Airbnb Co-Host Agreement: Free Template for Vacation Rental Owners
No matter how much you try to be there for your guests, there will be times when a request catches you at a bad time. Maybe you live far from your property, are on vacation yourself, or are caught up in other tasks when you get that notification that requires you to drop everything and go to your vacation rental.
Too bad you can’t have anyone help you with running your rental on Airbnb—or can you? Yes, you can! Airbnb allows vacation rental owners to have a co-host to assist them in taking care of their home and guests, so the responsibility of always being available for guests doesn’t fall entirely on one person.
While this is a great setup for many Airbnb hosts, it’s important to set the rules right from the start. If you plan on adding a co-host to your Airbnb listing, you’ll want to have a solid Airbnb co-host agreement in place. Here’s why (and how to create your own Airbnb co-host contract with ease!).
Should you add an Airbnb co-host?
An Airbnb co-host is a family member, neighbor, trusted friend, or someone hired by the owner to help them manage their rental and guests. They can act as the primary host of a stay or as an assistant of sorts who can jump in when the main host needs help.
This means that you’re free to define how you work with a co-host to manage your Airbnb property effectively. Some of their responsibilities might include:
- Handling guest communications
- Coordinating check-ins and check-outs
- Managing cleaning and maintenance tasks
- Solving urgent issues during stays
By default, the listing owner is considered the primary host of the vacation rental. If that’s you, don’t worry—you can add up to ten co-hosts per listing and designate one of them as the primary host for the entire stay. That means that the co-host can also act as the sole point of contact and host for specific reservations.
Adding a co-host to your Airbnb might be a wise decision if you’re finding it challenging to manage the daily obligations of your rental, especially if you have multiple listings or if you’re unable to be physically present near your property.
What about hosting teams?
If you prefer to be totally hands-off, you might benefit more from a hosting team (however, even if you choose that option, you’ll still want to have an Airbnb co-hosting contract in place—more on that in just a bit).
A hosting team manages both the online listing and guests for an owner and is often made up of a business or group with whom the owner has a contract. They will also be shown as the primary hosts of a listing because they own and manage the full Airbnb account on behalf of the owner.
Hosting teams also tend to have more permissions to perform in-depth functions such as accessing transactions and payment history because they have a larger role in running the vacation rental than a co-host. A co-host only has a limited set of permissions from the owner and oftentimes does not have access to transactions.
As a vacation rental host on Airbnb, you can choose an option for sharing hosting responsibility that works for you. It all depends on how much control you want to give to your partner.
Why you need an Airbnb co-host agreement
It’s important to view co-hosting as a separate job or role within your vacation rental business, and every job should have a written and signed contractual agreement to go along with it. Your Airbnb co-host agreement should explicitly state and outline the responsibilities of the job along with payment structures, expenses, liabilities, and any other additional details of your vacation rental.
Ultimately, like any contract or agreement in the business world, your Airbnb co-host agreement offers peace of mind and legal security to both the owner and the co-host because all of the details are in the print. Neither parties need to worry about someone screwing the other one over because the co-hosting contract will outline expectations and how to hold people responsible if those expectations aren’t met.
A well-written and legally binding Airbnb co-host contract also protects your vacation rental property from being neglected because it can get more care from more than one person. It can also help your business get the best ratings and bookings if guests feel catered to and if the host is always available.
The bottom line? Co-hosts are valuable assets to a rental business, but you can only utilize them successfully with a contract. Protect yourself, your business, and your co-host through the use of a co-host agreement.
What your Airbnb co-host contract should include
As mentioned earlier, it’s important to have all of the terms laid out in writing about what is expected from the co-host, how the work is divided, what each party is being paid, etc. Writing this out in a co-hosting contract can help you avoid misunderstandings and management problems during a stay.
After all, a co-host is supposed to make running your vacation rental business easier and not cause more bumps in the road, so ensure the co-host contract is airtight and covers everything.
Hosting responsibilities
First off, it should be explicitly stated who owns the property, the property address, who is the co-host and the point of contact. There are many responsibilities that come with hosting, such as the ones listed above, and it should be explicitly stated in your Airbnb co-host agreement who takes care of which responsibilities.
As a host, you should know what you want to take care of and what you want to pass off to someone else. You should also decide if the co-host is going to be actively working during each stay or if they are just going to be occasionally taking over as the primary host if you are away or busy yourself.
There are some things that cannot be managed fully by the co-host, such as payment and transaction history and taxes, so be sure to mention that as well in order to not confuse roles. It should be clear who is the host and who is the co-host to ensure fair treatment and a fair agreement.
Earnings
If someone is helping you with your business and taking some of the responsibilities off your back, then they should receive compensation for their work. Of course, the amount of compensation is adjusted to fit the decided-upon workload of host and co-host responsibilities.
If you decide that the co-host is there to help with some of the welcoming and cleaning work and the host does the rest, then maybe you can split the profits 30/70%. If you want the co-host to completely take over as primary host during a stay, then they might get to keep the entire revenue from that stay.
It should also be written when payment will happen. Maybe the co-host gets paid after each stay, or maybe they get paid at the end of every month. Maybe you agree to pay the co-host whenever you get the transfer from Airbnb.
The earnings amount and payment time should be in writing on the agreement to make it clear what and when each party should expect to receive payment.
Expenses
When you get a utility bill, need home maintenance, or have to pay rent, who is going to cover the costs?
Ideally, payments for the vacation rental should be covered by rental revenue from hosting, but when the profits are split between more than one person, who does the responsibility fall on? Are the owners withholding money from the co-host each month to help pay for it, or should the responsibility fall on the property owner because the rental does belong to them?
Expense payment needs to be discussed prior to welcoming guests with a co-host because no one wants to unfairly have to pay. The expenses should be proportional to the workload and how the profits are divided between the owner and the co-host.
Liability and safety
You can do all you can to prevent accidents from happening in your vacation rental, but there will be a point when an accident does happen. It’s important to know beforehand who holds responsibility for the accident when it occurs and how payment is handled if something needs to be fixed.
Also, if you have vacation rental insurance, you should work out the coverage for each person and if the payment falls on one of the hosts or the guests. Payment to the insurance company each month also needs to be worked out in the expenses portion of the agreement.
To try to prevent accidents from happening, you should know what safety regulations are in place and who is responsible for checking and updating compliance measures in the rental unit. Your Airbnb co-host contract needs to be airtight for all occurrences.
Download our free Airbnb co-host agreement template
An Airbnb co-host agreement assures you that everything will be in order during a stay. You and your co-host will know exactly what they have to do to run the vacation rental business smoothly.
You can’t work with a co-host without a contract, so download our free Airbnb co-host agreement template, which lays out everything for you, today.
Disclaimer: Lodgify is an Airbnb Preferred Software Partner. This guide, including any claims or statements within, is solely from Lodgify and is not endorsed by, directly affiliated with, authorized, or sponsored by Airbnb in any way.