You can manage it yourself if you live nearby, have time every day and someone you trust to clean and deal with breakdowns. If you live far away, work or don't want to be glued to your phone, a management company usually pays off: it charges a percentage, but takes care of guests, pricing, cleaning, issues and obligations such as guest registration.
In short
- Managing it yourself saves the commission, but turns you into the reception desk, cleaner and customer service 365 days a year.
- What people most often underestimate is the time: messages at any hour, last-minute changes and breakdowns with guests in the property.
- A professional manager normally charges a percentage of the income. At Canarias Prime Homes it's 20% of the management base, with no set-up fee and no minimum term.
- The decision isn't only financial: it depends on where you live, your time and how much control you want.
What running it yourself involves
A holiday home isn't something you set up once and forget. Every booking brings its own list of tasks, and that happens dozens of times a year:
- Publishing and maintaining the listing on Booking.com, Airbnb or other channels, with photos, description, rules and a synchronised calendar so you don't get two bookings for the same dates.
- Setting the price of each night and reviewing it according to the season, demand, events and gaps in the calendar.
- Replying to guests before, during and after their stay, in their language and at any hour.
- Organising arrivals: handing over keys, key box or smart lock, instructions.
- Registering guests in the Ministry of the Interior's official system for every booking.
- Coordinating cleaning and bed linen between one departure and the next arrival, sometimes on the same day.
- Dealing with breakdowns while guests are staying: air conditioning, hot water, wifi, a key that's gone missing.
- Checking payments, platform commissions and costs, and keeping the information for your tax return.
If you live in the same area and have flexible hours, it's perfectly possible. Many owners start that way. The problem comes when the home does well: more bookings mean more messages, more cleans and more surprises.
What a management company does
A full-service manager takes care of all of that in exchange for a percentage of the income. In our case it includes creating and optimising the listings in your own accounts, professional photography when we start, the price of each night using revenue management tools, 24/7 guest care, guest registration, check-in, coordinating and checking the cleaning, issues, reviews and a monthly statement with a report.
In our experience, owners who come to us after managing the property themselves don't usually complain about the money, but about being worn out: the phone ringing at eleven at night, the cleaner who doesn't turn up on a Saturday or the guest who can't find the key box.
What each option costs
Managing it yourself isn't free: you have to pay for cleaning, laundry, supplies and repairs and, above all, put in your time. With a company you also pay its commission.
| Item | Self-management | With Canarias Prime Homes |
|---|---|---|
| Management commission | None | 20% of the management base |
| Booking.com or Airbnb commission | You pay it either way | You pay it either way (we don't charge management on it) |
| Cleaning | You organise and pay for it, or charge it to the guest | Normally paid by the guest as a supplement, with no commission |
| Initial professional photos | You pay for them | At our expense |
| Repairs | You find and pay the tradesperson | We coordinate; you pay the tradesperson's invoice, with no mark-up |
| Your time | Every day | Checking the monthly statement |
| Minimum term | None | No minimum term |
On the fees and terms page you'll find an example worked out step by step: a 7-night booking at €120 with €80 cleaning, how much the platform keeps, how much goes on management and how much the owner keeps.
When each option makes sense
Managing it yourself usually makes sense if…
- you live near the property and can get there quickly;
- you have someone you trust for cleaning and keys;
- you enjoy dealing with guests and don't mind keeping an eye on your phone;
- the property has few bookings a year or you use it a lot yourself.
A company usually makes sense if…
- you live on another island, on the Spanish mainland or in another country (we explain this in managing your holiday home from abroad);
- you work and can't reply at any hour;
- you want to get more out of the price of each night and occupancy across the whole year;
- you've already had problems with cleaning, low review scores or badly handled breakdowns.
There's a middle ground that isn't always considered: handing over only part of it, for example the cleaning or the pricing. It works while everything is going well, but when something goes wrong nobody has the full picture of the property.
If you already have a manager and aren't happy
Switching is simpler than it seems if it's done in the right order: review the contract, find out which accounts the listings are in and honour confirmed bookings. We explain it in how to switch managers without losing bookings and how to choose a management company.
Sources and notes
- Canarias Prime Homes terms: fees and terms (commission, what's included, what's paid separately).
- Guest registration: Real Decreto 933/2021, text in the BOE.
- Observations marked "in our experience" come from our day-to-day work with owners; they are not statistics.