Should you manage your rental yourself, or hire a pro?
Answer a few questions about your property and goals, and we’ll show you whether self-managing or hiring a professional property manager makes more financial sense — with clear pros, cons, and real-world insights.
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Do you need a property management company?
When you decide to rent out a property, one of the first and most consequential decisions you face is : do you manage it yourself, or do you hand it over to a professional property management company? There is no universal right answer. The best choice depends on how much time you have to dedicate, where you live relative to the property, how hands-on you would like to be, and what kind of financial return you are aiming for.
This article walks you through both options, so you can make the decision that better fits your situation.
What a property management company does
A property management company acts as your representative. They typically handles guest communications, bookings, check-ins and check-outs, cleaning coordination, maintenance, and platform listing management. Some companies like Evacanza, also handle pricing strategy and photography. In exchange, they charge a commission – typically between 15% and 35% of rental revenue, though this varies significantly by region and the level of services provided.
The scope of what is included varies widely between providers.
Some companies offer a full-service package; others offer a more limited service and expect you to arrange your own cleaning or maintenance.
At Evacanza, we tailor our services around your needs
Pros and cons
The most obvious reason to bring in a professional is time. Managing a rental is not passive income, at least not at first.
- Responding to guest enquiries
- coordinating check-ins
- dealing with a broken boiler at 10pm
- chasing a cleaner who has not shown up
- coordinating check-outs
- dealing with lost set of keys
- reviewing inventory and purchasing
- communicating with vendor and more.
These are real, recurring demands. If you have a demanding job, young children, or you live hours away from the property – or in city with heavy rush hour traffic – these tasks can become genuinely difficult to manage well.
Distance is a particularly strong argument in favor of a management company. If your rental is in another country or a long drive away, even small problems can become expensive to solve without someone local. A good management company has contractors they trust, cleaners on speed dial, and someone who can physically visit the property when needed.
That local infrastructure takes years to build independently.
There is also the question of platform expertise. Experienced property managers understand how to position a listing for maximum visibility, how to use dynamic pricing tools, and how to interpret performance data to drive more bookings. These are learnable skills, but they take time and repeated exposure to develop. A management company brings that experience to your property from day one.
Finally, some owners simply do not enjoy the operational side of hosting. If dealing with logistics drains you, outsourcing it frees you to enjoy the financial return without the accompanying stress.
The most significant downside of a property management company is cost. At 20% commission on, say, €30,000 in annual revenue, you are paying €6,000 per year for that service. Whether that represents good value depends entirely on how you value your own time and how well the company performs.
Self-management does give you direct oversight of how the property is run, but it is worth being clear about what that means in practice.
When a management company takes over your listing, they typically present themselves to guests as the point of contact, often using their own brand. Guests may have no idea you exist as the owner. This is not necessarily a problem, but it does mean that the “personal touch” advantage of self-management is less about the relationship guests have with you personally, and more about the operational decisions you retain: how you price, how quickly you respond, how you handle problems, and how you choose to present the property.
Platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com do handle booking infrastructure and payment processing, which lowers the technical barrier to self-management. But the existence of these tools does not automatically translate into strong performance. Getting the most out of a platform requires understanding its algorithm, optimizing your listing content, managing your pricing relative to local competition, and responding to reviews thoughtfully.
These are skills that develop over time, and an inexperienced self-managing owner may leave meaningful revenue on the table in the early stages.
What matters most to you as an owner?
Ultimately, the right choice comes down to what you are optimising for. Different owners have genuinely different priorities, and there is no objectively correct answer. If you value your time and want minimal personal involvement while maintaining a reliable income stream, a good property management company will likely more than justify its cost in reduced stress, avoided problems, and stronger platform performance.Get in touch today at (+420) 702-853-205