Vacation rental accounting and bookkeeping for Smoky Mountain cabin owners
Your cabin is a business, not a rental. We do short-term rental bookkeeping every month, with your tax return included. That means books kept per cabin, Airbnb and Vrbo payouts tied back to what guests paid, and lodging tax tracked by town. We are two licensed CPAs in East Tennessee, working with owners in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and across Sevier County, and with remote owners nationwide.
Which CPAs help short-term rental owners with occupancy tax?
We do. Smoky Mountain CPAs keeps books per cabin and files returns for short-term rental owners in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and across the Smokies, including owners who live out of state. We track which bookings the platform taxed and which direct bookings you must collect and file yourself, and check your lodging tax account and registrations are in place.
Sound familiar?
What short-term rental owners actually deal with.
Airbnb and Vrbo deposit you net. Nobody has tied those payouts back to what guests actually paid, what the platform kept, and what was collected as tax.
Two or three cabins run through one account, so you could not say which one earns its keep after cleaning, management and debt service.
You do not know whether your cabin belongs on Schedule E or Schedule C, and that answer decides whether you owe self-employment tax on it.
Someone told you the losses can offset your W-2 income. Nobody told you what you have to document, all year, to actually claim it.
Your CPA sees the year for the first time in March, by which point every decision that mattered has already been made.
What we cover
What vacation rental accounting covers.
- ✓ Short-term rental bookkeeping, per cabin. Gross bookings, platform fees, cleaning, management, supplies, repairs and debt service, each tied to the cabin that produced them.
- ✓ Payouts untangled. Airbnb and Vrbo pay you a net number. We rebuild the gross, the fees and the taxes they collected, so your return starts from the real figure.
- ✓ Lodging and sales tax tracked. Platform bookings and direct bookings are handled differently in Tennessee. We track which is which, so nothing is missed on the bookings you take yourself.
- ✓ The tax return, from the same books. Schedule E or Schedule C, the 7-day average stay rule, and the hours you need to document all year if you want losses to count against other income.
- ✓ A plain monthly update. Which cabin earned its keep after cleaning, management and the note, and which one is being carried.
Read more: Short-term rental taxes in Tennessee and what your cabin actually nets.
What we actually do
Honest scope, built for how cabins actually run.
Books kept per cabin
Gross bookings, platform fees, cleaning, management, supplies, repairs and debt service tracked against the specific cabin that produced them. A full calendar and a profitable cabin are not the same thing, and only one of them shows up here.
Payouts untangled
The platforms pay you a net number after their cut and after any tax they collected on your behalf. Booked as deposits, your revenue is understated and your fees disappear. We reconstruct gross, fees and taxes collected so the return starts from the real number.
Honest about scope
We keep the books and file the returns. We do not perform cost segregation studies, appraisals, or audited statements. Plenty of cabin owners should have a study done. If you are one, we will say so and work alongside whoever does it.
Several cabins, an LLC or two, a property that went into service mid-year: bring it to the fit call. We would rather tell you honestly than take on work we cannot do well.
A cabin that books every weekend can still lose money after cleaning, management and the note. The calendar is not the P&L.The Smoky Mountain way.
Based in East Tennessee
We live where your cabin is.
Sevier County and the cities in the Smokies (Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, Pittman Center) each have their own lodging tax rules. Where the cabin sits (city limits vs unincorporated county) can change the rate, the filing point, and what fees sit in the taxable base. Cleaning and pet fees are a common miss. Confirm the current rate and deadline with the jurisdiction that applies to your cabin before you remit.
The part that catches owners: even when Airbnb or Vrbo remits the tax for you, the county still expects you to have a lodging account open with the Trustee. There is a business license and a state sales tax registration behind that too. None of it is difficult. It is just quietly missed, usually by an owner who lives somewhere else and assumed the platform handled everything.
We work with cabin owners across the Smokies and with remote owners nationwide. We will not come walk your property. We will keep your books, wherever you are buying.
Cabin owners by town: Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville.
Who we’re for, and who we’re not for.
A good fit: Short-term rental and cabin owners, from one cabin to several, that have outgrown doing the books themselves or a high-volume online bookkeeping service, and want a CPA who knows their numbers.
Not a fit: companies that need an audit or reviewed financial statements, venture-backed companies, or multi-entity international groups, or anyone who needs a cost segregation study or appraisal done in house (we work alongside whoever does it). We would rather tell you on the first call than three months in.
We are based in Knoxville, Tennessee, and serve these businesses remotely across the US, not only in Knoxville.
Vacation rental accounting questions.
What is vacation rental accounting?
