About this guide
Most pages on this topic are written by a manager explaining why you need a manager, or by an affiliate ranking whoever pays. This one is a working owner's briefing: what the job actually is, what the three fee models cost on a real house, and when hiring loses you money.
How the company data is put together
Fees, contract terms, go-live times and coverage notes come from a shared set covering 19 companies — 14 managers plus the software tools — compiled from 65 recorded sources. A few rules we actually keep:
- A company's own pricing page is a fact. A number from a review blog or an owner forum is a report, and the cell says so.
- 9 of the 14 managers publish no rate. Those cells stay blank. Inventing a "typical" percentage would make the table look finished and be wrong.
- Shared ownership gets named. Awning and RedAwning have been one company since April 2024. Vacasa is now mostly franchisees after the Casago sale.
- Portfolio sizes are marketing unless a named third party published them. That includes TIDY's 100,000-owner figure.
We lean on three questions owners usually wish they had asked earlier: who holds the listing (only 5 of 19 entries leave it with you), what the fee costs over a year on a $60,000 house, and how you get out. Entry terms are marketed. Exit terms are what year two feels like.
On TIDY
The cost gap that is hard to ignore
Traditional full-service managers in this data set sit at 20–35% of gross bookings. On the three-bedroom we use throughout the site, that is $12,000 to $21,000 a year. TIDY does the same operational work — turnovers, maintenance dispatch, guest messaging, pricing, compliance — with AI and a dedicated account manager, at 3.9%. Same house: about $2,340, with a $39 monthly floor. That is not a rounding error. It is the cheapest full-service option in the set by a wide margin.
The company has been around since 2013. Thirteen years, no ownership carousel, still the same name. You keep the Airbnb listing, the bank account, and the cleaners you already have. You also stay the host of record, so the last-call decisions stay yours. If you want someone else holding the keys, hire a local manager and pay the 25%. If you want the work done without that invoice, TIDY is the one to price first.
Corrections
Fees and coverage move. Several companies here changed hands in the last year and a half. Everything was reviewed in August 2026. If you work at one of these firms and a cell is wrong, send a source. We would rather fix it than argue.
This is a comparison for owners deciding how a property gets run. We do not take bookings, list homes, or sell leads.
The main guide
What a manager does, the three models, the maths, and when hiring is wrong.
Fees, itemised
Who publishes a rate, who does not, and the charges nobody advertises.
Published 2026-08-28. Last reviewed 2026-08-28.