Start an Airbnb concierge company: the complete guide (2026)

This guide serves two profiles: anyone who wants to start an Airbnb concierge company — managing other people's properties for a commission — and the semi-professional host running 2, 5 or 10 of their own units who wants professional-grade processes. The tools and methods are identical; only the contract and the prospecting differ.

Why listen to me: in 2015, still a student, I founded BnbLord — one of the very first French Airbnb concierge companies — and grew it until its merger with GuestReady, one of the world leaders in the sector. I operate close to 70 short-term rental apartments today in Paris, Bordeaux and Nice — some I own or co-own, others on behalf of third-party owners. Everything below is used in production, not copied from another blog.

The PMS (channel manager + automations + owner accounting) is THE structural decision: everything else plugs into it. I compared every serious SaaS on the market before choosing, and I re-benchmark regularly. My verdict has not moved: Hostaway.

Why Hostaway wins: a complete, open API (essential for automation — messaging, pricing, reporting, owner statements), powerful native automations (messages, cleaning/maintenance tasks, reviews), a real owner portal with automatic statements, a direct and reliable connection to Airbnb/Booking/Vrbo/Google, and responsive support. It scales from 3 to 500 units without changing systems.

• vs Guesty: the most complete competitor, but opaque and significantly more expensive pricing (often a % of revenue + onboarding fees), and complexity designed for very large portfolios. For comparable features, you pay much more.
• vs Smoobu: perfect to start with 1-3 units, attractive entry price, but limited automations and API — you will outgrow it, and a PMS migration is painful.
• vs Lodgify: strongly oriented towards direct-booking websites, decent as a channel manager, but weak on field operations (tasks, cleaning, owner statements) — the core of the concierge business.

👉 Try Hostaway (free demo via our partner link) — it is what we run in production across close to 70 apartments, and what we recommend to start with. No tool is perfect: we keep our own list of Hostaway's limits and send it to their product team rather than stay quiet about it. None of them has changed our mind.

On our own portfolio, the last 12 months represent 4,600+ reservations: ~53% via Airbnb and ~40% via Booking.com. In other words, being only on Airbnb means giving up 4 bookings out of 10. Being on both is not a nice-to-have, it is non-negotiable — and the PMS makes synchronisation trivial. Vrbo, Google Vacation Rentals and your direct booking engine usefully complete the mix (5-7% for us), but Airbnb + Booking are the bulk.

👉 List your properties on Booking.com (partner sign-up link).

A yield tip: cancellation policies and rate parity between platforms are levers — a good part of the margin is played there.

A concierge company lives and dies by the quality of its cleaning. It is THE item that drives your ratings, your bookings and your reputation — before decor or price. Two models work:

• Self-employed cleaners, which is what we do: you keep control of quality and scheduling and train teams to your standard. In Paris we added a central storage unit for linen and consumables and a fleet of cargo bikes to deliver clean linen and collect dirty linen between properties — no car, no parking, unbeatable in a dense city centre.
• A short-term-rental cleaning agency in your city that also handles the linen: easier to launch, fully variable cost, but quality and availability depend on a third party — choose carefully and audit regularly.

The golden rule: no visit without a checklist. Eyeballed cleaning is the first cause of bad surprises. We published our 149-point Superhost checklist for free (room by room, with the traps that cost a star): print it, laminate it or load it into your task tool, and require point-by-point validation at every turnover.

Quality is 20% tools, 80% execution. Our non-negotiable rules:

• Reachable within 15 minutes, 7 days a week. A guest locked out or without hot water cannot wait. On-call phone + automated messages that acknowledge instantly.
• Every negative review is treated as an incident. Fix the cause — whether the property itself (equipment, cleanliness) or a process flaw — and make sure it cannot recur. An unaddressed bad review costs ten future bookings.
• Perfect cleaning, every time. It is the make-or-break: you never rescue a sloppy clean with an apology note.
• Maintenance solved within the day. If impossible, a systematic goodwill gesture, as fast as possible — plus an immediate fallback: no AC → deliver a fan; no fan possible → a discount or apology gift. The guest must feel you are on it, even when not everything can be fixed on the spot.

Half of guest messages are “how does the … work?”. A good house manual eliminates them: explain step by step how each appliance works (hob, washing machine, heating, TV, internet box…), plus the best spots nearby (bakery, pharmacy, metro, restaurants). Two complementary formats:

• A digital house manual (far easier to update) — many third-party tools exist for this (Touch Stay, Hostfully…), which we have not tested ourselves; we run ours via Claude Code so we can change everything with one command. Failing digital, a paper binder where each sheet can be swapped individually on update.
• Laminated instruction cards next to each appliance — even more intuitive: the guest has the manual right where they need it. The most effective way to kill “how do I turn on…” messages.

