴⁰. These are her own figures from a stronger year for the market. A later article says her coaching site claims more than 2,000 students³⁹.
• The @zafarbnbx sales page states $450,000 a month in revenue with a 16-person team⁴⁷.
• The San Francisco forum operator’s best cases: $30,000 of profit in year one on $50,000 of start-up money, and nobody in his group of 200 at six figures of profit in the first two years⁴¹.
• The Substack writer’s roughly $6,000 of net profit in two and a half months from one unit is the version the landlord was not told about, so we do not count it as a model to follow⁴³.

The top tenth

No source gives earnings for the top tenth of arbitrage operators. The nearest measures:

• A host-software company’s study of 2.2 million US listings says: “The top 10% of listings earn 41.6% of all revenue. The bottom half of all listings earn just 8.2% combined.”⁵⁶ It is a vendor’s study with a thin method note, and it covers all listings, owned and leased.
• In the Nashville model, a unit at the 75th percentile clears $1,540 a month against $132 at the median⁸.
• Airbnb’s own figure for the typical US host, mostly owners, is $15.6K of earnings in 2025, about $1,300 a month before any rent or mortgage¹⁸. An earlier Airbnb release gave “more than $14,000” for 2022¹⁷. An arbitrage unit has to earn well above typical to cover rent at all.

A realistic good result (our estimate)

Year one, one or two units. In an average market that works, about $500 to $900 a month per unit once bookings settle, which Rakidzich puts at three to six months⁹. At that rate, set-up money of $8,000 to $22,000 takes about 9 to 44 months to earn back (our sum). Only a cheap set-up pays back inside a 12-month lease. In a market where bookings run near three times rent, about $900 to $2,100 a unit, and payback in about 4 to 24 months (our sums).

Year two and beyond. A full-time income means several units. Rakidzich’s page says 4 to 7 units match a $60,000 salary; at his own $700 to $1,400 a unit the sum gives 4 to 8⁹. At that point it is a small hospitality business with leases, cleaners and guests to manage.

When it really works. The largest self-reported cases are staffed companies with dozens of units³⁹⁴⁷. AirDNA’s view of that path: “You can make money with rental arbitrage, but making a full-time living is tough to sustain.” It calls arbitrage “a way to get in, not a way to grow”⁶.

What it takes to compete

What those who succeed have

1. Written permission. A lease, or an addendum (a page added to the lease), that allows short-term letting in plain words⁶²³. This is the first gate. Business Insider describes the work as contacting landlords, “sometimes hundreds in one city”³⁹. A tweet by @jonjfarb says “90% of beginners struggle with convincing the landlords”⁶⁴. The Substack writer found every later lease prohibited it⁴³. Rakidzich describes a building’s management trying to remove short-term operators five weeks after he signed ten leases there¹⁰. Those who pass the gate tend to do it through relationships: the San Francisco operator signed with small landlords, offered early rent and free maintenance, and says his later units came as referrals from them⁴¹.
2. A city that licenses it. Somewhere a person who neither owns nor lives in the home may let it by the night, with the licence, taxes and insurance in place²⁸³¹³³. New York shows the other end: whole-home short lets are banned, and more than 14,000 owners and managers have listed their buildings as prohibited²⁸²⁹.
3. A market with a wide spread. AirROI’s break-even is bookings of about 2.0 times the rent, and its rule of thumb for a workable margin is 2.5 times⁸⁶⁵. One seller sets the bar higher. Rakidzich: “If your prospective unit cannot hit 2.8x rent in gross bookings, walk away”¹⁰. AirDNA’s national average of about 2.4 times sits between break-even and those bars⁶.
4. Operating skill. Pricing that changes daily, good photos, fast replies, reliable cleaning. The gap between $132 and $1,540 in the Nashville model is the gap between a median and a well-run unit in the same place⁸.
5. Cash for the set-up and for slow months. About $8,000 to $22,000 per unit (Step 8), including a reserve. The Nashville model suggests $3,249 to cover its slow months⁸.
6. Time. Three accounts give 30 minutes to 3 hours a week per unit⁴¹, 2 to 4 hours “with systems” and 15 to 20 without¹⁰, and 5 to 10 hours⁶². Handing it over costs 20% to 30% of revenue for a manager¹², or 25% to 50% of profit by the forum account⁴¹. One collected tweet reports a payout with no hours worked¹; we found no costed account of a hands-off unit that still made a profit.
7. At scale, a company. The largest operators’ own pages describe staff, software and outside funding⁴⁷⁵⁹.

