Suggestions on how to pay cohost

[Monica515]

We recently switched to AirBnb from another vacation rental mgmt company. We live in Colorado and our vacation home is in California, so a friend offered to cohost since he and his wife Airbnb an apartment in California. We already have a cleaning person who has cleaned for us in California for the last two years.  she does a phenomenal job plus does laundry.  We want to compensate our friend for cohosting but not clear on what is acceptable. As a cohost our friend may communicate with potential guests, he may check them in and check them out.  He says 20% is the going rate.  Here is the disconnect. We paid the vacation rental management company 20%. This did not seem financially smart as I hired cleaning person, maintenance and lawn service, so pretty much we were using vacation rental mgmt company for their booking platform.  Why would I pay 20% for someone to ocassionally commujnicate with potential guests and check in and check out.  Would like thoughts on this.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Monica515 - your friend is correct, the going rate for a co-host is 20%.  My question would be to you - what are you paying the management company to do for you that you need another person to "host".  They are essentially your "co-host" and should be doing the communication, coordination, booking, greeting, maintenance, answering guest questions, etc.  If not, hire your friend and fire them - you'll get more bang for your buck. 

https://www.airbnb.com/co-hosting 

[Monica515]

We NO LONGER use the vacation rental management company.  Jan 1, 2018 we began bookings through AirBnb.  I have a cleaning service that I have used for the last 3+ years.  I have a landscaper who I have used for the last couple of years.  The cohost will communicate with potential guests when I am not available, he will check them in and out until I have keyless entry set up, and he will be on call in the event a guest should need something.  Co host WILL NOT clean, do laundry or stock supplies. 

As I mentioned, we paid the mgmt company 20% but they paid the cleaning service, the maintenance and they handled all the bookings, checkin ins and check outs.  To pay a cohost 20% seems high.  From experience, other than a group who held a party at our house (against rules), we have never had a guest call for issues during thier stay.  I fly out every 2-3 months to make sure the house is very clean, supplies are stocked and make sure there are not any maintenance issues.  

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Monica515 - If you read through the co-host information, you will see what you can ask them to do and you can offer to pay them whatever you'd like for their services.  The going rate is 20%.  I get 25% when I do the correspondence and site maintenance to get the bookings, am responsive to guest questions/concerns, handle check in/out, do inspections, coordinate cleaning, hire and determine maintenance, handle security deposit claims, and write the reviews. I take a minimum payout of $25 on each booking (so if you set your price at $10/night and the guest stays one night, I still get paid $25).  When I set up a listing for a host, I get a flat fee of $100.  What you choose to pay is up to you and the contract you make with your friends to help you out. 

[Lisa34]

I am a professional cohost in the Seattle, western North Carolina, and southern Illinois markets. I only charge 10% of the gross booking fee, ot 20%. This is because I do not handle maintenance issues or cleaning directly. My role with that is only to pass on information to the owners about maintenance or to the cleaning staff about the dates, party size etc. I hope this information helps. In the market I work in I do think 20% is the norm if you handle all of these related issues directly.

[Zappa0]

@Lisa0@Monica0@Alice-and-Jeff0Logistically, how do you get paid/pay co hosts?

As an independent contractor to Airbnb any check I write to a cohost would be still considered part of my gross income that I pay tax on. My understanding is that I cannot just write them off as a tax deduction unless they have a dedicated service with a permit ie...julies cleaning service.

Which leaves me to adding them to a co host on Airbnb, which is designed to assume the cohost handles every/booking cleaning, etc by issuing a percentage to them (I assume as an independent contractor to airbnb as well). 

Problem is..what if the co host isnt doing every check in? What if they are just part time and I do the rest, or need days off etc...and host has to do the cleaning and check ins. Using airbnb system, theyd still get their cut for every booking right? I cant seem to find an option for paying them on a listing for certain days part time etc..

How do you do that/work it out?

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Zappa0 - I have a co-host contract within the Airbnb system and they auto pay me my percentage and the cleaning fee directly.  It is considered income to me and I will need to pay income tax on that amount.  I provide invoices for anything extra - like when I purchase something for the home.  I should declare that as casual income in addition to the transaction history from Airbnb.  

You can direct pay your help when you use them and you can write that payout off against income - they should provide you with a statement for payment.  If they don't declare their income and you write it off on yours, if the IRS wants to go after that, they will have a record and the person receiving the money could, potentially, be violating the law.  

As for the co-host system on Airbnb, I've uncovered so many issues already and I've spent an enormous amount of time with the CS team trying to get things sorted.  Plus, they lump all the income together so it's impossible to see what is being paid to me for my own listing vs. the co-host property when looking at the "total income"  - you must go into the transaction history and see them, but then you can't sort it.  It is line after line of income from each property as it happened (including just lumping in my Cleaning Fee into the payout). 

To do what you want, the co-host system won't really work because once the co-host is listed, every booking that comes in while they are attached to the property will result in a payout if you are set up on a percentage basis.  If there is no payout, they can be shown as listed on the property, but you will still manually need to pay them.   

[Tracey89]

Suggestion Pay the co-host a nightly fee of say $5 per night per room if someone books. That way the local person can be responsible for interacting w the guests.