What is the cost for a co-host to manage an Airbnb short-term rental?

The short answer is between 15-30%.

When considering flipping your long-term rental to a short-term rental, you don't want to become the landlord, or deal with communication, cleaning, and restocking the supplies -- so, you go on the search for a local short-term Airbnb management company, also called a co-host. 

You'll find out of 20 property management companies in your market, there are maybe 1-2 specifically built to manage your short-term rental on Airbnb and VRBO.

As you start your outreach you'll get all types of quotes and the range is usually between 15-30%. 

Here are the top 5 factors that drive the revenue share for a co-host property management company.

1. What range of services does a co-host take care of?

Does the co-host handle the listing, photos, maintenance requests, cleaning and turnover service, pricing, and financial reporting?

2. Who owns the listing?

Does the co-host create the listing on an account/s that you own or if you terminate services do they get to keep the listing? If they own the listing then all the reviews are guest history is owned by the co-host. 

3. Who pays for the cleaning and turnover services for my Airbnb?

Guests pay a cleaning fee for each visit. Usually, hosts set the cleaning fee to cover the cost for the cleaning plus supplies. Therefore this fee should cover the full cost of cleaning and supplies. If a co-host or Airbnb property manager is handling the coordination with cleaning crews they will charge on the higher end of the co-host fee range, but the actual cost of the cleaning and supplies should be covered by the guests. 

4. Who handles dynamic pricing and seasonality adjustments for the listings? 

Most co-hosts for short-term rentals use a dynamic pricing tool, such as Beyond or PriceLabs. These tools cost approximately $25-50/month/listing and look at factors such as available inventory, hotel pricing, local events, and holidays to dynamically price your listing. Depending on your strategy, using such tools can result in a 20-30% increase in revenue which is why nearly all Airbnb co-hosts use one. In most co-host arrangements the fee for this subscription is covered by the cost of the co-host and is included in the co-host revenue share. 

5. Who handles resolving maintenance requests? 

When a leak happens or the air conditioner goes out, your guests have a low tolerance for repairs that can't be resolved within 24-hours. Some co-host simply manage the communication and will relay the repair request to the owner, forcing the owner to then coordinate the repair. This time delay often is too long to resolve the issue in an efficient manner and can result in bad reviews. Property managers who charge on the higher end are using their local network of electricians, plumbers, HVAC, pest control, and other vendors to resolve issues fast. A good co-host also knows what reasonable charges are and will save an owner by having relationships with vendors. 

Summary: So the answer of how much a co-host should charge to manage your Airbnb and VRBO should be determined by the range of services they offer. Given the typical range is 15-30%, on the lower end at 15%, this can be expensive if you want to be a passive investor whereas 30% could be really cheap if the Airbnb property manager is using dynamic pricing tools to increase revenue and keep occupancy high, keeping your units available with quick fixes to maintenance issues, and keeping reviews high result in SuperHost status which generally are more trusted and bring in higher revenue.