Airbnb co-host refund change on December 1, 2026: what Toronto owners need to do

By Luke Wai, HostSavvy · 15 years of property management experience

On October 29, Airbnb emailed our co-host account a short notice that matters to every Toronto owner who uses a co-host. From December 1, 2026, a co-host can no longer send a refund to a guest, or answer a guest’s refund request, in the Resolution Centre when the listing owner lives outside the US, its territories and Brazil. If you own a Toronto rental and live in Canada, refunds on your listing become your job.

Nothing about this means you should change managers. It does mean you and whoever runs your listing should agree, before December 1, how refunds will work.

What changes on December 1, and what stays the same

Airbnb’s email to co-hosts sets out what happens. When a guest asks for a refund, the co-host can’t respond. You, the listing owner, get an email and a notification in the Airbnb app, and the request sits there waiting for you. If the co-host tries to send money to the guest anyway, Airbnb shows an error.

Everything else you’ve allowed stays as it was. Airbnb’s permissions page still says a full-access co-host can message guests, accept and decline trip requests, handle cancellations and date changes, and look after damage claims under host damage protection. A footnote on that page now carves out guest refunds through the Resolution Centre, from December 2026, for owners outside the US and Brazil.

The rule follows where the owner lives, not where the property is. A Leslieville condo owned by someone living in Florida keeps the old setup. A Scarborough house owned by someone living in Markham doesn’t. (Airbnb’s email says the change starts in select areas, so read the notice on your own account too.)

Why a slow refund costs more than the refund

A guest asking for money back is usually still in your home, or has just left it, and is about to write a review. Until now the co-host could settle it in the same conversation: apologise, offer something fair, send it.

From December 1 the apology still comes from your co-host. The money waits for you.

Airbnb tells guests that if the host doesn’t agree to an amount within 72 hours, they can ask Airbnb to step in and mediate. At that point the outcome is Airbnb’s decision rather than your goodwill gesture, and the guest has had three days to decide what kind of review to write.

Our view: an owner who answers a refund request within a few hours will barely notice this change. An owner who opens the Airbnb app twice a week will.

What to agree with your co-host before December 1

  1. Close anything open now. Airbnb is asking owners and co-hosts to resolve open refund requests before December 1. Open the Resolution Centre and check.
  2. Make sure Airbnb can reach you. The request goes to the email on your Airbnb account and to the app. If that email is an old address you never read, change it, and turn app notifications on.
  3. Set an amount your co-host can offer in chat. Your co-host can still talk to the guest and propose a refund; only the sending moves to you. A line in writing, such as “up to one night’s rate, tell me and I’ll send it the same day”, saves a back-and-forth while the guest waits.
  4. Agree how fast you’ll send it. Pick a time you’ll actually keep, well inside Airbnb’s 72 hours.
  5. Know which refunds never went through the Resolution Centre. Airbnb says the Resolution Centre can’t be used to refund nights, guest count or pet count; those go through Change reservation. As of October 30, 2026, Airbnb’s permissions table still lists trip changes for full-access co-hosts, so a shortened stay can still be handled by your co-host.

Damage claims are the other half of the Resolution Centre, and Airbnb’s email says co-hosts may still be able to manage reimbursement requests under damage protection. If you’ve given your co-host full access, that part shouldn’t change.

Can the listing move to your manager’s account instead?

For a short-term rental in Toronto, no. The City’s FAQ on advertising short-term rentals says the owner of the listing has to be the registered operator, and the name on the listing has to match the registration. If you hold the registration, the Airbnb listing stays on your account, and so does the refund button.

Furnished stays of 28 nights or more are different. They fall outside the City’s short-term rental rules, so the City sets no condition on whose account the listing sits. We’d still keep it on yours: if a listing sits on someone else’s Airbnb account, so do its reviews and booking history, and they stay there if you ever part ways.

Either way, we co-host on your own Airbnb account, for short-term rentals and for furnished mid-term rentals. You keep the listing, the reviews and the history. The trade-off is exactly this change: from December 1, our team still handles the conversation with the guest, and the send button is yours. A few taps a year is a fair price for owning your listing.

This is the second Airbnb rule change for Toronto owners this fall. The first, the new checkout and house rules from November 20, is worth a read if you haven’t updated your listing yet.

If you’d like to talk through how refunds, cleaning and guest messages would work on your listing, send us a note. Our fee is a low 10% commission with no added fees, and the pricing table shows what’s included.

