how much to pay my cohosting friend

Question

Hi all,

I have a friend who's a designer and helped me set up my beautiful space.

She is now attached to the STR and wants to cohost with me. I am managing it long distance as I live in Northern California and she lives locally, in LA. It is handy to have her available to go to the property when I can't. I also have a great team of cleaner, handyman, etc locally that I have great relationships with. I'm wondering what and how to pay her going forward. Do I pay her an hourly for when she has to go down there? What kinds of contracts have you worked with? I know PMs and cohosts often make a percentage of monthly earnings but I don't think that's appropriate in this case since I'm responding to all emails and troubleshooting issues as they come for now. Although down the road, I might go this route so am still interested in what you do. For example, when I travel to Europe and the time difference is too much to be able to respond in a timely way.

Interested in how you handle things!

Thanks :)

Kevin Luttrell · Answer

@Jennifer Gardner if you’re handling guest communication and bookings and you have a team in place already for cleaning and maintenance, what is she doing?

John Mausteller · Answer

I suppose that depends on the area.  In LA I imagine the hourly wage would be higher than elsewhere.   If she is driving an hour to hour and a half round trip I would say at-least $25 an hour.    But again, that depends on how much you are going to use her.  If it is just every now and then, a higher hourly rate is more enticing for the co host.  If it is a more reoccurring thing - then maybe you could pay a little less because the co host knows they will have that income on a somewhat regular basis.    I think you just need to make it worth her time so that she is there when you need her.

Jennifer Gardner · Answer

@John Mausteller what hourly do you think is reasonable? She would have to drive 30-40 mins one way then handle whatever business such as putting packages in my onsite storage.

Kevin Luttrell · Answer

If she's just going to be doing small things here and there, I agree with John that probably paying her an hourly rate for when she does work is appropriate. If she's going to be regularly involved long-term, I'd say set up a contract with her for a flat monthly rate. Hard to say an amount, really depends on what she's doing. To give you a frame of reference, I had a cleaner quote me $200-$250/mo for handling all guest communication and coordinating maintenance/repairs for my vacation rental in the Smokies. That was in addition to the cleaning fee per clean.

John Mausteller · Answer

It sounds like paying her an hourly rate if she has to go over there or address some issue that it takes someone local to do.  I would say hourly or a flat fee - she does not even have to be a co host to do that, you could just communicate it to her.  Being a co host then she will be getting all the messages and inquiries as well which seems not needed if she is not going to be doing any of the responding.

Jennifer Gardner · Answer

@Kevin Luttrell yeah exactly that's why I don't know how to compensate her for her time. She's been making some labels and doing some small last minute things but she has a background in property management so helped me find my LT tenants and helped me set up this whole endeavor so she's invested emotionally. Basically I don't want to cut her out completely and will be needing her to run it once or twice a year when I'm out of reach due to long-distance travel.

Things she might need to do could include ongoing improvements but I plan on going down there every three months or more so thinking I could work on those myself as well, with her help because she's got such a great designer's eye and is always up to help. She wanted to work on the guidebook for me so did that but hasn't sent me an invoice yet and I'm just not sure what to ask.

It's complicated by the fact that we're friends but she was a friend of a friend before this whole process and has only since this become a close friend who I respect and appreciate a lot.

how much to pay my cohosting friend

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