What Should an Airbnb Co-Host Charge? 15.5% Math

An Airbnb co-host should charge somewhere in the range Airbnb itself publishes, which is 15 to 25% for ongoing support, plus a flat fee if they set up the listing. That is the answer on Airbnb's own Co-Host Network page. The number that matters more is what that percentage is taken from, because Airbnb pays the co-host out of what is left after its 15.5% host fee.

That detail changes the math. A "20% co-host" paid through Airbnb receives about 16.9% of what the guest paid. Together with Airbnb's fee, 32.4% of the booking is gone before you pay for cleaning, supplies or the mortgage. The owner in the r/PropertyManagement thread "Management company eating up every penny of profit" found the same thing on a long-term rental: the headline percentage was fine, and the money was going somewhere else. If you want the wider version of that hunt, start with where your business is losing money.

This guide covers what to charge or pay, how Airbnb actually calculates the split, the cleaning fee setting that quietly costs owners 15.5% per turnover, and a table to check your own deal.

What do Airbnb co-hosts typically charge?

Airbnb says co-hosts typically charge 15 to 25% for ongoing support, and many add a flat fee to set up the listing. Its Co-Host Network FAQ puts it plainly: pricing "may include their price to set up a listing (flat fee) and for ongoing support (percentage of each booking)," and "Airbnb does not take a percentage of the payout you share with your co-host."

The rest of page 1 is vendors. One management company's guide to New York management fees says basic services "start around 10-15%, while full, comprehensive management can reach 25-35%," and lists flat structures of $300 to $1,000 a month. That is a company selling its own 15% plan, so treat it as a range, not a benchmark.

Owners on r/airbnb_hosts land in the same place. In the thread "Co-host wants to raise her cut from 25% to 32%":

• A co-host: "I make 20% and totally good with that."
• An owner: "I pay my cohost 25% but he is full service. Cleanings (and we are pet friendly), cut the grass, restock snacks, handle all issues locally."
• Another: "26% is wildly expensive anyway."
• And: "You can get an actual management company at 20%."

These are anecdotes, but they cluster inside Airbnb's band, and the pushback starts just above 25%.

Price by scope, not by what others charge

Airbnb defines "full service" on the Co-Host Network as six services: listing setup, setting prices and availability, booking request management, guest messaging, on-site guest support, and cleaning, per its co-host profile guide. Use that list to place a co-host in the band:

The co-host side matters too, because a price that is too low does not last. A Chicago host who tried co-hosting on YouTube ("How Much I Made in 1 Year (and Why I Quit)") started at a 9% fee on "the money after Airbnb's take," earned $2,671 across two properties in about a year, and did the listing rewrite and photos for free. His advice for next time: "Charge an upfront flat fee for listing optimization and photos." A co-host who underprices will either cut corners or leave.

Percentage of what? How Airbnb calculates the co-host split

Airbnb calculates a percentage co-host payout from the host's potential earnings, which is the booking total minus Airbnb's host service fee. Its co-host payout article spells it out: multiply the nightly price by the nights, add fees like cleaning, "then subtract the host service fee," and the co-host payout is then calculated from that amount.

Airbnb's service fee page says it is moving all home hosts to the single fee structure, where "most hosts pay 15.5%." Hostaway's summary of the change puts the final switch at September 15, 2026 outside the EU and October 13, 2026 in the EU.

So every co-host percentage now applies to 84.5% of the booking. A worked example, three nights at $200 plus a $150 cleaning fee:

This is the same trap as a card processor quoting one rate and charging on a different base, which is why an effective rate beats the headline number. A professional co-host with 23 listings made the point from the other side in r/airbnb_hosts: "If Airbnb takes 15.5% first and then I receive 15% of what's left, my effective management fee is only about 12.675% of gross room revenue." Both sides need to agree which base the percentage uses, and write it down.

Should the co-host raise their percentage after the 15.5% change?

No, not if the owner raises prices to cover the fee. A percentage co-host is already tied to your price. When nightly rates go up, their pay goes up with them. The top reply in the 25% to 32% thread said it in one line: "If you raise your nightly rate to offset, she'll naturally be offset as well."