Sources

Last updated: October 30, 2026

Airbnb’s new checkout rules: what Toronto owners need to change before November 20

By Luke Wai, HostSavvy · 15 years of property management experience

From November 20, Airbnb hosts can no longer require guests to strip the beds, wash the dishes or haul the garbage off the property before they leave. Airbnb’s new checkout rules apply to every booking made on or after that date, and CBC, TechCrunch and Skift all ran the story within two days of the announcement. A lot of hosts are angry. We aren’t, because we never asked guests to do any of that, and nobody books a weekend in Toronto to finish it with housework.

Here’s what changed, who it costs money, and the five things to fix on your listing before the 20th.

What Airbnb’s new checkout rules say

Airbnb’s policy on reasonable house rules and requests says hosts are generally not allowed to ask for anything that takes real time or effort, or that a cleaner would normally do. Its own examples are stripping the bed, taking trash offsite, and washing and putting away dishes. Airbnb’s guidance for hosts adds starting a load of laundry. You can still ask guests to put used dishes in the sink or gather the towels in one spot.

House rules now come in two parts. There are seven standard rules you switch on or off: maximum overnight guests, quiet hours, events, pets, smoking (vaping included), commercial photography, and locking up at checkout. Everything else goes in one requests box, and Airbnb reviews what’s in it. Guests must follow the rules. Requests they’re only encouraged to follow.

Four more changes get less attention but matter more to an owner:

  • No fines. You can’t charge a guest for skipping a checkout task or set penalties of your own. Damage goes through AirCover. If your condo board or the City could fine you for something a guest does, you warn guests in the listing’s local rules section; you don’t bill them.
  • No extra charge for anything you advertise. If the listing shows parking or a hot tub, any fee for it has to be in the price at booking. Optional add-ons (Airbnb’s example is breakfast) can still be priced in the requests.
  • No separate contracts and no copies of guest ID, unless the law requires it or one of a few exceptions applies: monthly stays, Airbnb Luxe, optional amenities, and rules your condo corporation imposes.
  • One place for rules. Anything that isn’t in the house rules and requests section when the guest books doesn’t count. Not a welcome message, not the house manual, not a laminated sign by the door.

Hosts do get something back. If a guest breaks a house rule during the stay, or tells you before check-in that they’re going to, you can cancel without a penalty.

Do the new rules apply to bookings I already have?

No. The policy covers reservations booked on or after November 20, 2026. A guest who books on November 19 for a stay in January keeps the rules that were on the listing when they booked, and anything you add later doesn’t apply to them. The new rules editor is already live, so there’s no reason to wait for the date.

Can I still charge a cleaning fee?

Yes. Airbnb hasn’t touched cleaning fees, and you still set your own. What’s changed is what the fee is understood to buy: a full turnover by your cleaner, not a turnover the guest half-finished for you. And you can’t add a charge because a guest left the dishes.

What happens if your listing breaks the policy

Airbnb flags requests that don’t pass in the listing editor and emails the host. If it isn’t fixed, the policy allows a notice on the listing warning guests, lower placement in search, and other action under the terms of service. Skift reports that can run as far as cancelled bookings, loss of Superhost or Guest Favorite status, or account suspension. A warning on the listing will cost you bookings long before any of that.

Who loses money on this

Hosts who priced their cleaning around the guest doing part of it. If your cleaner used to walk in to stripped beds and an empty dishwasher, that work now lands on the cleaner, and the cleaning fee may not cover it. For a downtown condo that could be an extra half hour a turnover. For a four-bedroom house, more.

Also anyone running the place from signs and scheduled messages. If “garbage to the bin room, no shoes inside” lives on the fridge, from November 20 it doesn’t bind the guest unless it’s also in the rules box.

Who this is good for

Owners whose managers already did the work. We’ve run Toronto rentals for years without asking guests for a single chore. Our cleaning team strips the beds, runs the dishwasher, takes the garbage out and resets the unit, because that’s what the cleaning fee is for. Guests notice. The ones who’ve stayed somewhere with a checklist taped to the counter tell us about it.

So we think this is a good change, and a late one. A host who can’t make the numbers work without free labour from guests has a pricing problem, not a guest problem. (The trade-off is real: a full turnover takes longer than a half one, and that time gets paid for somewhere. We’d rather it show up in an honest cleaning fee than in a guest’s review.)

