The largest co-hosting operation is Airbnb itself. According to Airbnb's Q4 2024 shareholder letter, the Co-Host Network grew to support almost 100,000 listings within four months of its October 2024 launch, and Airbnb reported those listings earn approximately twice as much as comparable new listings. The network launched with 10,000 vetted co-hosts in 10 countries and now operates in 12.
Among independent companies, the largest half-service operator is Houst, the London company founded in 2015 as Airsorted, which reports more than 11,650 properties under management across 27 cities in 8 countries at commissions from 12 percent. Switzerland's GuestReady passed 4,000 units in January 2026 after its twelfth acquisition. No single co-hosting company comes close to Airbnb's network scale, which is exactly why the segment is being reshaped around it.
Co-hosting vs full-service management: the definition that sorts the industry
Every company in this report manages short-term rentals for owners who do not want to do the work themselves. What separates the co-hosting tier from the full-service property managers we ranked separately is who owns the operation. In co-hosting and half-service management, the owner keeps the listing, the platform account and often several responsibilities, and pays a lower fee for a defined slice of help. In full-service management, the operator absorbs the whole business: its brand on the listing, its staff in the property, its number on the guest's phone.
The owner stays the host
- Listing and platform account remain the owner's
- Operator handles a defined scope: setup, pricing, guest messaging, booking management, sometimes cleaning coordination
- Owner often keeps on-the-ground responsibilities or hires them separately
- Scales through networks, franchises and remote teams
The operator becomes the host
- Manager controls the listing, often under its own brand
- End-to-end operation: marketing, pricing, guests, cleaning, maintenance, inspections
- Local field staff in every market served
- Scales through M&A and owned local operations
The fee anchors are public. Evolve, the company that popularized the half-service model, advertises fees starting at 10 percent on its homepage. Houst and GuestReady both advertise commissions from 12 percent of rental revenue. Pass the Keys franchisees charge approximately 18 percent plus VAT of booking value, according to the company's own franchise prospectus. Full-service fees, by contrast, typically run 20 to 40 percent of revenue, per RapidEye's vacation rental management fee statistics. On Airbnb's Co-Host Network there is no set rate at all: Airbnb's Help Center states that co-hosts "choose what services you offer and how much you charge."
Published starting rates from each company's own site or franchise prospectus; final rates vary by property and scope. Full-service band per RapidEye's management fee research. Airbnb Co-Host Network rates are set individually by each co-host and are not published.
This ranking covers the co-hosting and half-service segment: companies and networks that manage listings on behalf of owner-hosts at lower fee tiers without absorbing the full operation. We rank by the most recent publicly reported scale figure from each organization, cited inline and in the sources list. Where an organization does not disclose portfolio size, we say so rather than estimate.
One honesty note on the numbers: the scale figures are not the same unit. Airbnb counts listings supported by its network of independent co-hosts. Houst, GuestReady and MadeComfy count properties or owners under their own management. CohostMarket counts service providers on a marketplace. The Model column flags which is which, and comparing across models should be done with that in mind. Full-service managers such as Casago-Vacasa, Evolve and Awaze are ranked in our separate full-service report and are deliberately not duplicated here.
The ranking
| # | Organization | Reported scale | Published fee | Markets | Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Airbnb Co-Host NetworkAirbnb's own co-host matching program, launched October 2024 | ~100,000listings supported | Set by each co-host | 12 countries | Platform network |
| 2 | HoustLondon, founded 2015 as Airsorted | 11,650+properties managed | From 12% | 27 cities, 8 countries | Half-service operator |
| 3 | CohostMarketMarketplace connecting owners with freelance co-hosts | 7,000+service providers | Set by each provider | 85 countries | Marketplace |
| 4 | GuestReadySwiss group, 12 acquisitions since 2016 | 4,000+units managed | From 12% | 50+ cities, 7 countries | Half-service operator |
| 5 | MadeComfySydney, largest professional STR network in Australia by its own account | 1,500+property owners | Not disclosed | Australia and New Zealand | Operator |
| 6 | Pass the KeysUK franchise network, founded 2015 | Not disclosed50+ properties per territory | ~18% + VAT | UK and Spain | Franchise |
Scale figures are each organization's most recent public number as of July 2026: Airbnb Q4 2024 shareholder letter; Houst homepage; CohostMarket company page; ShortTermRentalz reporting on GuestReady's January 2026 Lightbooking acquisition; MadeComfy homepage; Pass the Keys franchise prospectus. Units differ by model; see methodology above.
No. 1: Airbnb's Co-Host Network, the segment's gravity well
Airbnb launched the Co-Host Network on October 16, 2024 as part of its 2024 Winter Release. According to TechCrunch (2024), the network debuted with 10,000 co-hosts across 10 countries: the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Mexico. Growth was immediate. According to Airbnb's Q4 2024 shareholder letter, "in the four months since launching, Co-Host Network has grown to support almost 100,000 listings," and those listings "earn approximately twice as much as Airbnb listings in comparable countries." The same letter announced expansion to Japan and South Korea, which Airbnb's Help Center now lists among the 12 live countries.
