Hiring An Airbnb Property Manager? You NEED to read this…

This article is going to give you everything you need to know when hiring an Airbnb property manager.

What you’ll learn:

You ready?

Lets go!

What does an Airbnb property manager do?

The job of a property manager is to (you guessed it) manage your property - so that you don’t have to.

That means taking care of:

And in some cases they’ll even optimise your listing, create a full-scale pricing strategy and work to ensure you’re beating the competition in your area.

Airbnb property management fees

So how do Airbnb property managers structure their fees?

Let’s dig a little deeper.

Fixed rate:  The property management company will charge you a fixed monthly fee.

Flexi: Fixed monthly fee (base rate), plus additional fee per booking

Commission only: Pay a fee for each successful booking.

There’s no one right answer, but for me, alignment of interest and skin in the game are the most important factors in mitigating the principle/agent problem that exists in this game.  

What Is the Principal-Agent Problem?

The principal-agent problem is a conflict in priorities between a person or group and the representative authorized to act on their behalf. An agent may act in a way that is contrary to the best interests of the principal.

And it’s for that reason that my personal preference is the commission only model.

Although if truth be told, my favourite option of all is to automate the entire process using a cocktail of tools for the job, more on that in a minute...

How much do airbnb property managers charge?

Ok, so we covered the different ways that Airbnb property managers structure their fees, but what are the actual numbers?  How much do they normally charge?

Well, the average is generally anywhere between 20% - 30% of the rental revenue - however these fees can vary considerably depending upon the level of service and quality you're looking for.

Obviously, for a high-end service you'll be paying a premium.

It's also worth noting that many property managers also require a set-up fee too.  

This fee is to cover any marketing, paperwork etc.  And you can expect to pay anywhere up to around $300 for this.

*Important: Whenever you're negotiating to hire an Airbnb property manager for your place make sure you are aware of ALL the fees and charges you'll be responsible before moving ahead with the contract.  As these hidden fees can oftentimes turn around to bite you in the butt down the road.

How to find an Airbnb property manager

Unfortunately, there isn’t (yet) a centralised location where you can go and find an Airbnb property manager and compare their fees, reviews etc. Instead, the process of finding an Airbnb property manager is quite fractured.

Which means you’re going to have to get your hands dirty and do a bit of Googling & calling around in your area to find a good fit.

Here are a few good questions to ask when deciding on the right property manager for you:

The alternative: An Airbnb that manages itself…

I’m going to be a little bit brutal here, but much of the work that Airbnb managers do can be automated - if you know what you’re doing.

In fact, if truth be told, most of the businesses advertising property management services for Airbnb hosts like you will likely be doing a lot of what I’ll be sharing with you here anyway, and doing very little of the work themselves.

Here’s how it works:

First up you must break down the guest journey - and the associated tasks to manage them - into steps so that you can get a better idea of the entire guest guest flow, and the steps you need to take to make sure all tasks are covered.

And for that you need a system that covers: