Lodging & short-term rentals
Books and taxes for Airbnb co-hosting businesses.
A percentage fee for managing someone else's listing, guest messaging handled at all hours, a cleaner dispatched between bookings, and owner payouts that pass through your hands but never belong to you. Gus sorts all of it, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
June came in at $4,100, all cohosting fees across nine listings. None of the guest rent that passed through your account counts toward that, since it belongs to the property owners.
- Cohost fees, batch paymentCohost service fees
- Owner disbursement, Listing 4Owner payouts
- Cleaner dispatch, TurnoCleaning coordination
- Guest messaging softwareSoftware
- Virtual assistant paymentContract labor
Why your books are different
An Airbnb cohosting business's books go wrong in the same few places.
You do not own the properties you manage, and most of the money moving through your accounts belongs to someone else. A generalist counts every dollar that passes through as revenue. Your business needs only your fee counted as income, or the numbers wildly overstate what the business earns.
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1
Guest rent passing through is not your income
When a booking payout lands and you take your percentage before sending the rest to the property owner, only your cut is company revenue. Counting the full payout as sales makes a small cohosting business look many times larger than it is.
What we doSeparates the owner's rent from your cohost fee at the moment a payout lands, so your company's real revenue is always just your percentage. -
2
Your fee percentage needs to cover real costs
A cohost fee that looks fine on paper can quietly lose money once guest messaging software, cleaner dispatch fees, and a virtual assistant's time are counted against it.
What we doTracks your actual costs per listing against the fee you earn, so you can see which listings are worth the management time and which are not. -
3
Contract help scales with your listing count
As you add listings, you often add virtual assistants or guest messaging help paid by the hour or by listing, and those costs can creep up faster than your fee revenue if nobody is watching.
What we doKeeps contract labor costs visible against your listing count and fee revenue, so growth in listings actually means growth in margin. -
4
Cleaner dispatch fees are a pass-through cost, not a markup
When you coordinate a cleaner between guest stays and the owner reimburses the cleaning cost, that reimbursement is not extra income unless you are actually marking it up.
What we doTracks cleaner dispatch costs and any reimbursement from the owner separately, so a pass-through does not get counted as profit it is not.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for an Airbnb cohosting business.
Set up once for how you get paid and what you spend. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Cohost service feesYour percentage of each listing's booking revenue.
- Setup and onboarding feesOne-time fees for taking on a new listing or owner.
- Cleaning coordination markupAny amount kept above what a cleaner actually charges, when you markup that cost.
- Consulting or Airbnb setup feesAny separate service, like improving a listing's photos and pricing, billed apart from ongoing management.
Money out
- Owner payoutsRent passed through to property owners after your fee is taken.
- Cleaning coordinationCleaner dispatch costs, whether paid directly or reimbursed by owners.
- Guest messaging softwareTools automating or assisting guest communication across listings.
- Contract laborVirtual assistants and remote help managing listings and messages.
- Pricing softwareDynamic pricing tools applied across your managed listings.
- MarketingCosts to find new property owners to bring on as clients.
What we watch for you
- Fee margin per listing
What each listing's cohost fee nets after software and contract labor costs tied to it.
- Revenue per listing managed
How your fee income is growing against the number of listings you manage.
- Contract labor cost
Virtual assistant and messaging help costs, tracked against your fee revenue as you add listings.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so April is a number you already knew.
Ask Gus
Things Airbnb cohosts ask Gus.
Text him like you would text anybody. He answers in plain English, and when a question is above his pay grade, an accountant looks and gets back to you.
Only your cohost percentage does. I separate the owner's share from your fee the moment the payout lands, so your books never overstate what you actually earned.
I track it as contract labor against your fee revenue, so you can see if adding help is actually improving your margin as you take on more listings.
No, since you are not marking it up, that is a pass-through cost, not profit. I keep it separate from your actual fee revenue so the numbers reflect that.
The tax side
The tax side of running an Airbnb cohosting business.
Most of what goes wrong here is counting money that passes through your hands as if it were yours. Once fees and pass-through rent are split apart, the return reflects what the business actually earned.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Only your fee is taxable business incomeRent collected on behalf of property owners is not your business's revenue, only the cohost fee you keep is. Gus separates the two from the start so the return is not overstated.
- Contractor 1099s for assistants and cleanersA virtual assistant or cleaner not on payroll paid $2,000 or more in 2026 by your business gets a 1099-NEC by January 31.