What to do before November 20

If you run your own listing:

  1. Open the listing editor and read your rules and requests as a guest would. Anything that sounds like a job (strip, wash, start, take out) gets rewritten as a tidy-up (gather, stack, leave in the sink) or deleted.
  2. Pull the same text out of your scheduled messages, house manual and any signs in the unit.
  3. Switch on the seven standard rules and set the numbers. Most Toronto hosts should use both the guest maximum and lock-up-at-checkout.
  4. Delete every fine or penalty from your listing and messages. If your building fines owners for guest behaviour (noise, the wrong elevator, visitor parking), put that in the local rules section instead.
  5. Ask your cleaner what the change adds to a turnover, in minutes, and check your cleaning fee against it.

If you rent furnished by the month, the exception for monthly stays still lets you use a written agreement. That’s the model behind our mid-term rental management, and stays of 28 nights or more sit outside Toronto’s short-term rental rules.

Toronto’s own requirements don’t change. Your registration number still goes on the listing, and guests still get the emergency contact and exit diagram the City requires. Those are compliance items, not house rules; the Toronto rules in plain English covers where they belong.

If you’d rather someone else read the fine print, that’s what we do, and we’ve run listings the way Airbnb now requires since before it required it. Send us the address and we’ll tell you what your listing’s rules should say.

Sources

Last updated: October 25, 2026.

Who damages a Toronto Airbnb? Usually someone who lives twenty minutes away

By Luke Wai, HostSavvy · 15 years of property management experience

Ask an owner what they’re afraid of and it’s never the family from Vancouver. It’s the party. And a report out this week puts a number on something we’ve seen for years: the guest most likely to wreck your place is the one who could have driven home.

Truvi, a company that screens guests and insures short-term rentals against damage, went through 95,000 of the bookings it covered between January and September this year and looked at which ones ended in a damage claim. Guests who booked a place within about 30 km of their own address were 72% more likely than average to be involved in an incident. Guests who had travelled 1,600 km or more were among the safest. Same-day bookings were 60% more likely to end badly. Houses had about two and a half times the incident rate of apartments, and a house with five or more “fun” amenities (hot tub, pool table, sauna) ran at more than double the average.

Why nearby guests are the risk

It’s not that Torontonians are worse people than tourists. It’s what a local booking is usually for. Someone from Mississauga doesn’t book a three-bedroom in Leslieville for the weekend to see the CN Tower. They book it because their own place isn’t big enough, or their landlord or parents wouldn’t allow what they have planned. Add a same-day booking, which leaves no time for anyone to look at the reservation, and a house with a hot tub, and you’ve described most of the party bookings we’ve ever had to deal with.

Truvi’s earlier dataset (91,000 bookings, published in July) said the same thing with different numbers: local guests 80% above average, same-day 59%, guests aged 18 to 24 44% above, and, oddly, stays of three to four weeks the riskiest of all, at more than two and a half times average. Their analyst’s caveat applies to all of it: these are one company’s insured bookings, each factor was measured on its own, and none of it predicts what one particular guest will do. Treat it as a map of where the risk concentrates, not a verdict on anyone.

What we do about it

Every manager says they “screen guests”. Most of the screening that matters is two settings inside Airbnb that a lot of owners never open.

Turn off Instant Book, or limit it. Under Booking settings, Airbnb gives you three choices: approve every booking automatically, approve automatically only guests who have stayed on Airbnb before without issues, or review every request yourself. Airbnb pushes the first one hard (the page tells you similar listings with Instant Book “came up in 50% more searches”), and for a studio downtown that’s a fair trade. For a house, or anything with a hot tub, we’d rather lose a little search placement than approve a same-day booking from someone with no reviews at 4pm on a Friday. “Review all booking requests” means a person looks at every reservation before it’s confirmed: who they are, how far they’re travelling, how many guests, why a two-night stay in their own city. Damon Skinn, who manages properties for HostSavvy and has been running short-term rentals for five years, puts most of our listings on the middle setting. “Instant Book for guests with a good track record is the one I recommend. You keep the search placement, and the people who book without asking are the ones Airbnb already knows behaved last time. Everyone else sends a request, and I read it.” If you can’t bear to give up Instant Book entirely, that’s the setting to use.

Pay good guests to choose you. Airbnb’s top-rated guest discount gives a percentage off to guests rated 4.8 or higher with at least three reviews. Set it at 10 to 15% and you’ve tilted your calendar toward people with a track record, which is the single best predictor Truvi found in the other direction: long travel distance and a review history. Airbnb says only about one listing in ten in Toronto offers it, so it also makes you stand out to exactly the guests you want.

Neither setting is a guarantee. They’re how you make sure the booking that arrives tonight, from someone with no reviews and an address in the 905, gets looked at by a person before the keys do.

