How the split is worked out
The booking subtotal is the nightly rate times the number of nights, plus the cleaning fee. The platform fee is the percentage the booking site deducts from the host’s side, applied to that subtotal. What remains is the host payout. If the cleaning fee is passed through to the cleaner, it is set aside first, and the co-host percentage is applied to the remainder; otherwise the percentage is applied to the full payout and the cleaner is paid from the owner’s share.
Airbnb has used two fee models: a split fee, where the host pays around 3% and the guest pays a separate service fee, and a host-only fee of roughly 15% that hosts using property management software are generally placed on. Check the fee shown in your own payout report and enter that figure — it is the one input most likely to be wrong if guessed.
A worked example
A four-night stay at 150 a night with a 90 cleaning fee has a subtotal of 690. At a 15.5% platform fee, about 107 is deducted, leaving a payout of roughly 583. With cleaning passed through, 90 goes to the cleaner and the 20% co-host share is applied to the remaining 493, so the co-host receives about 99 and the owner about 394.
Apply the same 20% to the full 583 instead and the co-host receives about 117 — a difference of 18 on one booking that, over a year of turnovers, is worth agreeing in writing up front. Our Airbnb co-host agreement template has a clause for exactly this.
Tracking splits across a whole portfolio
One booking is easy to split in a calculator. Thirty bookings a month across eight owners, each with a slightly different arrangement, is where spreadsheets start to drift and payouts start to be questioned.
The Property Tool is built for teams co-hosting on behalf of owners: each property carries its own fee rule, bookings flow into the owner’s statement automatically, and owner splits handle properties with more than one owner. For fee benchmarks, see co-hosting fee structures.
Common questions
What percentage do Airbnb co-hosts usually charge?
Co-host fees commonly range from about 10% to 25% of booking revenue, depending on whether the co-host handles only messaging or the full operation including cleaning coordination, pricing, and maintenance.
Should the co-host fee include the cleaning fee?
Usually not. The cleaning fee pays for a specific cost, so most agreements pass it through to whoever does the cleaning and apply the co-host percentage to the rest. Whatever you choose, write it into the agreement.
Does Airbnb pay the co-host directly?
Airbnb lets a host split payouts with co-hosts in its payout settings, but the percentage and its base are still agreed between owner and co-host. The calculator helps you set those numbers before entering them.
Which platform fee should I enter?
Use the host fee shown in your own payout report. It is around 3% under a split-fee model and roughly 15% under a host-only fee; other platforms such as Booking.com and Vrbo charge their own commission.
Done by hand once. Done automatically from now on.
Track every owner’s split and payout automatically across the properties you co-host.