Published, not quoted.
You shouldn't have to sit through a call to find out what something costs. Here it is.
Gross rents means every dollar the guest pays in — no exclusions, no separate line for marketing or technology. On-site work beyond the included scope is $45 an hour with travel. Month to month — no term, no lock-in.
Setup is $995, once. Cohost configuration, listing rebuild, your direct booking site and sales page, ad setup, and installation of your property's guest technology — smart lock, thermostat, noise monitoring, StayFi guest Wi-Fi and a TouchStay digital guidebook. Hardware is billed at cost with no markup, and you own every device and account. Subscriptions are covered by the monthly fee. Founding properties: setup waived and the hardware included.
The retainer is the part most managers hide inside the percentage. We charge it openly because the preventive work — inspections, seasonal maintenance, the visit that happens when nothing is wrong — is fixed cost, and pretending otherwise is how that work quietly stops happening.
A self-managing owner pays $159 a month for the same StayReady protocol on its own. The retainer is that, plus priority response and the annual Property Fresh service, on a property we're already running.
On a property grossing $100,000, that's $20,000 plus $2,388 — $22,388 a year.
Worth comparing against the gap rather than against a cheaper fee: on our own two cottages, the difference between average and excellent management has run about $110,000 a year.
What the fee covers
| Line | What it is |
|---|---|
| Baseline readiness assessment | 200-point inspection, photographic condition record, asset inventory. Quoted by property size before you sign, so nothing about the condition of your home is a surprise to either of us. |
| Listing build | Photo order, title, description, amenity audit, house rules — written for your property, not templated. |
| Property brand + direct booking site | Its own name, domain and site, so the property accumulates its own audience. Yours to keep. |
| Revenue management | Weekly repricing, seasonal strategy, minimum-night and orphan-gap rules, compression-event pricing. |
| Channels | Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Google Vacation Rentals and your own direct site, kept in sync. |
| Guest communication | Inquiry to post-checkout, seven-message sequence, review responses — answered by a person, not an autoresponder. |
| Guest agreement | A rental agreement signed by every guest through OwnerRez, on top of the platform's terms. |
| Turnover management | Scheduling, quality checks, restocking, linen standards. |
| Preventive maintenance | Scheduled StayReady inspections and the work they surface, before guests find it. |
| Compliance tracking | Tourist rooming house license, room tax, municipal permit calendar. |
| Reporting | Monthly owner statement, quarterly performance review, and an OwnerRez owner portal with your calendar, bookings and statements — including self-serve blocking of your own dates. |
What a $100,000 property actually costs.
A fee is not a cost. The cost is the fee plus everything the fee doesn't cover. Here is the full picture under each model, on the same property, for a year.
| Traditional management | Independent co-host | Baylake | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee | 20–30% plus fees | Typically 15–20% | 20% + $199/mo |
| Cost on $100k | $22,000–$30,000+ | $18,000, plus the maintenance you arrange yourself | $22,388, maintenance included |
| Who fixes it | A vendor list, once something breaks | A vendor they call, that you pay | Our own technician, on schedule, before it breaks |
| Inspections | None scheduled | None scheduled | Quarterly, 200-point protocol, photographed |
| Listings and reviews | Held in their accounts | Yours | Yours |
| Payouts | To them first; net to you monthly | Direct to you | Direct to you, within days of check-in |
| Channels | Their portfolio site plus the majors | Airbnb and Vrbo | Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Google Vacation Rentals and your own direct site |
| Direct booking site | Theirs, not yours | Usually an add-on | Included, with its own brand and sales page — yours to keep |
| Owner contact | A monthly statement | Statement and portal | Two or three touches a month, plus periodic business reviews |
| Contract | 12 months, 90 days' notice | Month to month | Month to month, 30 days |
| Who they take | Anyone — the model runs on volume | Limited | Waterfront and high-value homes that clear the gate |
The number that matters is the gap, not the fee
An 18% co-host without a maintenance arm still leaves you buying maintenance. At StayReady's own published $159 a month, that's $19,908 a year all in — against $22,388 with us. The real difference is about $2,500, and it buys a technician who has been inside your house every quarter, knows its systems, and can fix a failure the same day.
If we can't beat that by more than the difference, we shouldn't take the property
Which is exactly what the Revenue X-Ray is for. It runs before any offer, on your specific home, and if it doesn't show upside well past $2,500 we will tell you so and you'll keep the analysis anyway.
We do the work. You keep the ownership.
Cohosting only works when both sides know exactly where the line sits. Here is ours, in full, before you ask for it.
- Listings and distribution
- Listing build, photography, copy, and live placement on Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Google Vacation Rentals and your own direct site — all under your accounts.
- Revenue
- Weekly repricing, seasonal strategy, minimum-night and orphan-gap rules, compression-event pricing.
