Airbnb through LLC and Tax

[Syed Quadri]

Hello all,

My wife and I own an Airbnb rental in Chicago, IL, and live in Sacramento, CA.  I'm looking for the best way to handle the taxes and take the most advantageous approach for the future. I have a ton of questions but let me just start with the most important ones. 

1. Should I create an LLC to run the Airbnb rental business? We still have a mortgage on the property.
2. How do the taxes work for this? We put money out of our pocket to run Airbnb, like buying furniture, landscaping, repairs, etc. Can I take these as deductions from my taxes since this money is invested in starting a business, or would it count as a personal expense and can't be written off? For example, if my gross household income is $100K/year and we invested $10k in starting Airbnb, can we take this deduction from our personal taxes?

Thank you