The Hostomat reservations screen for a fixture account, framed on a green field with the headline about pricing a 28-night stay

Blog · October 17, 2026 · 6 min read

Airbnb monthly discount: what a 28-night winter stay pays

How Airbnb applies weekly and monthly discounts, the break-even math under a 15.5% fee, and the rules that change once a stay reaches 28 nights.

The Hostomat team

Open your Airbnb price settings and look at the monthly discount. If it is the number you typed two summers ago, it treats January exactly like July. Fix that before the winter searches start.

How the discount actually applies

Airbnb lets you set a weekly discount for stays of seven nights or more and a monthly discount for 28 nights or more, under Calendar, Price settings, Discounts (Help article 1233). Discounts of 10% or more show in search results.

Three details matter more than the percentage.

Only one discount applies. Airbnb says only one of new listing, custom, length-of-stay, early-bird or last-minute applies per reservation, though the top-rated guest discount can combine with any of them (Help article 3421). In Airbnb's example, a stay that qualifies for a 20% early-bird and a 30% monthly discount gets only the 30% (Help article 2061).
It comes off your nightly prices. Nightly adjustments first, then the length-of-stay discount, then the cleaning fee and service fee (Help article 2061).
The price locks at booking. Airbnb tells guests a monthly stay's price is locked in at the start (Help article 245).

Airbnb sometimes adds its own monthly stay savings on top, paid by Airbnb and not taken from your payout (Help article 1233). You do not control when.

The break-even math, with an invented example

An invented example for a one-bed place in February. Your nightly prices average $120. Most hosts now pay a 15.5% service fee out of their payout (Help article 1857), so each short-stay night pays you $101.40.

With a 25% monthly discount, 28 nights at $120 become $2,520, and you keep $2,129.40. Divide by $101.40 and you get 21. The monthly guest pays the same as selling 21 of the 28 nights short, at the same average price.

The rule: a monthly discount roughly breaks even when it equals the share of nights you expect to leave empty. Expect to fill 60% of February with short stays, and a discount up to about 40% is the same money. Expect 85%, and anything over about 15% gives money away.

That leaves out turnovers. Each short stay means another clean and more wear. A monthly stay has one, which moves the break-even toward the month.

Set it by month, not once

The default monthly discount applies in every month. A 30% that is right for a slow January is a gift in a busy one.

A rule-set can carry a length-of-stay discount on dates you choose, with monthly time frames from four to twelve weeks (Help article 2061). So you can offer 30% in January and February and 10% from March. Rule-sets sit in Airbnb's professional hosting tools, and Airbnb Smart Pricing must be off for one to apply, Airbnb says. The holiday rule-sets post shows the setup.

Watch the edges. A stay from 20 January runs into mid-February, and any big weekend inside it sells at the discounted average. Maximum nights, under Calendar, Availability, Trip length (Help article 880), is the simplest guard.

What changes past night 28

A stay of 28 nights or more is a different booking, not just a longer one.

Its own cancellation policy. Your long-term policy applies, Firm or Strict. Under Firm, guests get a full refund up to 30 days before check-in. After that you are paid for nights spent plus 30 more (Help article 475).
Payouts arrive monthly. The first month is paid out the business day after check-in, then monthly. Hosts with fewer than two completed stays and no verified location wait 28 days for the first payout (Help article 285).
Tenant rights may apply. Airbnb says that in most US states a guest staying a month or longer may establish tenant rights, and names California, Illinois and New York, where it can start after 30 consecutive days (Help article 805).

Read your local rules before accepting 30 nights. If you want a rental agreement, Airbnb says to state it in your house rules before booking. This is not legal advice; a local landlord-tenant attorney is.

How much demand to expect

Airbnb's Resource Center says nearly one in five nights booked is part of a stay of 28 nights or more, on 2022 and early 2023 data (Setting a price for longer stays, updated 17 May 2023). In its Q2 2026 shareholder letter of 6 August 2026, Airbnb said short stays in North America kept growing faster than long-term stays. So a long stay is a way to fill slow months, not the plan for the year.

What Hostomat does with any of this

Hostomat only writes nightly prices. Weekly and monthly discounts, trip lengths, cancellation policies, bookings and guests stay exactly as you set them on Airbnb.

What it sets is the number the discount comes off: every night up to 365 days ahead, priced every day against the listings actually competing with you. Your floor is enforced on every nightly price it writes. Airbnb takes the length-of-stay discount off at booking, after that, so a 30% monthly discount on a night at your floor books 30% under it. Set the floor with your discount in mind. More on where to set a floor and how the pricing works.

It works with Airbnb only, connected directly or through Hospitable. No Vrbo, no Booking.com yet. It is a young product.

The Hostomat reservations screen for a fixture account, with seven stays across three listings, including an 18-night long winter let in December — An illustrative Hostomat reservations page. The listings, guests, dates and amounts are fixture data, not a real host.

By hand, if you would rather

Open last winter's calendar. Divide the nights you sold in January and February by the nights in those months. One minus that share is your break-even discount, before turnovers. Put it in a rule-set for those months, keep the default lower, and open the guest price breakdown under your monthly price before saving. Airbnb shows your earnings there (Resource Center, Setting a price for longer stays).

Where this can go wrong

The break-even assumes short stays sell at the same average price. Weekends usually sell for more, so the honest discount is often lower. One monthly guest who cancels late, or will not leave, costs more than an empty week. Airbnb's rules and menu names also change between releases, so read the breakdown on your first long booking.

Set the winter rule-set this week. For a second look at the listing itself, the free listing audit needs no card. Pricing is 14 days free with no card, then $19 a listing a month, less from the 6th listing. Start at hostomat.io/guide.