28 Mar Short-Term vs. Long-Term Rentals in St. Louis: Which Pays?

We get this question from investors every month: should I put my St. Louis property on Airbnb or sign a 12-month lease? The honest answer is that it depends on the address, the rules that apply to that address, and how much work you want. Here’s how we walk clients through it, without the made-up income numbers you’ll find elsewhere.

Start with the rules, because they decide the answer

City of St. Louis

In November 2023 the Board of Aldermen passed Board Bills 33 and 34, now Ordinances 71729 and 71730. They define a short-term rental as a stay of 30 days or less, require a permit for each unit, require a designated agent reachable 24 hours a day, set a two-night minimum stay, cap operators at one permit for an owner-occupied home or four permits for non-occupied units, and bar short-term rentals on parcels receiving tax abatement or TIF. Units in Single-Family “A” zoning need a conditional-use hearing. Each unit needs smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and a fire extinguisher on every habitable floor. Violations carry a $500 fine per day, and three violations in 24 months means revocation.

Then came a Hancock Amendment lawsuit over the $150 annual permit fee. After a 2025 St. Louis Circuit Court order, the city paused the whole permit program. As of this writing, the Building Division’s short-term rental page states that a court order prohibits the city from enforcing Ordinance 71729 and it is not accepting applications. The ordinance is still on the books. Our advice: operate as if every rule above will be enforced again, because the city has signaled it intends to fix the fee and restart the program.

Separately, city voters approved Proposition S in November 2024, a 3 percent fee on short-term rental revenue that took effect in February 2026 and is paid quarterly by operators. That is on top of the city’s 3.5 percent Convention and Sports Tax and 3.75 percent Convention and Tourism Tax, which the License Collector applies to all transient lodging including Airbnb-style rentals, plus Missouri’s 4.225 percent state sales tax. Airbnb has collected and remitted the two city hotel taxes on city bookings since a 2018 agreement; confirm on your own whether the 3 percent fee is being collected for you.

St. Louis County and its municipalities

There is no county-wide short-term rental permit. The rules come from whichever of the county’s dozens of municipalities your property sits in, and unincorporated parcels go through St. Louis County Planning. The county’s Department of Revenue does collect the same 3.75 percent and 3.5 percent lodging taxes on all short stays inside the county line, Airbnb and Vrbo included.

• Clayton adopted an ordinance in August 2025 that allows short-term rentals only in downtown Clayton, only in buildings built before 1955 with fewer than 20,000 square feet and four or fewer units, with a two-night minimum, a city business license, and fines of $200 to $800.
• Webster Groves allows registered short-term rentals only in owner-occupied homes, with limits on rooms, guests, and nights per year.
• Kirkwood and University City don’t publish a standalone short-term rental ordinance, but occupancy permits and zoning still apply. Call the planning office before you list, not after.

If a listing platform tells you a suburb is “unregulated,” treat that as a reason to check, not a green light.

Where short-term rentals actually work in St. Louis

Short stays need a reason to exist. In St. Louis that means walkable proximity to something visitors come for: the Central West End and DeBaliviere Place for Forest Park and BJC and Washington University Medical Campus visitors; Soulard and Benton Park for Mardi Gras weekends; downtown and Downtown West for Cardinals and Blues games and conventions at America’s Center; Tower Grove and South Grand for Botanical Garden traffic. A three-bedroom in unincorporated Oakville is a fine long-term rental and a poor short-term one.

Occupancy and seasonality

A lease pays 12 months a year. A short-term rental pays for the nights it books. St. Louis demand peaks from spring through early fall, with spikes around Opening Day and Fair St. Louis, and drops noticeably in January and February. Your business plan needs to survive the slow months, so test it against booked-night data for comparable listings near your address, not a citywide average.

Insurance

A standard landlord policy generally doesn’t cover paying guests. Short-term operators need a commercial or short-term rental endorsement, and Clayton’s ordinance, for one, requires proof of at least $1 million in liability coverage. Price that before you price the furniture.

Management effort

A long-term tenant needs a lease, an occupancy inspection, a move-in report, and a response when something breaks. A short-term unit needs furnishing, linens, a cleaner on call, dynamic pricing, guest messaging at midnight, restocking, and the tax filings above. Short-term managers charge a larger share of revenue than long-term managers because the work is larger.

A simple side-by-side worksheet

Fill in your own numbers for the specific property.

1. Gross revenue. Long-term: monthly rent times 12. Short-term: realistic nightly rate times realistic booked nights, using comparable listings’ history.
2. Vacancy. Long-term: one month between tenants, more if the lease ends in winter. Short-term: the unbooked nights are already in line 1.
3. Taxes and fees. Long-term: none beyond property tax. Short-term in the city: 4.225 percent state, 7.25 percent city hotel taxes, 3 percent Proposition S fee, plus platform fees.
4. Utilities. Long-term: usually paid by the tenant. Short-term: all yours, including internet.
5. Cleaning and turnover. Long-term: once per tenancy. Short-term: after every stay.
6. Furnishing and replacement. Long-term: zero. Short-term: full setup plus replacing what guests break.
7. Insurance. Landlord policy versus short-term rental policy.
8. Management. Your hours, or a manager’s fee.
9. Regulatory risk. Could a permit denial, a new ordinance, or an HOA rule shut the short-term plan down? If yes, what’s the fallback rent?

Subtract lines 2 through 8 from line 1 for each column. Then ask whether the difference is worth the extra hours and the exposure in line 9.

Our take

For most of the properties we manage, a well-priced 12-month lease near a hospital, university, or employer wins on risk-adjusted return. Short-term rentals can beat that in a handful of neighborhoods, for owners who either enjoy hospitality or budget honestly for someone else to run it. If you’re shopping for a property with either strategy in mind, browse current St. Louis listings on Wizah, then let our property management team run the worksheet with real numbers for that address. We’ll tell you which column we’d bet on.