The house with the hot tub

If you own a house rather than a condo, and especially one that’s set up for groups, the numbers say you carry more of this risk than the owner of a one-bedroom downtown. That doesn’t mean don’t rent it. Houses with a hot tub and a yard are exactly what families and visiting relatives pay a premium for, and they’re a large share of what we manage. It means the screening has to be tighter and the house rules have to be enforced, not just written.

For an investment property that can’t be rented short-term under Toronto’s rules anyway, the same report has a side note worth knowing: Truvi found furnished stays of three to four weeks had the highest incident rate of any length. We’d read that as “screen your mid-term guests as carefully as your weekend ones”, not as a reason to avoid 28-night rentals, which are the only legal route for a place you don’t live in.

Direct bookings

One more finding that matters if you’ve ever been tempted to take a booking off-platform to save the fees. Truvi’s direct bookings ran at 1.85 times the average damage risk in the new report, up from 1.34 in the spring. Direct bookings skip the platform’s identity checks and review history, and there’s no Airbnb to call afterwards. We take direct bookings on some listings, but with the same checks a platform would run, and with a card on file for damage. If a manager offers you “more direct bookings” as a selling point, ask what they do to screen them.

What to ask a manager

If you’re interviewing managers, this report gives you three questions that separate people who have thought about damage from people who haven’t:

  1. What do you do differently with a same-day booking from a local address?
  2. Is Instant Book on, and what has to be true for a guest to use it?
  3. When a booking goes wrong at night, who answers, and what have they actually done in the past?

If the answer to the third one is a story, you’re talking to the right people. That’s what we do for owners across Toronto, and if you want to know how we’d run your place, tell us the address.

Sources

Last updated: October 21, 2026.

Airbnb Management Fees in Toronto: What Owners Should Compare in 2026

If you’ve asked two or three Toronto managers for a quote, you’ve probably noticed the numbers don’t line up neatly. One quotes a percentage. Another quotes a lower percentage plus setup and cleaning charges. A third quotes a flat monthly amount. The headline fee is easy to compare. What it’s charged on, what it covers and what gets billed on top decide how much you actually keep.

This guide is for Toronto owners weighing management proposals for a short-term or mid-term rental. It covers the questions to ask, how to compare offers on equal terms, and what to look for in a revenue estimate.

The headline fee isn’t the full cost

Ask what the percentage is charged on

Most percentage fees are a share of “revenue”, but managers define revenue differently. Common bases include:

  • the nightly rate only;
  • the full booking total, including the cleaning fee the guest pays;
  • the amount the platform actually pays out after deducting its own host service fee.

The same percentage costs different amounts depending on the base. Get the definition in writing, and check whether it changes for direct bookings or other platforms.

Illustration only, not a forecast. Assume a month where guests pay $3,000 in nightly rates plus $300 in cleaning fees ($3,300 in total), and the platform deducts a $495 host fee and pays out $2,805. A 15% management fee would be $450 on the nightly rate, $495 on the full booking total, or about $421 on the amount paid out. Same rate, a spread of about $74 in one month.

Line items to ask about

Not every company charges for all of these. That’s the point of asking.

  • Onboarding or setup: a one-time fee to set up the listing, locks or supplies.
  • Photography and listing setup: included, billed once, or billed again later?
  • Cleaning and laundry: who sets the cleaning fee guests pay, who keeps it, and whether cleaning is billed at cost or with a margin. If the actual cleaning cost is higher than what guests pay, ask who covers the difference.
  • Linens and supplies: included, billed at cost, or marked up?
  • Maintenance and repairs: coordinating a repair and paying for it are different things. Ask whether coordination is included, how contractor and parts costs are billed, and above what amount the manager needs your approval.
  • After-hours support: included, or charged per call-out?
  • Platform fees: how they’re deducted, and whether the management fee is calculated before or after them.
  • Taxes: whether HST is added to the management fee, and who files the City’s accommodation tax report.
  • Leaving: the notice period, any early-exit charges, and who owns the listing, reviews and photos if you part ways.

Fee structures you might see

  • Percentage of revenue. The manager earns more when the property earns more, and less in slow months. Its real cost depends on the base and on what’s included.
  • Flat monthly fee. Predictable, but you pay the same in a quiet month, and the manager’s income doesn’t rise with yours.
  • Base fee plus a smaller percentage. Shares some risk both ways. Check that the two parts don’t cover the same work twice.
  • Partial or à la carte service. You pay for specific tasks, such as messaging or cleaning. It can suit a hands-on owner who lives nearby, but someone has to cover the gaps, usually you.

