A “20% co-host fee” can mean very different amounts depending on what it’s charged on. Enter your monthly booking revenue and the fee terms you’ve been quoted to see the monthly and annual cost, what you keep after the platform and co-host are paid, and what the arrangement works out to per hour of your time. It also compares the common fee bases side by side so you can read a proposal properly.
Use a typical month. Revenue means what guests paid for nights and fees, before Airbnb’s cut.
“You keep” is payout minus the co-host fee. It is before cleaning costs, utilities and other bills, which you pay either way. Cost per hour divides the monthly fee by the hours you estimate you’d otherwise spend running the property yourself.
Compare scope, not just price. A lower fee that leaves you handling guest messages at midnight or chasing cleaners may cost more in time than it saves in money.
Cost per hour is a useful sense-check. If the number is lower than what your time is worth, or than what you’d pay someone to do the same work, the fee is easier to justify.
For how co-hosting differs from full property management, see Airbnb Co-Host vs Property Manager.
On $5,000 of monthly booking revenue with $600 of cleaning fees and a 15.5% platform fee, the payout is $4,225. A 20% fee on payout costs $845 a month; 20% of booking revenue would be $1,000; 20% of nightly revenue would be $880. If you’d otherwise spend 25 hours a month, $845 works out to $33.80 an hour.
Fees vary widely by market, property and scope of work, and they’re charged on different bases, which is why this tool compares bases rather than quoting a typical rate. Always ask what the percentage is applied to.
It depends on the agreement. Some co-hosts charge on total booking revenue including cleaning fees, others exclude them. On properties with many short stays the difference can be significant.
See monthly and annual profit, margin, RevPAR and the occupancy you need to break even.
Open tool →Revenue & PerformanceCompare what you keep from the same booking across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and direct.
Open tool →Revenue & PerformanceEstimate Airbnb’s service fee and your payout under the split-fee or host-only structure.
Open tool →STR OperationsBuild a daily-to-monthly operating checklist for your setup.
Open tool →Thrive Hosts works as your official Airbnb co-host: listing, pricing, guest messages and turnovers handled, while you stay the owner.
Results are based on the numbers you enter and are not a guarantee of future short-term rental performance. Fee bases shown are common structures, not a quote from Thrive Hosts.