What it costs

Our estimate for one unit: $8,000 to $22,000 to open, reserve included (Step 8); and a signed lease of about $16,500 to $21,600 a year at $1,374 to $1,800 a month⁷. A course is optional and runs from about $40 to $22,499 on the pages and lists we saw⁴⁷⁴⁹.

How to tell early which side you are on

These checks are our judgement, built from the figures above.

• Before signing: do you have the permission in writing? If the plan depends on the landlord not finding out, it is outside Airbnb’s standard²³²⁴.
• Before signing: is it legal for a non-resident tenant in that city? Read the city’s own page, not a course’s summary²⁸³¹³³.
• Before signing: what do similar listings nearby take in a year? Divide by twelve and compare with the rent. About 2.0 times is break-even in AirROI’s model; 2.5 to 2.8 times are the bars two sources set⁸¹⁰⁶⁵.
• Does your sum take the right fee off the right price? About 15.5% of what the guest pays. Many guides still take 3%²³¹².
• Can you pay the rent for the slowest three or four months with no profit? The Nashville model loses money in four months of the year at the median⁸.
• After three to six months: are you booked above the break-even share of nights? In the Nashville model that is 49%⁸. A unit near the national 57.8% in a peak month has little room in winter⁴.
• Does the plan need you to buy something first? The sums on this page are free to check. No seller we found publishes what share of all buyers, including those who stopped, reach any income level⁴⁴.

What we did not verify

• How many people who try this succeed. We found no dataset. The per-unit figures are two vendor models, our own estimates, sellers’ statements and individuals’ accounts. None is audited.
• The income claims in the tweets. None was checked. We did not open the accounts’ listings or records, or view the tweets’ images, videos and threads. We read the full text of four tweets⁶⁴; the rest were read from our collected copy, where some are cut off. Tweet dates are worked out from ID numbers. The count of tweets with something on offer relies on our collection’s labels; our researchers counted 13, 14 and 15 on different readings.
• Any individual operator’s income. We found no payout record, tax document or audited account for any individual. Business Insider’s articles do not say the figures were checked.
• The fee basis of AirDNA’s revenue. We could not tell whether its 2025 revenue is before or after the old 3% host fee, or how far hosts have raised prices since the change. Our estimates in Step 6 are shown both ways for that reason.
• Why the two data vendors differ. AirDNA’s national premium implies about 2.4 times rent; AirROI’s nine-city table shows 1.0 to 2.3 times. We did not reconcile them. AirROI’s figures are models. Rakidzich’s city figures do not match AirROI’s table.
• Apartments specifically. AirDNA’s $287 nightly rate covers all home sizes. Its tables of best and worst arbitrage markets are images we did not read, so apart from Charleston we cannot name its high-premium markets. We did not confirm AirDNA’s exact formula for the premium.
• Our own estimates. The per-unit estimates mix datasets and rest on assumed cleaning, utility and insurance costs.
• The forum and blog sources. The San Francisco forum operator’s identity and his group of 200 could not be checked. The Substack writer’s country and currency were not confirmed. The STR Specialist forum’s reliability is doubted.
• Costs not priced. Insurance for tenant operators, licence fees, lodging tax rates and other host software prices were not collected.
• Airbnb-friendly buildings. Current size, current earnings, night caps and the building’s share were not found on Airbnb’s pages.
• Fee dates. The 2025 date for the earlier fee change comes from trade sources, not from Airbnb.
• Enforcement. How often Airbnb removes listings or holds payouts over unauthorised subletting is unknown. We read only Airbnb’s terms, not those of Vrbo or Booking.com.
• Court cases. The outcomes of the Los Angeles case and the Hands-Free Automation lawsuit were not found. The 2017 eviction ruling was read in a summary. A reported criminal case in New York involving sublet apartments was seen only in press reports; we could not open a court or Justice Department document, so we do not describe it. State regulators were searched only lightly.
• Sonder. The reasons for its failure are not established here beyond its own filings.
• Course prices and terms. The Airbnb Accelerator prices are from a page dated 2022. Other course prices come from other sellers’ lists. The funding site’s fee, and what the “reply for a message” offers led to, were not seen.
• Places outside the United States. Two collected tweets promote the scheme in Nigeria and one gives returns in Indian rupees¹. We checked no rent, rate or legal source for either country, nor for London or Barcelona.
• Reddit. Our tools could not open it, so host forums there were not read.
• Refused pages and exact quotes. AirDNA, AirROI’s article, Business Insider, CNBC, BiggerPockets, Trustpilot, the STR Specialist forum, Rakidzich’s site and the Airbnb Accelerator page were read through a reader service (r.jina.ai), most of them because the site refused direct reading. Some pages, including the funding site, the FTC pages, the Whop listing and two Airbnb help pages, were read through a tool that summarises text; quotes from them were not checked word for word.
• Whether the people named have seen this page. The people and companies named here were not contacted.

