The laws governing home stays vary greatly across the country. In Los Angeles, it's illegal to rent out your home through Airbnb unless it's your primary residence, and even then it's not allowed more than 120 days per year. In New York, the laws are even stricter: hosts can only rent out part of their home and must be present during the guests' stay. In Las Vegas, the laws are just as tricky. There, short-term rentals have been limited to licensed owner-occupied hosts since December 2018, and no licenses have been issued since then.

Airbnb has its own rules, which can also make hosting difficult. For example, you must have 10 stays with an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars within one year to gain "Super Host" status, a title that provides higher ratings in guest searches and, ultimately, more bookings.

Accept the fact that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Guests may run out of water. AC can go out of order. Rats might come in. All of these things have happened to my property. Nevertheless, I was able to get 5-star reviews despite these problems 100% of the time. Nevertheless: I have had many stressful, sometimes costly moments. Count on it.

Do the math.
Short-term rentals allow you to charge more per night than a long-term rental home. But they also have a lot more overhead because people expect certain amenities while on vacation: air conditioning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; long hot showers; Cable TV; high-speed Internet; bottled water and professional cleaning services