Why a Good Property Manager Should Make It Easy to Fire Them

Be cautious to whom you hand the keys.

The major short-term rental platforms — Airbnb, VRBO, Google — were built on transparency. As an owner, you have direct access to your booking data, your guest communications, your reviews, and your revenue. The platforms designed it that way deliberately. Therefore, any property manager who obscures that access, limits that visibility, or creates complexity where the platform built simplicity is doing so by choice. Opacity in this industry is never accidental: It's a business model.

I have been mentoring new hosts for Airbnb since 2020, and a large percentage of those hosts are folks leaving property managers both large and small to self-manage their property. (Coming soon— a post about when you might need a property manager, and when you don’t).

Some owners have shared horror stories of unvetted guests wrecking a beloved property— especially hosts leaving larger companies like Evolve or Vacasa. Some hosts have shared stories of smaller companies who hid income, billed owners for unnecessary purchases, or more generally, just didn’t care for the property as advertised. But what these hosts shared was that the manager purposefully created opaqueness in a way that benefited the manager.

Which leads me to my first rule of property management: A good property manager should make it incredibly easy for the owner to fire them.

Why is this my cardinal rule? Because a lack of transparency in an industry in which the major platforms (Airbnb, VRBO, Google) have built in complete transparency suggests that a manager who doesn’t provide this has something to hide. (Spoiler: it is often your income, their lack of interest and care for your investment, or their assertion that your property will be “locally” managed).

A good property manager should make it incredibly easy for the owner to fire them.

When you begin your short term rental business— and having one home for rent is indeed a business— the listings on the major platforms need to be created in your name. A short term listing on a platform like Airbnb is intellectual property, and on the software back-end, the listing is connected to the creator. The reviews belong to the listing owner, NOT to the owner of the building. So if you fire a manager who built the listing and is its back-end owner, your Airbnb listing, its photos (which you probably paid for) and all its reviews will disappear.

An ethical property manager will make this crystal clear to you, and if she helps you build the listing, she will do it in your name, and then she can be added as a “co-host” to manage the property. The owner of the listing sets parameters for co-hosts, and can add or remove them at will. This way, an owner can be 100% hands-off, and still own the listing. The co-host can be set as the "primary host” so her photos is displayed on the listings page, and her messages are the default communication for the listing. But she can be removed at the drop of the hat.

In the contract I give the hosts I work with, I make it crystal clear that they must be the listing owner, and that they can remove me from the listing at will. I include that the host and co-host will ideally give each other 30 days notice before termination of the contract, but I also include that the host can remove me at will. Because it is incredibly important to me that they understand that I am putting their interests as property owner first, and because I have seen hundreds of hosts put in terribly positions by property managers who did the opposite, I have chosen to take the highest possible road— this industry has some real ethical issues, and I’m not about to be part of them.

Once of the reasons I recommend that many of my hosts list their properties only on Airbnb is Airbnb’s unparalleled, built-in transparency for both host and co-host. VRBO has some, Google has some, but not like Airbnb does. Because ethics is a driving business principal for me, hosting primarily through Airbnb makes the most sense for my business model.

What does transparency look like in practice? A transparent manager gives you real-time access to your own calendar and booking data. You can see every reservation, every guest, every dollar — not in a monthly report she generates, but directly, in the platform, at any time. You shouldn't have to ask. You can see every message sent between co-host and guest, and you can add to the conversation is warranted. You can also vet each guest yourself by clicking on their Airbnb profile and reading their reviews. You can see how long it takes your co-host to respond— all communication through Airbnb is time-stamped.

A transparent manager sends you a contract that specifies who owns the listing before she builds it. She explains the co-hosting structure unprompted. She tells you what happens if you part ways — and the answer shouldn't make you nervous.

When something goes wrong at the property — and something always eventually goes wrong — you hear about it from her before you hear about it from a guest review.

There should also be a plan for purchases for the property and repairs— and its very reasonable to ask that all purchases and routine repairs be approved, and that you are immediately looped into any emergency ones. (I ask my hosts to provide me with a $400 Visa Gift card that I can use in case of an emergency, but a business credit card can work too). Invoices should be itemized and clear, and there should never be any surprises. And a manager shouldn’t bill you for something like internet access that you can easily set up on your own to auto-pay. (Generally, pay everything yourself that you possibly can— and a good manager should recommend that you do !)

For managers with their own direct-booking online store-front, ask for equally transparent reports. They should be able to provide them through their Property Management System’s owner’s portal. The major Property Management Software systems (Hospitable, Guesty, Lodgify, etc.) have already built-in transparency for owner-access— again, there is not technological reason this can’t be provided by a property manager.

Vetting your property manager is essential— she will be your business partner. You need a trusting working relationship.

So ask every prospective manager: "If I decide this isn't working, what happens to my listing and my reviews?"

A good manager will answer that question easily, completely, and without defensiveness. She'll probably have already addressed it in the contract she handed you.

If the answer is complicated, incomplete, or makes you feel like you're asking something you shouldn't — that's your answer.

If this resonates with you, and if you’re looking for a co-host in Nelson County, Virginia I am taking a few new clients this year. Please fill out the interest form at the bottom of this page to get in touch. And if you’re worried about a situation with your current manager, and just want to talk it through with an industry expert, you can book some straight talk with me here. I value providing clarity.