Despite the growing expansion of short-term rentals, the existing literature remains strongly focused on metropolitan areas, with much less attention paid to how these dynamics play out in non-metropolitan regions. Using monthly listing-level data for Cornwall, United Kingdom, from 2016 to 2025, our paper combines time-series analysis, including 12-month moving averages and STL decomposition, with spatial techniques such as Moran's I and Getis-Ord Gi*, to construct temporal and spatial analysis of the Airbnb market in Cornwall region. In addition, we develop an Airbnb Pressure and Professionalisation Index (APPI) as a tool for an evidence-based approach to shortterm rental regulation. The results show that Cornwall's STR market is neither a marginal extension of tourism accommodation nor a dispersed peer-to-peer system. Rather, it is a dynamic platform market that expands and contracts seasonally, survives major shocks, concentrates in coastal hotspots and is increasingly shaped by multi-properties operators. Our argument is that regulatory debates have often been framed as a binary choice between night caps and area-based restrictions. However, the short-term rental phenomenon is far more complex than this opposition implies, and therefore its regulation requires more technically grounded tools capable of capturing its spatial, temporal, and professional dimensions. Overall, our paper advances a more "measured" approach to regulation able to capture the multidimensional nature of short-term rental pressure.