Airbnb co host, full management or rent to rent: which suits your home?

The four models side by side

With co hosting and full management you stay the host and pay for help. With guaranteed rent and rent to rent you become a landlord with one tenant: the operator. Those two usually describe the same deal from opposite sides, though some agents use “guaranteed rent” for a management agreement with a promised minimum payment, so read the contract to see which you are signing.

Typical arrangements. The contract you sign sets the detail, especially on costs and notice.

How co hosting works on Airbnb

A co host is someone you add to your own Airbnb listing to help run it. The listing and its reviews stay on your account, and you choose what each co host can do.

• Full access. Manage the listing, prices and calendar, message guests, accept, decline and cancel reservations, deal with damage requests, see the earnings dashboard and add co hosts with lower access.
• Calendar and messaging. Message guests and see the calendar, but not change it.
• Calendar only. See the calendar, but not change it.

Only you, as the listing owner, can set up a co host’s payout: the cleaning fee, the cleaning fee plus a percentage of the booking, a percentage of each booking with or without the cleaning fee, or a fixed amount per booking. It comes out of your earnings after Airbnb’s host fee and any taxes, and you get the tax document for the whole booking. Airbnb also says that as the listing owner you are responsible for your co hosts, including any a full access co host adds.

To find one, Airbnb runs a matching service in the United Kingdom, the Co-Host Network. Co hosts need a strong track record on Airbnb to join, but Airbnb’s terms say it does not vet, screen or verify them beyond that, is not a party to your agreement, and takes no share of their fees, which you agree with the co host directly.

Because the listing is yours, ending the arrangement is simple: the co host comes off it, and the reviews and future bookings stay with you. Our guide to switching from another manager explains what changes when a listing sits on someone else’s account.

What Airbnb charges hosts

Airbnb is replacing its split fee, under which most hosts paid 3% and guests paid a separate service fee on top, with a single fee that comes wholly off the host’s payout: Airbnb says most hosts pay 15.5%, and the rest typically pay 14% to 16%. Its guidance, published on 22 March 2026, set 22 June as the date hosts who live in the UK switch, and the single fee applies to bookings made after the switch. If you are not VAT registered, VAT is charged on Airbnb’s fee as well: Airbnb’s own worked example takes the 15.5% fee and then 20% VAT on that fee from the payout.

The single fee is compulsory for hosts who use property management software, which managers use to run calendars and prices across several booking sites. Airbnb says hosts using such software who were not already on the single fee were moved to it on 13 October 2026. With hosts who live in the UK also moving to it, a UK owner is on the single fee whether they run the listing themselves or a manager connects it through software. Compare what you keep after every fee, not one percentage. Our guide to what Airbnb management costs shows how one booking is split.

How full management works

With full management you sign a management agreement and the manager runs the let for you: listings on several booking sites, nightly pricing, guest messages and checks, cleaning, linen and repairs. The booking income is yours; the manager takes its agreed fee and pays you the rest with a statement.

The manager earns only when guests book, so an empty night costs both of you. That shared risk is the main difference from guaranteed rent. You also keep control of the home: you can block dates for your own use, agree the house rules and end the agreement on notice.

It usually costs more than a co host who handles a few tasks, and you still carry the seasons. What the fee buys is one company accountable for the whole let.

Guaranteed rent and rent to rent

In a guaranteed rent deal, an operator rents your home for a fixed monthly sum, usually for a set term, furnishes it if needed and lets it to guests on its own listings. If it earns more from guests than it pays you, it keeps the difference. If it earns less, it still owes you the rent.

The rent will usually be lower than the home could earn as a short let, because the operator’s costs, empty nights and profit all come out of the gap. You swap the upside for certainty, and that certainty is only as good as the company promising it.

Most deals are a company let: a tenancy granted to the operator’s company, which then gives guests short stays. In England, section 1 of the Housing Act 1988 says a tenancy is an assured tenancy only if the tenant, or each joint tenant, is an individual and at least one of them lives in the home as their only or main home. A company is not an individual, so a company let is not an assured tenancy.