Sources

“Read at source” means we opened the page itself. The research is dated 7 October 2026; the pages were opened or re-opened on 8 October 2026, and each entry shows that date. “Secondary” means we read an article or summary about the source, not the source itself. “Through a reader service” means a service fetched the page for us.

1. Does It Pay collection of 28 tweets on this scheme, collected 2026-10-06; individual tweets linked above. Read from our collected copy, not from the live tweets. Counts and sums from it are our estimates.
2. Airbnb Resource Center, “Simplifying service fees on Airbnb”. https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/simplifying-service-fees-on-airbnb-771 . 2026-07-07, updated 2026-08-24. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
3. Airbnb Help, service fees. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1857 . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
4. AirDNA, US review for August 2026. https://www.airdna.co/blog/u.s.-review-august-2026 . 2026-09-16. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
5. AirDNA, 2026 Outlook Report. https://www.airdna.co/outlook-report . About December 2025; page undated. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service. The yearly table was read from its image, https://images.prismic.io/airdna-next/aUF-4HNYClf9oR28_Outlook-summary-table.jpg .
6. AirDNA, “Airbnb rental arbitrage”. https://www.airdna.co/blog/airbnb-rental-arbitrage . 2026-03-09. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
7. Apartment List, national rent data. https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/national-rent-data . 2026-09-29. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
8. AirROI, rental arbitrage calculator (Nashville example). https://airroi.com/calculator/rental-arbitrage . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08. Modelled figures.
9. Rakidzich.com, “Airbnb rental arbitrage salary 2026”. https://www.rakidzich.com/articles/airbnb-rental-arbitrage-salary-2026 . 2026-08-19. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service. The site sells the author’s courses.
10. Rakidzich.com, “Airbnb arbitrage markets that work 2026”. https://www.rakidzich.com/articles/airbnb-arbitrage-markets-that-work-2026 . 2026; undated in the text read. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
11. AirDNA, “Airbnb startup cost”. https://www.airdna.co/blog/airbnb-startup-cost . 2025-01-09. Budget furniture figures: https://www.airdna.co/blog/airbnb-furniture , 2025-12-05. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
12. AirDNA, “Airbnb host costs”. https://www.airdna.co/blog/airbnb-host-costs . 2024-12-18. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
13. PriceLabs, pricing. https://hello.pricelabs.co/plans/ . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
14. AirDNA, pricing. https://www.airdna.co/pricing . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
15. Sonder Holdings Inc., annual report (Form 10-K) for 2024. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1819395/000181939525000088/sond-20241231.htm . Filed 2025-07-24. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
16. Sonder Holdings Inc., Form 8-K. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1819395/000162828025052329/son-20251107.htm . Filed 2025-11-14. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
17. Airbnb Newsroom, “Hosts in the US earned $22 billion in supplemental income last year”. https://news.airbnb.com/hosts-in-the-us-earned-22-billion-in-supplemental-income-last-year/ . 2023-03-23. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
18. Airbnb Newsroom, “About us” fast facts. https://news.airbnb.com/about-us/ . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
19. Airbnb, Airbnb-friendly apartments, one building’s page. https://www.airbnb.com/airbnb-friendly/property/473228816928302204/park-12-tower . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
20. Airbnb Newsroom, “Airbnb-friendly apartments turns one”. https://news.airbnb.com/airbnb-friendly-apartments-turns-one/ . 2023-12-18. Also https://news.airbnb.com/airbnb-friendly-apartments-widely-available-in-the-us , 2023-04-20. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
21. Airbnb Help, the Airbnb-friendly buildings programme. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1195 . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
22. TechCrunch, report on the launch of Airbnb-friendly apartments. https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/30/airbnb-is-helping-finds-renters-an-apartment-so-they-can-airbnb-it . 2022-11-30. Secondary.
23. Airbnb, Terms of Service. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2908 . Last updated 2026-02-05. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
24. Airbnb Help, host standards, https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3057 , and hotel listings, https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/4146 . Undated pages. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
