The before
Sarah’s 3-bedroom downtown loft was generating consistent bookings under a national property manager. The problem wasn’t occupancy — her place was booked about 71% of the year. The problem was the statement.
After the management fee, the “marketing fee,” the cleaning markup, and a quarterly “tech platform” charge, Sarah was netting roughly 57% of her gross bookings. The contracted fee said 25%. The effective fee was closer to 43%.
“I had to do my own math every month to understand what I was actually paying. That’s not a partnership — that’s an adversary I trust with my keys.”
The switch
Sarah found Keytostay through an owner forum and ran our calculator. The math made the case in 30 seconds: at her property’s gross, our flat 10% would leave her with about $1,840 more per month — and the fee structure had no asterisks.
We handled the transition end-to-end. Existing Airbnb listing transferred. Future reservations honored. Vrbo listing rebuilt. Calendar synced. New cleaning vendor onboarded. Three weeks from signed agreement to live under Keytostay management, with zero booking gaps.
The after, eighteen months in
- Average monthly net: +$1,840 vs prior manager
- Occupancy held steady at 73% (vs 71% prior)
- ADR improved 8% — better photos, better listing copy, more disciplined pricing
- Zero “what does this line item mean?” calls to our team
“The math sold me, but the service kept me. I haven’t called once in eighteen months to ask what something on my statement is.”
What we’d say to other owners
Most owners we onboard from a national PM are saving money but the bigger surprise is what they stop worrying about. The mental load of decoding statements, fighting cleaning markups, and chasing maintenance updates — it’s gone. That’s the part the spreadsheet doesn’t capture.