Property manager fee/salary? How much do you pay someone to manage your airbnb property?

[Julian295]

hi there... a friend has a property and asked if I'd be interested in managing it as an airbnb...it's a luxury property and I'm guessing it'll be very time consuming,, but just not sure what to ask as far as compensation

thank you!

JP

[Genoveva2]

Whoa! That’s super expensive. I am a property manager and I charge 10-15%. I too work super hard and have a overall 5 star rating on all properties I manage. 

[Teresa780]

But 10-15% of what? The gross payout to the owner? Which in most cases is the sum of the nightly rentals plus cleaning fees. My question’s basically to know 15% of which balance or payout should I request from owner.

[Shantelle6]

How do you charge the home owners? Monthly? Each booking and the bill them?

[Mery172]

@Maria304 if you keep the property vacant, you still need to pay for property taxes, utilities and maintenance, so you cannot count this as operational expenses to pay an airbnb manager, I own an airbnb, and for me is enough if the property pays itself, nobody is going to do property management for less than 25%.

[Sarah977]

@María304 Your mortgage and your property taxes have to do with your equity in the property, not with Airbnb hosting. So you expect to have someone else handle basically everything to do with your income property, and earn less than 30-40%? Sorry, but to me that's greedy.

[M--J-1]

Completely agree. Pleased that someone mentioned this.

[Mery172]

You're so right! Sarah977.

[Rishi54]

I disagree with you in spades. To ask any business for 30% -40% which means one-third or nearly HALF of their revenue with no investment of your own is just crazy. That too you're not working full time.  If I want to share 30% of my revenues with anyone, I'd like them to also at least invest 30% of my costs. I would think that 10%-15% of the revenue is acceptable, if managing Airbnb is someone's full-time business, they should strive to have enough properties they're managing to make their business turn a profit.

I bet you wouldn't want to pay someone 40% of your revenues to do the daily upkeep of your business. 

[Jennifer2460]

I am managing and cleaning. I get the cleaning fee, ofcourse, but my admin/manager pay is only 100.00 a month. That seems pretty low? Please advise!

[Sarah977]

@Jennifer2460  That would entirely depend on how much time you are putting into it. If there is only one booking of 3 or 4 weeks per month, and a small place to clean, $100 might be an okay wage. If you are having deal with managing and cleaning several times a month, it sounds like you''re getting ripped off, big time.

Keep track of your hours and figure out how much it works out to per hour. If it's not at least minimum wage, I'd look for someone who is willing to pay reasonably for quality work, not keep working for someone who wants to pay slave wages.

[Mery172]

@Jennifer2460, 

You're doing this practically for free, you should charge a %, based on the payout they get, minus the cleaning fee.

[Kate896]

I know that this is an old post, but maybe it will help someone.   I pay my property manager a salary of $150 per week to schedule the bookings, address questions of guests, and schedule cleaning.   (She also cleans, but for a separate pay at $30 per hour.)....I think that is more than fair, especially in the slower months where she might not even have one booking that week.    She makes $150 anyway.     I should mention that I have 4 airbnb's.

[Rachel1802]

@Sarah977  I cleaned several Airbnb’s in 2019 and 2020 and was offered the property management position this year. Along with managing the property’s I will also be mowing with my own equipment. The owner handles all the bookings and pays the cleaning fees. His offer was for 15% which I agreed to but now that I’ve been doing the mowing I’m not sure if the 15% is quite right? Should I just charge a separate fee for the landscaping or Is the 15% fair? I don’t want to be greedy but I also don’t want to cut myself short. Anyone with experience/advice? Thanks 

[Sarah977]

@Rachel1802 Managing and landscaping? 15% sounds like a rip-off. I suggest you investigate what landscapers using their own equipment  in your area charge for what the homeowner wants you to attend to. Look at the %s @Lisa723 posted above, 25-30%, which sound more in line with a reasonable wage.

[Debra300]

@Rachel1802,

More detail is needed to help assess a proper pay amount for you.  How large is the area that you have to mow?  Is the area flat, or are there slopes or other items that you have to make special effort or take into consideration when mowing? How much time and resources (fuel, oil, weeding line, etc.) does it take for you to complete the mowing?  How frequently are you expected to mow?  How many months of the year will the lawn need to be mowed?  What are you property management duties supposed to entail?  How often will you have to perform them?

Most of our bookings are long-term stays.  My neighbor is my property manager, but we manage the listing information on all platforms, calendars, guest relations, finances, and supply purchases.  He is responsible to make sure that the trash bin placed at the curb every Wednesday for garbage pick up (if the guest doesn't do it), coordinates getting the lawn mowed (this is needed only during any periods we are not onsite between mid-Spring to mid-Fall), and be the guests' point of contact for things that need personal attention (e.g., the batteries on the smart door lock needed to be replaced during the previous guest's stay).  Since our regular cleaner has recently become unavailable, he's taken on the responsibility of cleaning and turning over the space.  We pay him $120 to clean a 700 s.f. apartment (we provide all of the cleaning supplies and appliances), $30 monthly to keep watch on our place (we also have security cameras and a Ring doorbell), and $50 for each lawn mowing with our mower and trimmer.  Today we had a guest check-in, and we paid him $200.

Typically, guests may only see him if he's walking along our road, or outside chatting with another neighbor.