Can you share any of the management solutions company that you have vetted? Are they national?
I started this thread because I came across www.guesty.com which claims to do similar duties for %3-5%.
Any thoughts on them?
I havenāt really vetted any past getting a proposal from some of them. Most of the ones Iāve spoken to are local other than pillow.com. I donāt know if AirBnB has introduced co-hosting in your market yet but that could be another avenue for you to find a co-host that charges less than 50%.
I can tell you that one of the local management companies I found cost 20%, covered cleanings, turnover, support, accounting, and even offered amenities such as surfboard rentals. It was completely managed.
Take any or all of this with a grain of salt. Iām under construction on some units I plan to put on AirBnB in the next few weeks but as of yet have never rented on the platform before. Iām just searching for solutions along the same line as you.
How is your listing set up? Do you have a separate cleaning fee?
Do you have a minimum stay, etc? If you have your cleaning fee built into the nightly rate, then itās possible you could be losing a lot of money on 2 night stays.
Example - letās say your nightly rate is $200. Guest books 2 nights for a total of $400:
Manager takes 35% of $400 = $140
Manager charges you $100 clean fee. Now you are left with $160. In essence, the manager is earning 35% of a $100 clean fee on top of the $100 clean fee.
Is the above scenario how you have it set up?
Another question - are you or Airbnb collecting tax from the guest separately? Or is the manager paying the taxes out of your earnings.
If we had some numbers you could shareā¦we could all be a lot more helpful.
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Hi Cabinhost,
Since we are new listing, to get good reviews and establish presence, it was suggest that cleaning fee is low like $25 and 1 night minimum and we price the nightly rate pretty low $129/night, 20% weekly discount and 49% monthly - airibnb default for October 2016. We got 4 bookings right away.
I had told her that I wasnāt making anything with such low cost and we already have 4 good reviews.
For November, I changed the cleaning fee to $50 and minimum 2 night stay and also change the weekly discount to 15% and 30% for weekly and monthly.
So for November, I asked that she deducted the cleaning fee from the gross AirBnB payout for exactly the reason that you mention.
Example,
In November, I have $2000 Airbnb payout, it would be $2000-$400 (4 cleaning)=$1600. She gets 35% of thatā¦ I didnāt do that in October because I was new.
I spent about $3k outfitting my airbnb house with keyless and smart tech so it is pretty much a remote hosting/communication/24x7 responses.
I donāt scrub the place or clean the toilet. My cleaner does and I charge a cleaning fee based on the average. I do decide pricing, build the listing with description and rules, accept the guests, set up the entry codes/security codes, and take texts and occasionally calls. I find it takes a few hours a week, once I got the pictures up and the listing finished and a good cleaning service selected. BTW, the cleaning fee should be separate and clearly marked. BTW, I get to mark active on my income tax and that saves a bit.
I would negotiate with her. IF she isnāt like some on this forum who hate negotiating, then you should get a clear idea of what is costing 35%. If not then, find someone else. If a person in business is not willing to give you an idea of their costs in doing the cohosting, they are looking for easy marks.
The hardest part for me was finding a reliable cleaning service!
Since you are paying her $100 to clean the entire houseā¦I am assuming that is the going rate in your area to clean that size property? What are the cleaning fees for other listings?
For people in your area who are established with many reviewsā¦what is the nightly rate for a similar size property? $129 sounds awful cheap for an entire house listing with three bedrooms.
$100 is the going rateā¦ Donāt think that I can find cheaperā¦
I just updated my cleaning fee to $100 since it is my actual cost and will now take one night minimum to increase my bookings.
The base rate is now $139/night which is just a tad below average around my areaā¦
Anyone uses guestsy.com services???
I do think it is a good idea to have the cleaning fee separate unless you always rent for a week at a time, etc. It just makes sense when $100 is always going to be a fixed cost per reservation - whether or not that reservation is for one night versus seven nights.
When you separate that fixed cost, it is more fair to the host and to the guest. If a guest chooses to rent for just one night then that is their choice.
I will say this though - once I increased rates (after getting reviews under my belt) - it is rare that someone will want to rent for only one night.
Do you have reservations already in the pipeline now? If you have several then I would increase that nightly rate by at least $10 more than the $139 and see what comes through.
I would compare with places on booking.com in order to come up with the rate that the market will bear. Soā¦if you are renting out a 3 bedroom - are you attracting 3 different couples who would likely rent 3 separate hotel rooms? Or are you attracting a family with kids who might only rent out 2 different hotel rooms?
It helps to think about it from the perspective of what a āwholeā home offers (with a convenient kitchen, living space, outdoor deck area, yard to play in, etc.) with a hotel room where everyone will have to entertain themselves until they return to the room at night. And most people staying in hotels have to eat out at restaurant prices every day, vs. being able to cook up breakfast and dinner at home, etc.
Very high! We are an Airbnb management company (see http//superhostphilly.com) who specializes in optimizing the revenue for our clients and we only charge 18 percent Plus cleaning fee for everything ! Sorry for the shameless plug:)