Airbnb's own fee change guide shows why. Under the old split fee, a $100 price earned the host $97 after the 3% host fee, and the guest saw $115. Under the single fee, pricing at $115 still earns $97. Leave the price at $100 and you earn $84.50. If the owner reprices so the payout is unchanged, the co-host's percentage of that payout is unchanged too, in dollars.

Asking for 32% instead of 25% on top of that is a 28% raise in the co-host's pay, framed as a fee adjustment. As the OP put it: "I'd effectively be absorbing 100% of what used to be the traveler-side fees on my own."

There is one honest case for the co-host. If the market will not bear higher prices and the owner leaves rates alone, both sides lose about 13% of their old income, and the co-host did not cause it. That is a real conversation about the whole deal, the same one any business has when raising prices. It is not a reason to change the split and the price at once.

Gross up by dividing, not multiplying

When you do reprice, the math is easy to get backwards. One commenter in r/airbnb_hosts: "grossing up isn't multiply by 1.155, it's divide by 0.845."

• Moving from the split fee: your old payout was 97% of your price, so the new price is old price x 0.97 / 0.845, about 14.8% higher.
• Money you pass through in full (a cleaner's pay you want to cover exactly): new fee = amount / 0.845, about 18.3% higher. $145 becomes $171.60.

Multiplying by 1.155 leaves you short on every booking.

The cleaning fee payout that leaks 15.5% per turnover

If your co-host is set to receive the "Cleaning fee" payout, they get the full listed cleaning fee, and Airbnb's 15.5% on that fee comes out of your share. Airbnb's payout article says the cleaning fee option shares "the amount you set as your cleaning fee in your listing details." Its fee page says the host fee is a percentage of the nightly price "and any fees charged by the host." Put those two sentences together and the owner pays Airbnb's fee on money that goes straight to the co-host.

This was a 3% leak under the old split fee. At 15.5% it is five times bigger. An owner in r/airbnb_hosts ("15.5% service fee to hosts Airbnb") raised the cleaning fee to $172 so the cleaner would net $145 after the fee, and found the co-host receiving the full $172: "my manager is receiving an extra $26 on every booking and I am losing $26 from my profit." A commenter put a year on it: $26.66 a booking, "Ten bookings a month and that's about $3,200 a year." The owner said Airbnb support declined to change it.

How to check yours in five minutes, using the owner's own method from that thread:

1. Open one recent booking in your Earnings dashboard.
2. Take the host earnings after Airbnb's fee and multiply by your co-host's percentage.
3. Subtract that from the co-host's total payout on the booking.
4. What is left is the cleaning amount you are sending. If it equals your listed cleaning fee, you are paying 15.5% on it.

Three ways to fix it:

• Switch the co-host to a fixed amount per booking equal to what cleaning should actually pay. Airbnb supports fixed amount payouts for co-hosts with any permissions.
• Keep the cleaning fee in your payout and pay the cleaner yourself. That moves the paperwork to you (see taxes below), but you control the number.
• Use a percentage that includes cleaning and pay cleaning out of your share. Simple, but only if the percentage is priced for it.

Any change needs the co-host's confirmation. Airbnb gives them 14 days to accept, and changes apply only to bookings that start after they confirm, so set it before your next busy stretch.

Who gets paid first, and what happens on cancellations

Airbnb pays co-hosts first and the host gets whatever remains. Its payout exceptions article says so directly: "co-hosts will be paid first, and the host will receive whatever remains." With several co-hosts, Airbnb pays in a fixed order: cleaning fee only, then cleaning fee plus percentage, then percentages from highest to lowest, then fixed amounts.

That order matters when a booking shrinks. Airbnb's example: a $150 booking is canceled and the host's potential earnings fall to $50, so a 10% co-host gets $5 and the host gets $45. Percentages shrink with the booking. A fixed amount or cleaning fee payout does not shrink the same way, so on a heavily refunded stay the host can end up with little or nothing.

If a host or full-access co-host cancels after payouts were sent, Airbnb deducts the refund from future payouts "until the full amount is collected," which can leave either side short on later bookings. Your agreement should say who absorbs a cancellation the co-host caused, like a missed turnover, the same way any service business decides in advance when to charge a cancellation fee.

