The corporate housing glossary.
The words, numbers and acronyms of corporate housing, defined in plain English.
In short
Corporate housing has its own vocabulary: proration, master leases, the 30-day rule, ALE, ADR and RevPAR, PCS and TDY, W-9s and 1099s. This glossary defines each in a sentence or two, with links to the guides that go deeper.
- Additional living expense (ALE)
- Insurance coverage, part of the loss of use coverage in many homeowner's, condo and renter's policies, that pays the extra cost of living elsewhere, including temporary housing, while a home is repaired after a covered loss. Insurance housing guide.
- Autopay
- An arrangement where a resident or client's saved card or bank account is charged automatically when each invoice falls due.
- Average daily rate (ADR)
- Rental revenue divided by occupied unit-nights for a period. Used with occupancy to compare pricing across units and months. Occupancy guide.
- Average length of stay (ALOS)
- Occupied unit-nights divided by the number of stays in a period. Corporate housing stays are long, often two to three months on average.
- Backup withholding
- Federal income tax a payer must withhold, currently at 24%, from reportable payments to a vendor who has not provided a valid taxpayer identification number. 1099 guide.
- Break-even occupancy
- The share of nights a unit must be booked to cover its costs: monthly cost divided by monthly rate. Master lease guide.
- Certificate of insurance (COI)
- A document from an insurer showing a business's coverage. Corporate clients and apartment communities ask operators for one, and operators ask vendors for theirs.
- Corporate client
- The company, agency or insurer that books and pays for a stay on behalf of the person staying, often for several residents at once.
- Corporate housing
- Furnished apartments or homes rented for stays of usually 30 nights or longer, mostly to people traveling or relocating for work, often paid for by their employer. Corporate housing vs hotels and Airbnb.
- Corporate Housing Providers Association (CHPA)
- The industry association for corporate housing providers and their partners, known for its conferences and member directory.
- Credit memo
- A document that reduces what a client owes, issued instead of editing or deleting an invoice, so the change is recorded properly.
- Deferred revenue
- Money billed or received for a period that has not happened yet, such as rent billed in advance. It is recognized as revenue when the period is earned. Accounting in Staylio.
- Direct bill
- Billing the company that books a stay rather than the person staying, usually on payment terms such as net 30.
- Dunning
- The sequence of reminders sent to collect overdue invoices.
- Early departure
- A resident leaving before the agreed move-out date. Agreements set out the notice required and how the final invoice is calculated.
- Extended stay
- Lodging for longer stays, from weeks to months, usually with kitchens and weekly or monthly rates. Extended stay operators.
- Extension
- Lengthening a stay past its original move-out date. In corporate housing extensions are common and should update the invoices that follow.
- Furniture package
- The standard set of furniture, housewares and linens for a unit of a given size, used to furnish every unit consistently. Furniture guide.
- General ledger (GL)
- The complete record of a business's accounts, built from journal entries, from which the balance sheet and profit and loss are produced.
- Housing stipend
- A sum an employer or agency pays a traveler toward housing, which the traveler then spends on their own accommodation, common with travel nurses.
- Lodging tax
- A tax on short stays in hotels and other lodging, also called hotel occupancy tax, transient occupancy tax or room tax. Many places exempt stays of 30 consecutive days or more. The 30-day rule.
- Master lease
- A lease an operator signs with an apartment community or owner, usually for 12 months, permitting corporate occupants, so the operator can furnish the unit and rent it for shorter stays. Master lease guide.
- Mid-term rental
- A furnished rental of roughly one to six months, usually booked and paid for by the traveler. Mid-term rentals vs corporate housing.
- Move-out inspection
- A room-by-room check of a unit at the end of a stay, compared with the move-in photos, to record damage and missing items. Checklist.
- Normal wear and tear
- The gradual deterioration that comes from ordinary use, which is not charged to a resident. Wear and tear vs damage.
- Notice to vacate
- A resident's or client's written notice of the date they will leave, given the number of days the agreement requires.
- Occupancy rate
- Occupied unit-nights divided by available unit-nights, as a percentage. Occupancy calculator.
- Owner statement
- A periodic report to a property owner showing the rent collected, the expenses paid and the amount due to the owner.
- PCS and TDY
- Military terms: a permanent change of station (PCS) is a move to a new duty location; temporary duty (TDY) is a short assignment away from the home station. Both often need furnished housing. Military housing.
- Permanent resident exemption
- The common name for the rule that exempts a guest from hotel occupancy tax once they have the right to occupy a room for a set number of consecutive days, usually 30.
- Proration
- Charging the share of a period's rent for the nights actually stayed, for example from a mid-month move-in. How to prorate rent and the calculator.
- Relocation management company (RMC)
- A company that manages employee moves for employers, including buying temporary housing from approved suppliers. Relocation companies.
- Rent to property
- The rent an operator pays the community or owner it leases a unit from, whether or not the unit is booked.
- Revenue per available night (RevPAR)
- Rental revenue divided by available unit-nights, equal to average daily rate times occupancy.
- Schedule board
- A timeline view of every unit and every stay across days or months, showing bookings, gaps and turns at a glance. The Staylio schedule board.
- Teardown
- Removing the furniture and housewares from a unit when it leaves an operator's inventory.
- Turn
- The work between one stay and the next in a unit: inspection, cleaning, repairs and resetting the furnishings.
- W-9
- The IRS form a vendor or landlord gives a payer with their legal name, tax classification and taxpayer identification number, used to decide who gets a 1099.
- 30-day minimum
- The minimum stay most corporate housing providers require, which also often lines up with local rules on short-term rentals and lodging taxes.
- 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC
- IRS information returns. 1099-NEC reports payments to non-employees for services; 1099-MISC reports rents and other payments. For payments made in 2026 and later, the threshold for both is $2,000. 1099 guide.
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Beta launches January 1, 2027