Real estate investing is a great way to make money, regardless of the economic and financial situation.

However, with the rise of the short term rental industry, investors have faced a major dilemma: Should they go for traditional rental properties or Airbnb rentals?

While investing in vacation rentals sounds like an attractive opportunity sweeping US markets, investing in long term rental properties comes with many important benefits. Here are the most significant ones.

Stable Rental Demand

The most important advantage of investing in long term rentals is the steady demand from tenants which they enjoy.

The spread of the Coronavirus pandemic in the US market demonstrated once again the vulnerability of the Airbnb business as guests are canceling their reservations and not making new ones.

Data from the real estate data analytics company Mashvisor shows massive drops in the Airbnb occupancy rate in the major US cities as a result of COVID-19. Between March 2019 and March 2020, New York City experienced a decline of 19 percent, San Francisco of 22 percent, Austin of 27 percent, and Atlanta of 32 percent, as just a few examples.

Meanwhile, demand for traditional rental properties has remained virtually unchanged in these locations as well as in the rest of the US housing market.

While people might not be looking for new rentals at the moment, very few if any are leaving their current properties. After all, in any situation people need a place to live. From an investor’s point of view, long term rental properties provide a stable demand which makes them one of the lowest-risk investment strategies in the real estate industry.

Less Turnover

Since traditional investment properties are rented out on a monthly or sometimes even yearly basis, the turnover is significantly less than with short term rentals. This is a major benefit for investors as it brings about predictability and a sense of stability.

Once a landlord manages to get his/her property rented, he/she can keep the same tenants for months or even years, as long as he/she performs some basic maintenance on the property.

Marketing an income property, looking for renters, and screening tenants are sizeable expenses for an investor, so he/she should aim to minimize them. That’s exactly what long term rentals do.

Reliable Source of Income

The ultimate goal of any real estate investor is to make money, and the way to make money with rental properties is through rental income.

While the truth is that Airbnb properties can bring a large income during the high season, most locations face a low season too, when the earnings of an investor drop significantly.

This variability is something which the owners of traditional rentals do not need to deal with. Because of the nature of traditional lease agreements, landlords can enjoy the constant flow of rental income month after month, without worrying about seasonality and subsequent fluctuations in rental demand. They can use their time and efforts to focus on expanding their real estate investment portfolio to make even more money with rental properties.

No Need to Adjust Pricing

Another pro of buying a long term rental property related to the point above is that you don’t need to keep changing and adapting your rental rate.

Airbnb hosts have to be flexible and adjust their pricing strategy on a weekly or even daily basis to optimize the occupancy rate and the rental income of their property. At the same time, landlords have to set up the rental property pricing with the help of rental comps once, with no need to change it for several months or even a couple of years.

They don’t have to fear that their competitors will be able to attract more tenants and leave their property vacant as the same holds true for all investors in long term rentals within the neighborhood. This makes traditional rentals a much more passive source of income than short term rental properties.

Cheaper Maintenance

Airbnb guests are notorious for the amount of damage which they frequently cause to vacation home rentals. This is a particularly challenging obstacle for hosts in major party destinations such as Las Vegas, Miami Beach, NYC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and others.

On the other hand, tenants treat rental properties as their own home as they spend months or even years living in the same place. Tear and wear is significantly less with long term rental property investments for this reason.

Moreover, depending on the provisions of the rental agreement, in many cases renters are responsible for the basic maintenance work on the property where they leave, while tenants have to intervene only in case of major problems.