Co-Hosts

[Amber542]

I have been using Airbnb for years now and became a host myself two years ago. I was under the impression that Airbnb hosts were people opening up their homes or rental properties to people. I am currently looking to book a trip and am coming across home after home of people who are using "management companies" for their rentals under the name of being "CoHosts".

This appears to really be degrading the experience of Airbnb as practices such as calendar and price monopolizing seems to be rampant. Is this the norm for your vacationing experiences as well or is it just in this particular city? 

Is there a way to make sure that you are dealing with an owner when you rent, who personally oversees their property, and not their hired management team?

[Z-2]

As a out of town host myself, I think there are a lot of houses managed either by management company or cohost. Those homes usually rented by whole houses. If you do care to rent a house managed by owners themselves, you can always ask. But I am sure you get  less choices as some beach town, most of the houses are vacation houses. The owners just go there for vacation.

[Z-2]

@Amber542 I didn’t host the house until 2 years ago. Before that, management company took care of everything. But they did have problems, then we host ourselves and do a lot ourselves to make sure everything go well by switching management, hired right cleaner. We are getting better at it. But sure, if you can find house managed by owner, I think it might be better. 

[Sarah977]

@Amber542  Airbnb actually encourages these types of listings, while continuing to mouth rhetoric about how Airbnb is all about connections, living like a local, blah, blah. They love those property managed listings because those managers usually have scores, if not hundreds of listings, which bring in lots of revenue for Airbnb.

There are still plenty of hands-on hosts who rent private rooms or self-contained studios in the home where they live, a cottage on their property, or a house they live right next door to.

We have been begging Airbnb to separate our types of listings from the property manager listings forever, and it falls on deaf ears. As a guest, you should send them feedback about this- they listen to what guests want far more than they care about what hosts want.

I don't know what sort of property you are looking for in terms of maximum number of guests, amenities, etc. or the area where you want to book, and what search filters you are using, but if you filter for Private Suite or Private Room, or Cottage, you would get a lot more of the hands-on host listings you would prefer.

If you are looking for an entire vacation home with a pool, that sleeps 10, in a popular holiday area, you are likely to see mostly those property managed listings.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Sarah977 @Amber542 

Sarah is wise and well spoken. Search filters are important tools, and I use them to narrow my search.

I, too, wish that there were clearly separated categories to make our shopping easier, and to sort us out of the "agency pool". In some areas there are dozens of agency-managed places and very few hands-on places. This is the norm in our nearby beach towns, so why not lump them all together? It shows up as a wealth of listings in a popular area. It is up to the guest to do the in depth part of shopping. 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Amber542 

You have raised a good point. As always, different strokes, and something for everyone, in a vast marketplace.

I am a lover of homeshares all over the world, as a lifelong traveler and many years host. I have also rented full homes from the owners, which is great when I am traveling with a companion, in familiar territory.  

I am a homeshare host, in the house where I reside full time,  for 30 years. I am very up front that I am looking for a homeshare, an owner operated place; what my goals and wishes are. My listing states pretty clearly what we offer, and what we do not. It also make clear that we are on site resident owners. If it is not clear to a prospective guest, I hope they will ask, and not assume anything.

To make sure you are getting what you seek, you really need to read the listing and ask all the prying questions. I have noticed that with agency-managed houses that fact has been clear to me by reading very carefully. The beach area near us has all but a couple of places managed by an agency, they are all labeled the same, upon close scrutiny.  The description sounds like an agency wrote it. When I looked more carefully at the host description of more than one home, it was clear. They were all large, magnificent, well located houses, better suited to a family reunion than the two of us.  No one actually lives there. They are splendid, but feel "empty" - they lack the warmth that I look for, the experience that I travel for. Someone dear to me calls them "trophy houses." I live in one, and it is my homeshare listing. 

My alternative to one of these beach mansions was a family owned and operated small hotel in a magnificent location. For a third of the price I was offered a luxury suite with fireplace, balcony, splendid view, total privacy,  a magnificent restaurant, and gorgeous gardens for strolling and sitting. I got the option to support a family enterprise. It was crafted and maintained with the love and personal touches I look for when traveling, and what I strive to offer myself, as a home share host. My friends and I rented a room each, and had a peaceful, restful, quality experience to remember. 

Again, we all need to do our homework. For some of us an agency-managed place is perfect and preferable. My travel buddies and I prefer to deal with, and benefit, the owner directly.

[Z-2]

@Amber542 @Sarah977 @Kitty-and-Creek0 I think most depends what you really need when you looking for the house. In my area, most of vacation houses are managed all by management companies, some of them like our house, hosted by owner but managed by someone else. Only a few are managed by owners. To me, the places totally managed by company are the worst. But if I choose location over others, such as house feeling, cleaning, I might still pick the one managed by companies knowing it might have some problems.

