The question always lands at the wrong moment. A guest asks for a late checkout on a Sunday evening, your co-host has the screen open, and nobody knows whether their account can take the action. English guides describe the permissions page. What is missing is the reverse view: start from a real situation and know who can settle it alone.
- The gridThe three levels, in the platform's own words
- The moneyThe one thing no level opens
- The choiceFour moves, and the level each one needs
Three levels, and what they actually open
Airbnb offers three permission levels. They differ less by the number of ticked boxes than by the line between viewing, writing, and deciding.
| Level | What the platform describes | What it means on a Sunday evening |
|---|---|---|
| Full access | manage your listing, including the price and other information, then manage reservations, including accepting and declining trip requests | your co-host handles the request end to end |
| Calendar and messaging access | message guests and view the calendar, without editing it | they reply, they check the next night is free, they cannot block anything |
| Calendar access | view the calendar, without editing it | they warn you, you do the rest |
Full access covers more than reservations. It also allows editing rates and availability, handling damage claims and other requests in the resolution centre, viewing the earnings dashboard, and editing the permissions of other co-hosts.
Writing guest reviews is not open to the reduced levels. A co-host on calendar and messaging access can carry an entire stay's conversation and then be unable to rate it. If you delegate the guest relationship while keeping the rest, the review stays on your side, inside the window where it is still possible.
Money does not sit on the permissions axis
Here is the point most articles treat as a footnote, when it drives everything else. The permission grid and the money circuit are two separate mechanisms, and one is not set from the other.
Only the listing host can set up co-host payouts. A co-host with full access edits the permissions of other co-hosts, yet cannot pay themselves. In the other direction, no level opens another user's tax or payment information.
That gap produces a common line of reasoning, and it costs money precisely because it is logical. You open the permissions page, you see no line about pay, you conclude the platform offers none and that everything must be settled outside. The conclusion is wrong: co-host payouts exist, they simply live on another screen. A closed permission never proves a feature is missing.
Four payout models coexist: cleaning fee only, cleaning fee plus a percentage, a percentage per reservation, a fixed amount per reservation. A co-host's potential earnings only appear on the calendar or in the reservation details once the reservation is confirmed, and the co-host has fourteen days to accept or decline the proposed terms. The setups and their invoicing consequences are covered in the article on co-host pay.
Pick the level from the daily work
The reflex is to grant full access because it avoids surprises. It creates others: a provider on full access edits your prices and adjusts what the other people involved can do. The right question is not trust. It is the task.
- Write down what the person will do alone, without calling you. The list decides, not the job title.
- If it all fits inside answering guests, calendar and messaging access is enough. That is the usual level for cover.
- If prices, accepting reservations or disputes fall inside the scope, full access becomes necessary, and it belongs in the contract.
- Read the granted permission against the signed quote. The two drift apart, almost always the same way, the setting being wider than the contract.
- Set payouts up separately, from your own owner account, then check that the co-host has accepted the terms.
Up to ten co-hosts can appear on a listing. The listing host, or a co-host with full access, can add one for a home, while for services and experiences only the listing host can. The exact path, screen by screen, is described in the article on adding a co-host.
What stays outside the grid
A permission says what an account is allowed to click. It says nothing about how fast a reply goes out or about what must come back to you. The help centre invites host and co-host to agree on three points between them: how tasks are split, the share of earnings going to the co-host, and how expenses are reimbursed.
None of these three is settled anywhere in the interface. They belong to the agreement between two people, and that is where delegation holds or falls apart.
Three ways to cover messages without changing level- CopiloteSentioo drafts the reply from the property's facts, your co-host reviews before it goes out.
- HybrideQuestions with a stable answer go out on their own, anything involving a cost or a decision comes back.
- AutopiloteSentioo replies directly. A request outside the covered scope comes back to you.
