📣 Co-Hosts: Let’s Share Best Practices (Billing, Cleanings, Fees, & Cash Flow)
Hi everyone — I’d love to start a collaborative thread so we can learn what’s working (and what isn’t) as our co-hosting businesses grow and evolve — especially with recent platform changes like Airbnb’s host-only service fee updates.
I’ll start by sharing how we currently run our operation, and I’m hoping other co-hosts can chime in with their own systems.
💼 How we currently operate
Billing & Bookkeeping
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Our bookkeeper invoices owners once per month via QuickBooks.
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We charge our management commission on:
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Gross booking amount
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Pet fees
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Extra guest fees
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We do not subtract host platform service fees in our commission calculations.
Cleaning Fees
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Cleaning fees are based directly on what we pay our cleaners.
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We’re currently increasing cleaning fees by 18.34% so owners are no longer paying cleaners out of pocket. However should it actually be 15.5%? AIRBNB
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What are your current markups for platform and cleaning fees for VRBO? what if they are annual pay vs 8% per booking?
Trust Deposit
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We require a $1,500 trust deposit from each owner before onboarding.
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This is strictly to cover cleaning costs, since we pay cleaners outside of credit card processing and can’t front a full month of cleanings across many properties. This is returned if we ever stop working together. Like Petty Cash sort of...
🤔 New scenario + questions for fellow co-hosts
We just took on 7 new properties from one owner, and this owner does not agree to the $1,500 trust deposit.
Instead, they’ve proposed: once they receive it in their bank account
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Paying cleaning fees immediately upon receipt
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Paying commission immediately as well
While this sounds good in theory, it feels operationally messy — especially with bookkeeping overhead and added costs from our bookkeeper.
So I’m hoping to learn from others:
❓ Questions for the group
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If you don’t use a trust deposit — how do you handle paying cleaners when owner payments aren’t collected until month-end?
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Do you mark up cleaning fees, or pass them through at cost? If you mark them up, what’s your typical percentage and why?
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How do you calculate your commission (gross booking only, or also add-ons like pets/extra guests)? Do you subtract the Host Service fees before calculating your commission?
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Do any of you collect funds or cleaning fees per stay instead of monthly — and if so, how do you manage the bookkeeping efficiently?
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Has anyone successfully structured owner agreements without a reserve/trust deposit while still protecting cash flow?
My goal is to build sustainable systems that protect cash flow, minimize admin overhead, and stay fair to owners — and I know everyone here has valuable experience to share.
Looking forward to learning how you all do it. Thanks in advance!