Airbnb Co-Host Network, by the numbers
Sources: Airbnb Q4 2024 shareholder letter, TechCrunch, ShortTermRentalz, Airbnb Help CenterThe quality screen is the product. According to ShortTermRentalz (2024), 73 percent of co-hosts on the network are Superhosts, 84 percent help manage a Guest Favorite, and co-hosts average a 4.86 guest rating against 4.62 for large property management companies. Matching runs on a ranking algorithm weighing more than 80 factors including location, hosting experience and home type. At launch, CEO Brian Chesky framed the ambition plainly: "You provide the home, and we'll provide an exceptional co-host."
Airbnb takes no position on price. Per Airbnb's Help Center, co-hosts set their own services and rates, must hold a minimum 4.8 average co-host rating with a verified identity and an account in good standing, and can serve hosts within roughly 60 miles or 100 kilometers. TechCrunch reported an additional launch requirement of at least 10 hosted stays, and that co-hosts on the network managed seven properties on average. For every independent company below, this is now the competitive backdrop: a free, native matching layer inside the platform where most of their customers already live.
The independent operators, profiled
Houst
Half-service operatorLondon, UK · founded 2015 by James Jenkins-Yates · rebranded from Airsorted in January 2020
Houst is the largest independent company operating at co-hosting fee tiers. According to its own site (2026), it manages more than 11,650 properties across 27 cities in 8 countries including the UK, Ireland, France, Portugal, the UAE, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, has handled 2.3 million-plus nights and 580,000-plus check-ins, and has earned hosts more than £230 million. Full management starts at 12 percent of rental revenue; flexible arrangements start at 18 percent. According to ShortTermRentalz (2020), the company was managing properties valued at over £5 billion across 20 cities at the time of its rebrand, having completed more than 250,000 bookings in 2019.
Its history carries a lesson about half-service economics at scale. According to ShortTermRentalz (2022), Houst became the first UK SME to pass a High Court-sanctioned Restructuring Plan, cutting approximately £9 million in pandemic-era liabilities after raising £2.5 million in venture debt from Virgin Money and a £2.6 million Future Fund convertible note. The same report notes the company recorded its first profitable month in June 2022, at £105,000 EBITDA. Houst survived the drawdown that killed several venture-funded peers and kept consolidating the segment.
GuestReady
Half-service operatorSwitzerland · founded 2016 · 12 acquisitions to date
GuestReady is the segment's roll-up. According to ShortTermRentalz (January 2026), its acquisition of Spain's Lightbooking added more than 200 units, took the group past 4,000 units globally across more than 50 cities in seven countries in Europe and the Middle East, and was its twelfth acquisition since founding in 2016, with a stated goal of 600 active apartments in Spain by the end of 2026. Earlier deals rolled up The Porto Concierge, Oporto City Flats, Easy Rental Services, We Stay and BnbLord. Pricing starts at 12 percent of rental revenue, per its own site.
The funding trail is documented. According to ShortTermRentalz (2019), GuestReady raised a $6 million Series A led by Impulse VC and VentureSouq, bringing total funding to almost $10 million at a time when it managed more than 2,000 properties. That it took seven more years and nine more acquisitions to double that portfolio says something real about how slowly even well-run half-service operators compound.
CohostMarket
MarketplaceOnline marketplace for hiring independent co-hosts and STR service providers
CohostMarket is the independent version of what Airbnb built natively: a marketplace where owners browse and hire individual co-hosts, property managers and STR freelancers. According to its own company page (2026), the platform connects owners with more than 7,000 service providers across 85 countries, with paid provider memberships at $49 and $149 per year. Providers set their own rates. It manages nothing itself, which is why its number counts people rather than properties, but as a directory of the segment's long tail it has no larger rival outside Airbnb.
MadeComfy
OperatorSydney, Australia · operating across Australia and New Zealand
MadeComfy is the Asia-Pacific anchor of the segment. According to its own site (2026), more than 1,500 property owners use the company across Australian and New Zealand markets from Sydney and Melbourne to Auckland and Queenstown, it claims the position of Australia's largest professional short-term rental network, cites a 34 percent average net income increase over traditional rentals, and reports over $25 million invested in its services and technology across almost a decade of operation. It does not publish its management fee; owners get quoted per property.
Pass the Keys
FranchiseLondon, UK · founded 2015 by Alexander Lyakhotskiy
Pass the Keys took the franchise route: local partners run the properties on the company's technology and brand. According to Wikipedia, the company was founded in 2015 by Alexander Lyakhotskiy, operates across the United Kingdom and Spain, and raised over £1 million in a 2020 Seedrs crowdfunding round. Its own franchise prospectus quotes property management fees of approximately 18 percent plus VAT of rental booking value and describes established territories managing 50 or more short-let properties each. The company does not publish a network-wide property total, so it sits unranked on scale here, but the model matters: franchising is how co-hosting economics reach towns too small for a Houst office.
