STR company managers: does this compensation structure seem fair?
I manage short-term rentals with another manager for a company that currently oversees 37 properties. There are 3 core people involved: the owner, myself, and the other manager. Owner does not own any of the properties, we are the middle man management company. They do get more referrals, but we all have played our part in acquiring more properties and as the managers we do all the onboarding, staging, listing etc… been with the company since around 10 properties.
The owner takes home roughly $70k–$100k/year, but no longer handles much of the day-to-day operations. They attend weekly meetings, occasionally call owners, and suggest changes, but my coworker and I are expected to implement everything. When the owner takes multi-month vacations, and operations run all the same.
The two of us managers split the schedule 50/50 and are effectively on call 24/7 handling:
- Guest communication
- Owner relations
- Cleaner scheduling/checks
- Maintenance coordination
- Property stocking
- Emergencies
- General operations
If one of us goes on vacation, the other has to work every single day because the owner will not cover. We are technically classified as contractors, but we cannot make our own schedules and have to arrange coverage for any time off ourselves.
We currently make a flat $200/day managing. Back in 2021–2022 we made around $35k–$40k/year managing about 20–25 properties. In 2023 the owner added “profit sharing,” which initially seemed great, and our pay increased to around $60k–$70k/year. However, our guaranteed pay has stayed stagnant while responsibilities and property count have increased significantly.
The profit split is:
But this is after our flat-rate pay is already deducted as an expense. The owner also takes an additional guaranteed $2k/month regardless of profits.
A few years ago we also had a dedicated guest messaging employee making about $20k/year. That position was eliminated, and the two managers absorbed all of those responsibilities without any guaranteed raise. The owner’s logic was that the savings “go into the profit pool,” but since profits fluctuate, we only see a fraction of that value while permanently taking on the extra workload.
My frustration is that we’re treated like “partners” whenever profits are down or more work needs to be done, but we don’t actually have the authority, flexibility, protections, or compensation structure of real partners. At the same time, we’re treated like employees in terms of scheduling and expectations, despite technically being contractors.
Meanwhile, our workload keeps increasing while my actual yearly income has stayed flat or slightly declined over the last few years due to market slowdown and the way compensation is structured.
I feel like compensation should scale more directly with property count and added responsibilities instead of relying so heavily on fluctuating profits. I've also been loyal to this company for 8 years now.
TLDR
• 2 managers run nearly all operations for 37 STR properties while the owner is mostly hands off.
• We’re on call 24/7, can’t freely control our schedules, and cover everything ourselves.
• Classified as contractors but treated like employees.
• Property count and responsibilities increased significantly, but guaranteed pay stayed the same.
• Extra duties from a removed 20k employee were absorbed without raises.
• Profit sharing makes us feel like “partners” when convenient, but we have no actual ownership or control.
• Income has stagnated or declined despite increased workload.
• I’m curious if you’d share how many properties you manage (not own), what you make, and if you are solo or work for/with a company?