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 turned assured tenancies into rolling periodic tenancies from 1 May 2026 and ended section 21 notices, but it did not change that test, so those reforms do not apply to the company let itself. It runs and ends on its own terms and the general law: take legal advice on the notice it needs before you sign. Wales and Scotland reach the same place, as their tenancy laws also need an individual as the tenant or contract holder. Holiday guests are not assured tenants either, because the 1988 Act excludes lettings for a holiday.

The risks for owners

• Whether the operator can keep paying. The guarantee is a promise from a company, often a small one. Companies House shows its officers, filed documents, charges and any insolvency, free.
• Subletting without consent. Your mortgage, your lease if the home is leasehold, and your insurance may each restrict letting to a company or subletting. An operator’s say so does not bind your lender or freeholder.
• If the operator fails. The rent stops, and you may have to claim what you are owed in its insolvency. GOV.UK warns that if an insolvent company has few or no assets, creditors will not get their money back. Future bookings sit on the operator’s listings, not yours.
• Deposits. Deposit protection applies to assured tenancies, so the law does not require a deposit an operator pays you under a company let to go into a government scheme. It is held on the terms of your contract, so write those terms down.
• Someone living there as their home. If the operator lets the home, with your consent, to a person who lives there as their main home, that person can be an assured tenant of the operator. When the company let ends, section 18 of the Housing Act 1988 can make them your tenant. The new possession grounds for when a superior tenancy ends cover narrow cases, such as social housing providers and leases of more than 21 years, so they will not usually help.

1. Check the companyHow long it has traded, who runs it, its filed accounts and any charges.
2. Read what you are signingA company let, a lease or a management agreement? Who pays bills, council tax and repairs?
3. Get consents in writingFrom your lender, freeholder and insurer, naming the operator and the use.
4. Limit what the operator can grantAllow short stays to guests only, and say that no one may live in the home as their main home.
5. Ask for securityA rent deposit, a director’s personal guarantee, or both.
6. Plan the exitNotice on both sides, and the return of keys, codes and contents.

Consent you need, whichever you choose

Changing who runs the let does not change the basic permissions. A residential mortgage usually needs the lender’s written consent before you let the home at all, and buy to let terms can limit what kind of letting is allowed. A lease may limit short lets or subletting, so check it and ask the freeholder. GOV.UK guidance for holiday homes says you should have dedicated holiday let insurance, public liability cover, and buildings and contents cover suitable for short lets, so check your policy covers paying guests.

With co hosting or full management, you are the one letting to guests, so the consent is for short letting. With guaranteed rent or rent to rent, you need consent for two things: letting to the operator, and the operator letting to guests. If either is missing, the breach is yours. In Greater London, the law lets a home be used for short stays for up to 90 nights in a calendar year without planning permission, and only while the person providing the stays is liable for council tax on it. That limit covers every booking site, so it binds an operator on guaranteed rent as much as you, and Airbnb caps entire home listings at 90 nights to match.

Our guides to mortgages, leasehold flats and short let insurance go through each one.

Which suits you, and where we fit

It comes down to income, risk and how involved you want to be.

• Co hosting may suit you if you live nearby, are happy to do some of the work, want to stay on Airbnb only, and have reviews on your own account you want to keep.
• Guaranteed rent may suit you if a fixed sum each month matters more than the higher but variable income of a short let, you have the consents, and the operator is strong enough to keep paying through a quiet season.
• Full management may suit you if you want the income and the control without the daily work: pricing, guests, cleaning and repairs across several booking sites.

Perfect Booking offers full management, set out on our Airbnb management page. We do not guarantee rent: our fee comes from bookings, so we earn nothing on the nights we do not fill. We also manage homes for operators. In our Hitchin case study, a rent to rent operator who rents a house from its landlord uses us to run every stay, start to finish. Management and rent to rent are not either or.

To weigh a guaranteed rent offer, set the fixed rent against a realistic estimate of what the home would earn as a short let. Our free earnings report estimates that month by month after every fee; take off the running costs an operator would otherwise have paid to compare like with like. If a long let is also an option, read short let or long let.

Questions owners ask