By the Unity Stays directors, Marcus Chong & Gadir Al-Khatib · Last updated 12 August 2026
In short: A full management fee covers listing creation and optimisation, multi-channel calendar management, dynamic pricing, guest communication and vetting, cleaning supervision, maintenance coordination and a monthly statement. Cleaning, laundry, linen, platform commission and utilities sit outside almost every fee; if you still book the cleaner and answer the phone at 9pm, it is not full management.
What full management should cover
If a company is charging a full-management percentage, this is the work it should be doing. Anything materially missing from this list is a listing service with a full-management price on it.
- Listing creation and ongoing optimisation across the booking platforms, not just Airbnb
- Calendar and availability management across every channel, with a channel manager so you are never double-booked
- Dynamic pricing, adjusted against real demand rather than set once and left
- Guest communication before, during and after every stay, including out of hours
- Guest vetting, ID and deposit handling
- Scheduling and supervising the changeover clean, and checking it happened
- Linen coordination
- Coordinating routine maintenance and minor repairs
- Handling complaints and the things that go wrong at nine on a Sunday
- A monthly statement showing revenue and every deduction
What sits outside almost every fee
These are costs of running a short let, not costs of using an agency. Self-managing does not remove them; it moves them onto you to arrange and pay.
Cleaning and laundry, linen, consumables, platform commission, card processing, utilities, council tax or business rates, broadband, insurance, and maintenance contractor invoices. Structural repairs and capital works are ownership costs and stay with the owner everywhere.
Our full list of what comes off the payout is on the rate card page.
Full management versus listing-only
Both get sold as "Airbnb management" and the difference is enormous. Listing-only or co-hosting typically covers the online side — the listing, the calendar, pricing and guest messages — and leaves you holding everything physical: the changeover, the keys, the linen, the maintenance, being available when something breaks.
That is a legitimate product and it is cheaper for good reason. The mistake is buying it thinking you have bought full management. The test is simple: ask who books the cleaner, and who answers the phone at 9pm. If both answers are you, it is not full management.
Questions that expose the difference
Ask these four and the answers will separate two quotes faster than any brochure.
- Who arranges and pays the cleaner, and how is that cost passed to me?
- What happens if a guest cannot get in at midnight — who do they contact, and who fixes it?
- Do you hold keys, and how many sets do you need?
- Show me a real monthly statement with the figures removed.