- Worker classification for regular helpA virtual assistant who works set hours on your schedule and uses your systems every week may look more like an employee than a contractor, even if paid hourly.
- The pass-through deductionMost profitable cohosting businesses can take up to 20 percent of business profit off their taxable income, with limits above $201,750 taxable income single or $403,500 joint. It comes out right when owner rent and your fee are never mixed.
Deductions Airbnb co-hosting businesses miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Guest messaging software
- Dynamic pricing tools
- Virtual assistant fees
- Phone and communication tools
- Marketing to new property owners
- Business liability insurance
- Home office costs
- Mileage for property visits
- Cleaner coordination software
- Bookkeeping and accounting fees
- Contract and agreement templates
- Local business license fees
General information about 2026 federal rules, not advice for your business. Your accountant looks at your actual numbers before anything gets filed.
All year, not just April
A cohosting year, kept every month.
Your revenue follows every listing's own season, not one calendar. Your taxes come on a schedule. Your team keeps you ahead of both. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.
- January
Plan the year
Last year's return gets started, contractor 1099s go out to assistants and cleaners, and you get a monthly set-aside so April is already handled.
- April
Filed. Done.
Your return is filed and signed. No surprise bill, because the set-aside has been running since January.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether adding listings this year is actually growing your fee margin.
- October
Before year end
A look at software or contract help worth adding before December, and how the year will close.
What you get
What you pay depends on what your business needs, and it does not move after that, busy season or slow. No hourly bills, no surprise invoices, no setup fee.
Book a call- Monthly bookkeeping
Every transaction sorted into categories set up for Airbnb co-hosting businesses. You never categorize a thing.
- An accountant checks every transaction
Real review, every month, before your books close. Not a spot check.
- Your business tax return, filed
Prepared, reviewed, and signed by that same accountant every year.
- The monthly number
What you made, what you spent, what to set aside for taxes.
- Your own bookkeeper
A real person assigned to your business, in the app whenever you need them. No hold music.
- On your books all year
Every month, not just in April. Your team speaks up whenever something is worth your attention.
- Cancel any time
No contract. No cancellation call. Your books are yours.
Straight answers
Questions Airbnb cohosts ask first.
Does the full payout for a listing I manage count as my revenue?
No, only your cohost fee counts as your business's income. Gus separates the owner's rent from your fee the moment a payout lands, so your books stay accurate.
I manage listings for several different owners. Can Gus keep them separate?
Yes. Each listing's revenue and costs are tracked individually, so you can see which ones are actually worth your management time.
How does Gus handle a virtual assistant I pay by the hour?
Their pay is tracked as contract labor against your fee revenue, and if you pay them $2,000 or more in 2026, they get a 1099-NEC by January 31.
One owner pays me a flat monthly fee instead of a percentage. Does that change anything?
No, Gus tracks it the same way, as your service fee, whether it is a flat amount or a percentage of bookings. Either way, it is the only part that counts as your income.
My books currently mix owner rent with my own fee income. Can Gus fix that?
Yes. Send the statements you have. Gus separates owner payouts from your fee revenue going forward, the accountant checks it, and most cohosts know where they stand inside a week.
Is a real accountant checking my books?
Yes. You get your own bookkeeper, Gus does the first pass on every transaction, and an accountant checks every one before your month closes. That same accountant prepares, signs, and files your business return. Goatkeeper is not a CPA firm, and we never pretend a person looked when they did not.
What does it cost, and can I cancel?
It starts at $197 a month, depending on what your business needs. No setup fee, no hourly bills, no contract. Cancel any time from the app, and your books go with you.
More in lodging & short-term rentals
We keep books for the business next door too.
- Bed & breakfasts
- Country inns & lodges
- Event venues with on-site lodging
- Farm stays
- Hostels
- Independent motels
- Mid-term rental operators (travel nurses)
- Wellness & retreat centers
- Boutique hotels
- Extended stay & corporate housing
- Luxury villa rentals
- Short-term rental hosts (Airbnb / VRBO)
- Short-term rental property managers
- Vacation rental management (beach / mountain)
What makes a bookkeeper worth paying for Every business we keep books for
Book a call
Pick a time. That's the whole signup.
Fifteen minutes with a real person on our team. They look at where your books are, tell you straight what it takes to get caught up, and get you set up on the spot if it fits.
- $197 a month to start
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever