Claiming a five-figure deduction on your rental?
Keep the hours log that holds up.
Your CPA already told you to keep a contemporaneous log of your participation hours. STR Tracker is that log — built around the 100-hour and 750-hour tests, with photos, locations, and one-tap reports your accountant can actually use.
Works in your browser and on iPhone — one account, everything in sync
Not sure the STR loophole applies to you? Take the free 4-question check
Keep the record now, so a question later is just a question.
Materially participating in your short-term rental can turn losses into deductions against your ordinary income, and that claim rests on a log that is contemporaneous, specific, and credible. Logging as you go takes a couple of minutes a day. What it buys is knowing that if your return is ever examined, the record is already there — you are not rebuilding a year from memory, and you are not guessing what you did last April.
Hours, with something behind them
Anyone can write down a number. Evidence is what makes it a record.
A log of bare hours is an assertion. The same log with the photo, the receipt, the place and the timestamp attached to each entry is documentation — and attaching it takes seconds at the moment you are already standing there.
Proof attached to the entry
Photograph the work, snap the hardware-store receipt, attach the plumber's invoice or a PDF. It is stored against that entry, on that date, for that property, and it comes out inside the export your accountant receives. Entries can also carry the location and the time they were made.
Say it instead of typing itiPhone app
In the iPhone app, describe what you did out loud and it is written into the entry as text. Speak in any language you like and the note lands in English, with your original wording kept alongside it. Useful when your hands are full, and when the person doing the work does not think in English. The recording itself is never stored.
The iPhone app and the web app are the same account and the same log, in sync at all times. Dictate an entry on site and it is already there when you open the web app to run the report — nothing to export, import, or reconcile.
Voice notes are part of Cloud Plus, up to an hour of audio a month.
What your CPA actually receives
One tap turns a year of entries into a filing-ready record.
The report is the point. Pick any month, year, or custom range and export it three ways — stamped with the period, the totals, and where you stand on each threshold.
Summary PDF
Totals by activity and person, the period, and your threshold status — the one-pager your CPA drops in the file.
Detailed PDF
Every entry with its attached photos and documents embedded — the evidence, not just the numbers.
Excel workbook
Per-activity and per-person breakdowns your accountant can sort, filter, and reconcile.
Will it hold up?
Built to be the kind of record the tests call for.
We can't promise any record survives an audit — no tool can. What STR Tracker does is make it effortless to keep the three qualities that matter most.
Entries are made as the work happens, all year — not reconstructed from memory in April.
Each entry names the activity, the property, the time, and — optionally — the place and the proof.
Clean totals, threshold math, and an export format built to be read by a professional.
Log hours in seconds
Cleaning, guest messages, maintenance, supply runs, bookkeeping — for you and your spouse, per property.
100h / 750h progress
A live dashboard shows exactly where you stand on the material-participation and REPS thresholds, and the pace you need.
Evidence on every entry
Attach photos, receipts, invoices, and PDFs to the entry itself, so the proof travels with the hours instead of sitting in a folder somewhere.
Location & time stamps
Optionally stamp entries with where the work occurred — specificity is what makes a record credible.
Reminders keep it current
Records made close to the work are the strongest kind. Gentle nudges keep your log contemporaneous, not reconstructed.
Web, iPhone & Android
One account, synced everywhere. Log on-site from your phone, export from your desk. One purchase covers all three.
Start this tax year with airtight records.
Try everything free for 14 days — every feature, no limits. Then $49.99/year or a one-time $119.99 lifetime purchase, covering web and iPhone together.
Against a five-figure deduction, it pays for itself the first year.
STR Tracker is a record-keeping tool and does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. Consult a qualified tax professional about your circumstances.
From the blog
Plain-English writing on the material-participation tests and what holds up on review.
Can a Full-Time W-2 Employee Qualify for REPS?
The more-than-half test makes real estate professional status very hard to reach with a full-time job. What the two prongs require and what to log.
Can Airbnb or PMS Data Prove Your Hours?
Booking exports, message timestamps and PMS task logs corroborate a short-term rental hours log but cannot replace it. What to export, and how often.
Anatomy of a Log Entry That Holds Up
Ten short-term rental log entries rewritten from vague to credible, with the five fields every entry needs and the patterns the Tax Court has criticised.