Either way, you still have to show the business use percentage of your home, be it SCH E or C. With SCH C, you'll be claiming the space being rented out as "home office", where as for SCH E you be reporting it as "I rent out a part of my primary residence".
The difference is that for the SCH E reporting there's no self-employment tax, meaning that not only do you not get credit to your social security and Medicare accounts, you also can't include that income when figuring your allowable IRA contributions.
Now with the SCH C, you "do" pay the additional SE tax, which is basically the employer side of your social security and Medicare account contributions, and you "can" include that income when figuring your maximum allowable contributions to an IRA account.
For some, and depending on what state they're in, it can sometimes be a hard call between SCH E or SCH C. But a very good basic rule of thumb is that, if you provide the tenant recurring services, then chances are, it's a qualified SCH C business.
But still, one has to look at state and local laws too. For example, in my county anything rented for 30 days or less for any one rental period during the tax year, is considered a short term rental for the entire year. Short term rentals in my county have to operate under the same state laws that a hotel does. So that makes it a SCH C business by local law, even if I don't provide recurring services. One reason for this county ordinance/law on this, is because hotels have to collect/pay a local "bed tax" of 3$ per person per night. So when the Bed & Breakfast's were "getting away with" not paying it because they used "rental contracts" (whereas hotels call it an "agreement"), the law/ordinance was redefined to make sure they were included.
Overall though, if you have guidance from a reliable source such as H&RB, then by all means utilize it, as I would in your shoes.
