Long stays and off-season offers for short-term rentals in Romania: the 2026–2027 guide

In the off-season, the problem is not just price but also the length of stays. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INS), tourists stayed an average of 2.1 days in the first seven months of 2026, and the net occupancy rate of accommodation capacity fell to 21.5% in January–February, compared with 38% in July. Every short stay brings a clean, a check-in and another review to earn, while the nights between bookings stay empty. A guest who stays for a month fills your calendar in one go, but in Romania the length of a stay also has tax consequences: short-term rental means at most 30 uninterrupted days for the same person. This guide explains why 28 nights is the threshold that matters on the platforms, how to work out the discount for a long stay, which settings to use on Airbnb and Booking.com, which packages you can build for each type of guest and how to sell extra services without breaking platform rules.

Why the off-season needs a different offer, not just a lower price

INS figures cover tourist accommodation from hotels to apartments and rooms for rent, but the trend is just as visible in short-term rentals: summer fills the calendar almost on its own, while for the rest of the year, outside the holidays and the ski resorts, every night has to be earned. In January and February 2026, Romanian tourists stayed an average of 1.8 days and foreign tourists 2.2 days. With stays this short, a price cut rarely brings in enough new guests to cover the cleaning and the empty nights between bookings.

Long stays solve both problems. Booking.com recommends them to partners precisely for lower-demand periods, and because they mean fewer guest turnovers and therefore lower operating costs. Airbnb reported that, globally, stays of 28 nights or more accounted for 21% of nights booked in 2022 and 18% in the first quarter of 2023. These figures are older and not specific to Romania, but they show that the segment exists. Locally, the Crosspoint Research report on the short-term rental market in 2025 notes that in Constanța, where the average stay was 6.5 days, the longest in the country, longer stays offset the lower off-season occupancy. The figures for the coast are in our valuation guide for Constanța and Mamaia.

Demand is changing too. The Romanian Hotel Industry Federation (FIHR), quoted by Radio Romania International, is seeing more people travelling on business, while tourists from the US and the UK stay longer and spend more. According to INS, non-resident tourists who came to Romania on business spent 800.7 million lei in the first quarter of 2026. For these guests, an offer for a week or a month may be a better fit than one for a weekend.

The 30-day threshold: where short-term rental ends

For private individuals who rent out between 1 and 7 rooms in homes they own, ANAF defines short-term rental as the uninterrupted rental of a room to the same person for periods of up to 30 days in a calendar year. ANAF also specifies that renting for a fraction of a day counts as renting for one day. Beyond this threshold, renting to the same person no longer falls under the short-term regime but under the general rules for income from the transfer of the use of goods, summarised by ANAF’s Timiș office for 2026.

The table summarises ANAF’s 2026 guidance and is no substitute for an accountant. How a particular stay is classified, for example one extended by the same guest, is something to settle with your accountant before you accept the booking. A stay of more than 30 days usually means a rental contract registered with ANAF, so one more document to manage, and for most hosts the simpler option is to stay below the threshold. The CASS (health contribution) thresholds of 24,300, 48,600 and 97,200 lei apply in both cases, and the full calculation is in our 2026 tax guide. Airbnb also advises hosts to understand local law before accepting a long booking, because in some jurisdictions guests can acquire tenant rights after about a month.

What a monthly discount is worth: a hypothetical calculation

The most common mistake is to compare the discounted price with the full price for every night. In the off-season, the real alternative is not 28 nights sold at full price but a few short stays with empty nights in between. The example below is hypothetical and starts from an apartment with an off-season rate of 250 lei a night, no separate cleaning fee and a 28-night window in November. The assumptions are:

• in the first scenario, 12 nights booked out of 28, in 6 bookings of two nights each, close to the average stay reported by INS;
• in the second scenario, a single 28-night booking with a 30% monthly discount;
• an Airbnb fee of 15.5% of the rate, plus 21% VAT on the fee for a host not registered for VAT, so about 18.8%;
• 120 lei for cleaning, linen and supplies at each guest turnover, and, in the long stay, three weekly cleans of 80 lei each, included in the offer;
• variable utilities of 25 lei a night for short stays and 30 lei a night for the long stay, because a guest who works and cooks at home uses more;
• fixed costs, such as building maintenance charges, internet and property tax, are the same in both scenarios, so they are left out.

