After buying a short term rental property, the next step is to find someone to manage your Airbnb. Unless you want to become a full-time Airbnb host, you need to appoint a person or a company that can take over the management of your rental while providing optimal results.
This is a crucially important decision as the manager and the work they do impact the pricing strategy, the occupancy rate, the monthly revenue, the operating costs, and - ultimately - the profit that you generate from your investment.
This guide helps beginner vacation rental investors learn everything they need to know about placing the right Airbnb manager in charge of their property.
Who Can Manage an Airbnb
An Airbnb investment property can be managed by a number of different people. The decision about the optimal short term rental management solution should be made by the owner and should be driven by their background and experience in hospitality and business management, personal and professional skills, available time, investment goals, and investment location compared to home.
Those are the individuals and entities that typically manage a short term rental:
Property Owner
This is a practical approach for those who invest locally, own no more than a few properties, don’t work a demanding job, and have the necessary traits to operate in the industry.
As an Airbnb host, you will definitely put all the required efforts into meeting and exceeding guest expectations, providing them with excellent services, maintaining your property well, and growing your business. Moreover, you won’t have to pay monthly fees to a manager, and you can rely on Airbnb management software tools to streamline operations.
However, this solution is not feasible for everyone, especially for investors looking for passive income, as it involves a lot of legwork.
Airbnb Co-Hosts
Some owners decide to work with a co-host. The host and the co-host might both own shares in the property, or it might be entirely owned by the host. This is a very flexible vacation rental management model where the co-hosts can decide how to distribute the responsibilities based on the specific situation and how to divide the earnings according to ownership and work load.
This approach works for owners who’d like to remain very engaged in their business without the need to be available 24/7. It’s also a good strategy for new investors who could benefit from the knowhow of more experienced hosts. On the flip side, you still need to do some work in addition to having to share revenue with another person.
Half-Service Airbnb Manager
Owners who want a slightly more passive approach than working with a co-host but are not willing to give up control over their property opt for hiring a half-service Airbnb management company, like Evolve or RedAwning.
A half-service manager helps hosts automate a lot of time-consuming tasks, such as listing optimization, marketing, guest communication, and review generation. Nevertheless, owners remain responsible for things like cleaning, inspections, preventive maintenance, and repairs.
These managers charge fees in the range of 10-15% of monthly revenue, while decreasing the time that owners need to devote to their property.
Full-Service Airbnb Property Manager
Finally, investors who want to make money from real estate passively hire an Airbnb management company offering full services. This is also a good option for those who invest remotely, who work a full-time job and take care of a family, and who don’t have any hospitality skills.
As long as you find a good full-service vacation rental manager, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy passive income, while your property benefits from professional services in accordance with best practices in the hospitality industry. Airbnb managers can be small, local firms or large, nationwide operators like Summer, Vacasa, and Casago.
As a short term rental property owner, you need to analyze your own situation and decide on the best management method for your investment.
9 Steps to Finding Someone to Manage Your Airbnb
In order to find the right professional to manage your Airbnb property in a responsible and profitable manner, you need to set up a meticulous step-by-step process.
Here are the steps finding someone to manage your Airbnb:
1. List Clear Criteria for the Manager
First and foremost, it’s important to decide what you expect from your property manager and write it down as a list. After all, each property is different and has different needs, and every host is different and has different requirements. Thus, before you set out on the journey of finding the best person to manage your Airbnb, you need to know what exactly you are looking for.
To set up your property manager criteria, you need to answer questions like:
- Do you want to be involved in the management of your Airbnb or would you rather have a hands-off approach?
- Do you prefer to work with a small, local property manager or a large company with multi-market coverage?
- Why are you looking for someone to manage your Airbnb: To boost performance or to earn passive income?
- What is your property type and how big is it? What are specific requirements that arise from the type and size of your property?
- Is your rental ready to welcome guests or does it need design and furniture?
- What type of guests do you want to bring to your property and what kind of services would they require?
