What actually belongs in a co-hosting agreement when the one on the table is a page and a half?

A page and a half usually means the previous co-host never had a fight. The clauses to add before anything else: a scope list that says explicitly what you do not do (no maintenance dispatch above a dollar threshold without owner approval, no capital purchases, no dealing with the HOA), a spending authority number so you can replace a $180 lock at 9pm without a phone call, and a statement of who owns the listing, the reviews and the guest data if you separate. That last one gets ugly. The listing is on his account, so it is his, and every review you earned goes with it.

Add an owner-use blackout policy. Owners who block three weeks in August on two weeks notice are how co-hosts lose money on a good property.

The money question is the one that stopped me too. If payouts land in the owner's bank account and you invoice him monthly, you're an unsecured creditor of a guy who might get slow. If they land with you and you remit, you're holding other people's money, and in some states that touches trust account or property management licensing rules depending on how it's structured. Which one is the document silent about, or is it silent about both?

Also define the fee base in the document, not just the percentage. Gross booking revenue, accommodation revenue only, net of platform service fees, does it include the cleaning fee, does it include a damage deposit that gets refunded. Two people can shake hands on 18% and be $6,000 apart at year end over what 18% is 18% of.

Thirty days either side with no carve-out for booked reservations is the part to fix first. If the owner terminates in March, the co-host is either servicing his July guests for free or abandoning them, and either way somebody's name is on those reservations. The simplest fix commonly written is that the terminating party's obligations run through the last checkout on the books at the time of notice, with the fee still payable on those stays.

On the tax filings: in a lot of jurisdictions the platform collects and remits state and local occupancy tax on bookings made through it, the owner still owes a separate local filing or a registration renewal, and in some places the platform collects nothing at all. It varies by state and by city inside the state. The agreement should say who prepares and files what, and whichever way it lands, the tax liability sits with the owner. The co-host does not want a clause buried in there making them responsible for a filing they cannot verify.

Does it auto-renew? A page and a half usually doesn't say, which means you're either month to month by default or arguing about it later. I'd want a defined initial term long enough to earn back the onboarding work, since setup is where your unpaid hours go.

One thing this thread has not settled is whether a co-hosting agreement is a services contract or something closer to a management agreement, and the label matters because it can change what licensing the work triggers. The same document gets called both depending on who drafted it, so read it for what you would actually be doing with the owner's money and calendar rather than for the heading.

Exclusivity in both directions is worth a sentence. Can he list the same property with another manager or a booking agency at the same time, and can you take on the cottage next door to his? The first one has cost people real money when two managers double-booked a calendar.

Consumables and linens. Who buys the coffee, the paper, the replacement towels, and does that come off the top or does he reimburse you monthly. Sounds small until you're fronting $200 a month on four properties and invoicing an owner who pays on his own schedule.