25. Airbnb, Payments Terms of Service. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2909 . Undated in the text read. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
26. Airbnb, Host Damage Protection Terms. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2869 . Last updated 2026-08-01. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
27. Airbnb Help, responsible hosting. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1376 ; also https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/961 and https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/806 . Undated pages. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
28. New York City Office of Special Enforcement, pages for hosts. https://www.nyc.gov/site/specialenforcement/registration-law/tips-for-hosts.page ; https://www.nyc.gov/site/specialenforcement/faq/faq-for-prospective-hosts.page ; https://www.nyc.gov/site/specialenforcement/faq/faq-for-registered-hosts.page . Undated pages. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
29. New York City Office of Special Enforcement, release on registered hosts passing 3,500. https://www.nyc.gov/site/specialenforcement/news/new-yorkers-registered-to-host-surpassed-3500-for-first-time.page . About September 2026; exact day not shown. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
30. New York City Office of Special Enforcement, settlement announcement. https://www.nyc.gov/site/specialenforcement/news/ose-and-the-nydos-announce-settlement-ending-illegal-short-term-rental.page . 2024-03-20. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
31. Los Angeles City Planning, Home-Sharing. https://planning.lacity.gov/plans-policies/initiatives-policies/home-sharing . Current to 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
32. Los Angeles City Attorney, release on a short-term rental lawsuit. https://cityattorney.lacity.gov/updates/city-attorney-hydee-feldstein-soto-files-lawsuit-against-massive-scale-violators-short-term . 2024-07-10. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
33. City of Scottsdale, vacation and short-term rentals. https://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/codes-and-ordinances/vacation-and-short-term-rentals/information-for-owners-and-operators . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
34. CityLand (New York Law School), report on a 2017 Appellate Division ruling, 150 A.D.3d 562. https://www.citylandnyc.org/airbnb-host-evicted-apartment/ . 2017-10-27. Secondary; read on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
35. Insurance Information Institute, peer-to-peer home rental. https://www.iii.org/article/peer-to-peer-home-rental . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
36. US Internal Revenue Service, Topic 414, rental income and expenses. https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc414 . Refers to tax year 2025. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
37. Catalan News, report on Airbnb listings removed in Spain. https://www.catalannews.com/society-science/item/airbnb-removes-almost-65000-illegal-listings-at-request-of-spains-consumer-affairs-ministry . 2025-07-30. Secondary.
38. Regulation (EU) 2024/1028. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1028/oj . 2024. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
39. Business Insider, feature on Airbnb arbitrage hosts. https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-new-side-hustle-getting-rich-airbnb-super-hosts-2024-10 . 2024-10-02. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
40. Business Insider, first-person essay by a host. https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-host-how-i-set-up-scaled-properties-inayah-mcmillan-2022-12 . 2022-12-08. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
41. BiggerPockets forum, “Airbnb rental arbitrage”. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/530/topics/694441-airbnb-rental-arbitrage . Thread started 2019-04-08; the quoted posts are marked seven years old. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
42. BiggerPockets forum, “Success in rental arbitrage”, pages 1 and 2. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/530/topics/1142670-success-in-rental-arbitrage?page=1 and https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/530/topics/1142670-success-in-rental-arbitrage?page=2 . Thread started 2023-09-18. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
43. Occasionally Productive (Substack), “Don’t tell my landlord: My Secret Airbnb Makes Over $4000 A Month”. https://occasionallyproductive.substack.com/p/airbnb . 2022-12-06. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
44. 10XBNB, “Best Airbnb Arbitrage Course in 2026: Programs Compared”, the company’s own comparison of courses. https://learn.10xbnb.com/airbnb-arbitrage-coaching/ . 2026-03-01. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