- Marketing
- Property brand, sales page, paid social and search, monthly email to your own past-guest list.
- Guests
- Inquiry through post-checkout, screening, and a rental agreement signed by every guest through OwnerRez — not just the platform's terms. A real person answers, at any hour.
- Turnovers
- Scheduling, quality checks, restocking, supplies and linen standards.
- Maintenance
- Scheduled StayReady inspections, the fixes they surface performed on site, seasonal readiness and the annual Property Fresh service.
- Contractors
- Lawn, snow removal, pest control, appliance repair and replacement, firewood.
- Technology
- Smart lock, thermostat, noise monitoring, StayFi guest Wi-Fi and the TouchStay guidebook — installed, configured and managed.
- Compliance
- Tourist rooming house license, municipal permit and room tax calendar tracked, with filings prepared where you engage us.
- Reporting
- Monthly statement by the 5th, and a periodic business review of what moved and why.
- The accounts
- Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and your direct site are in your name. Reviews accrue to you. If you leave, all of it goes with you.
- The money
- Platforms pay you directly, within days of check-in. We never hold, escrow or net out guest funds — we invoice our fee monthly.
- The property
- Title, mortgage, insurance, utilities and property taxes remain yours.
- The licenses
- The tourist rooming house license and municipal permit are issued to you as owner. We track the dates and prepare the paperwork.
- The tax obligation
- Room tax, sales tax and income tax stay yours. We prepare and file room and sales tax where engaged; income tax is between you and your accountant.
- The spending decisions
- We handle anything under $500 and show it on the monthly invoice. Above $500 you see photos and estimates and make the call.
- The asset decisions
- Furnishings, renovations and amenity upgrades — we recommend and can co-fund, you decide.
- Your own calendar
- Your OwnerRez owner portal shows bookings, calendar and statements. Block personal dates yourself, any time, without asking us.
What we never do: hold or escrow guest funds, execute leases, run trust accounting, own your listings, or spend past $500 of your money without asking.Confirm in agreement
We don't take every property.
Before we make an offer, the Revenue X-Ray has to show meaningful, claimable upside on your specific home. If it doesn't, we'll tell you, and you'll keep the analysis anyway. Taking a property we can't materially improve is how a company like this ruins its own record.
Qualified properties are also covered by a written revenue guarantee, underwritten property by property. The terms are set out in your proposal rather than advertised here — and we only offer it where the analysis shows the gap is real.
Five properties this first year, because we visit every one personally. Founding properties get the setup fee waived, the full guest technology stack installed and included, and their pricing held for as long as they stay with us.
Fair questions about the fee
Every manager says they'll treat my property like their own. Why believe you?
Don't — the claim is untestable. What's testable is whether the standard is written down. Ours is: a 200-point inspection, documented playbooks, a weekly pricing review. We also concede the part others won't, which is that owner attention alone doesn't survive a fourth property. The system is what we're actually selling.
Someone else quoted me 18%, with no retainer.
They may well have. Two things worth checking before you compare them. First, an 18% co-host without a maintenance arm doesn't remove the maintenance — it hands it back to you, and at StayReady's own $159 a month that closes most of the gap between us. Second, and much larger: the question isn't which percentage is smaller, it's which number is bigger after the fee. An 18% fee on a property earning $70,000 leaves you $57,400. Our fee on the same property earning $110,000 leaves you $85,224. If we can't move your number materially, we shouldn't take the property — which is what the gate is for.
Is the retainer just StayReady's subscription with a markup on it?
No. It's the same 200-point protocol a self-managing owner buys at $159 a month, plus two things standalone subscribers don't get: priority response, because a Baylake property is first in the truck, and the annual Property Fresh service. It's $40 more, and that's what the $40 buys.
Can I skip the retainer and pay a higher percentage instead?
No. The retainer is the maintenance layer, and unbundling it would make us the same as every other co-host. If a property genuinely doesn't need year-round care, we're probably not the right fit — and StayReady on its own may be the better answer.
Isn't there a conflict in you also selling maintenance?
There would be if we invoiced per repair with no ceiling. Preventive work is inside the retainer, anything over $500 needs your approval first, and you see the inspection record. The incentive runs the right way: catching a failure early is cheaper for us than a mid-stay emergency and a damaged review.
What if it doesn't work and I want out?
Month to month, 30 days' notice. You hold the listing accounts, the domain, the brand and the guest list throughout, so leaving means changing who logs in — not rebuilding your business.Confirm in agreement
Do I have to give up using my own cottage?
No. Owner stays are blocked on your calendar whenever you want them. We'll be honest about what a peak-season block costs you in revenue, and then we'll block it.Confirm in agreement
More in the full question list.