Fees and getting started
More for you. Every cost in writing.
A management fee matters because of what remains for you. Here is our 30% fee, what it covers, what’s separate, how you’re paid, and what it takes to get your home onto our calendar.
A clear agreement for the home you own.
The fee: 30% of rent.
Our management fee is 30% of rent. There is no onboarding fee, no marketing fee, no linen fee and no markup on cleaning or repairs.
Guest payments go into our trust account. You receive a monthly payout and a statement of income, fees and expenses. We handle lodging taxes and explain the separate costs during your property review.
Compare what you keep
For illustration, $100,000 in rent leaves $70,000 after a 30% management fee; $50,000 leaves $40,000 after a 20% fee. Both amounts are before other property expenses. This illustrates the arithmetic, not an income forecast. A low percentage is only useful if the business underneath it performs.
In the one takeover we documented in detail, a one-bedroom cabin went from about $21,000 a year for the owner under a 15% manager to $68,610 under The Wolf. The fee was higher. The owner retained more than three times as much before other property expenses. The Wolf year ended July 31, 2023; the prior manager’s comparison year is not dated in the published source. Read the historical case and its limitations.
Across the homes with us all year, revenue per available night ran 70% above the Estes Park market. The numbers, with sources
How you’re paid.
Guest payments come to The Wolf
Guests pay Airbnb, Vrbo or our direct-booking site; those payments come to The Wolf’s trust account. You don’t run a merchant account, chase a platform payout or file lodging taxes. We do all three.
A monthly payout, settled by checkout month
Each month you receive your payout for stays that checked out that month, with a statement of rental income, fees and expenses. If a line needs a second explanation, you get one.
Repairs and parts at cost
Everyday troubleshooting is our team’s job. Parts, labor and larger projects appear on your statement at cost, separate from the fee. Spending authority above a threshold set in the agreement comes to you first.
Costs you approve, once
Professional photography is an owner-approved cost at launch. Smart locks and smart thermostats are hardware you buy once; we manage the codes, the schedules and the batteries from then on.
Fee terms apply to new agreements. There is no income guarantee: our results are documented on Results, and yours will depend on the house, its costs and the calendar you make available.
Getting started: four steps from inquiry to first guest.
Send us the property
Start with your name, email and the property address or listing link. Nathan personally reviews the home, its competition and guest reviews, plus any pricing and performance information you can share, to estimate what it could do with The Wolf. Start your property review
Site visit and plan
We walk the home and analyze your prior listing, photos and financials to find the weak links. If the home has never been rented, we compare it to homes in our portfolio and estimate how it will do. You get a written proposal covering the services, the fee, the separate costs and the work involved. Submitting the form doesn’t commit you to anything.
Confirm fit
We manage licensed homes only, and not homes in complexes whose rules forbid vacation rentals. We set the prices and minimum stays, and owner use follows the agreement. If you need a large share of the calendar, or want to approve individual prices, a different model will suit you better, and we’d rather say so now.
Prepare the home and launch
Some retrofits are required and some are recommended; the list below is what we ask for and why. Then photography, the listing, the pricing plan, and the first guests, with the operation ready before the first check-in.
Preparing your home for its next chapter.
Preparing your home.
Things go wrong in vacation homes: batteries die, sheets get stained, remotes vanish. When the homes in our portfolio run on the same locks, thermostats, routers and dispensers, we can fix problems fast and often remotely. There is room to make your home yours. These are the pieces that let us run it well.
Depending on what the home already has, the owner’s investment is typically a few hundred to two thousand dollars plus installation. Smart thermostats on electric baseboard heat usually pay for themselves within months, because they stop a guest from heating an empty house to 85 degrees.
Required Recommended
- Smart lock over the existing deadbolt. Our system issues each guest a code valid only for their dates; we can unlock remotely for an early check-in, and a physical key box is the failsafe. We recommend the best lock for your door at onboarding and change the batteries as part of upkeep.
- Smart thermostats with a maximum set temperature, one per zone: Mysa or Stelpro for electric baseboard, Ecobee or Nest for furnaces and hydronic systems. We tie schedules to the booking calendar so heat drops at checkout.
- Reliable Wi-Fi that reaches the lock and the thermostats.
- A vacuum that stays in the house. Vacuums don’t travel between homes; it’s how bed bugs spread.
- Wall-mounted shower dispensers for soap, shampoo and conditioner, refilled by our cleaners.
- No interior cameras. We don’t manage homes with them. Exterior cameras at the front and back doors are your choice; they deter parties and over-occupancy, and we’ll recommend a setup that works with our software.
- White sheets and towels. White reads as clean, bleaches, and is easy to replace one piece at a time.
- A streaming TV (a Roku TV or stick) with at least one streaming account; most guests bring their own logins.
- Occupancy, parking and trash rules the home can actually support. Estes Park licenses set occupancy by bedroom, and wildlife-safe trash storage is part of keeping the license.
Coming from another manager?
Yes, we take over homes mid-stream. Before we promise a date, we map future reservations, funds already collected, guest communication and access, and tell you exactly what carries over. A home taken over mid-year is still building its review record and ranking; the homes that have been with us a full year are the ones earning 70% above the market, and that is the target.
Find out what your home could earn.
Nathan will review your home, its competition and guest reviews, plus any pricing and performance information you can share, to estimate what it could do with The Wolf.
The Wolf Rentals · Estes Park, Colorado