The long stay wins twice: higher revenue and lower operating costs. It would still come out ahead with a 50% discount, leaving about 1,443 lei, and even if short stays filled 20 of the 28 nights across 10 bookings, in which case they would leave about 2,076 lei. Booking.com tells partners that a discount of 29% or more on the cheapest daily rate is competitive for a 28-night stay, and the example shows why such a discount can be sustainable in the weak months.

The calculation has its limits. A 28-night guest is not guaranteed, so short stays need to remain available. Wear and consumption increase when someone actually lives in the apartment. CASS depends on total annual income and is not included. If the property is in Bucharest, also allow for the tourism promotion tax of 10 lei per night per tourist set for 2026: it does not fall with the discount, so over 28 nights it comes to 280 lei per person. For Booking.com, redo the calculation with the percentage in your contract. No discounted rate should fall below the price that covers your costs, and we showed how to set it in our short-term rental margin analysis.

How to set up offers on Airbnb and Booking.com

Airbnb. Discounts are set in your pricing settings, under Discounts: weekly, from 7 nights, monthly, from 28 nights, or based on trip length. Discounts of 10% or more appear in search results, and all discounts are highlighted next to the original price in the price details. In some cases, Airbnb automatically adds an extra saving on stays of 28 nights or more, paid in full by Airbnb and not deducted from your payout. To appear in searches for long stays, check the minimum and maximum nights in your calendar, under Availability. The minimum can also be customised by check-in day.

For bookings of 28 nights or more, Airbnb collects payment monthly: the guest pays the first month when booking, and your first payout is usually released by the end of the business day after check-in, followed by monthly payouts. If you have fewer than two completed stays and haven’t verified your listing’s location, the first payout arrives 28 days after check-in. In 2026, Airbnb also announced settings for seasonal pricing and last-minute discounts, rolling out gradually to hosts. Whether you have them in your account, and how to combine them with long-stay discounts, is covered in our guide to Airbnb’s new host features.

Booking.com. Long-stay rate plans are added separately: weekly plans are for stays of more than 7 days, while monthly plans cover 28 nights or more. Booking.com recommends them for guests such as business travellers, families and domestic tourists, and asks you to check that your calendar restrictions match the plan’s minimum and maximum lengths of stay. Be careful with restrictions: the platform warns that the more you set, the fewer potential guests will see your property. Length-of-stay restrictions can be set by room, rate plan and date, so you can keep a longer minimum stay for peak periods only.

The weak months of 2026–2027 are also covered by Booking.com’s seasonal promotions:

Discounts are applied one after another, with at most one deal from each category and no more than three per booking. If you include the monthly plan at 30% off in the Early 2027 promotion at 15% off, the guest pays 0.70 × 0.85 = 59.5% of the rate, a total discount of 40.5%, and if the guest is eligible for Genius, that discount can be added too. Check which rate plans are included in each promotion before you activate it. And if you are considering stays of more than 30 nights, Booking.com advises you to check local licensing requirements first.

The off-season on the calendar: where long stays fit in 2026–2027

Long stays belong in the windows between school breaks and public holidays. The structure of the 2026–2027 school year, approved by order of the Ministry of Education and Research, together with the public holidays, gives three such windows:

Outside these windows, especially at New Year, during the ski week and at Easter, nights can sell for more as short stays. On Airbnb, the monthly discount applies to any booking of 28 nights or more, so decide in advance whether you will accept long stays over peak periods. On Booking.com, you can keep separate length-of-stay restrictions for those dates. Prices for each period of the cold season are in our cold-season pricing calendar.

Who the offer is for: segments and packages

A long stay doesn’t sell the same way as a weekend. According to Booking.com, long-stay guests are more likely than short-stay guests to choose based on facilities, and Airbnb notes that people searching for monthly stays want a well-equipped kitchen, a washing machine and stable, strong wifi. With that in mind, build an offer for each segment:

For foreign tourists, the markets that matter in your area are in our analysis of foreign tourists, and for a wellness offer, in our analysis of wellness and longevity. If your unit has a classification certificate and you have a contract with the issuers of holiday vouchers, the vouchers can bring guests in the off-season too. The conditions are in our analysis of holiday vouchers.