Co-host vs property manager fees

A co-host usually works inside your Airbnb account; a full property manager often runs the listing and the operation. That difference matters more than the percentage. On Airbnb, "as the listing owner, you're responsible for your co-hosts," and you can "remove a co-host's access to your listing whenever you want," per its co-host permissions page. The reviews, the listing and the payout settings stay yours.

Price comparisons between the two only work if you compare scope and base. A first-time host in r/airbnb_hosts said Vacasa quoted 17% and Evolve 15%, which made a co-host plus Airbnb's fee look expensive. Before comparing, ask each one:

• Is the fee a percentage of the guest price, the Airbnb payout, or rent after cleaning?
• Who keeps the cleaning fee, and is it marked up?
• Are repairs and supplies billed at cost or with a markup? One co-host service in the cleaning fee thread claimed co-hosts "most often apply a 10-20% markup" on jobs. That is a vendor's claim, but it is the right question. Markup math works the same way as materials markup in any trade: it is a second fee on top of the first.
• Is there an approval limit? In the r/PropertyManagement thread, an owner on 11% was hit with $650 a month in unitemized maintenance; the most practical reply was that "most agreements have a pre-authorized limit on repairs."

Check your own split

Use this table with your co-host's percentage. It assumes the 15.5% single fee and a co-host paid through Airbnb's percentage option.

Then pull three recent bookings and compare the co-host payout to what the table predicts, the same way you would reconcile invoices against what was actually paid. If the co-host received more, the gap is usually the cleaning fee setting, a second co-host payout you forgot, or a fixed amount stacked on a percentage.

7 lines to put in any co-host agreement

1. The base. "Percentage of host earnings after Airbnb's service fee" or "percentage of the guest price." One or the other, in writing.
2. The payout option. Which of Airbnb's four options you use, and the cleaning amount in dollars.
3. Setup fee. A flat, one-time amount for listing, photos and licensing work.
4. Markups. Repairs, supplies and restocking at cost, or at a stated markup.
5. Approval limit. Any single expense above an agreed dollar amount needs your written OK, with a receipt and a photo.
6. Cancellations. Who absorbs refunds the co-host caused.
7. Notice. A termination period both sides can live with. It is only a promise: the Chicago co-host on YouTube had a 30-day clause and was removed without warning anyway, and Airbnb lets owners remove co-hosts at any time.

Taxes: the owner reports money the co-host received

Airbnb reports the full booking amount to the listing owner, not the amount after co-host payouts. Its payout article says co-host payouts "will not impact the amount which will be reported to the listing owner," and co-hosts get their own tax document for what they receive. So your reported income includes the co-host's share, and you need a clean record of every payout to deduct it. That is a good reason to pick a bookkeeping setup before the first booking, not in April.

If you take the cleaning fee back and pay the cleaner yourself, you become the payer. The IRS instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC say the minimum reporting threshold for tax years beginning after 2025 is $2,000. A commenter in the cleaning fee thread pointed out that at $172 a clean, you pass that in about a dozen turnovers. The same rules apply as for any paying subcontractors decision: collect a W-9 before the first payment. Ask your accountant how it applies to you.

One rule to keep straight: paying your own cleaner or co-host outside Airbnb is your business, but Airbnb does not allow hosts to collect reservation fees from guests outside its platform. Never move a guest's payment off Airbnb to get around the fee.

Can you do this yourself?

Yes, for one or two listings. Checking the split is a 20-minute job: open three bookings, run the table above, and read which payout option each co-host is on. Fixing it is a payout proposal the co-host confirms in the app. If you are repricing for the 15.5% fee, divide by 0.845, and let a percentage co-host's pay rise with it rather than renegotiating the split.

It stops being worth your time when you have several listings, more than one co-host per listing, cleaning handled three different ways, and a monthly reconciliation nobody does. That is the point where the leaks compound: a $26 cleaning gap here, an unapproved $650 repair there. A recurring check is one of the easier things to automate, and the same habit of reading the statement instead of the headline rate applies to every percentage fee your business pays. For more of these, the overhead and subscriptions hub collects the costs owners tend to stop checking.

The short answer to "what should an Airbnb co-host charge" is Airbnb's 15 to 25%, placed by scope. The longer answer is that the percentage is only half the deal. The base it is taken from, the cleaning fee setting and the markup policy decide what you actually pay.