45. Trustpilot, 10XBNB reviews, first page only. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/10xbnb.com . Latest review 2026-10-07. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
46. CNBC, report on a lawsuit against Hands-Free Automation. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/11/investors-in-airbnb-arbitrage-business-allege-they-were-defrauded.html . 2024-02-11. Read on 2026-10-08, through a reader service. Secondary for the lawsuit’s contents.
47. Airbnb Accelerator sales page, https://www.zafarbnb.com/humza-twitter , footer dated 2022, read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service. Profile text for @zafarbnbx read on 2026-10-08 through api.fxtwitter.com.
48. Scale With Credit. https://scalewithcredit.com . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08. Profile text for @hxxntrr read on 2026-10-08 through api.fxtwitter.com.
49. Ippei.com, review of “BNB Profits” and a course list. https://ippei.com/bnb-profits/ (updated 2023-06-26) and https://ippei.com/best-airbnb-arbitrage-courses/ (updated 2023-06-17). Secondary; the author promotes his own, unrelated coaching programme.
50. Rakidzich.com, article on coaching sales calls. https://www.rakidzich.com/articles/airbnb-coaching-sales-call-red-flags-2026 . 2026. Secondary; the site sells the author’s courses.
51. Sign-up page linked from a small account’s profile. https://thebusinessgame.info/bnb-blueprint . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
52. Whop, a mentorship listing. https://whop.com/airbnb-arbitrage-6c/bnb-premium-mentorship-master/ . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
53. Airbnb Help, host referral programme. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3405 . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
54. US Federal Trade Commission, case pages for Nudge, LLC, https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/182-3016-nudge-llc , and Zurixx, LLC, https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/182-3063/zurixx-llc . Read at source on 2026-10-08.
55. US Federal Trade Commission, proposed rule changes on earnings claims. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-proposes-rule-changes-new-rule-deter-deceptive-earnings-claims-multilevel-marketers-money-making . 2025-01-13. Read at source on 2026-10-08.
56. IntelliHost, revenue concentration study. https://intellihost.co/data-studies/revenue-pareto . 2026; no fixed date. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
57. TechCrunch, report on Blueground. https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/28/furnished-rental-blueground-raises-45m/ . 2024-03-28. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
58. Bisnow, report on Sonder’s closure. https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/hotel/how-growth-over-operations-led-to-sonders-closure-and-chaos-131953 . 2025-11-23. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
59. Lodgeur, company press release. https://www.lodgeur.com/lodgeur-upper-kirby-launch-sold-out-opening-weekend . First released 2025-06-30; posted on the company’s site later. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
60. ShortTermRentalz, “Slower STR supply growth boosts pricing power, AirDNA reports”. https://shorttermrentalz.com/news/slower-str-supply-growth-airdna/ . 2026-07-09. Secondary; read on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.
61. Dates of the earlier fee change: AirDNA, “How much does Airbnb charge hosts”, https://www.airdna.co/blog/how-much-does-airbnb-charge-hosts , 2024-10-29, later updated; Hostaway, https://www.hostaway.com/airbnb-host-only-fee-what-to-know-about-the-15-percent-host-fee . Secondary.
62. STR Specialist forum thread. https://strspecialist.com/community/thread/rental-arbitrage-still-viable-2025 . Posted 2026-01-02. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service. Reliability doubted.
63. Profile text for @jonjfarb. https://x.com/jonjfarb . Read on 2026-10-08 through api.fxtwitter.com.
64. Full text of four tweets, read on 2026-10-08 through api.fxtwitter.com: https://x.com/hxxntrr/status/2069480628605862012 (2026-06-23), https://x.com/MrFourToEight/status/1526349572628353024 (2022-05-16; the same record gives the account’s profile text), https://x.com/jonjfarb/status/1723891146131157050 (2023-11-13) and https://x.com/jonjfarb/status/1721400736062345369 (2023-11-06). Read at source through that service; images and threads not viewed.
65. AirROI, “Airbnb Rental Arbitrage 2026: 9 Markets Exposed”. https://airroi.com/blog/airbnb-rental-arbitrage-2026 . 2026-03-23. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service. Modelled figures.
66. AirDNA Help, “How does AirDNA calculate revenue”. https://help.airdna.co/en/articles/8374548-how-does-airdna-calculate-revenue . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-08, through a reader service.

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