- Do you have amenities that demand a lot of maintenance such as a swimming pool, a hot tub, mini golf, a home movie theater, etc.?
- What is the maximum monthly fee you are ready to pay?
- What improvement in results do you expect?
Figuring out the answers to these questions will help you find the type of manager you need for your short term rental.
2. Look for Potential Candidates
The next step is to identify the best vacation rental managers in the local market. You can google this and read listicle-style articles by various sources that show the best Airbnb management companies in your market and highlight their pros and cons.
You can connect with local hosts via online investing forums or in-person meetups and ask whom they are working with. You can also search for top-performing Airbnb listings in your area and see who’s managing them. Most professionally managed properties get listed under the name of the manager.
3. Do Extensive Research on Potential Property Managers
Once you have a list of potential Airbnb managers, you should study them well. Check out their websites to see what services they offer and what fees they charge. Find out their average ratings on third-party review websites and also read through individual reviews by both hosts and guests to learn what experiences others have had with them.
See what ratings and how many reviews listings managed by them have on Airbnb and other booking platforms. Talk to local hosts who work with them and inquire about their experiences.
4. Interview Short-Listed Airbnb Managers
It’s important to schedule an in-person or at least a phone interview with the few property management companies that you like the most. Exchanging emails or chatting is not enough to get a feel of the property manager. Prepare a list of questions that you want to ask during the interview but also use the time to see if this company’s energy and culture feels like the right fit for you and your property.
5. Get the Airbnb Management Services and Fees in Writing
The next step is to get a clear understanding - preferably in writing - of the exact services that you will get from each candidate and how much you will need to pay for them. This should include the monthly fees as well as any additional fees.
It’s a good idea to know which services will be performed by the company directly and which will be outsourced to vendors. You should also understand what processes they use to vet contractors.
6. Review the Airbnb Management Agreement
Ask for a copy of the vacation rental management contract that you will need to assign and take your time to review it in length. Read everything and make sure that you understand all the clauses. If anything is unclear, ask the company to clarify it.
In addition to confirming the services and fees, you also need to understand how long the agreement is and what it takes to cancel it in case you are not satisfied with the quality of services.
7. Meet the Local Management Team
After you are down to 1-2 potential Airbnb managers, ask to meet the local, on-the-ground team that will be personally responsible for managing your Airbnb. This is particularly important if you decide to work with a big company present across many markets as the quality of services tends to depend largely on the local team. Make sure that these are people who would take good care of your property and will work on having a positive professional relationship with you.
8. Check Out Listings and Properties Managed by Candidates
Identifying listings of the potential managers on vacation rental websites and seeing how well they are performing is a must. But it’s also a good idea to stop by a few of them and check how they look in person. Indeed, top property managers who have nothing to hide should be willing to arrange for a few property visits for you so that you can confirm the high quality of their work.
9. Choose the Airbnb Property Manager That Is the Best Fit
The final step is selecting the right person or company to manage your Airbnb. The decision should be based on all the hard work you’ve done in the previous steps. This should be someone who will take care of your property as if it’s their own, will protect it from damage, and will aim to maximize revenue and profit. After all, their commission depends on your revenue, so they should work for your mutual benefit.
With the careful execution of the steps listed above, you should be able to find the perfect Airbnb manager for your property.
12 Tips for Finding the Best Airbnb Manager
In your selection of the best manager for your Airbnb property, use these tips:
1. Ask for Referrals
While you can start your search for potential managers in many different ways, usually the most effective manner is to ask local Airbnb investors for recommendations. They’ve already done the work you are about to do, so their suggestions and tips can help you save valuable time and energy and avoid the risk of hiring someone incompetent for the job.
2. Find Out the Airbnb Management Schedule
Check out what the schedule of the selected managers looks like. For example, how soon can they start managing your property? What does the onboarding process look like? How long does it take? You want to choose a popular manager whose expertise has been confirmed, but you don’t want to hire someone who’s already overwhelmed. Flexibility is important.
