How to choose an Airbnb management company in the UK: the twelve questions to ask
Updated: Sep 8
Most landlords choose an Airbnb management company on the fee and the photos. In reality the fee tells you what you'll pay and nothing about what you'll get, and the photos were taken by a photographer. What separates a management company from a listing service with a nice website is the answers to twelve questions, and you can ask them all in one call.
1. Are you a co-host or a management company?
A co-host runs your Airbnb listing: the messages, the calendar, the prices. The property stays yours to run, so the cleaners, the laundry, the boiler and the guest who's lost the keys at midnight are still your phone. A management company takes the whole property: furnishing, photography, every platform, cleaning, trades, guests. Both are sold as Airbnb management. Ask which one you're buying, because a co-host at a low fee plus your own cleaner, your own laundry and your own Saturday isn't cheaper. It's you, with help.
2. Can I see a projection for my property, with every line on it?
The projection you want reads: gross bookings, minus platform commission, minus cleaning and consumables, minus the management fee, equals your payout, month by month across a year. It states the occupancy and the average nightly rate it assumes, and it says which set-up costs sit outside it. A company that can only tell you its fee can't tell you what you'll earn, and that's your answer.
3. Who holds the guest money, and when do I get paid?
The guest pays the platform or the company, and somewhere between that payment and your account the money sits with someone. Ask who, whether it's a separate client account, and what date each month the payout lands. Ask to see a real statement with the owner's name covered. If the answer to where your money sits is vague, so is the money.
4. What insurance is in place, and whose?
A landlord policy written for a tenancy isn't written for paying guests, so your own insurer needs to know before the first booking, and you need to read what changes. Then ask the company what it carries: public liability, and cover for guest damage beyond the deposit. Ask who claims when a guest breaks something, and who pays the excess. The company that's had a claim will answer in detail. The one that hasn't will answer in adjectives.
5. Who owns the listing and the reviews if we part?
The reviews are the asset. A listing at 4.9 sells for more than the same flat at 4.6, and that difference compounds every month. If the listing sits on the company's account, the reviews leave with the company and you start again at zero with the next one. Ask whose account the listing is on, whether it transfers, and what happens to the photos and the direct booking page.
6. What's the notice period?
Ask what notice either side gives, whether there's a charge for leaving, and what happens to the bookings already in the calendar on the day you go. Some agreements run a year with no break. A company confident in its own numbers doesn't need to lock the door behind you.
7. What are the set-up costs, and are they quoted upfront or folded in?
Photography, any furnishing, the listing build. Someone pays for them. A company that says there are no set-up fees is recovering them inside a higher fee for as long as you stay, which is more expensive over anything longer than a year. Upfront and itemised, you can see what you bought and it's paid once. Ask for the list with prices on it before you sign.
8. Who turns up at 9pm on a Saturday?
A guest is locked out, the heating's off, a neighbour is at the door. Ask who physically goes, how far away they are, and whether they work with the company every week or were found that night. A call centre in another city can open a ticket. It can't open a door. Ask where the team is based and how often they're inside your property.
9. Do you have a direct booking site, and what share of bookings comes through it?
Every platform booking pays a commission before you see it. A company with its own booking site and companies, hospitals and returning guests booking on it keeps more of each night for you, and those direct bookings are usually the long ones. Ask for the share as a number, not a word.
10. How are the nights priced?
One price per season is a spreadsheet, not pricing. Ask whether prices move every day against events, lead time and what's left unsold in the area, which tool does it, and who checks the tool. Then ask what a property they manage near yours was priced at last Saturday, and why. The answer tells you whether anyone is looking.
11. What happens in a bad month?
January is quiet everywhere. Ask what the company earns when the property earns little. A fee that only comes out of bookings means a bad month costs the company too, which is the incentive you want. A fixed monthly charge means you pay the same for an empty January. A fixed rent means the company keeps the good months and you've sold them for the quiet ones.
12. Can I speak to a landlord you manage?
Not a review on the website. A number, a landlord who's been with them a year, and ten minutes. Ask about the statement, the last thing that went wrong, and whether they'd sign again. A company with landlords who'd say yes will find you one by the end of the week.
What we'd say honestly
We're a management company, not a co-host, and we say no to properties outside Bristol, Newport, Cardiff, Chepstow and Somerset, because question eight has to be true or the rest doesn't matter. Our fee is a percentage of what the property earns, quoted once we've seen it, and set-up costs are agreed upfront. That's four of the twelve. Ask us the other eight, and ask everyone else all twelve.
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