Questions to ask before you sign.

Know what you are buying

Find out which model you are talking to before you start asking. A half-service arrangement, a full-service manager and a co-host are three different products.

Put the same question to a manager and a co-host and you cannot compare the answers. Only one of the three models leaves the listing in your name.

Establish the model first, then work through the list. Twelve questions is enough to carry into a meeting and short enough that you will ask them all.

What exactly is included, and what gets billed separately?

The headline percentage is rarely the whole cost. Cleaning per turnover, onboarding, grounds and pool service, linen and an early termination fee often sit outside it.

Extra charges can total more than the gap between two competing rates. A straight answer sounds like an itemized list, in writing, in two columns. An answer in adjectives is not an answer yet.

• One column shows what the fee covers.
• The other shows what is billed on top, with the expected amounts.

Is your fee calculated on gross booking revenue or on what reaches me?

The same percentage on a different base gives a very different amount from the same stay. The gap is widest on channel bookings, where the platform commission sits.

A lower rate on a wider base can cost more than a higher rate on a narrower one. A percentage with no base is a headline you cannot compare.

A straight answer sounds like a named base, and the deductions that come off before the percentage applies. Both are written into the contract.

Read next: Short-Term Rental Management Fees, Explained

Who holds the listing account, and who does the channel pay first?

This is the question with the largest consequence. If the listing sits on the manager's account, its booking history and reviews generally stay behind when the relationship ends. On your account, they stay yours throughout.

A straight answer traces the money. The platform pays this party, and this share is split off at this point. The rest arrives on this schedule. Any gap between the platform's split and the fee owed is reconciled on the statement.

Whoever receives the guest money first is also holding it. Ask how long they hold it and what comes off before it reaches you. Timing matters as much as the amount.

• A straight answer says plainly whose account the listing lives on.
• It says what access the other party has to that account.

Read next: What Is Co-Hosting? Airbnb Co-Host vs. Property Manager

How is my nightly rate set, how often is it reviewed, and who approves a change?

Everything else on this list protects your money, and this one makes it. The shoulder season is where a good year pulls away from an average one.

Some operators price the house at onboarding and look again in spring, which leaves the shoulder season on the table. Ask whether a person reviews what the pricing tool proposes, and who can override it.

Ask too what happens in the week you disagree with a price. A straight answer sounds like a named method and a cadence.

• Rates are set against live comparable homes, using this year's market.
• Rates are reviewed every week.
• Rates move for events and school breaks.

What does it cost to leave, and how much notice do I give?

This is the highest-stakes question an owner can ask, and the easiest to leave until the contract is in front of you.

Notice periods, termination fees and the handling of bookings already on the calendar are all open to negotiation before signing. None of them can be negotiated afterward.

Get the answer from the contract, because the conversation will not be there in eighteen months. A straight answer sounds like a clause reference and a number.

• It states how many days of notice you owe.
• It states what fee applies, if any.
• It says what happens to reservations that straddle the exit, and who honors them.

How do I block my own weeks, and what does that cost me?

Owners use their own houses, so settle early what that costs. Dates blocked at short notice in a peak week cost real revenue.

Agree before you sign whether that is your problem or a shared one, because July is too late to settle it. A straight answer covers three points.

• It says how far ahead you must declare owner dates, and whether there is a limit.
• It says whether short-notice blocks carry a charge.
• It explains how the rest of the year is priced around the weeks you keep.

What will my monthly statement show, and when do I get it?

Reporting is where you learn whether you can follow an operator's work. A statement with a single net figure tells you nothing about how that figure was reached.

A statement that arrives whenever it arrives is not a reporting cadence. Ask to see one. An operator who can show you a statement is an operator who produces them.

No other request on the list tells the two apart as reliably. A straight answer sounds like a date each month, and a sample statement with the numbers changed.

What share of bookings comes from direct rather than the platforms?

Channel commission is one of the largest deductions on a booking. So an operator with a real direct-booking relationship is worth more than the same operator without one.

Some managers say direct booking matters but cannot say what share of their bookings it is. They have an aspiration, not a channel.

Many make the claim, and few offer the number. A straight answer sounds like a percentage, for properties like yours, in your market, over a stated period.

Who pays for the cleaning, and does the guest fee match what the cleaner is paid?

Cleaning is charged to the guest and paid to a cleaner, and those two numbers are not always the same. Where they differ, the gap is revenue to somebody.

A straight answer sounds like both numbers, and who keeps any gap. Either answer can be defended, and a good operator gives you theirs without flinching. It is the flinch you are testing for.

Walk me through the last emergency repair you handled, and what is your approval threshold?

Somebody has to be able to authorize a plumber at nine on a Sunday without waking you. Somebody also has to stop a five-figure repair from being ordered without your knowing.

Those are the same setting at two different values. Ask about a real repair rather than the policy, because a threshold is easy to state and hard to have.

A straight answer sounds like a specific job at a specific house. It names who attended, how fast, what it cost and who approved it.

Then ask for the figure above which you are called. Ask also what happens in an emergency above that figure when nobody can reach you.

What insurance do you carry, and what am I still responsible for?

A standard second-home policy is not a short-term rental policy. A platform's own damage guarantee is not a substitute for either. A good operator will put you in touch with the broker if asked.

An uninsured loss lives in the gap between what a manager carries and what an owner is still expected to carry. A straight answer sounds like this.

• It names the policies the manager carries, with their limits.
• It states clearly what is still yours to hold.
• It covers guest injury, and damage beyond a platform's own guarantee.

Who actually shows up at the house, and how far away are they?

Much of short-term rental management can run from anywhere. The part that cannot is the part that matters when something breaks.

A remote operator cannot meet a vendor at the property or look at a repair. Nor can they see the house the way a guest arriving at dusk sees it.

A straight answer sounds like named roles and where they are based. It also says how long each person takes to reach the property.

Then ask who covers when that person is unavailable. The answer to that second question usually tells you more than the answer to the first.

Answers that should give you pause

None of the following proves an operator is dishonest. Each one means you are not finished asking, so go back to that question before you decide.

• A scope that is described but never written down.
• A fee percentage quoted without its base.
• An exit arrangement that exists only verbally, or a contract promised but not shown before you must decide.
• A refusal to show a sample statement.
• A direct-booking claim with no number behind it.
• An answer to the cleaning question that changes shape when you ask it a second time.

A projection and its evidence

One more answer is easy to miss, because it feels like enthusiasm. It is a projection offered before anyone has looked at the property.

A revenue figure built from an address alone is a guess. An operator who hands you one before seeing the house is telling you how the rest of their numbers get made.

That does not mean you should avoid asking for numbers. Ask for them, and ask what they are built on. A projection with named comparables behind it is a professional document.

The same number with nothing behind it is a sales figure. You can see the difference in about a minute. Named comparables cover three things.

• They are the specific homes a guest would choose between instead of yours.
• They show what those homes charged.
• They show which weeks those homes were booked.

A note on Florida

Florida's calendar is not flat, so ask about the shoulder season. A good year and an average one split apart in the weeks either side of the peak. Ask for the plan for those weeks.

Registration and tax rules vary by county and by city, and they sit with the owner. An operator worth hiring names the ones for your address before you sign, ahead of any inspection.

Read next: Short-Term Rental Rules in Pinellas County, by City