Your Malaga Host
To choose a holiday let management company, check five things: what percentage they charge and on what base, which services that commission covers, whether there is a lock-in period, who answers when something breaks at three in the morning, and whether they handle the licence and the tax filings. Everything else is detail.
It sounds obvious, but almost no owner asks all five. Most compare percentages, sign with the cheapest, and discover six months later that cleaning, photography and repairs are billed separately.
This is the checklist you would use if you were auditing the company yourself, with the specifics that apply on the Costa del Sol.
In Spain, holiday let management companies typically charge between 15% and 25% of revenue. The range is wide because the same word covers very different services.
Below 15% usually means partial management: calendar, messages and little else. Between 15% and 20% normally covers the full operation.
Above 20% you are paying either for a higher service level on premium properties, or for the company absorbing costs that others bill separately.
What actually determines your year-end figure is not the percentage.
It is the occupancy and average nightly rate the company achieves, and which costs it absorbs. A 15% fee on mediocre occupancy leaves you less money than 20% on a well-run property.
This is the question almost nobody asks and the one that changes the most euros.
Some companies apply their percentage to gross revenue: what the guest pays. Others apply it to net income: revenue minus platform fees and cleaning.
A worked example. A €1,000 booking with €150 in platform fees and €60 of cleaning leaves €790 net. Twenty per cent of gross is €200. Twenty per cent of net is €158. Same headline percentage, €42 difference on a single booking.
Neither model is dishonest. What is dishonest is not saying which one applies. Ask in writing and request a worked example using a real booking from your area.
If a company gets uncomfortable with these eight questions, you already have your answer.
This is the table worth filling in for each candidate before you compare percentages.
| Item | Industry norm |
|---|---|
| Listing and photography | Sometimes included, sometimes a one-off set-up fee |
| Bookings and guest messaging | Always included |
| Dynamic pricing | Included in full management, extra in partial |
| Changeover cleaning | Usually separate, charged to the guest |
| Laundry | Varies — worth confirming |
| Minor maintenance | Normally billed per call-out |
| VFT licence and NRUA | Rarely included |
| Tax filings | Almost never included |
We work on a single percentage with everything inside and no fixed fee, but the point is not our model. The point is knowing exactly what you are comparing when two companies quote you a number.
Picture an apartment in Benalmádena billing €24,000 a year across 180 booked nights. Two companies quote you.
Company A: 16% of gross. Commission: €3,840. But cleaning (€60 × 90 changeovers = €5,400) is billed separately, photography is a €250 set-up fee, and maintenance is charged per call-out — say €600 a year. Real cost: €10,090.
Company B: 22% of gross, everything included. Commission: €5,280. No set-up, no separate cleaning, no per-incident invoices. Real cost: €5,280.
The one that looked 6% more expensive comes out nearly €5,000 cheaper a year. And that ignores what matters most: if company B achieves 200 nights instead of 180, revenue rises to €26,600 and the gap widens further.
This is why the percentage alone cannot decide it. Ask each candidate for the estimated total annual cost against your real revenue from last year. If they cannot produce it, they do not know their own cost structure.
Five come up again and again.
Refusing to give the percentage on the phone. If it takes a meeting to say a number, the number is not good.
Promising a specific occupancy. Nobody can guarantee 85% without seeing your property, and anyone who does is selling smoke.
Contracts with no clear exit. Lock-in is negotiable; ambiguity is not.
The listing under their account. Legitimate in some models, but you need to know that leaving means starting from zero: no reviews, no history, no Superhost.
No interest in your licence. A company that does not ask about your VFT or your NRUA is a company that will not answer when an inspection arrives.
Three points that generic guides skip.
You cannot verify anything in person. That makes the local-team question decisive rather than nice to have. Ask for names and a response-time commitment in writing, and read our guide to managing an Airbnb remotely.
Your tax position is different. As a non-resident you have obligations in Spain whether or not you let the property, and the rules changed for UK owners after Brexit. See non-resident property tax in Spain.
Licensing is regional, not national. Andalucía requires registration with its tourism registry and a VFT code, plus the NRUA number the platforms have demanded since 2026. Our tourist licence guide covers both.
Between 15% and 25% of revenue for full management, and below 15% if they only handle the calendar and messages. What matters is whether the percentage applies to gross or net, and which services it covers.
Yes. You simply block the dates in advance. The earlier they are blocked, the less they affect pricing strategy and peak-season occupancy.
It depends whose name the listing is in. If it is yours, the reviews and Superhost status stay with you. If the listing sits under the company’s account, you start from zero when you leave.
This is the point that costs the most to overlook.
It is rarely included in the commission, though some will arrange it. Ask explicitly: without a VFT code and an NRUA number your listing can be removed from the platforms.
Your Malaga Host