No model is best for every property. A full-service quote and a messaging-only quote aren’t comparable until you put a cost on the work the cheaper option leaves with you.

A checklist for comparing proposals

Question to ask What to check in the agreement Why it matters to you
What is the percentage charged on? The written definition of “revenue” or “gross” The same rate can cost different amounts.
What does the fee include? A list of included services You don’t pay separately for work you assumed was covered.
What is billed separately? Cleaning, linens, supplies, repairs, photos, onboarding These can outweigh a small difference in the headline rate.
Are pass-through costs marked up? Whether costs are billed at cost or with a margin A markup on cleaning or repairs repeats every month.
When do you need my approval? The dollar threshold for repairs and purchases You stay in control of large or unexpected costs.
Whose account is the listing on? Co-host access to your account, or the manager’s own account Reviews and booking history can’t simply move to a new account.
What do I receive each month? What the owner statement shows, and when you’re paid You should be able to trace every deduction.
Who handles registration, tax reports and records? Which compliance tasks are the manager’s and which stay yours The City holds the registered operator responsible.
How do I end the agreement? Notice period, exit fees, handover of photos and access Flexibility matters if the service slips.

Compare proposals on the same assumptions

Revenue estimates are where comparisons most often go wrong. Give every manager the same inputs, or ask each one to use the same number of nights and the same nightly rate. Then ask for a sample monthly owner statement, or a written sample calculation, that shows:

  • booking revenue, with nightly rates and cleaning fees shown separately;
  • platform fees deducted;
  • the management charge, and what it was calculated on;
  • cleaning, laundry, supplies and any repairs, with any margin noted;
  • taxes, where they apply;
  • estimated proceeds to you.

Laid side by side, these statements show the real difference between offers far better than the headline rates do.

Gross revenue, projected revenue and owner proceeds are different numbers

  • Gross booking revenue is what guests pay for their stays, before anything is deducted.
  • Projected revenue is a manager’s estimate of what the property might earn. It’s a forecast, not a result.
  • Owner proceeds are what’s left for you after platform fees, management charges and operating costs, and before your own mortgage, condo fees, insurance and income tax.

When you’re shown a projection, ask how it was built: which comparable listings, how many booked nights, what nightly rate, and whether there’s a conservative case as well as an expected one. In Toronto, also check that the projection respects the rules. A forecast that assumes an entire home is rented short-term for more than 180 nights a year isn’t one you can legally achieve.

How HostSavvy prices management

Since you’re comparing, here’s ours in the same terms:

  • Fee: a low 10% commission, charged on what you actually receive, never on cleaning fees or platform fees.
  • Setup: no setup or onboarding fees.
  • Photography: a free professional photo shoot for every client, and you keep the files.
  • Supplies: no markup on supplies.
  • Cleaning and maintenance: handled by our own in-house teams.
  • Your listing: we can join your existing Airbnb listing as a co-host, so you keep your account, reviews and booking history.
  • Support: 24/7 guest support.
  • Contract: no long-term contract; cancel anytime.

Ask us for a sample statement built on the same assumptions you give other managers, and compare.

Frequently asked questions

Is a lower management percentage always cheaper?

Not necessarily. A lower rate on a broader base, or a low rate plus setup fees, cleaning margins and repair call-out charges, can cost more than a higher rate that includes more. Compare estimated proceeds on the same assumptions, not the headline number.

Is Airbnb’s service fee part of the management fee?

No. The platform’s fee and the manager’s fee are separate charges. Ask whether the management fee is calculated before or after the platform’s fee is deducted.

If I hire a manager, who is responsible for my Toronto registration?

You are. The City holds the registered operator accountable even when a manager runs the listing. A manager can help with tasks such as matching the listing to your registration and tracking nights against the limit, but you should keep access to your listings and records, and respond to the City yourself.

Can a manager run my investment property as a short-term rental in Toronto?

Not under the City’s current rules, which allow short-term rentals only in the operator’s principal residence. Be wary of any proposal that suggests otherwise. Stays of 28 consecutive nights or more fall outside the short-term rental definition, so furnished mid-term rentals may be worth exploring with your lawyer.

Do I keep my listing and reviews if I change managers?

It depends on whose account the listing is on. If the manager is a co-host on your account, the listing stays yours. If it sits on the manager’s account, the reviews generally stay with them. Ask before you sign.

Get a property-specific fee and service assessment

If you’re comparing proposals, we’ll put ours on the same footing: what’s included, what’s billed separately, and an estimate built on your property and Toronto’s rules. It’s free, with no obligation.

Get my free assessment → Or call or text (647) 526-5128.