Hey,
Every month in the U.S., "travel nurse housing" gets about 9,900 Google searches. "Corporate housing" gets about 5,400. "How to start an airbnb business" gets about 1,600.1 The people typing those first two are guests looking for a place to stay. Most people planning a rental never picture them.
When money gets tight, the first idea for extra income is usually the one you've seen the most. Your neighbor drives for an app, so you look at driving. A coworker sells on Facebook Marketplace, so you clear out the garage. With rentals, the picture is a cabin or a beach condo full of vacationers on a weekend.
Nothing's wrong with that picture. It's one guest. It's also the guest every other new host pictured first, so they all end up listing for the same Friday night.
Want to see who else could stay near you? The free 66-Vertical Decision Guide lists every guest type, who pays, where you find them and what starts the stay.
I've spent 18+ years in real estate, focused on short-term rentals since 2016, and built a list of more than 10,000 short-term rental operators through CashFlowDiary. One question I hear a lot from people starting out is which kind of rental to start with. My answer starts with a guest. The property comes second.
• • •
Airbnb is the storefront
In a training on first steps, I told the room this:
"What you know as Airbnb, VRBO, all these things, those are just marketplaces. They're not business models. It's a customer acquisition strategy, that's it."
- J. Massey, "Your First 5 Steps" training, 2024
The business is the guest. In that same training I said I've seen 66 different verticals for this business.
"That means vacation, which you may know about already, is one. That means nurses, or traveling nurses, medical professionals, housing them, is one. So now we're at two."
- J. Massey, same training
A guest type earns its own line when three things change: the reason they travel, the place you find them, and the path from their first look to the next referral. A travel nurse on a 13-week hospital contract and a family whose house burned can sleep in the same bed. The nurse finds you on Furnished Finder or through a recruiter. The family comes through a temporary-housing firm working for their insurer. Same house, two different businesses.
They don't stay the same length either. In our guide, 24 of the 66 usually stay a few nights, 22 stay a few weeks and 20 stay a month or more.2
Decide who you serve first
In a presentation a few years ago I put it this way:
"You have to decide. That's the key words here. You have to decide who you want to serve. I tend to personally slant towards the urban plays, but yet during times like COVID, guess what, the rural plays crushing it. And then for urban plays, it was all extended stays."
- J. Massey, STR presentation, 2022
When one kind of guest slowed down, a different kind kept booking. If you only know how to find one kind of guest, a slow season for that guest is a slow season for you.
And longer stays come with a trade I always warn people about. The first booking takes longer to land.
"It has a longer marketing window up front, meaning that first reservation, it's going to take you a little bit longer to get it, and that's okay. However, once the system is up and running, second and concurrent reservations get easier and easier and easier and easier."
- J. Massey, free STR workshop, 2024
So if two guest types both fit where you live, start with the one where you already know somebody. A cousin who's a nurse. A friend who works claims. A neighbor who plans weddings. People you know shorten that first wait.
💡 Write down the guest before you write down the address. The house you pick should fit that guest.
The 20-minute circle
You can do this tonight with a map in front of you, even if you never own a rental.
Draw a 20-minute circle. Start from where you live now, or the address you'd buy, lease or already own.
Mark the guests with a real place behind them. A hospital, a base, a plant, a venue, a campus. A hunch doesn't count.
Read your number. Three real ones? You have something to test. Zero? Keep your money for now.
⚡ The full walk-through of picking your first rental model is on the blog today: which short-term rental business to start.
Back to the 9,900
Those 9,900 searches happen every month whether you list a place or not. The people typing them already know who they are. Your job is to find out which of them already need a bed within 20 minutes of you.
The free guide lists all 66 with who pays, where to find them and what starts the stay, plus two worksheets to do the circle properly. The button is at the top, and the link is below.
- J.
P.S. If someone you know keeps saying they want income that isn't a second job, forward this to them. If someone forwarded it to you, subscribe here so the next one comes straight to you. And here's the free 66-Vertical Decision Guide: 18 pages, two worksheets, no cost.
This is education, not financial, legal or tax advice. Rental income varies, takes work and capital or a landlord's approval, and is never guaranteed. Check your city, county, HOA and lease rules before you host.
Ready for the next step?
Google Ads monthly search volume, United States: "travel nurse housing" 9,900, "corporate housing" 5,400, "how to start an airbnb business" 1,600. Pulled through DataForSEO on October 18, 2026.
CashFlow Diary, The 66-Vertical Decision Guide (v1.2, 2026): guest types, who pays, where to find them, what starts the stay, and typical stay length (24 nights, 22 weeks, 20 months). Free download through the guide links in this issue.