3. Check Out the Marketing Strategy
When interviewing candidates, ask them about their marketing plan. In most cases, simply listing a property on Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com is not enough to outperform competitors. You want to work with a manager who will put the extra effort into getting your property in front of as many eyes as possible.
4. Confirm the Preventive Maintenance Plan
Make sure you understand whether the company conducts preventive maintenance works and what the schedule looks like. You should also know what items are included, like HVAC systems, garage doors, safety devices, and others. You need to have your own maintenance schedule for things that are not covered by the property manager.
5. Understand Additional Guest Fees
Additional fees like cleaning fees, pet fees, and extra guest fees are the norm in the short term rental market, but some managers overdo it by setting up multiple, exaggerated charges in an attempt to boost profit. Ask what fees guests are charged and make sure that they are competitive in the local market.
6. Review Communication with Guests
The best Airbnb property manager needs to be courteous and kind with guests while offering them all the information they need for a comfortable stay. During the interview, ask the managers to show you the templates they use for communicating with guests.
7. Ask How Big Their Property Portfolio Is
Choose someone who has a solid portfolio of vacation rentals in your area as a testimony to their experience and expertise. But don’t go for anyone who has so many properties that they are unable to handle them with the expected level of care and professionalism.
8. Figure Out How Big the Team Is
In addition to the size of the portfolio, you should also check out the size of the local team. The Airbnb management company needs to have enough local staff to provide high-quality, comprehensive services to all hosts and their rentals.
9. Understand the Reporting Process
Get to know how you can access data related to the performance of your property and how often you can review it. Opt for a property manager that provides you with real-time access to numbers so that you can keep an eye on your business. Transparency is key.
10. See How Often You Can Book Your Property
Property managers tend to limit the time for which hosts can reserve the home for their personal use in order to maximize revenue. The standard is around 60 days per calendar year. Anything below that is too little unless you don’t plan to stay at the property.
11. Ask for Potential Discounts on Fees
In most cases, Airbnb management fees are not set in stone. It’s worth asking for discounts depending on the situation of your property. For instance, if you have a large luxury vacation home that is expected to earn a lot of monthly income, you should ask for a few percentage points discount on your monthly fee.
12. Ask for Adjustments to the Property Management Contract (If Needed)
After you review the management agreement, you can try to get it personalized to your property if needed. Most property managers are willing to make small changes to fit the specific circumstances of each property and each host.
19 Things Airbnb Managers Do
In order to be able to find someone to manage your Airbnb, you need to have a clear understanding of the responsibilities of professional vacation rental managers. In this way, you would know whether your chosen manager goes above and beyond or barely covers the minimum.
These are the tasks that professional short term rental property managers do on behalf of hosts:
1. Professionally Designing and Furnishing the Airbnb
Not all but the best Airbnb property managers offer interior design and furnishing services that are customizable to each property’s needs and each host’s preferences and expectations.
Having a property designed in accordance with hospitality standards and in line with local market trends can help generate more bookings, increase the Airbnb occupancy rate, charge higher rates, and bring more revenue.
2. Getting the Property Ready for Listing
During onboarding, the property manager needs to make sure that the rental has everything that’s required to be ready to get listed on Airbnb and other platforms and start welcoming guests as soon as the first reservations happen.
Even if the property is already furnished and decorated for outstanding guest experiences, the management company needs to check all documentation to confirm legality and to professionally clean it before taking photos.
3. Assisting with Legal Requirements
The best Airbnb management companies help owners get the short term rental permits and licenses that are required in the local market. US states, counties, and cities are continuously introducing new Airbnb laws and regulations in an attempt to control the vacation rental industry and to protect local residents from threats imposed by short term guests.
In many locations, licenses or permits need to be obtained and renewed annually or biannually. Some property managers do this instead of hosts or at least introduce them to the legal requirements.
4. Providing an Airbnb Insurance
Some companies that manage vacation rentals partner with the best Airbnb insurance providers to offer to customers policies at discounted rates. While having a short term rental insurance is not legally mandatory under US legislation, it is highly recommended in order to protect your investment against damage and yourself against liability. The regular homeowners insurance does not cover incidents that occur while the home is rented out on a short term basis.