Beyond the PMS, the stack we recommend:

• Knowledge base: Notion — one page per apartment (access, wifi, appliances, quirks, meter photos…), your teams' source of truth. If you are technically comfortable, a file repository driven by Claude Code does the same, more flexibly.
• Task manager: Asana — or Trello, or Claude Code: honestly, it barely matters. What matters is that EVERY incident becomes an assigned task with a deadline, never a lost message.
• Phone system: Twilio — dedicated number, on-call routing, call recording, automated SMS. Your personal number is not a switchboard.
• Team communication: Slack — important: WhatsApp is NOT suitable (no reliable long-term search, no topic channels, no clean integrations). One channel per building/area + an incidents channel. Free self-hosted alternative if you are techy: Mattermost.
• Photos: Google Drive — one folder per property with the professional shoot (do one, it pays for itself in days), reference condition photos and listing visuals. Simple and shareable.
• Banking: Qonto — efficient business accounts and interest-bearing accounts for cash sitting between payouts. Crucial reflex: tag every expense to the relevant owner at payment time (Qonto labels), or monthly owner reporting becomes hell. The techiest will plug Claude Code into the Qonto + Hostaway APIs to map expenses automatically and generate owner statements with zero manual entry.

Self-check-in is the operational nerve centre. After trying more or less the whole market:

• Smart lock: the TSZ-530 — we find it better than the better-known Igloohome, Nuki and others: far longer battery life and far fewer problems in operation (per-reservation codes, no fragile wifi bridge). It is our default install.
• Building door / intercom: the Nuki Opener — makes the intercom remotely controllable and code-operable, which solves 90% of late-night arrivals. Check compatibility with your intercom model before buying.

Key boxes as backup only (and never street-facing in a sensitive co-owned building — see the contracts section).

Our consumables list validated in operations (prices checked July 2026). For each item: an Amazon link for quick restocking, and our professional supplier reference — almost always cheaper at volume. Adjust quantities to capacity (2 to 8 guests).

• Hotel-grade 3-ply toilet paper — the #1 complaint: NEVER run out (2 in place + visible stock). Amazon · pro ref: Halvea, 3-ply ×72 ≈ €42 excl. VAT (€0.58/roll).
• 30 L kitchen drawstring bin bags — 1 in place + roll under the sink. Amazon · pro ref: Halvea ×100 ≈ €8.50 excl. VAT.
• 10 L bathroom bags — Amazon · pro ref: Hypronet ×1000 ≈ €17 excl. VAT.
• Washing-up liquid — bottle in place + 5 L refill. Amazon · pro ref: Delcourt (Paic ×3 ≈ €15 excl. VAT) + Voussert 5 L refill ≈ €5.55 excl. VAT.
• All-in-1 dishwasher tablets — Amazon · pro ref: Voussert, Sun Pro Eco ×100 ≈ €27 excl. VAT (€0.27/tab).
• HACCP sponges + 300 g/m² microfibre cloths — Amazon · pro ref: Voussert (sponges ×5 ≈ €3 excl. VAT; microfibre €0.49).
• Hand soap — 5 L dispenser refills — Amazon · pro ref: Produitsdaccueil, 5 L ≈ €11 (€2.18/L).
• Shower gel + shampoo — wall dispensers + 5 L refills — no more stolen bottles. Amazon · pro ref: Produitsdaccueil 3-in-1 gel 5 L ≈ €18; Hotelify argan shampoo 5 L ≈ €22 excl. VAT.
• Dental kits — Amazon · pro ref: Filfa (Hosteltex) ×250 ≈ €0.47/kit.
• Cotton pads, buds, make-up removers (kraft sachets) — Amazon · pro ref: Direct-Hôtellerie, €0.09-0.23/sachet.
• Laundry pods — Amazon · pro ref: Delcourt, Skip Professional ×46 ≈ €15 excl. VAT (€0.32/dose).
• Welcome water (75 cl glass bottle) — the universal premium touch. Amazon · pro ref: Evian glass 12×75 cl ≈ €15 excl. VAT.
• Wrapped soap bars — Amazon · pro ref: Halvea 20 g ×392 ≈ €0.15/unit.
• Dishwasher salt + rinse aid — pro ref: Henri Julien 25 kg salt ≈ €17 excl. VAT; Voussert rinse 5 L ≈ €14 excl. VAT. Amazon.
• Shaving / sewing / shower-cap kits — Amazon · pro ref: Kleaning shaving kit €0.52/unit; Filfa sewing kit €0.23/unit.
• Bath salts (if there is a bathtub) — the detail guests remember. Pro ref: RH Hotel Amenities, 35 g sachets ≈ €0.25/unit. Amazon.
• Coffee (Nespresso-compatible capsules) + teas + sugar + biscuits — Amazon (L'OR ×100 ≈ €0.32/capsule) · pro tip: assembled welcome kits branded to your company (e.g. Beneki, ≈ €1 excl. VAT per complete kit, delivered).
• Kitchen roll — Amazon · pro ref: Delcourt, Tork ×24 ≈ €1.46/roll.
• Welcome gift — 2 chocolate napolitains on the pillow, or a mini chocolate bar branded to your company. Pro ref: MaxiCoffee Monbana napolitains ×200 ≈ €0.21/unit. Amazon.

Total budget: €3-6 of consumables per turnover depending on capacity — negligible against the impact on ratings.

