Questions to askbefore you sign.

Before the questions, know what you are buying

Find out which model is sitting across the table before you start asking. A half-service arrangement, a full-service manager and a co-host are three different products, and only one of them leaves the listing in your name. Put the same question to all three and the answers cannot be compared.

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

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 commonly sit outside it, and their total can exceed the difference between two competing rates.

A straight answer sounds like: an itemized list, in writing, in two columns. One for what the fee covers, one for what is billed on top with the expected amounts. An answer that describes the service in adjectives rather than listing it is not an answer yet.

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

The same percentage on different bases produces materially different amounts from an identical stay, and 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 straight answer sounds like: a named base, and the deductions that come off before the percentage is applied, set out in the contract rather than in conversation. A percentage with no base attached is a headline and not a quote.

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, the booking history and the review record generally sit there too, and they usually stay behind when the relationship ends. If it sits on yours, they are yours throughout. Whoever receives the guest money first is also holding it, so ask how long they hold it and what comes off before it reaches you.

A straight answer sounds like: a plain statement of whose account the listing lives on, what access the other party is granted, and a described flow of funds. The platform pays this party, this share is split off at this point, the remainder arrives on this schedule, and any difference between the platform's split and the fee actually owed is reconciled on the statement. When the money reaches you matters as much as how much of it does.

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

Everything else on this list protects your money. This one makes it. An operator who prices the house at onboarding and looks at it again in spring is leaving the shoulder season on the table, and the shoulder season is where a good year separates from an average one.

A straight answer sounds like: a named method and a cadence. Rates set against a live comparable set rather than last year's numbers, reviewed weekly rather than seasonally, and moved for events and school holidays. Ask whether a human reviews what the pricing tool proposes, who can override it, and what happens in the week you disagree with a price.

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 one to leave until the contract is already in front of you. Notice periods, termination fees and the treatment of bookings already on the calendar are all negotiable before signing, and none of them are negotiable afterward.

A straight answer sounds like: a clause reference and a number. How many days of notice, what fee if any, what happens to reservations that straddle the exit, and who honors them. Get it from the contract rather than from the conversation. The conversation will not be there in eighteen months.

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

Owners use their own houses, and what that costs should be settled early. Dates blocked at short notice in a peak week cost real revenue, and whether that is your problem or a shared one is worth agreeing before you sign rather than in July.

A straight answer sounds like: how far ahead you need to declare owner dates, whether there is a limit, whether short-notice blocks carry a charge, and how the rest of the year gets priced around the weeks you keep.

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

Reporting is where an operator becomes legible or does not. A statement that shows a single net figure tells you nothing about how it was reached, and a statement that arrives whenever it arrives is not a reporting cadence.

A straight answer sounds like: a date each month, and a sample statement with the numbers changed. Ask to see one. An operator who can show you a statement is an operator who produces them, and this request separates the two more reliably than any other on the list.

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. The claim is common and the number is rarely offered.

A straight answer sounds like: a percentage, for properties like yours, in your market, over a stated period. A manager who says direct booking matters and cannot say what share of their bookings it is has an aspiration rather than a channel.

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, that gap is revenue to somebody.

A straight answer sounds like: both numbers, and a plain statement of who keeps any gap. There is a defensible answer either way, and a good operator will give 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, and somebody has to stop a five-figure repair 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, who attended, how fast, what it cost and who approved it, followed by the figure above which you are called. Then ask what happens for an emergency above that figure when you cannot be reached.

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

A standard second-home policy is not a short-term-let policy, and a platform's own damage guarantee is not a substitute for either. The gap between what a manager carries and what an owner is still expected to carry is where an uninsured loss lives.

A straight answer sounds like: named policies with limits, a clear statement of what remains yours to hold, and a willingness to put you in touch with the broker. Ask specifically about guest injury, and about 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 runs from anywhere, and the part that does not is the part that matters when something breaks. A remote operator cannot meet a vendor at the property, look at a repair, or see the house the way a guest arriving at dusk sees it.

A straight answer sounds like: named roles, where they are based, and how long it takes them to reach the property. Then ask who covers when that person is unavailable. The answer to the second question is usually more revealing 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.

A scope described but not written down. A fee percentage quoted without its base. An exit arrangement that exists only verbally, or a contract that is promised but not shown before a decision is expected. A refusal to show a sample statement. A direct-booking claim with no number behind it. And an answer to the cleaning question that changes shape when you ask it a second time.

One more is easy to miss, because it feels like enthusiasm: a projection offered before anyone has looked at the property. A revenue figure produced from an address alone is a guess, and an operator willing to hand you one before seeing the house is telling you how the rest of their numbers get made.

None of which means you should not ask for numbers. Ask for them, and ask what they are built on: the specific homes a guest would choose between instead of yours, what those homes actually charged, and which weeks they were genuinely taken. A projection with named comparables behind it is a professional document. The same number with nothing behind it is a sales figure, and the difference is visible in about a minute.

A note on Florida

Two things are worth asking specifically in this market. The first is the shoulder season. Florida's calendar is not flat, and the difference between a good year and an average one is made in the weeks either side of the peak rather than in the peak itself. Ask what the plan is for those weeks.

The second is registration and tax. Requirements vary by county and by city, and they sit with the owner. An operator worth engaging will tell you which ones apply to your address before you sign, rather than after an inspection.