Fees checked October 23, 2026. Most published ranges come from management and software companies, not independent surveys, so get quotes in your market.
Quick answer
A full-service property manager runs the whole rental and usually charges 15-30% of gross booking revenue, sometimes more. A co-host usually charges 10-25% of gross bookings and works on your own Airbnb listing. How much of the work and the vendor bills stays with you depends on the duties you agree on.
On $60,000 of bookings in the example below, the owner keeps $22,400 with a 25% manager, $25,700 with a 20% co-host, and $37,700 self-managing, before the mortgage and other running costs.
What each one does
Both can run the same tasks. The differences are whose account holds the listing, how the fee is calculated, and who pays the vendors. Our co-hosting guide covers what co-hosts do day to day.
| Full-service manager | Co-host | |
|---|---|---|
| Day-to-day work | Pricing, guests, cleaners, repairs, restocking, and reporting | Whatever you agree, from guest messages only to full operations |
| Whose listing | Often the manager's account | Your account, with the co-host added |
| How they are paid | Percentage of gross booking revenue, deducted before your payout | Percentage, flat fee, or cleaning fee, often through Airbnb's co-host payouts |
| Cleaning and repairs | Manager schedules vendors and may add a markup | Often you pay cleaners and repair vendors directly |
| Contract | Written management agreement with notice terms | Informal or written agreement; you can remove a co-host at any time |
What full-service managers charge
Most managers take a percentage of gross booking revenue. Evolve, for example, charges its fee on each reservation's base rate plus added fees such as cleaning or pet fees, excluding taxes, and only after the guest checks in. The fee comes out before you see the payout.
| Source | Fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Evolve Core and Plus | 10% or 15% | Evolve pricing FAQ. You arrange and pay cleaners. $250 one-time onboarding fee. |
| RedAwning Full Service | 18% | RedAwning plan page. Includes cleaning coordination and repairs. |
| Awning Full Service | 18-25% | Awning pricing page. Cleaning and maintenance coordination included. |
| Fee guides | 15-30% | Guesty and Hostaway guides for full-service management. |
| Fee guides, high end | 25-40% | Hospitable guide for short-term rental management. |
The 10-15% plans are cheaper because you still handle cleaning and repairs yourself. That is closer to co-host work than full service. When you compare quotes, compare what each fee covers, not only the percentage. Sources: RedAwning, Awning, Guesty, Hostaway, and Hospitable.
What co-hosts charge
Co-hosts usually charge 10-25% of gross booking revenue, depending on how much of the work they take on. Our co-host fees guide breaks that range down by service level. Guesty's guide puts partial management at 10-20%.
Check which revenue figure the percentage applies to. Airbnb's co-host payouts calculate the co-host's share from your potential earnings, which is the booking amount after Airbnb's host fee and taxes. You can also pay a fixed amount per booking, the cleaning fee, or the cleaning fee plus a percentage. Only the listing owner can set up or change these payouts. If the payouts you promise add up to more than a booking earns, Airbnb pays co-hosts first and you may get nothing for that booking.
Fees beyond the percentage
The headline rate is only part of the cost. Ask about each of these before you sign.
- Setup fees. Evolve charges a one-time $250 onboarding fee. Guesty says some companies charge $100-$500 to set up a listing. RedAwning lists no upfront cost.
- Cleaning. Guesty warns that some managers mark up the cleaning fee guests pay. Ask whether it passes straight to the cleaner. With Evolve and most co-hosts, you pay the cleaner yourself.
- Repairs. Guesty says some managers add 10-15% on top of a vendor's invoice for arranging the work.
- Exit terms. Hostaway's guide to management agreements says one- to two-year terms with automatic renewal are common, with 30-90 days notice and sometimes a fee of one to three months of management fees. Evolve says it has no long-term contracts, and RedAwning says it may require 30 days notice.
Who holds the listing
This matters most when you want to leave. A co-host works on your listing. Airbnb's co-host rules say the listing owner sets co-host payouts and can remove a co-host at any time. Your reviews, calendar, and payout account stay with you.
A manager may list your home on its own account. RedAwning says listings it creates belong to RedAwning and that you cannot reclaim the listing if you leave. For owners joining, it says existing reviews transfer, and Superhost status carries over only if you transfer your existing Airbnb account to RedAwning rather than building a new listing. What happens to reviews when you leave depends on the contract. Ask every manager whose account the listing will sit on and how it handles your reviews and Superhost status, and get the answers in the contract.
Worked example: $60,000 a year in bookings
The property books $60,000 a year, including cleaning fees paid by guests. The owner pays the 15.5% Airbnb host fee, about 80 turnovers at $125 each, and $3,000 of repairs. Both fees are a percentage of the $60,000 gross. These inputs are assumptions for the example, not market averages.
- Manager. 25% of gross booking revenue, inside the 15-30% range above. The manager arranges cleaning and repairs and adds 10% to repair invoices.
- Co-host. 20% of gross booking revenue. The owner pays the cleaner and repair vendors directly.
- Self-managing. No management fee. The owner does the work.
| Manager at 25% | Co-host at 20% | Self-managed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross booking revenue | $60,000 | $60,000 | $60,000 |
| Airbnb host fee (15.5%) | -$9,300 | -$9,300 | -$9,300 |
| Management or co-host fee | -$15,000 | -$12,000 | $0 |
| Cleaning (80 turnovers x $125) | -$10,000 | -$10,000 | -$10,000 |
| Repairs | -$3,000 | -$3,000 | -$3,000 |
| Manager's 10% markup on repairs | -$300 | $0 | $0 |
| Owner keeps | $22,400 | $25,700 | $37,700 |
The co-host leaves the owner $3,300 more than the manager. The 5-point lower fee accounts for $3,000 of that, and the repair markup for the other $300.
The fee basis changes the result. If the owner pays the co-host through Airbnb's co-host payouts, Airbnb applies the percentage to earnings after its host fee. Then 20% is $10,140, or 16.9% of gross bookings, and the owner keeps $27,560. That assumes the owner includes the cleaning fee in the percentage, which Airbnb lets the owner include or exclude.
Owner keeps = gross bookings - platform fee - management fee - costs you pay
The manager's extra $3,300 buys the owner time. Cleaning schedules, repair calls, and supply runs go to the manager. Whether that is worth it depends on how much of that work the co-host leaves with you.
When self-managing beats both
In the example, self-managing keeps $12,000 more than the co-host and $15,300 more than the manager. If the work takes 5 hours a week, an assumption you should replace with your own estimate, that is 260 hours a year. Dropping the co-host pays you about $46 an hour for those hours.
Self-managing usually wins when:
- You live close enough to handle a lockout or a broken appliance the same day.
- You have a reliable cleaner and a backup.
- You can answer guest messages quickly, including on weekends.
- You run one or two properties, so the hours stay manageable.
A co-host makes more sense when you live far away or cannot answer guests quickly. A full-service manager makes more sense when you want no part of operations and accept a lower take-home for that. If you are deciding whether to co-host other owners' homes yourself, see rental arbitrage vs co-hosting.
Whichever you choose, put the fee basis, who pays each vendor, whose account holds the listing, and the exit terms in writing.
Run your own numbers
At 20% of gross on $5,000 a month, the splitter shows the example's $12,000 a year co-host fee. Then enter your own revenue, split, and costs.
Open Co-Host Splitter