All plans, including Free
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iOS, Android, web
STR Loophole Tracking gives every short-term rental in REPSLog its own hour counter, separate from your long-term rentals and from the 750-hour REPS number. It is built for hosts and investors who want to show material participation in an STR business without qualifying as a real estate professional. Long-term and short-term rentals live side by side in one account, with a toggle between the REPS counters and the STR counters, so you do not need a second app for the STR loophole. It works the same on iPhone, Android and the web app.
What it does
When you add a property you mark it Long Term Rental or Short Term Rental. Every entry logged against an STR property is tagged as an STR hour and rolls into the STR side of your dashboard, never into the REPS total, so your STR hours always have their own count.
On the Overview card each STR property gets its own row: the property nickname, the hours you have logged against it, a slash and the goal (64 / 100 by default), and a progress bar. With more than one STR property, a Total Hours Combined header shows the sum across all of them, and its info icon explains the grouping election: with 500 or more hours across them, you may be able to treat your properties as one activity for material participation. A gear icon opens the Set Tracking Goal sheet, where you choose Reach 100 Hours (the default, per property) or Reach 500 Hours (the grouping election view); the choice applies to every STR row.
Tap the chevron on a row to expand the breakdown by participant. Your hours and your spouse’s hours are shown as one combined line (for example “Myself (40h) + Spouse (24h)”) and that combined figure is what fills the bar. Any other participant you logged, such as a cleaner, co-host or contractor, is listed underneath with their own hours, so you can see whether anyone else spent more time on the property than you did. Entries logged without a property appear as an “Unassigned” row.
Below the counter, the Total Hours by Category card breaks the same STR hours down by category, and the getting-started card offers “Learn about the STR Loophole”, a short explainer inside the app. On the web app the Overview widget sits next to a “Recent Entries” list filtered to STR entries.
Guest stays feed the log too. Connect a listing’s Airbnb, Vrbo or other iCal link with Booking Calendar Sync (Premium) and each stay appears on the REPSLog calendar. Tap a stay and Add Related Entries suggests the work hosts log around it, such as Cleaning & Turnover or Restocking Supplies & Amenities, and opens a prefilled entry for the one you pick. A stay never becomes an entry on its own; you review and save each one, with the cleaner or co-host as the participant where they did the work.
At tax time, Export My Log packages the year into a ZIP with a separate str_entries.csv and str_entries.pdf, each row carrying the property, the participant and any attached receipts, so your CPA can total one listing’s hours and see who performed them.
If you also own long-term rentals, an LTR / STR toggle appears at the top of the dashboard and each side keeps its own goal, its own year picker and its own category breakdown. In Settings, the Properties control (LTR, STR or Both) decides which views exist; the app sets it for you when you add your first property of each type.
Changing a property from LTR to STR (or back) is one toggle on the property’s edit screen. REPSLog asks “Would you like to change this property from LTR to STR?” and, when you confirm with Change Property Type, re-tags every entry already logged against that property, so your dashboard totals move with it.
How it works
Go to Properties and tap + Add a New Property. Search the address, then on the details step set Property Type to Short Term Rental and save.
Log entries as usual and pick that property in the entry form. Each entry’s duration is added to that property’s STR row for the year it was performed.
Open the Overview (Dashboard) tab. If you have both property types, tap STR in the toggle at the top.
Read each property’s
hours / goalrow. Tap the chevron to see the participant breakdown.To change the target, tap the gear in the “Total Hours Combined” header (or on the single row if you have one property), choose Reach 100 Hours or Reach 500 Hours, and tap Done.
To move an existing property between LTR and STR, open it from Properties, flip the Property Type toggle, tap Save Property and confirm Change Property Type. The web app opens the property in a dialog; iPhone and Android open a full screen.
Why it matters for your hours
The STR loophole treats a short-term rental with an average stay of seven days or less as a business rather than a rental activity, so its losses can offset other income if you materially participate. Two of the common ways to show that are 500 hours in the activity, or 100 hours where nobody else participates more than you. REPSLog’s per-property rows, combined total and participant breakdown are laid out to match those tests: your hours, your spouse’s, and everyone else’s, per property, per year.
Whether your properties qualify, whether to group them, and which test to rely on are questions for your CPA. REPSLog gives you the contemporaneous record to hand over.
Good to know
Available on every plan, including Free and the 14-day trial. Property counts are plan-limited: 1 on Free, 3 on Starter, unlimited on Premium.
Works on iPhone, Android and the web app; the STR / LTR split and the goal are saved to your account.
Two views, one account. Long-term rentals stay on the REPS counters and short-term rentals on the STR counters, with a toggle between them; you do not need a second app or a second login for the STR loophole.
STR goal options are 100 (default) and 500 hours. 500 is the grouping election view, for hosts whose CPA groups their short-term rentals as one activity. The 750-hour REPS goal does not apply to STR properties.
REPSLog shows your hours and your guest stays; it does not compute the average length of stay or tell you whether a property passes the seven-day test. That check, and whether the STR loophole applies to you, belongs with your CPA.
Your hours and your spouse’s hours are combined toward each STR bar. Other participants are listed but not counted.
Counters are per calendar year. A calendar button appears when your STR entries span more than one year.
Switching a property’s type re-tags all of its entries; the dashboard updates right away.
Switching the account-level Properties setting to LTR only or STR only is blocked while you still have properties or Unassigned entries of the other type.
No AI and nothing leaves your account for this feature.
Frequently asked questions
Does REPSLog track the STR loophole 100 hour test?
Yes. Each short-term rental gets its own hours / 100 row on the dashboard, with a breakdown by participant so you can compare your hours to anyone else who worked on the property.
Can I track STR and long-term rental hours in the same account?
Yes. Mark each property as Long Term Rental or Short Term Rental. The dashboard shows an LTR / STR toggle and keeps the two totals apart.
Do my spouse’s hours count for the STR loophole in REPSLog?
On the STR view, hours logged with “Spouse” as the participant are combined with yours toward each property’s bar. Whether that is right for your return is a question for your CPA.
How do I change a property from long-term to short-term rental?
Open the property from the Properties tab, switch the Property Type toggle, save, and confirm “Change Property Type”. Existing entries move to the STR view with it.
Can I set a 500 hour goal for my short-term rentals?
Yes. Tap the gear on the STR overview and pick “Reach 500 Hours”. Every STR row then measures against 500, and the combined total is shown at the top. This is the view for hosts who make the grouping election with their CPA and treat their short-term rentals as one activity.
Can REPSLog pull my Airbnb bookings into my STR hours?
It pulls the stays, not the hours. Booking Calendar Sync puts each guest stay on your calendar and suggests the related work; you confirm and save each entry, and it counts toward that property’s row.
Is REPSLog a good alternative to an STR-only hour tracker?
Yes, and it also covers long-term rentals in the same account. You get the per-property 100-hour rows, the participant breakdown for the more-than-anyone-else check, stays from 25 booking sites, and the REPS counters for any long-term rental you own, without a second app.
Related features
Learn more
The Help Center article How to Switch a Property from Long-Term Rental (LTR) to Short-Term Rental (STR) and Vice Versa walks through the toggle and the dashboard setting with screenshots.
From the blog: How do I turn Airbnb and Vrbo bookings into STR loophole hours?.
Watch it: How to add a long-term or short-term rental on the REPSLog YouTube channel.
Try REPSLog free for 14 days on iOS, Android or the web app.