5. Taking High-Quality Photos of the Rental
In hospitality, a picture’s worth a thousand words or more. Thus, property managers have a dedicated professional photograph or work with local real estate photography companies to provide professional-level photos of the property.
Pictures are taken after the rental has been prepared for guests and need to be redone after renovations or redecorations to ensure that the listing is always up to date. The photos need to show both the interior and the exterior of the property and should emphasize all the best aspects of it in order to attract more reservations.
6. Creating and Optimizing a Listing
One of the most important tasks of those who manage Airbnbs is to list properties on the most appropriate vacation rental platforms. These should include both popular websites and niche platforms to reach out the widest audience possible.
However, simply adding a property and providing the basic information about it does not suffice. Listings need to be optimized for the Airbnb SEO algorithm, which requires an attractive title, a detailed description, use of the right keywords, multiple high-quality photos, a list of all available amenities, and dynamic pricing.
7. Marketing and Advertising the Listing
To enhance the distribution of the listing, property managers deploy various marketing strategies. For instance, they list the property on their own website, which depending on the size of the company might attract thousands of guests per month.
They also share listings on social media and email them to their lists of past and potential guests. They might also use targeted paid Google ads or social media ads.
8. Developing a Pricing Strategy to Maximize Revenue
Another thing that someone who manages an Airbnb does is to put together a vacation rental pricing strategy. Setting up a nightly rate once is not enough to optimize the performance of a short term rental.
Prices need to be updated on a daily basis in order to reflect seasonality, changes in supply and demand, competitor pricing, and other factors in the local market. This is known as dynamic pricing, and property managers need to apply it to boost income for owners.
9. Managing Bookings and Reservations
Since they list properties across different channels, property managers need to maintain an up-to-date booking calendar that brings together all reservations from all sources. Moreover, they need to approve bookings from reliable guests and decline those from suspicious guests in order to protect the properties in their portfolio.
The booking calendar should be accessible by the owner as - with most Airbnb managers - hosts retain the right to book their rental for their own vacations.
10. Screening Guests
Vacation rental managers have access to various tools and databases that allow them to screen guests before confirming their reservations. This is an important aspect of the work as unreliable guests can cause so much damage to the property that it requires expensive repairs or even becomes unusable for a certain period of time.
11. Providing Full Guest Services
As members of the hospitality industry, Airbnb managers are required to offer 24/7 guest support and communication. They should respond in a timely manner to any questions or concerns coming from guests before, during, and after their stays.
On-time communication is crucial for maximizing bookings, ensuring that guests have everything they need for a pleasant stay, and boosting their satisfaction level. In addition, property managers should prepare personalized guestbooks with the most important information about the home, the use of the available appliances, the neighboring area, and the local attractions.
In some cases, they offer discount coupons for tourist attractions in the area. Moreover, some managers provide concierge services for luxury properties and high-end guests which might include transportation, dryclean, preparing meals, and more.
12. Communicating Check-In and Check-Out Details
For the smooth operations of a short term rental, the property manager has to make sure that guests have the check-in details a couple of days before the arrival date. In most cases, guests gain access to the property via codes for smart locks, but some managers prefer to meet and greet guests in person to make that first impression as positive as possible.
Similarly, guests need to receive the check-out details beforehand to know when and how they are supposed to leave the property when the time comes.
13. Delivering Housekeeping Services
When managing an Airbnb property, one needs to ensure that the property is always ready for the next guest in line with industry standards. This means that the rental needs to be professionally cleaned, the towels and sheets need to be changed and laundered, and the guest supplies need to be restocked. Larger property managers have in-house housekeeping teams, while smaller ones work with local vendors to deliver these services.
14. Collecting Guest Reviews
In addition to optimizing guest experiences, property managers also need to make sure that these positive guest experiences bring them benefit in the future. In other words, they need to follow up with guests after their stays to confirm that everything has been good and - if that’s the case - to ask them for a review of the listing.
