Managing Your Airbnb Yourself, With a Co-Host or a Property Manager?

On paper, renting out your apartment on Airbnb looks simple: you create a listing, set a price and hand over the keys. In practice, short-term rental is a small trade of its own, with its own hours, emergencies and details. Before choosing how to manage your apartment in Tel Aviv, here is what each option really involves.

What managing an Airbnb actually involves

• Messages: questions before booking, arranging the arrival, requests during the stay. Guests expect a quick reply, at any hour, in English, French or Hebrew.
• Pricing: adjusting rates to the season, the day of the week, the holidays and events, and keeping an eye on the calendar.
• Arrivals and departures: delayed flights, late check-ins, forgotten keys.
• Cleaning and linen: finding a reliable team, coordinating it after every departure, checking the result.
• Consumables: regularly restocking guest amenities and cleaning products.
• Breakdowns: air conditioning, hot water, a leak, the lock, often at the worst possible moment.
• Reviews: replying to them and fixing whatever was reported.
• Bookkeeping: tracking income and expenses, keeping the receipts.

Every stay goes through all of these tasks. The more the apartment is rented, the more often they come around.

Option 1: managing everything yourself

Who is it for? You live in Tel Aviv or very close by, you are available, and you enjoy hosting.

The advantages: you keep all the income and full control.

The drawbacks: it is a daily commitment, including Friday evenings and the holidays. From abroad, it is very difficult: you need someone on site for cleaning, keys and emergencies in any case. And the time you spend has a value, even if it shows up in no spreadsheet.

Option 2: a co-host

Airbnb lets you add one or more co-hosts to a listing, with more or less extensive permissions: messages, calendar, pricing, or full management. The listing stays on your account.

Who is it for? You want to delegate part of the work, for example messages and check-ins, while keeping control of the rest.

The drawbacks: everything depends on the person. A relative or friend doing you a favor may lose interest, go on holiday or move away. An independent co-host does not always have a cleaning, linen or maintenance team behind them. Put in writing who does what, and who steps in when there is an emergency.

Option 3: a property manager

A team takes care of everything: listing, pricing, guests, check-in, cleaning, linen, maintenance, monthly statement. You block your dates and follow the results.

Who is it for? You live abroad, you are short on time, or you want a consistent, hotel-standard level of service.

The drawbacks: the manager's fee reduces your share of the income. So the real question is: is your net income at least as good as what you would earn on your own, once your time is counted? See how to read an Airbnb management offer.

The comparison at a glance

	Yourself	Co-host	Property manager
Time required	High	Medium	Low
Presence on site	You	Depends on the person	Local team
Emergencies	You	To be organized	Handled
Cleaning and linen	To be organized	To be organized	Included
From abroad	Difficult	Possible, with the right person	Yes
Your share of income	Highest	High	After the manager's fee

Questions to help you choose

1. Where do you live, and how many weeks a year do you spend in Tel Aviv?
2. How many hours a week can you devote to the apartment, including evenings and holidays?
3. Do you have someone you trust on site for emergencies?
4. What standard do you want to guarantee your guests?
5. Once your time is counted, is the net income of each option really different?

If you live abroad and the apartment stays closed most of the year, also read what an empty apartment in Tel Aviv really costs. And if you already work with a manager and are not satisfied, see when and how to switch management company.

👉 To compare with real numbers, get your free estimate: you will know what your apartment can earn with full-service management.