35% for AirBnB hosting/management svcs?

Introduction
1

Hi everyone,

My AirBnB listing is about 2 months old located around Philadelphia PA area…

A friend’s friend recommended my current co-host to manage my listing since she is a super-host.

Just wondering what is a reasonable net income % AirBnB split for someone who is doing all the guest communication/hosting (It is 35% to her, 65% to me). Also, I paid $100 per cleaning (it’s an entire house about 3 beds, 2.5 bath).

Since I’m new, I need to get advise to see if this is reasonable. I’m finding out that I’m barely making any $$ after the commission/cleaning cost to cover my monthly expenses.

I see services like https://www.guesty.com/ doing the similar duties and is only charging %3- %5 so I’m wondering if anyone has experience with this outsourcing services.

Thank you so much.

3

I am not sure what you meant… Do you mean that I do any work on my own AirBnB listing? If that is the question, I don’t do any work on it… The co-host does all that communications, responding and she does the cleaning as well (but charge me back for $100 per cleaning).

THanks.

5

I am confused. What are you asking advice about? Do you already have a superhost running your listing for you?

6

I am shocked that anyone will clean a space that big for only $100. 65% for doing absolutely nothing seems rather generous. If you aren’t meeting your costs, then you need to reconsider you business plan. Maybe a long term rental, which is far more passive, would actually be a better plan for your space.

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7

I’m trying to figure out if that is the average % in outsourcing my airbnb listing hosting… Just trying to figure out if that is the average/standard, then I may have to increase my price in order to make it worthwhile to continue listing in AirBnB instead of renting it out to long-term outside of AirBnB.

I have a full-time job so I’m just trying to get some passive income and some profits to cover my expense for the old house…

Thanks.

8

So are you saying that I shouldn’t expect to make $$ on my listing… I have a full-time job so I’m just trying to get some passive income and some profits to cover my expense for the old house until I can sell it… Just trying out AirBnB platform thinking I would do better than renting out to yearly renters.

9

I can’t sell the house so I need to keep the house for a year or two so I have monthly fixed expenses that I need to cover… Thanks for the tips - I will need to decide if AirBnB platform will be better or long term.

10

That is the choice that we all have to make. It is all about the return on investment especially if it is a stand alone space.

12

I have a meeting with someone tomorrow, they have asked me to “run” their Airbnb listing for them. If I agree, it will be listed under my name and profile (and my reputation). I’ll do all of the work but won’t pay any of the costs. My proposal to them is 50/50. It’s not worth it for me to do the work, and risk my reputation, for less than 50%.

In your case you want to maximize your earnings, so in order to do that, you’ll need to manage the listing yourself. I can’t see any scenario where you can be hands-off and still make more than you’d make with a traditional long-term rental.

Good luck to you

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13

Honestly, I will press sheets on the same day that I flap my arms and fly to the moon.

Never happening.

14

I pay 15% plus the actual cost for cleaning to my co host to run everything including 24/7 support to the guest, post inspection etc… On top of that I pay 100 EUR per month for property management. i.e taking care of bills, maintenance etc.

15

I think you need to decide whether or not it’ll work for your business model.

We have figured out what our baseline costs are per day and week. We also have done some good research about going rates of local accommodation (e.g. other AirBNB, Stayz, hotels, etc.). From this we set our rate. We know what our margin is before our time is taken into account.

When you have good baseline data, you’ll then be able to figure out whether or not 35% is reasonable so that it’s a fair deal for you and the other party.

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16

Wow I can’t believe you get 50% .

If it was my property I wouldn’t want you listing it under your name and profile. It puts all the balls in your court and makes it harder for a host that didn’t want to work with you any more.

I would want to be building up my own reviews and reputation. Can’t believe the person you are meeting has agreed to this.

There are lots of people who make money on their listing while using a management company to manage their listing.

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17

There are advantages, and disadvantages, to listing under my name. 50% is a lot, so my style of managing isn’t for everyone. I do every single thing, so this is truly passive income for someone.

The meeting that I have this morning is with a friend of one of my other clients. She has a two bedroom apartment and will be away for this December, then again for all of May and again for all of October. Perfect high demand months where I can hope to make us both some money. She has no desire to answer an email, scrub a toilet or fold laundry.

I anticipate her share won’t be much more than she’d get with a sublet, but she’d rather hand it all over to someone that she knows will take of everything rather than even start advertising and vetting her own sublet.

18

Thanks for coming back. Please don’t get me wrong if you have people willing to pay you much more than the going rate then good luck to you.

However I was a little confused as you didn’t specify what are the advantages to a host of listing under your name, rather than you acting as a co-host under theirs?

I think what you are offering is no more and no less than other management companies who offer a complete service which charge 15 - 30%… They take care of setting up the listing, photography, managing bookings, check in and check out, cleaning, sort out any problems that might occur and get in handymen, answer emails etc

The only difference is they charge 15-30% and you charge 50%.

19

It is true that the owner don’t do anything to get the money but he has to do “something” to gather the necessary capital to buy the property

The question you need to ask yourself is

How hard did you have to work to gather the 50% of the place you are planning to rent?
Is this effort equal to the job of managing your place?

20

I’ve been looking into management solutions in my market and the most aggressive ones charge 20% to take care of EVERYTHING. Cleaning, Turn-over, linens, even the accounting. Even “Pillow” who lie about having a 15% fee, conveniently leaving out the 3% you’ll pay to Airbnb or the 5% you’ll pay to the to others will cost you much less than 35%. You’re getting swindled.

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21

Well, I guess I am overcharging compared to an industry average. Lucky me! For me, it’s not worth it to do the work for less than (approx) $1500 a month. I have my own listings that I take care of, two 50/50 listings and now this one will make a third 50/50 listing. The people that I work with certainly don’t feel cheated in any way, and if they wanted to break off our deal and move to a lower priced alternative, they totally can.

The advantage of using my profile is that I bring a stellar reputation and a lot of experience. I’m sure that can be said for lots of managers, though. I probably am not as special as I think I am, but I guess that I’m special enough that my services are still wanted, even at my cut-throat rate :slight_smile:

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22

By the way, I love these frank discussions and I’m glad for this forum.

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23

Thanks for this tip… I also do think 35% of my AirBnB net is a lot since I have to absorb all the variable expenses like heat, water and etc from my 65% net take… I am trying to build up my reviews and at least have 3 months of baseline data so I can make a decision to stay with AirBnB or long term.

This is what my co-host does now as well …
-Take care of setting up the listing, photography, managing bookings, check in and check out, coordinate cleaning, sort out any problems that might occur and get in handymen, answer emails etc