What is a reasonable percent to pay a co-host?

Hi, I am a host and I am asking this for a friend who, I think is paid too little for what she does. So basically she started as the cleaning lady for this couple who owns a house and spend their time abroad. Then they asked her to co-host and she is new to this and told me she can’t do it anymore. Basically she had issues with every single guest, had to call Airbnb customer service, put complaints etc. She is paid 5% on top of the cleaning fee and I think that’s way too little for what she does (communicating with the guests, approving them, contacting ABB customer service etc). Therefore I am asking you what is a decent percentage for a co-host when the owners are abroad and not really involved in running the business? Thanks

Absentee owners need to pay their cleaners/co-hosts whatever it takes to stay highly rated, or it won’t take long until they’re not making any money at all. :grin:

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I would think 15-20 percent minimum.
5 is a bit of a joke. I wouldnt do it.

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5% of the gross or net income ?

I suppose it depends on how many bookings and turnovers as well.

i pay 20% plus the cleaning fee. they tend to forget to dust, however…

I am in a vacation area and the property management companies charge 30 to 40% An associate of mine does co hosting and charges 20-25% and the cleaning fee goes to the cleaners.

5% is a rip off

RR

Our Co-host in Cape Town is my dughter-in-law’s mother (surely there must be a term for such a relationship?!) She is super-efficient and we pay her 15% of the gross takings, plus the cleaning fee if she chooses to do it herself. I’ve begged her to charge more, but she won’t!!

Rates are really highly variable on cohosts. If there are issues with every guest, then your friend may actually not be such a good cohost. I wouldn’t pay a poor cohost even 5%.

We’ve used several different co hosts and paid 18% for our first one, and switched to a less expensive cohost cleaner (using a weekly flat fee model instead of %) that would just handle guest issues (only 1 needed on-site support) and responses during our nighttime (we were travelling during this time and were in a time zone 8-10 hours different than our listing.

PM me if you want any more help/tips with co-hosting as I’m a superhost.

It’s not a given that co-host = property manager and that seems like the definition that some people are using. You need to define what the co-host does before you can assign a value to it.

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@brian_R170, my friend is doing everything that the owner should have done, taking pics of the damage communicating with the guests, filling damage reports… isn;t this what a property manager does? The owners are abroad, they are not involved hands on on this. And this is time consuming, not to mention when people break stuff.

20% plus cleaning fee is pretty standard I think? But that would include taking care of communication with guests and basically handling everything except pricing.

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I started out with a cleaning lady for $20 per hour and bumped it to $25. She loves people and was willing to come in for an hour or two at a time as she lives a few doors down from me. I also paid her forward near the holidays. However her disability affected her. For now it’s the slow season so we will see

@magwitch exactly. this is what she does. 5% is way too little. also I think 20-25$/hr for cleaning is reasonable where I am in PA. Might not be in NYC or San Francisco but here it is.

I have been co-hosting for about a year now and get $15/hr plus 5%. It is almost a full time job now! I do all the cleaning, garbage removal, order supplies, set up the b&b page and do all the interactions with the clients. I need a raise! How much should I be asking?
I am constantly texting arranging matters with the clients, which some months number over 10 different rentals. The owner is pulling in well over 100 gees/yr

One thing I have wondered is why co-hosting is paid as a percentage rather than based on the task and/or time spent. If a house rents for $300 because of the location, why should the co-host be paid more for that house than for the house that rents for $150 a night. It is the same amount of communication etc. I ask this because I have a property that has generated over $8k in one month and it seems unreasonable to pay out 20% (minus the cleaning). The hourly rate that the co-host would earn is astronomical (like $300 per hour of working at the lowest).

Thoughts? What am I missing?

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If I were going to co-host, I would want to be paid for time spent, rather than a percentage. Maybe after managing a place for awhile, I’d go to a percentage, after seeing how much work it was. Some bookings may take a lot more work than others, if the guests have lots of questions they want answered, or are the type who need constant hand-holding during their stay.

How do you come up with 20% of your $8K/month generating property amounting to $300/hour for the co-host? That would mean the co-host only put in just over 5 hours of work in the entire month, when it would seem to me most co-hosts would put in a lot more time than that in a month.

And you aren’t just paying for time spent working- you are paying for someone to be on call and available to deal with whatever might come up, whether that ends up being needed or not. And the reviews are going to based on how attentive the co-host was, not just the property itself. Paying someone well is a encouragement and incentive to doing a great job.

And why should a co-host make more money on a place that rents for $300/night as opposed to $150/night? The same reason the staff at a 5* restaurant gets paid more than someone who works at McDonalds.

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That makes sense. I must utilize a co-host differently than most.

I have written responses to almost every situation and ask that the co-host use the templates. The co-host is responsible to coordinate service appointments and handle communication. I have smart locks, cameras, and a pricing service. The cost hosts work probably adds to about 5 hours in a typical month. I have separate cleaners.

I just couldn’t imagine paying 1,200 to 1,800 in a month for communication and coordinating repairs.

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Its the on call stuff that is hard to price. I am on duty 24 hours a day. When I am away I have someone that is there - but still via me. I pay $10 a thing ( Shopping, greeting, being there for repairs… what ever)

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Well, I’ve ever had a co-host as I just have a home-share listing. But without knowing what a home-owner expects their co-host to do, it’s pretty impossible to say what a fair wage would be for the co-host’s services. It sounds like you don’t expect your co-host to do that much, but some co-hosts basically manage the entire operation- the home owner wants nothing to do with bookings, aside from getting paid.

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