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I have been listing my 3-room suite in San Francisco, very successfully on airbnb for over a year and a half now. I’ve attained SuperHost status and have maintained it each quarter. I love hosting!
I was contacted by a friend who has a space they would like to rent on airbnb, but they don’t want to do the work. I would be happy to do the hosting duties, but I’m not sure how we should share the profits. In SF, their home falls into the category where they are only allowed to rent their space for periods longer than 30 days each time. The space is a 2-bedroom penthouse condo and I would be doing everything end-to-end for the listing, including:
Create New Listing
Handle Reservations
Coordinate Cleaning and Linen (I will do the cleaning myself)
Coordinate Repair and Maintenance
Get Home Ready for Guests
Re-Stock Essential Supplies
In-person Meet & Greet
Messaging with Guests and Review
Handle Guest Issues
Update Calendar and Pricing
Listing Optimisation
Check Out - Inspection of listing
I have seen that some people suggest charging 20-30% of the booking as the charge for managing the listing. I don’t know if this is customary. Does anyone have input or thoughts on this? What would you be willing to pay?
Set-up listing: I was thinking of charging a flat rate to set up the listing and get it ready. Not sure what that fee should be. Do you have suggestions?
Yes use the search function using the term co-host - this issue has been discussed many times and you will find useful advice on rate setting etc. @phommey
Quite honestly i wouldn’t be willing to pay for co-hosting services as it doesn’t take me too much time to do the majority of tasks you mention.
I wouldn’t suggest to your friend you do in person check ins and post guest check out as this would be expensive for her and isn’t necessary her cleaner can check the property post check out. and she can use self check in.
I’m not and expert, but from what I’ve read, 20% is good rate for short-term rentals (less than 30 days with averages around 5 days). On the other hand, for long-term rentals (30 days or more) the rates are around 10%, although usually a little higher for terms shorter than 6 months.
If it was me, I’d find out what property management companies charge on average in your region and use that number, but also keep a fair cleaning fee for every turnover. Also, if income is important to you and your friend, you should list the property on other sites in addition to Airbnb.
thank you, Helsi. The owner of the home basically doesn’t have time or interest in doing anything at all and is just happy to have income coming in from the property. They also requested for me to meet the guests for check-in and I will be providing cleaning services as part of my services. I guess they really are looking for a property manager.
San Francisco is a strange market…due to the local tenancy laws which are very renter-friendly, my friend doesn’t want to get into a tenant situation with a lease because tenants can legally overstay and then it is almost impossible and costly to evict them. So, the owner will host “guests” for longer stays. Thank you for the suggestion to look at a property management contract.
I don’t believe that renting through Airbnb actually improves this problem you are trying to avoid. You should investigate this further before you proceed.
You and your friend need to read both City Air ordinances and California landlord-tenant law. Others here have commented that stays over 28 days create a right of tenancy, so your friend would be far better just leasing the property, which provides a lot more landlord rights at lease termination than a rental without a lease.
