Does Travel Time to an Out-of-State Airbnb Count Toward My Hours?
The commenters are right on this one. Treat the flight as zero hours, then qualify anyway: remote hosts have more countable work than they think.
A guide by Taxstra Tax & Accounting · CPA-led tax strategy for business owners
Written by Bryan Martin, CPA, Managing Partner and Founder of Taxstra. Last updated August 18, 2026.
The short answer
Generally, no. Courts have mostly treated travel to and from a rental like commuting: it is not operating the business, so it does not count toward material participation. A few taxpayer-friendly rulings exist on unusual facts, which is why you will see arguments online, but no serious advisor lets a client’s 100-hour case depend on drive time. What does count: everything you do at the property, and everything you do for the property from home. Out-of-state hosts qualify on those two buckets all the time.
Why travel hours are the weakest hours you can claim
The regulations already throw out "investor-type" time: reviewing financials, studying markets, arranging financing. Travel sits in the same disfavored neighborhood. The Tax Court has declined to count travel hours in multiple material participation cases, reasoning that getting yourself to the property is not managing or operating it, the same way your commute is not part of your job.
Yes, there are exceptions in the case law where travel was allowed on particular facts, and yes, people wave those cases around in forums. Here is the practical read: when your position depends on a judge agreeing that your six round trips belong in the log, you have already lost the leverage that makes this strategy comfortable. The winning move is a log that clears 100 hours with the travel column set to zero. Anything a court later allows is margin, not foundation.
The padding pattern examiners are trained to spot
The remote host's countable year
Now the encouraging half. A short-term rental is mostly run from a phone, and every bit of that operation counts wherever you are sitting:
| From home (all counts) | At the property (all counts) | The trip itself (assume zero) |
|---|---|---|
| Guest inquiries, bookings, check-in instructions, reviews | Repairs and maintenance you perform | Driving to and from the property |
| Dynamic pricing and calendar management | Furnishing, staging, inventory, restocking | Flights, layovers, hotel nights en route |
| Scheduling and supervising cleaners and vendors remotely | Deep cleans and turnover work you do yourself | Meals and errands during travel days |
| Listing copy, photos, platform optimization | Walk-through inspections, damage documentation | |
| Bookkeeping, expense tracking, permits, lodging taxes | Meeting contractors on site |
A defensible remote-host log (property 900 miles away)
- Guest communications and booking management (35 stays)
- 38 hours
- Pricing, calendar, and listing management (weekly)
- 22 hours
- Coordinating cleaners, restocks, and 11 repair events remotely
- 26 hours
- Two work trips: on-property repair, staging, and inspection hours
- 24 hours
- Bookkeeping, lodging tax filings, supply orders
- 12 hours
- Travel hours (2 round trips, logged separately)
- 0 counted
122 countable hours with travel at zero. The cleaner logged 96. Test 3 passes with the disputed column excluded entirely, which is exactly how you want to walk into any conversation with the IRS.
Practical rules for the out-of-state owner
- Keep a travel column anyway. Log the trips with dates and purpose, but outside your countable total. If your position is ever examined, documented-but-not-claimed travel signals discipline, and it preserves the argument if your advisor ever wants to make it.
- Make trips do double duty. The flight may count for nothing, but eight on-site hours of repairs, staging, and vendor meetings per trip is real participation. Photograph the work; save the receipts. And remember substantially-full-time repair days do not burn your personal-use budget under the Section 280A day counts.
- Do not delegate yourself out of the strategy. Remote hosts drift toward full-service managers, and one busy manager reintroduces the out-houred problem. Keep guest operations in your hands; hire hands for the physical work.
- Deducting travel is a separate question. Business travel to your rental can be deductible even though the hours do not count toward participation. Different tests, different rules; do not let the two analyses blur together in your records.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does driving or flying to my short-term rental count toward my 100 hours?
Plan on no. Courts have repeatedly declined to count ordinary travel to and from a rental property toward material participation, treating it like commuting. A handful of cases have allowed travel hours in specific fact patterns, but building your 100 hours on travel time is building on the weakest ground in the case law.
If travel does not count, can a remote host still hit 100 hours?
Yes, comfortably in most cases. Guest messaging, booking management, dynamic pricing, coordinating cleaners and repairs, writing and updating the listing, reviewing damage reports, and bookkeeping all happen from your laptop and all count. Remote hosts who actually run their property typically log well over 100 hours without ever boarding a plane.
Does the work I do once I arrive at the property count?
Yes. On-site repairs, deep cleaning, furnishing, inventory restocking, staging, and photographing the property are participation. The trip itself is the disputed part; the work you perform at the destination is not. Log the on-property hours separately from the travel hours so a challenge to one does not contaminate the other.
What if the whole purpose of the trip was repairs?
The on-site repair hours count either way. Whether the travel hours also count is exactly where the case law splits, and where examiners push back. Track them in a separate column and treat them as a bonus argument, never as the hours that get you across 100. If your qualification depends on counting the flight, your position is fragile.
Do maintenance trip days count as personal use days?
Days spent working substantially full time on repairs and maintenance are not personal use days under Section 280A, even if your spouse or kids come along. Keep receipts, photos, and your log entries for what was done. A beach week with an hour of caulking is a personal day; a weekend spent renovating a bathroom is not.
Is the travel still deductible as an expense even if the hours do not count?
Frequently yes, and keeping the two analyses separate is the sophistication move: transportation and lodging for trips whose primary purpose is managing your rental business are deductible travel expenses under the ordinary business rules, even though the same hours contribute nothing to material participation. Deducting the flight while excluding its hours from the log is not a contradiction; it is two different tests answered correctly.
Do conferences and host meetups count for anything?
Toward participation, no: education and networking are investor-type activities. As expenses, industry education directly related to your existing rental business is generally deductible under the normal rules. Same split as travel: potentially deductible dollars, never countable hours, and logs that blur that line hand examiners their easiest category to strike.
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This page is educational, not individualized tax advice. Short-term rental tax outcomes depend on your specific facts: your hours, your booking history, your personal use, and your documentation. Savings vary by client and results are not typical of every situation. Consult a qualified tax professional before acting on anything here.