Evolve, the Denver company whose homepage advertises fees starting at 10 percent, is the original proof that owners will pay for half the service at half the fee. We rank it in our full-service report rather than here because its scale, north of 30,000 rentals, competes head-to-head with the full-service giants rather than with co-hosting networks. If you consider tech-enabled half-service a form of co-hosting at industrial scale, mentally slot Evolve at number two on this list, behind only Airbnb's network.
What the co-hosting tier means for property condition
Every model on this page splits responsibilities that full-service managers keep under one roof. The owner holds the asset, a co-host holds the guest relationship, and a cleaner, often hired separately, holds the turnover. That split is the segment's cost advantage and its operational weak point: when nobody's full-time job is walking the property, damage documentation lives in whatever photos the cleaner happens to take. It is why remote owners and co-hosts lean on photo-based remote inspection routines and carefully chosen boots-on-the-ground help: the co-hosting fee tier only works if condition problems get caught without a manager on site.
The numbers above also explain the segment's direction. Airbnb reached roughly 100,000 supported listings in four months; the largest independent operator took a decade to pass 11,650 properties. The co-hosting companies that thrive alongside the platform's own network will be the ones that offer what a matching algorithm cannot: accountable operations, documented quality, and proof that the property is guest-ready every single turn.
Quick FAQ
What is the largest Airbnb co-hosting company?
The largest co-hosting operation is Airbnb's own Co-Host Network, which according to Airbnb's Q4 2024 shareholder letter grew to support almost 100,000 listings within four months of its October 2024 launch. The largest independent half-service operator is Houst, which reports more than 11,650 properties across 27 cities in 8 countries.
What is the difference between an Airbnb co-host and a property management company?
A co-host manages a listing on the owner's behalf while the owner keeps the listing and platform account. A full-service property manager takes over the whole operation, often under its own brand with its own field staff. The fee gap tracks the difference: co-hosting and half-service operators typically charge 10 to 18 percent of booking revenue, versus 20 to 40 percent for full-service management per our fee statistics research.
How much do Airbnb co-hosts charge?
On Airbnb's Co-Host Network, there is no set rate: Airbnb's Help Center states co-hosts choose their services and pricing. Published anchors for the segment: Evolve from 10 percent, Houst and GuestReady from 12 percent, Pass the Keys approximately 18 percent plus VAT.
How do you join the Airbnb Co-Host Network?
Per Airbnb's Help Center: an account in good standing, verified identity, a minimum 4.8 average co-host rating, and compliance with local permits and licenses. TechCrunch reported a launch requirement of at least 10 hosted stays. Co-hosts serve hosts within roughly 60 miles or 100 kilometers of their location.
How many co-hosts are in the Airbnb Co-Host Network?
Airbnb launched with 10,000 co-hosts in 10 countries on October 16, 2024, per TechCrunch. By Airbnb's Q4 2024 shareholder letter the network supported almost 100,000 listings, and it now operates in 12 countries after adding Japan and South Korea.
Sources
Sources are named with title, publisher, year, and domain rather than linked; every figure is verifiable at the named primary source.
- Q4 2024 Shareholder Letter, Airbnb, February 2025s26.q4cdn.com
- Airbnb launches a network that lets hosts hire other hosts, TechCrunch, October 16, 2024techcrunch.com
- Co-Host Network: An introduction, Airbnb Help Centerairbnb.com
- Airbnb unveils Co-Host Network in 2024 Winter Release, ShortTermRentalz, October 20, 2024shorttermrentalz.com
- Airbnb Management Company | Short-Term Rental Management, Houst, 2026houst.com
- Property management company Airsorted rebrands to Houst, ShortTermRentalz, January 23, 2020shorttermrentalz.com
- Houst avoids administration through Restructuring Plan, ShortTermRentalz, July 28, 2022shorttermrentalz.com
- GuestReady expands Spanish presence with acquisition of Lightbooking, ShortTermRentalz, January 30, 2026shorttermrentalz.com
- GuestReady: Your Trusted Hospitality Management Company, GuestReady, 2026guestready.com
- GuestReady Group raises $6m in latest Series A funding round, ShortTermRentalz, June 18, 2019shorttermrentalz.com
- Who We Are at CoHostMarket: Your Partner in STR Success, CohostMarket, 2026cohostmarket.com
- Airbnb Management Company | Award-Winning Short-Term Rental Management, MadeComfy, 2026madecomfy.com.au
- Pass the Keys, Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
- The Leading Airbnb Property Management Franchise, Pass the Keys, 2026franchise.passthekeys.com
- Vacation Rental Management, Evolve, 2026evolve.com