Airbnb Co-Hosting in Israel: A Guide for Owners

Airbnb co-hosting in Israel means adding someone to your listing who runs the guest side for you, while the apartment and the listing stay yours. Airbnb gives you the tools to set that person's access and pay them through the site, but its Co-Host Network, the directory for finding a co-host, doesn't cover Israel. This guide covers how access and pay work, how a co-host differs from a management company, what to check in Israel, and what to ask before you hand over the keys.

What does co-hosting mean on Airbnb?

A co-host is a person you add to your Airbnb listing who helps run it from their own account, with the access you choose. Airbnb describes a co-host as someone who can help a host with their space, their guests, or both, and you can add up to 10 co-hosts to one listing.

Airbnb has three access levels for co-hosts:

Full access: the listing, reservations, messages, co-host invitations and earnings.
Calendar and messaging: messages guests and sees the calendar, without editing it.
Calendar only: sees the calendar and nothing else.

A co-host who sets prices and accepts bookings needs full access. You can change the level at any time, and changing it doesn't affect their payout.

Some things stay with you at every level. Only the listing owner can set up or change a co-host's payouts, and co-hosts can't see the owner's payout method or tax details. Airbnb also holds you responsible for your co-hosts, including any that a full-access co-host adds.

The day-to-day work, from the first enquiry to turnover day and reviews, is laid out in what a co-host does, week by week.

How does a co-host get paid through Airbnb?

On Airbnb, the listing owner sets up the co-host's payout and Airbnb pays it out of each booking. Airbnb offers four payout options:

the cleaning fee
the cleaning fee plus a percentage per booking
a percentage per booking, with or without the cleaning fee
a fixed amount per booking

The co-host has 14 days to confirm or decline the payout you set. Payouts are worked out from your potential earnings on each booking. The co-host is paid first and you get what remains. If your earnings on a booking don't cover the co-host's payout, the co-host receives less than they expect.

Airbnb also says some regional limitations may apply, depending on where you, your co-host and your listing are located. Before you agree terms that rely on co-host payouts, check that the option appears in your own account.

Co-host or management company: what's the practical difference?

The practical difference is whose account the listing lives on and who holds the money. With a co-host, the listing stays on your Airbnb account, guests pay Airbnb, and Airbnb pays you and the co-host your shares.

A management company may add itself as a co-host on your listing in the same way. It may also run the apartment from a listing on its own account and pay you afterwards. Ask which one you're signing, before anything else.

The difference shows on the day the arrangement ends:

The listing and its reviews. Guest reviews show on the listing page and the listing owner's profile. Airbnb doesn't show them on a co-host's public profile or count them in the co-host's rating. If the listing is on your account, its reviews stay with you. If it's on someone else's account, get in writing what happens to it.
Access you can take back. You can remove a co-host from your listing. Once removed, they can't update the listing, message guests or receive future payouts, and bookings they accepted become yours to manage.
Your view of the money. When payouts run through your account, you see each booking. When they run through someone else's, you see what they report to you.

What's different about Airbnb co-hosting in Israel?

Four things change here. There's no Co-Host Network to search, the rules on your apartment are yours to check, guests write in more than one language, and you may be running the apartment from abroad.

You find a co-host without Airbnb's directory

Airbnb's Co-Host Network is available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Spain, the UK and the US. Israel isn't on the list, as of September 2026. You find a co-host through other hosts, recommendations or the co-host's own site, and you do the checking yourself.

One detail matters when you check. Inside the Co-Host Network, Airbnb shows a rating that includes listings a person co-hosts. Outside it, ratings from co-hosted listings don't appear on a co-host's public profile. The rating you can see is the one on listings they host themselves, so ask for those links and read the recent reviews.

The rules on your apartment are yours

Short-term letting in Israel touches rules that belong to you as the owner. Your building's bylaws and local planning rules can bear on whether short stays are allowed, so ask a lawyer or your municipality. Arnona is billed by the municipality, so ask them whether short stays change anything for your apartment. Income from short stays has its own income tax and VAT questions, including how a manager's share is invoiced, so ask your accountant.