After trying everything, our conviction is clear: linen rental with laundering (the provider owns, washes and delivers the linen) generally beats managing your own stock — no capital tied up, no machine breaking down on an August Saturday, consistent hotel-grade quality and a fully variable, re-billable cost. In France, Sdez gave us the best prices by far; if Sdez does not cover your area, Initial is the second-best option we have tested. Owning your linen only makes sense again at very high local density with a dedicated facility.

Your commission is 100% of your revenue: it is the only figure that builds your business. So you must defend it — and to do that, know how to reframe it for the owner.

The winning argument is mathematical. If you charge 15% commission, the owner keeps 85% of the revenue. So: +10% revenue generated = +8.5% in their pocket, whereas −10% commission (going from 15% to 5%) earns them only +1.5%. In other words, what matters for them is not shaving your commission, it is that you maximise their revenue — and you cannot do that properly if your margins are squeezed. Remind them: a concierge chasing the lowest price manages poorly, and a bad manager costs far more than a few points of commission.

Our model recommendation: a percentage commission (the core) plus re-billed variable costs (linen, cleaning, consumables). And on those variable costs, mark up at least 20-30%: you carry the logistics, the cash-flow advance and the risk — it is legitimate and it is what makes the model viable at scale.

Consider a set-up fee too. Charging an entry fee of €200-400 (listing creation, photo shoot, access installation, set-up) is very easy to sell — especially framed as taken from the first bookings, so “nothing out of pocket” for the owner — and it funds your onboarding, which takes real time. Our contract generator includes it as an option (set €0 to remove the clause).

The management mandate is your legal backbone: exact scope of services, commission base and rate, works spending cap, notice periods, the owner's regulatory obligations (registration number, change of use, co-ownership — THEY carry them, and your contract must say so), liability limitation. We put online a free management-mandate generator: the template we use in real operations, customisable (your brand, your commission rate), Word or PDF export — generated in French (French law), to be reviewed by your counsel, notably on the professional-licence question (Hoguet law).

Guest communication (questions, check-ins, small incidents) does not require being on site: it can be handled remotely by excellent professionals. For English-speaking markets, the go-to talent pools are the Philippines and South Africa — budget roughly $700-900 per month full-time, with profiles easy to find on Upwork (for French-speaking operations, Mauritius and Madagascar at €500-600/month are the equivalents). With PMS automations handling 80% of messages, one person easily covers 30-50 units. Keep only field on-call and sensitive decisions in-house.

You will be sold a thousand ways to “raise the basket”: selling guest experiences via Viator or GetYourGuide (referral commission), luggage storage like Stasher, transfers, etc. Honestly: we find these revenues (very) marginal relative to the time they take. The real additional-revenue lever is services with high value for owner and guest (extra cleaning, early check-in, mid-stay cleaning, breakfast, laundry) — properly marked up. Focus there; take affiliate commissions if they fall in your lap, but don't build a strategy on them.

What actually worked for us, in order:

• SEO — most of BnbLord/GuestReady's growth came from it: “Airbnb management + city” pages, local regulatory guides (owners first search “am I allowed to?”), useful articles. Slow (6-12 months) but the asset compounds. To delegate, we recommend the agency Eskimoz (serious, results-driven); the techiest will run their SEO in-house with Claude Code (content, internal linking, structured data).
• A direct-booking website — worthwhile to capture commission-free bookings and build loyalty. We built ours with Claude Code plugged into the Hostaway API (calendars, rates and payments synced): see lavie.maison. A complement to Airbnb/Booking, not a replacement.
• Word of mouth — one happy owner brings two; clean monthly statements and the owner portal contribute more than you would think.
• Journalists who write about Airbnb concierge companies — find them (via Apollo, Dropcontact to source and verify their emails), pitch your story, offer data. Press coverage builds credibility and, crucially, earns valuable backlinks: ask for the link to be set to dofollow — that is what actually boosts your ranking.
• Instagram and Facebook ads — targeting owners/investors, before/after creatives + revenue; test small budgets with real cost-per-signed-mandate tracking.
• Social networks to be on: LinkedIn (credibility + owners/investors), Instagram (visual proof, before/after, properties), Facebook (owner groups, local communities) and, optionally, TikTok if you target younger owners — short video performs strongly there.

Review tip: to raise your own site/brand ratings risk-free, only ask for a review from guests who already left a 5★ on a platform — they are already won over, conversion is excellent, and you don't wake up the unhappy ones.

Two credibility weapons in meetings: AirDNA for a serious revenue estimate when an owner asks “how much would it make?”; and mastery of local regulations — our city-by-city guide and the co-ownership audit are made to be shared. To choose where to set up: our ranking of the best markets to launch a concierge company. And when commercial premises or offices cross your path, the Agence BnB partner programme pays a 10% referral on changes of destination.

If you're reading this guide because you already own several properties and are considering building your own operation “to run your portfolio”, be honest about the time cost: everything above is a full-time trade. There is an alternative — hand it to us. At Lavie Maison (the operator behind Agence BnB), we run our own assets to an impeccable standard plus a few selected portfolios, only from roughly €300,000 in annual rental revenue (about ten well-located Paris homes). Below that bar, our concierge directory, ranked on real guest reviews, will help you find the right manager. Above it, pick “Confier la gestion de votre parc” in the form below.