A percentage of your revenue — nothing more. No hidden fees, no monthly retainers, no surprise deductions. Here's exactly how our fee structure works, what it covers, and why it's structured the way it is.
SereneHost charges a single management fee, calculated as a percentage of your gross booking revenue. That's it. We don't add markups to cleaning, maintenance, or supplies. We don't charge monthly retainers. If your property isn't booked, we don't earn.
Creating, optimizing, and maintaining your listing on Airbnb and Vrbo. This includes copy updates, photo management, policy configuration, and search ranking maintenance.
All guest messages from first inquiry through post-checkout review response. 24/7 coverage. Average response time under 30 minutes. Guest satisfaction is one of the primary drivers of your nightly rate.
Scheduling cleaning teams for every turnover, quality checks, and supply restocking. Cleaning fees are charged directly to guests — we don't mark up the cleaning cost.
Dynamic pricing on Premium/Elite plans — rate adjustments based on demand signals, local events, competitor rates, and booking pace. The analytics infrastructure behind this is what makes the 50% revenue uplift possible.
Triaging maintenance issues raised by guests, coordinating tradespeople for minor repairs (Premium/Elite), and flagging significant issues to you for authorization. We don't mark up maintenance costs.
Monthly payout statements itemizing gross revenue, cleaning fees, platform fees, our management fee, and your net payout. Available by the 5th of each month.
Transparency is part of the service. Here's exactly how a typical month's revenue flows from a guest booking to your bank account — with real numbers for a hypothetical 2-bedroom unit in East Vancouver.
All three plans include the same commitment to professional guest communication and listing quality. The difference is in how much of the revenue and property optimization work we take on for you.
| Feature | Essential | Premium | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Management fee | 9% | 12% | 15% |
| (Launch promo) | (normally 12%) | (normally 15%) | (normally 18%) |
| Listing management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Guest communication (24/7) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cleaning coordination | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Monthly performance report | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dynamic pricing setup | +$95/mo | ✓ included | ✓ included |
| Monthly price review & adjustment | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Daily pricing optimization | — | — | ✓ |
| Maintenance coordination | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Monthly owner check-in | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bi-weekly owner check-in | — | — | ✓ |
| Dedicated account manager | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Interior setup & furnishing coordination | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Procurement support | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advanced market analysis | — | — | ✓ |
| Renovation consulting | — | — | ✓ |
| On-site setup & staging | — | — | ✓ |
| Priority support | — | — | ✓ |
| Revenue guarantee (50% uplift) | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| One-time setup fee | $1,000 | $1,000 | $1,000 |
| Setup fee waiver at 12 months | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
We believe surprises belong in your booking calendar, not your invoice. Here's a complete list of costs that are outside our management fee — so you can plan accordingly.
Your annual STR licence is a municipal requirement in your name. Vancouver licences run ~$1,000/yr for a Type 1 (principal residence). Burnaby, Richmond, and other cities have their own fee schedules. We track renewal dates and send reminders — but the licence cost is yours, not ours. See our Regulations section for a full breakdown by city.
We coordinate maintenance (Premium/Elite) — but the cost of the work is yours. For routine issues (drain blockage, appliance repair, broken lock), we'll get quotes and coordinate, deducting the cost from your next payout with your authorization. Capital projects (new appliances, flooring replacement, repaints) are planned jointly and paid by you directly. We do not add a markup on maintenance costs.
Professional photography is included in Premium and Elite plans. Essential plan clients can add photography as a one-time fee ($350–$500 depending on unit size). This is not a recurring cost — photos are updated only when the unit changes significantly or when a reshooting is strategically beneficial.
Cleaning fees are charged to guests on every booking. This money flows through to your cleaning team — SereneHost does not keep any portion. The cleaning cost on your payout statement is exactly what the cleaner was paid, with no markup. You will see this as a deduction on your monthly report — but remember that guests paid it, so it's net zero to you.
Straight answers to the most common questions about how and when we invoice.
Airbnb releases host payouts 24 hours after guest check-in (for most bookings). Vrbo releases payouts either at booking or 1 day after check-in, depending on payout settings. We deduct our management fee from the payout before forwarding it to you. Your monthly statement (emailed by the 5th) reconciles all bookings, deductions, and payouts for the previous calendar month.
The $1,000 setup fee covers the cost of listing creation, photography coordination (where included), cleaning team vetting, and account configuration — work that is completed before your first booking. It is non-refundable if you exit before 12 months. If you complete 12 months with on-time fee payments, the $1,000 is automatically credited back to you on your Month 12 statement.
The revenue guarantee (50% gross revenue uplift over your documented LTR baseline, measured over 12 months) is written into your service agreement with a specific dollar target. At Month 12, we compare your documented prior LTR monthly rent × 12 against your actual gross STR revenue for the year. If we've missed the target, we activate the fee-free continuation clause — we keep managing at 0% fee until the cumulative shortfall is made up. This has never been triggered for a property where the owner followed our setup and staging recommendations.
Yes. You can upgrade from Essential to Premium or Premium to Elite at any time with 30 days notice — the new fee applies to bookings confirmed after the switch date. Downgrading (e.g., from Premium to Essential) is possible at the annual renewal with 30 days notice. If you downgrade from a plan with the revenue guarantee, the guarantee obligation ends at the downgrade date.
Very rarely, a short-notice booking cancellation by a guest may trigger a platform fee that we'll show transparently. If a maintenance issue requires a specialist trade on an emergency basis (e.g., flooding at 2 AM), the emergency call-out rate will appear as a maintenance deduction with the invoice attached. We never add to these costs — every deduction on your statement has a corresponding invoice you can request at any time. If something appears on your statement that you don't understand, email us and we'll explain it within 24 hours.
⚠ Note: Fee percentages shown reflect SereneHost's current promotional rates for new clients. Standard rates noted in parentheses. Revenue guarantee terms and conditions are defined in your individual service agreement. All figures in Canadian dollars. Cleaning and maintenance costs are examples only — actual costs depend on property size, condition, and service frequency. Last updated: March 2026.