When a co-hosting agreement says 15 percent, 15 percent of which number

Question

A co-hosting agreement stating that the manager receives 15 percent of gross revenue sounds simple until the components of a booking are laid out. Take a listing with a $180 nightly rate, a $145 cleaning fee, a platform cut, and occupancy tax the platform collects and remits separately. On a three night stay there are at least four different numbers that could plausibly be called gross revenue, and they are not close to each other. If the cleaning fee counts toward the base, the co-host is effectively paid a percentage of money that passes straight through to the cleaner. If the base is the payout after the platform's cut, the co-host earns less than the headline percentage suggests. The agreement needs to define the term explicitly rather than leave it implied. The cleanest and most common base in a well-written co-hosting agreement is the host payout, meaning revenue after the platform fee and after any pass-through items like cleaning and taxes, since that is the number both parties can verify from the same statement. Whoever is negotiating one of these should ask the co-host to write down, in the agreement itself, exactly which line on the payout statement the percentage applies to.

jordan_ellis2 · Accepted Answer

The common version is that the fee applies to rental revenue only, meaning nightly rate times nights plus any pet fee or extra guest fee, and the cleaning fee is excluded because it's a pass-through to the cleaner. Occupancy and lodging taxes are always excluded, since that money isn't the owner's to share.

The platform cut is the piece people argue about. Airbnb's host service fee comes off before the payout hits the owner's account, so a fee based on gross booking revenue is slightly bigger than one based on the payout. On your friend's three night stay at $180, gross rent is $540, and 15 percent of that is $81. If the base is the payout after the platform fee, the co-host makes a few dollars less. Small per booking, real over a year.

What she should ask for is one sentence that says exactly what gross revenue means, naming the cleaning fee and the taxes as excluded, and saying whether the calculation happens before or after the platform's fee. Also ask for a monthly statement showing the bookings and the math, because the number has to be checkable. If it isn't defined, it will be defined in whichever direction favors whoever sends the invoice.

dmitri_248 · Answer

The definition clause matters more than the percentage, and pike named the pieces. Two more things belong in the document. First, put the payout flow in writing. Does the platform pay the owner directly and the co-host invoices monthly, or does money land with the co-host who then remits? Those are different risk profiles and different bookkeeping, and the second one usually needs a separate provision about how fast the owner gets paid and what account holds the money in between. Second, ask what happens on cancellations and partial refunds. If a guest cancels inside the penalty window and the owner keeps 50 percent of a booking, does the co-host earn on that retained amount? Plenty of agreements are silent on it and it turns into an argument the first time it happens. Tax treatment of cleaning fees and lodging taxes varies by state and sometimes by city, so that piece should be confirmed with a CPA rather than with the co-host.

When a co-hosting agreement says 15 percent, 15 percent of which number

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