The earlier comment about putting an Airbnb on Schedule C is incorrect. Short-term rentals still go on Schedule E. Airbnb properties generally should not go on Schedule C.
There is clear guidance from the IRS and tax court that "cleaning between guests, booking the guests" etc. do not qualify as substantial services. To quote IRS Letter Ruling [removed] which specifies why short-term rentals shouldn't be treated as self-employment income, "Services the taxpayer provides to clean and maintain the property to bring it to a suitable condition for occupancy are not relevant in applying Treas. Reg. § 1.1402(a)-4(c)(2) because such services are not furnished primarily for the convenience of the property’s occupants. "
There are only two situations when rental income can go on Schedule C. One is "substantial services" (such as providing meals or daily cleanings during guest stays, which is very rare). The other rare exception is for a real estate dealer (such as someone flipping houses) with incidental rent income during a flip.
Some of the confusion comes from the "STR rental loophole" which allows you to deduct rental tax losses from your regular income if the average stay is 7 days or less and you qualify for the material participation rules. But even when using that exception to classify STR income as non-passive, it still doesn't go on Schedule C, it still goes on Schedule E. The difference is that the tax loss isn't limited by the passive activity rules on form 8582. Most professional tax software (and some consumer tax software) have an option to specify that rental income is non-passive, and that will cause the Schedule E tax loss for that activity to bypass form 8582. That's how you do it, not by putting it on Schedule C.
My understanding is TurboTax Online still doesn't yet have a way to correctly report short-term rentals as non-passive. They may fix that eventually. But you can with the desktop version of TurboTax, but they don't make it easy. You have to go into the forms mode on the Schedule E worksheet, then check the boxes "G - Other passive exceptions" and "D - Material Participation".
For people who want to see confirmation of this, see the IRS form 8582's "Rental Activities" section which has a well written explanation of it. Other references for this include IRS Tax Topic No. 414 which details when to use Schedule C for rentals, and IRS Letter Ruling [removed] which details when self-employment tax is applicable to rentals (which is equivalent to choosing Schedule C vs. Schedule E).