Having as many 5-star reviews as possible is crucial for the ranking of a listing and for future guests to book the property. Indeed, most Airbnb managers list customer properties under their professional Airbnb host accounts which already have 5-star ratings and thousands of reviews.
15. Regularly Inspecting the Property
The best short term rental agencies perform regular detailed inspections of the properties that they manage to check for any developing problems. This is usually done on a quarterly or biannual basis. This is an important part of the job of someone who manages an Airbnb as catching tiny issues and fixing them on time prevents them from turning into major, expensive repairs down the road.
16. Coordinating Maintenance Works and Property Fixes
Another task that most Airbnb property managers do is to be responsible for required property fixes and repairs. Usually they don’t have an in-house maintenance team but work with vetted local contractors. In this way, they can provide high-quality works at reasonable prices due to long-term partnerships with local vendors.
In most cases, property managers have the right to go forward with repairs that cost up to a couple hundred dollars but need to get the owner’s permission for more costly and more expansive works.
17. Collecting Relevant Taxes and Remitting Them to the Host
Having an Airbnb business is associated with the need to pay multiple taxes, including transient occupancy tax (TOT), lodging tax, and sales tax, depending on your location. The best Airbnb managers help hosts in this regard by collecting relevant taxes from guests and transferring them to hosts. Some also help you prepare your documents for tax season.
18. Keeping the Owner Up to Date
Another important part of the job is to offer regular financial reporting and performance analysis to the host. Most property managers provide hosts with real-time access to all information via an online owner portal in addition to sending monthly summary reports. Moreover, they need to periodically review the performance of the property, reevaluate the marketing and pricing strategy, and see what they can do to further boost results for hosts.
19. Sending Host’s Payouts
In the majority of cases, those who manage Airbnb properties collect booking revenue and all additional fees and taxes from guests. At the end of the month, they charge their monthly fee and subtract any operating expenses, like repairs. Afterwards, they send the owner payout to them via a bank transfer or another agreed upon method.
What an Airbnb Manager Does Not Do
Knowing what an Airbnb manager does not do is equally important to knowing what they do when searching for the best service provider for your property.
Following are the things that short term rental property management companies don’t do:
- Renovating Properties on a Major Scale: While some Airbnb managers offer interior design and furnishing services, the vast majority of them do not engage in large-scale renovations and remodelings. For such services, hosts usually need to turn to the best Airbnb design, furnishing, and renovation companies.
- Starting Major Maintenance Work Without the Owner’s Approval: Vacation rental management agreements allow managers to perform small-scale fixes and repairs that cost a few hundred dollars as need arises. However, when it comes to major maintenance works that cost thousands of dollars, they need to get the explicit approval of the owner.
- Paying Utility Bills: When hiring someone to manage your Airbnb, the utility bills remain under your name, and it is your responsibility to pay them on time. Professional property managers don’t handle this issue.
- Making Mortgage Payments: Similarly, Airbnb managers do not take care of monthly mortgage payments as this is beyond their scope of work. This needs to be taken care of by the property owner.
- Filing and Paying Taxes: While some managers offer tax guidance and support, collect certain taxes and remit them to owners, and even help them prepare documents for tax season, they do not file and pay taxes on behalf of hosts. Owners remain in charge of paying Airbnb-related taxes, rental income tax, and property taxes.
While Airbnb property managers don’t do absolutely everything on behalf of hosts, the responsibilities left for owners are negligible compared to the responsibilities of DIY hosts. Thus, looking for someone to manage your Airbnb is worth it unless you have the time and the experience to do it on your own.
Bottom Line
Who will take care of your short term rental and guests is one of the most important decisions you will make in your business, right after which market and which property to invest in. Thus, you should build a solid plan on how to find someone to manage your Airbnb in a way that will maximize bookings, optimize performance, and boost revenue. Following the steps and tips above will help you streamline the process for the best results.
