01
You keep control
Your asset, your account, your calendar. Block your own dates, see every booking the moment it happens, and make the calls that matter. It's your home, and it stays that way on paper too.
How it works
You stay the host.
Open Water is a co-hosting service. Your home, your listing, your account. We run the day-to-day underneath you, and the platform pays you directly. Here's exactly how the structure works.
- Your listing
- Stays on your Airbnb account, under your name. You're the host of record. We're added as a co-host.
- Your payouts
- Land in your bank account, from the platform, on the platform's schedule. We never hold or disburse your money.
- Your reviews
- And your Superhost status stay with your listing and your profile. The reputation your home earns is yours.
The structure
Nothing changes hands. That's the point.
When you work with Open Water, your listing stays on your own Airbnb or VRBO account, created by you, owned by you, under your name. You remain the host of record, legally and practically.
Guest payouts go from the platform straight to your bank account, on the platform's schedule. Open Water never holds your money, never disburses it, and never touches the transaction. We're added to your listing as a co-host with delegated permissions, enough to do the work, never enough to own it.
For owners who felt they lost control under a national manager, this is the difference: you keep your listing, your account, your payouts, and your reviews. We just take the work.
What this replaces
A service, not a dependency.
Open Water is not a property management company. We're a co-host. It helps to know what that replaces. Under a traditional management company, the listing is typically created on their account, under their brand. The reviews your home earns accrue to their profile. Guest money flows through their accounts before reaching you. Your Superhost status, if you had one, isn't yours anymore.
The consequence shows up at the exit. When an owner leaves a national manager, they often start over from zero: new listing, no review history, no booking record, back to the bottom of search. Years of five-star stays, gone, because they were never on the owner's account to begin with.
Co-hosting removes that entirely. There's nothing to hand back because nothing was ever handed over. It's the difference between a service and a dependency.
The work
So what do we actually do?
Everything that isn't ownership. The whole day-to-day of a well-run lakeshore rental, handled by one accountable team thirty minutes from your front door.
- Listing build and optimization
- Professional photography & styling
- Daily dynamic pricing
- Guest communication around the clock
- Guest screening
- Coordinating cleaners & turnovers
- Linens & restocking
- Maintenance coordination
- Photo-documented inspections
- Damage documentation & claim support
- Local ordinance & licensing support
How we get paid
A split, not a middleman.
We earn a straightforward percentage of booking revenue, 20% taken as a co-host split through Airbnb. No setup fee, no monthly minimum, no long-term lock-in.
The mechanics matter: the platform pays you and pays us separately. Your payout lands in your account; our fee lands in ours. We never touch your money. You see every dollar in your own dashboard, in real time, before we ever do.
And because the fee is a percentage of what your home earns, we only make money when you do. Same direction, same incentives.
Why it's built this way
Why this structure is better for you.
02
Your reputation compounds on your profile
Every five-star review and your Superhost status build on your listing and your name, not ours. The track record your home earns belongs to you.
03
Leaving costs you nothing
If we ever part ways, your listing, your reviews, and your booking history stay with you, because they never left. There's nothing to untangle and nothing to win back.
04
Every dollar, visible
You can see every booking and every payout in real time in your own Airbnb dashboard. No waiting on a monthly report to know how your home is doing.
The honest part
What we ask of you.
Three things. None of them are fine print.
Full-access co-host permissions.
We can't answer guests, move rates, or coordinate turnovers without them. You can see everything we do, and you can revoke access anytime.
A furnished home that meets the standard.
Not a stage set, a home that photographs well and hosts well. We'll walk through it together and tell you honestly what's missing and what isn't.
Your dates, blocked in advance.
Block your personal stays as far ahead as you can, so we can price around them. Peak summer weeks carry the year. We'll flag it if a blocked week is about to cost you.
Thirty minutes, zero pressure.
Bring your address and your questions. We'll bring real comparable numbers, and an honest answer, even if it's "don't."
Book your free 20-minute call