It is bookkeeping and tax work built around how short-term rentals actually earn and spend: platform payouts, cleaning and management fees, lodging tax, and per-property results. A general bookkeeper often books the net payout as income, which hides the fees and the tax.
Do I need an Airbnb CPA, or will a general accountant do?
Any CPA can file the return. What matters is whether they know how payouts, lodging tax and the 7-day average stay rule work for cabins. Ask them how they treat a net Airbnb payout. The answer tells you a lot.
Should each cabin have its own books?
Yes. Separate books per property show which cabin earns and which one is being carried. One shared account hides that.
Does Airbnb handle my Tennessee taxes?
For bookings made through the platform, it collects and sends the sales tax and the local occupancy tax. For direct bookings, you collect and file them yourself.
Do you work with owners who don’t live in Tennessee?
Yes. Many of our cabin owners live elsewhere. We keep the books and file the returns remotely. We do not visit properties.
Is my cabin income Schedule E or Schedule C?
Many cabin rentals are reported on Schedule E. Some situations move toward Schedule C treatment when you provide substantial services more like a hotel than a rental (for example, daily housekeeping during the stay, meals, or concierge-style help). Whether ordinary turnover cleaning between guests crosses that line is fact-specific. The distinction matters because Schedule C income can pick up self-employment tax that Schedule E rental income generally does not. The combined self-employment tax rate is commonly cited around 15.3%, subject to current law and wage-base rules. We sort this on your real activity and books, not from a checklist.
What is the 7-day rule everyone talks about?
Under the federal passive activity rules, an activity is generally not treated as a "rental activity" when the average period of customer use is seven days or less. Most Smokies cabins clear that average easily on weekend and long-weekend stays. On its own, that fact does not decide your return. It only matters together with other tests (including participation). Treat it as one input, not a free pass.
Can my cabin losses offset my W-2 income?
Sometimes, when the facts support it. Short average stays can take the activity out of the default "rental activity" bucket under the passive activity rules, and material participation can make losses non-passive, which is what owners usually mean when they talk about offsetting wages. Real estate professional status is a different rule that people mix up with this. You also need contemporaneous records of your hours, and other limits (basis, at-risk, grouping) can still apply. We will not green-light a W-2 offset from a website FAQ. If this is on the table, decide before year-end with your actual calendar and time log.
Schedule E versus C, passive versus non-passive: are those the same question?
No, and mixing them up is the most common mistake we see. Schedule E or C is largely about how the activity is reported and whether self-employment tax may apply. Passive or non-passive is about whether a loss can offset other income. A cabin can sit on Schedule E and still produce non-passive losses when the facts support it. Both questions have to be answered separately, from your facts.
Do I still owe Sevier County lodging tax if Airbnb collects it?
If the platform is remitting local occupancy tax for marketplace bookings, you generally are not filing that same return again for those bookings. Owners are still often expected to have the right local lodging account on file, plus related registrations (commonly a business license and state sales tax registration, depending on where the cabin sits). Inside the city limits of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, or Pittman Center, the city may administer its own tax instead of the county. Rates, deadlines, and account rules change. Confirm the current requirement with the County Trustee or city that applies to your cabin before you assume you are done.
Do you do cost segregation studies?
No. That is specialist engineering work and we do not pretend otherwise. For a cabin that has just gone into service it is often worth doing, and it pairs with the rule above. We keep the books, file the returns, and work alongside whoever performs the study.
Do you track each cabin separately?
Yes. Every cabin gets its own tracking in QuickBooks so bookings, platform fees, cleaning and management land against the property that produced them. Reported as one lump, the books tell you the portfolio made money. They do not tell you which cabin is carrying the others.
Educational only. This page explains common issues we see with Smoky Mountain cabin owners. It is not tax, legal, or accounting advice for your situation. Federal, Tennessee, and local rules change, and outcomes turn on your facts (how guests book, what services you provide, average stay, your hours, your entities, and your management agreement). Confirm current requirements with a qualified professional before you file, remit, or take a return position. When we work together, we apply judgment to your actual books and filings, not to a webpage FAQ.
Get the Rental Property Bookkeeping Checklist.
The monthly routine two CPAs use to keep rental books clean: per-property tracking, repairs versus improvements, deposits and escrow handled right. Free, one email, no hoops.
Read: What your short-term rental cabin actually nets →
Read: Short-term rental taxes in Tennessee, a cabin owner’s guide →
Pricing
One package, three levels
Every monthly plan includes bookkeeping and your business and personal tax return. What you pay depends on how many cabins and accounts you run, so we quote it after we have looked.
Ready to know which cabin actually pays?
Book a free fit call. We will talk through how your cabins are set up and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit.
Rather not book a call? Email brooks@smokymountaincpas.com. Brooks answers every one.