Prepare the home for a month, not a weekend

For monthly stays, Airbnb recommends a separate guidebook covering nearby shops, gyms or parks, instructions for day-to-day living, such as how rubbish is collected, and a dedicated section in your house rules. The property should have enough basics, such as toilet paper and soap, for the whole stay. Booking.com advises partners to highlight high-speed internet, workspaces and kitchen access on the property page. In a 2023 article, Airbnb explained that fast wifi and a dedicated workspace appear under the title in search results, while the kitchen, washer, dryer and parking are highlighted on the listing page for long stays. How to write the description is covered in our guide to listing photos and descriptions.

Reviews matter too: when someone searches for monthly stays, Airbnb generally shows reviews from guests who stayed longer than 28 nights higher up. Your first long stays therefore build your reputation for the next ones. Agree with the guest from the start when the weekly clean will take place, how to report a fault and how the heating works. If you need to enter the home for a check, give notice in advance and get the guest’s agreement.

Extra services, sold discreetly and fairly

On Airbnb, the rule is simple: everything the guest pays goes through the platform. Airbnb’s Off-Platform and Fee Transparency Policy prohibits payments outside Airbnb, including for optional fees, with heating the pool given as an example. Mandatory fees, such as utility fees, must be entered in the pricing fields or included in the nightly price, and changes to the number of nights are collected through the Change reservation tool. Extensions cannot be moved off the platform either.

That is why, on Airbnb, a package is sold through the price and the description, not through separate fees: a remote-work offer with a desk and a monitor, a business offer with weekly cleaning included or a family offer with child-friendly equipment. An earlier check-in or a later check-out, offered when the calendar allows, are small gestures that long-stay guests appreciate. If a guest wants to extend, use Airbnb’s tool and count the days before you accept.

On your own website you have more freedom: you can sell packages with extra services, provided the guest sees the total price before paying. What the site needs is covered in our guide to having your own website. The principle is the same on every channel: an extra service should meet a real need of the guest, not inflate the bill.

Common mistakes

• Leaving the maximum nights unset on Airbnb. The platform automatically applies 31 nights, above the 30-day threshold for short-term rental.
• Accepting an extension without counting the days. A stay extended by the same guest can go beyond 30 uninterrupted days and change the tax treatment.
• Comparing the discount with the full price. In the off-season, the real alternative is partial occupancy, with cleaning costs and empty nights, not a month sold at peak rates.
• Stacking discounts without checking the total. A monthly plan included in a Booking.com promotion can end up with a much larger total discount than you intended.
• Charging Airbnb guests separately for utilities or cleaning. Payments outside the platform are prohibited, and mandatory fees must be entered in the pricing fields.
• Offering the same home for a month as for a weekend. With no workspace, no washing machine and weak internet, you get poor reviews, which appear higher in searches for monthly stays.
• Blocking peak periods with a discounted long stay. Decide in advance what you will do about New Year, the ski week and Easter.

Frequently asked questions

Is a 31-night stay still a short-term rental?

Under ANAF’s definition, short-term rental means renting a room uninterrupted to the same person for at most 30 days. Above the threshold, the general rental rules apply: a 20% flat-rate deduction instead of 30%, and registration of the contract with ANAF within 30 days. For a specific case, ask your accountant. To avoid the situation, set a maximum number of nights on Airbnb, because otherwise the platform automatically applies 31.

Which monthly discount should I choose?

Start from the real alternative, not the full price: how many nights you would actually sell as short stays over the same period and what each guest turnover costs you. Booking.com considers a discount of at least 29% on the cheapest daily rate competitive for a 28-night stay, and on Airbnb discounts of 10% or more appear in search results. In our hypothetical example, even a 50% discount left more than 12 nights sold as short stays. The lower limit is the price that covers your costs.

Can I charge a guest staying a month through Airbnb separately for utilities?

Not outside the platform. Airbnb’s policy treats utility fees as mandatory fees, which must be entered in the pricing fields or included in the nightly price, and payments outside Airbnb are prohibited, including for optional services. Estimate the consumption of a guest who works and cooks at home and build it into the rate. For guests who book directly on your website, you can set other rules, provided the total price is shown before payment.

When do I get paid for a 28-night booking on Airbnb?

Airbnb collects payment monthly for stays of 28 nights or more. The guest pays the first month when booking, and your first payout is usually released by the end of the business day after check-in, followed by monthly payouts. If you have fewer than two completed stays and haven’t verified your listing’s location, the first payout arrives 28 days after check-in. Airbnb’s payment checks can delay a payout by up to 45 days after check-in.