pro's and con's of allowing a 3rd party rental manager be the primary host?

pro's and con's of allowing a 3rd party rental manager be the primary host?

I am paying a 3rd party person to be my rental manager of my property

what are the pro's and con's of setting them up as primary host?

 

will they be able to see all financial transactions?

if guests leave great reviews will that benefit me too or just the rental manager

 

I find airbnb platform is a bit confusing on listing owner vs primary host

6 Replies 6
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Michael4957  The primary account holder willreceive the reviews and ratings. You won't have any.

 

And if you decide you don't like the manager and want to switch, it will be an enormous hassle for you. Do not allow property managers to have control of your listing.

@Michael4957 @Sarah977 you do need to distinguish between "listing owner" and "primary host."

 

The listing owner (previously "listing admin") has complete control over the listing, and is the only one who can see financial transactions and private review feedback, and send/request money to/from guests. Reviews and superhost status are associated only, and permanently, with the listing owner.

 

This is regardless of which host is designated as the "primary host," which can be either the listing owner or the co-host and can be changed at any time. The "primary host" is just the one who is presented as the first point of contact for guests.

 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1243/cohosts-an-introduction 

@Lisa723  Thanks for the clarification.

Brian2036
Level 10
Arkansas, United States

@Michael4957 

 

The platform is extremely confusing. This forum is an invaluable research tool, however, and I wish more people would use it.

 

 I agree with @Sarah977 regarding maintaining control of reviews and financial transactions.

 

 We started with a rental manager who took control of everything and it didn’t work out well.

 

 I guess we were lucky it wasn’t worse, we were totally ignorant,  but basically they treated us like mushrooms and when we had enough it was very difficult to start over.

 

They got the payouts and pretty much gave us whatever they felt like giving us, which was around 50%.

 

We did all the work,  never saw a review, and were never offered the opportunity to write a review.

 

What was really galling was they charged the guests a $65 cleaning fee which they kept. They didn’t clean anything and we didn’t know about the fee until a guest told us.

 

They sent us anyone who was willing to pay, regardless of their history or non-compliance with our rules.

 

 We were lucky if they gave us 24 hours notice of guest arrivals and even then we had to call and demand details such as who, what time, and how many.

 

So, for us, it was not a good deal. We’re much better off on our own.

@Brian2036 presumably you were not set up as a co-host, then. Co-hosts can see the who/what/when of reservations, and all messages between hosts and guests. Of course they can also see all listing details including cleaning fees etc.

Brian2036
Level 10
Arkansas, United States

@Lisa723 

 

No, we were abysmally ignorant of the whole STR phenomenon and had experience only with do it yourself leases.

 

 We repeatedly asked for access to the various platforms that had our listing and were ignored.

 

Fortunately ignorance can be fixed and we’re working on it.