What is an Airbnb CoHost

Do you ever want to take a break from your hectic schedule of managing your Airbnb properties?

At times, you have to juggle so many things. From cleaning to maintenance to handling numerous guests, managing a property is not an easy task. However, Airbnb now permits you to have a cohost or cohosts, which can help you manage your responsibilities.

Airbnb Cohost—What is it

An Airbnb cohost is someone that you can hire to take on the hosting responsibilities, like managing your listings and offering further support for guests when needed. A cohost also takes on the management of the property on behalf of the Airbnb host, ensuring that everything runs smoothly.

Who Can Be a Cohost

Family or Friends

You might be wondering how to cohost an Airbnb, as it seems complicated. In reality, it's as simple as allowing family members or trusted friends to share some of the hosting responsibilities using their own accounts. You do not need to provide access to your personal Airbnb account.

Employing Assistance

Another way of appointing a cohost is to hire a manager or company. Verify that the fee they ask for is in line with industry standards before deciding to hire them.

Airbnb Host Marketplace

With local cohosts who are already familiar with the system, it's a great choice to go for the Airbnb cohost option, which is offered on their website.

Benefits of Having an Airbnb Cohost

Aside from lending a hand to your listing, a cohost can act as the primary host as well, assisting the listing owner in all aspects of the task.

Reservation Handling: Managing reservation requests by responding to inquiries and appropriately approving or rejecting them
Listing Space: Assist in creating an Airbnb listing for your space by uploading photos, setting an optimal price, and writing descriptions
Calendar Update An Airbnb cohost updates the latest availability of your space, optimizing guest reservations
"Guest Ready": Ensuring that the place is in tip-top order once a reservation is confirmed
Restocking Essentials: Your cohost can provide the assistance of making sure that toiletries, towels, soap, and other essentials for guests are replenished, if/when needed
Guest Services: Greeting guests personally, if preferred, and interacting with them to address and resolve any issues that may arise
Manage Messages: Cohost can manage guest messages through their own Airbnb account, which they can coordinate the arrival or departure. They can also send messages on behalf of the host or listing owner
Space Housekeeping and Maintenance: Handling the general home maintenance and repairs of your property. A host can discuss with the cohost the expenses to be included, as well as supervise cleaning services if outsourced
Communicate with Airbnb: Any resolution for an issue that may arise about a guest or reservation can be handled by the cohost with Airbnb directly
Write Reviews: A cohost can leave ratings and reviews of the guests you hosted on your behalf

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Share the Details

Setting up a meeting with the cohost to discuss the details about the listing and space is essential in achieving success on how to cohost Airbnb. Topics may include the aspects for which the cohost is responsible, as well as the compensation amount to be agreed upon. On the other hand, a cohost may also share with the listing owner the extent of responsibility to be taken on. This way, no misunderstandings and unwanted circumstances will pop up.

Payment Plan

Remuneration is largely dependent on the cohost's responsibilities. However, there are three approaches.

A cohost can receive 10-20% of the nightly listing rate without a cleaning service.
A listing owner can straight out negotiate a flat rate with the cohost, with a cleaning fee paid in addition to the agreed payment plan. The cleaning fee can be gauged by the host based on the size of the space and workload.
The average charge for a cohost that fully manages the listing, as well as cleaning, is usually 20-30% of the nightly listing rate, plus the cleaning fee.

Steps on Adding a Cohost

Login to Airbnb account
In Hosting mode, Select “Listings” from the top navigation bar
Click on your listing
Click on “Co-hosts” from the top menu
Click the “Invite a friend” button under “Host with a friend”

Is it Worth Hiring an Airbnb Cohost

Trust

Making your family members and friends as cohosts can provide you a safety net in your vacation rental business, and you'll be rest assured that it's in the safe hands of people you know very well.

Security

You can have peace of mind that there will be no breach on your account, as cohosts can only access their own Airbnb account. They also cannot view other sensitive information. Nonetheless, if you feel unsure, you can always remove the cohost status.

Cost

The benefit of having a cohost manage your listing surely outweighs the worry of cost. Fees largely depend on the duties they perform. You always have the discretion of assigning the tasks to the cohost.

The service can potentially pay for itself by increasing the occupancy rate with the help of the cohost's assistance, boosting your revenue.

Dispute

As long as you have a detailed cohosting contract underlined with clear expectations, you can prevent any future dispute that may arise between you and your cohost. Ask your cohost about the number of tasks and responsibilities that he or she can handle to preclude any unnecessary difficulties.

Final Thoughts

Airbnb has introduced a pleasant and helpful feature for many homestay owners, which is a welcome inclusion. Cohosting has lessened the struggles of several property owners in their vacation rental business. Employing a dedicated and effective cohost is a great solution in boosting and improving an owner’s revenue, as well as reputation.

We hope this article helped you decide whether to employ a cohost or not.