A co-host can tell you which of these to raise and with whom. The answers come from your lawyer, your municipality and your accountant.

Guests write in Hebrew, English and more

The same apartment can get a question in Hebrew from a family driving up from Be'er Sheva and one in English from someone landing at Ben Gurion that night. Ask which languages the co-host answers in personally, and which ones go through a translation tool. If you live abroad, ask what language your monthly statement comes in.

If you're abroad, the local person matters most

When you're in another time zone, everything physical depends on who the co-host has on the ground. Ask who holds a key, who goes to the apartment when a lock jams at 23:00, and who has the cleaner's and the technician's numbers. Agree in advance which repairs the co-host can approve alone, up to a set amount in ₪, and which need a call to you first.

How do I choose a co-host in Israel?

Choose on things you can check, then put the answers in writing. Airbnb recommends agreeing on three points before you start: who does what, how much of the reservation income goes to the co-host, and how the co-host's expenses are reimbursed.

These are the questions worth asking in the first call:

Which listings do you host yourself, and what's their public rating?
Whose account will my listing be on, and what happens to it if we stop?
What access level do you need, and for what?
How are you paid on Airbnb, and how on Booking.com or Vrbo if the apartment is listed there too?
Who books and pays the cleaners, and is anything added to the cleaner's price?
Who is the local person when something breaks, and how fast can they get there?
How much notice does either of us give to stop, and is there an exit fee or a minimum term?
Who writes the listing and keeps it current? The work involved is in Airbnb listing optimization.
What do I receive each month, and does it show bookings, payouts and costs line by line?

What does Airbnb co-hosting cost?

The cost has three layers: the co-host's share, cleaning, and Airbnb's own service fee. The co-host's share is what you agree, paid through one of Airbnb's payout options or invoiced. Cleaning is paid per turnover, and it matters whether it comes out of the guest's cleaning fee or on top of it.

Airbnb's service fee is separate from both, and its structure depends on how the listing is run. Hosts who use property management software are on Airbnb's single-fee structure, where the whole fee comes out of the host's payout instead of being split with the guest. Ask a co-host whether they connect listings to that kind of software.

When you compare quotes, compare them on the same base: a percentage of what, and before or after cleaning. How the common fee models compare is in Airbnb co-host fees.

How do Mert's two plans work?

Mert has hosted for five years, in Turkey, in Herzliya and in Safed, both his own apartments and other owners'. He's based in Herzliya, speaks Hebrew and English, and owners work with him directly, not with a call centre. His Airbnb rating is 4.98, and it's public.

He has two plans, at flat rates that are the same for every owner. Basic is 12%: Mert writes and tunes the listing, answers every guest, manages bookings, handles listing SEO and sends a monthly owner statement, and you keep pricing, cleaning and maintenance. Full service is 17%: everything in Basic plus pricing, cleaners, laundry, maintenance through his local team, scheduling a photographer if needed, and guidance on licensing and arnona.

Both are a share of what the site pays you, not counting cleaning, and cleaning is paid at the cleaner's price with nothing added. On Airbnb, Mert's share comes out of your payout. On Booking.com and Vrbo, you're paid and he invoices his share. There's no setup fee, 30 days' notice to stop, no exit fee and no minimum term. A new apartment goes live about a week after the first call.

Questions owners ask

Is Airbnb's Co-Host Network available in Israel? No. Airbnb lists the countries where the Co-Host Network runs, and as of September 2026 Israel isn't one of them. You can still add a co-host to your listing yourself.

Can I stay in control of my listing with a co-host? Yes. You choose the co-host's access level, you can change it at any time, and only you can set up or change their payouts.

Do I lose my reviews if I stop working with a co-host? Not if the listing is on your account. Guest reviews show on the listing and on the listing owner's profile, and Airbnb doesn't show them on a co-host's public profile.

What happens to upcoming bookings if I remove a co-host? They become yours to manage, including bookings the co-host accepted. The co-host loses access to the listing and messages, and stops receiving payouts for future stays.

If you'd like to talk about your apartment, both plans and how to reach Mert are on the pricing page.

Airbnb co-hosting in Israel: a guide for apartment owners