[Sarah977]

@Z-2  To me, "hosted by owner", yet everything is handled by a property management company is meaningless. 

The host is the person who deals with the guests, the maintenance, the cleaning, etc. Just because a home-owner can list as the host, with their manager being a co-host, doesn't mean the homeowner is actually the host in most people's understanding of the word. 

Hands-off "hosts" who do nothing more than collect a percentage of the rent, are not hosts, as far as I'm concerned, they are simply property owners.

[Z-2]

@Sarah977  Hosted by owners here I mean owner actually is a host,  they deal with everything they can, except cleaning and repair which they have to hire the local people to do. The management company one is the management company is the host. They handle everything. To me, I rather the Airbnb have the filter, but how about the owner host not hire the management company but individual cleaner and handyman. Is the owner a host or not?

[Sarah977]

@Z-2  Obviously there are many things a hands-on host can't or doesn't want to do themselves. Cleaning is one- nothiing wrong with a host hiring a cleaner rather than doing the cleaning themselves. 

And things like pool cleaning and yard maintenance usually get contracted out for vacation rental entire properties.

Nor does a host necessarily know how to repair their own appliances, or deal with plumbing or electrical issues. They have to hire technicians for that.

None of that makes someone "not a real host".

What makes them not a real host IMO is if they are listed as a host but do nothing regarding their rental but make money.

[Christine615]

I really want us to have our own category. “Hosted by owner” would be perfect. And a way to report the cheaters. I just cancelled on a listing I thought was a company hiding behind a fake owner. I’m at the point where I prefer owner hosted listings (even if they’re not home shares.) Not interested absentee investor property manager by a third party. It’s never been the same as the more personal ones.

[Elaine701]

We are located in a popular holiday destination. There are many indigenous families here that have one or more inherited large properties that they're unable or disinterested in doing anything with. Also, there's a cultural thing about selling inherited properties while the parent or source of the inheritance is, still alive. So, they sometimes keep these properties for a decade or longer because the inheritor is still alive. 

Tourism is fairly big business here, and so there's lots of small outfits that go around to these property owners and sell them full management of their property as tourist accommodation. They convince the owners to invest in licences, upgrades, etc, then market the property for them. Cleaning and all other necessities of STRs are often either put on the owner, or outsourced to third party firms (usually friends of the small management company) at the owner's expense. 

Most all of these small brokers simply list the properties on every booking platform (starting with Airbnb) as a "co host" and collect generous commissions for doing so. It's an entire cottage industry here. 

It's a shame that owners don't realise that they could do it themselves and eliminate the middle man, minimise the costs, and make more money... If they don't want the burden, then put one of their adult offspring in charge.. At least somebody they can trust.

These small outfits are usually just money collection machines. They put as little effort into it as they can get away with. And send as much of the owner's profits to their friends in related service businesses. 

It's pretty cheeky, in my opinion. But it's the owners that make those choices. So, it's hard to blame the small management companies for doing it. It's easy money. 

[Dimitar27]

Probably depends on where you are and where is your property.

If the area is very famous tourist destination, most of the people there will be tourists, not locals, anyway.

For example: "The locals" are 10 or 20,000 people, but the area is accommodating 300-400,000 in the middle of the active season, 100,000 of them-not local or even foreign workers. No matter where those properties are listed, the chance to meet somebody "local" is...5%. Or 10%. Not much. Because every single property is listed somewhere.

On the other side- a rural area, not famous, very specific...only 10 listings around. 99,9% of the people will be "local".

Those are different products. They have different customers. It's a market, there is no magic involved.

[Jennie131]

My listing is right next door to my residence, and I clean and manage it myself. 

I have found that increasingly on social media, guests are expecting to find a sterile, anonymous hotel type rental with all the bells and whistles, for flophouse prices. They don't want to see any evidence that the property belongs to a real human being and not a faceless corporate entity. 

I have a carriage house converted to a bar room in my listing, and it is decorated  in a Harley Davidson/Western theme, because that's how we decorated it for our own use when we lived there. We left photos of us meeting famous people, awards from motorcycle shows, and other such things. I have been told in Facebook and other social media groups that the carriage house should be redecorated to something more neutral, and all of our pictures and trophies should be removed, because guests don't want to see any of that.

Well, guess what? Not a single guest as actually complained or suggested that we neutralize the carriage house. In fact, they love it! It stays as it is.

[Laura2592]

@Amber542 I read somewhere that MOST listings on ABB now were professional hosts (ie., corporate investors) and not the individual owners. I do think it depends on the market. 

We tend to stay in corporate rentals when we are in urban areas not out of preference, but because those are the whole space stays that pop up with instant book. On a recent stay I don't think we could find a single place that was individually owned in the neighborhoods we were targeting. On rural or suburban stays its very different.