Property manager or Airbnb co-host: which is right for your house in Corsica?
You live on the mainland or abroad, your house is in Corsica, and Airbnb suggests adding a co-host. Should you use a property management company, or hand the keys to someone local? The two overlap more than people think. This article sets it out, based on the rules Airbnb publishes in its Help Centre.
Co-host is a role inside Airbnb
On Airbnb, a co-host is someone the listing owner adds to help: replying to guests, keeping the calendar, editing the listing. Airbnb allows up to ten co-hosts per listing, with two levels of access. Full access lets them manage everything; limited access covers only the calendar and messages.
The word says nothing about who is behind it. It could be a neighbour, a cousin who stayed in the village, an individual found through Airbnb's Co-Host Network, or a property management company. On the Airbnb listings of the houses it manages, A Sulana is in fact registered as co-host.
A property manager is a business
A property manager does the same work on the listing. It adds everything Airbnb never sees: welcoming guests in person, cleaning and linen between stays, tradespeople when something breaks, and visits to the house out of season. It works under contract, with a registered company number, and sends you invoices.
So what remains to decide is whether one local person is enough for your house, or whether you need a business behind it.
How Airbnb pays a co-host
Airbnb offers a co-host payout tool: the platform pays the co-host their share directly, after the guest checks in. Only the listing owner can set it up, and the co-host has 14 days to accept. There are four options:
- the cleaning fee only, passed to the co-host;
- the cleaning fee, plus a percentage of each booking calculated excluding cleaning;
- a percentage of each booking, with or without the cleaning fee;
- a fixed amount per booking.
The rate itself is freely negotiated: Airbnb publishes no scale. For reference points, we collected the fees published by Corsican property managers in our article what a property manager costs in Corsica.
Airbnb's Co-Host Network
Since 16 October 2024, Airbnb has matched owners with co-hosts directly in the app, in France and nine other countries. An algorithm ranks the suggested profiles by your location, your hosting experience and your type of property.
In a city, the tool is useful. On the east coast, villages are small and roads are long. Before choosing someone, ask where they live and how quickly they can reach your house on a Sunday evening.
Individual co-host or property manager: side by side
| Criterion | Individual co-host | Property manager |
|---|---|---|
| Framework | An agreement between you, sometimes only verbal | A written contract and invoices |
| Platforms | The co-host role and shared payouts are specific to Airbnb | Airbnb and Booking at A Sulana |
| Cleaning and linen | To be arranged, often by the co-host personally | Cleaning teams and laundry coordinated |
| Off season | Depending on their availability | Caretaking planned, with photo reports |
| Absence, illness, holidays | Often nobody to stand in | Two contacts at A Sulana, who cover for each other |
| Pay | Freely agreed, through Airbnb's shared payouts | 20% without a pool, 25% with a pool, excluding cleaning and linen at A Sulana |
A trusted relative living nearby, a simple house, let on Airbnb in summer and closed in winter: in that case an individual co-host does the job perfectly well, and paying a property manager is not justified.
Everything changes when you live far away, the house has a pool or a garden, it is also on Booking, or someone needs to check on it in midwinter. An individual has their own life, and a water leak in February will not wait for them to come back from holiday.
At A Sulana: co-host on Airbnb, property manager for the rest
On Airbnb, you add A Sulana as a co-host on your listing, and we are paid through a shared payout. Airbnb pays your share to you directly and we receive ours: we never hold your rental income. On Booking, you collect the payments and we invoice you for our commission.
Around the listing, we do a property manager's work: welcoming guests, cleaning and linen, tradespeople, and if you wish year-round caretaking of the house. We cover Moriani-Plage to Aléria, on the Costa Verde and the eastern plain.
Still unsure? Tell us about your house and your situation. If a co-host from your own circle is enough, we will tell you.
Co-host is a role inside Airbnb: someone you add to your listing to handle messages, the calendar or the listing itself. A property manager is a business that, on top of that role, looks after what happens in the house: welcoming guests, cleaning, linen, tradespeople, off-season visits. On the Airbnb listings it manages, A Sulana is in fact registered as co-host.
Through Airbnb's co-host payout tool, which pays the co-host their share directly after the guest checks in. The listing owner chooses from four options: the cleaning fee only, the cleaning fee plus a percentage calculated excluding cleaning, a percentage of the booking with or without the cleaning fee, or a fixed amount per booking. The amount is freely agreed between you.
Airbnb sets no scale: the amount is negotiated between owner and co-host. For full management by a property manager, the published Corsican fees we collected in September 2026 mostly sit between 18 and 25% of rental income. At A Sulana it is 20% for a house without a pool and 25% with a pool, excluding cleaning and linen.
If a trusted relative lives near the house, you let it only on Airbnb and it stays closed in winter, an individual co-host may be enough. If nobody is on the spot, if the house has a pool or a garden, or if it needs watching out of season, a property manager saves you from depending on one person's availability.
Not at A Sulana. On Airbnb, the platform splits the payment itself: you receive your share directly and A Sulana receives its own. On Booking, you collect the full amount and A Sulana invoices you for its commission.
Yes. Airbnb allows up to ten co-hosts per listing. A relative can keep access to the calendar or messages while the property manager handles the rest. Agree in writing on who answers what, so a guest never gets two different replies.
Co-host is a role inside Airbnb; property management is a trade. For a simple house let in summer, a trusted local person is enough. For a house you run from the mainland, with a pool, a garden or winter visits, a property manager like A Sulana takes on the co-host role on Airbnb and looks after what happens in the house.
Sources: Airbnb, adding a co-host to a listing and co-host payouts (Help Centre); Airbnb press release of 16 October 2024 on the Co-Host Network. Accessed 21 September 2026.
