If you’re a Vacasa owner, you’ve spent the last twelve months watching the company change hands. Casago closed its $130 million acquisition of Vacasa on April 30, 2025, the stock delisted from Nasdaq, and in early 2026 founder Steve Schwab began transitioning out of the CEO role at the combined entity. Your contract probably hasn’t changed yet. Your fee structure probably hasn’t changed yet. But the company managing your property has — and a lot of owners are quietly evaluating what comes next.
This post is the honest comparison I wish someone had written for me when I was on the other side of this kind of decision. I run HostStarter. We manage Airbnb and short-term rentals in 33 markets across the US and Canada at a 12.5% flat fee. I’m not going to pretend we’re the right fit for everyone leaving Vacasa — there are situations where staying makes sense, and situations where a local boutique manager is the better call. But for the owners we do work well with, the math and the day-to-day experience look meaningfully different. Here’s what to compare.
The five-minute version
Vacasa (post-merger Casago/Vacasa) is built around a full-service, hands-off model. They handle everything, they keep the listing on their own account, and the management fee historically lands somewhere in the 25–35% range depending on market and tier. HostStarter is a virtual full-service model. We handle everything Vacasa does except boots-on-the-ground crews — we coordinate cleaning and maintenance through your local partners — and we charge 12.5% flat. You keep your own Airbnb and VRBO listings. There’s no setup fee, no long-term contract, and no listing migration to undo if you ever leave.
If you’ve been running the math on what 25%+ does to your annual take-home, the difference between 12.5% and 30% on a property doing $60,000 a year in gross revenue is roughly $10,500 of net revenue you keep. That’s the number most Vacasa owners I talk to are trying to put in context.
Side-by-side: Vacasa vs HostStarter
| Category | Vacasa (post-Casago) | HostStarter |
|---|---|---|
| Management fee | Typically 25–35% of gross rental revenue, varies by market and tier | 12.5% flat, all markets |
| Contract length | One-year minimums in most markets, auto-renewing | Month-to-month, no minimum |
| Listing ownership | Property listed on Vacasa’s Airbnb/VRBO accounts | You keep your own Airbnb and VRBO accounts |
| Setup fees | Onboarding fees and photography fees vary | $0 setup, photography included |
| Pricing engine | Proprietary dynamic pricing | Dynamic pricing, owner can review and override |
| Guest communication | Vacasa-branded, you don’t see most threads | HostStarter handles it, you see the inbox |
| Cleaning | Vacasa-managed crews where available, sub-contracted elsewhere | We coordinate with your local cleaning partner (or help you find one) |
| Local on-site presence | Yes in core markets, thinner in fringe markets | Virtual model. Field Support add-on available for remote owners. |
| Markets covered | 40,000+ properties across NA, Caribbean, Central America | 33 US and Canadian short-term rental markets |
| Reporting | Owner portal with monthly statements | Live dashboard, monthly performance report, transparent line items |
What actually changes when you switch
The biggest practical difference — bigger than the fee — is listing ownership. With Vacasa, the property is listed under Vacasa’s host account. If you leave, the listing’s review history, Superhost status, and SuperHost-eligible booking volume don’t come with you. You build a new listing from scratch on your own account.
With HostStarter, the listing is yours from day one. We manage it, optimize it, and message guests through it — but the host account is yours. If you ever fire us, you keep every review, every photo set, and every booking record. We’ve had owners switch into us from Vacasa and have to rebuild their listing from zero. It’s painful, and it’s the single biggest reason newer owners ask about listing ownership upfront.
The second difference is who you talk to. Vacasa runs at the scale where you’re typically working with a regional account manager handling many properties. HostStarter runs a flatter team — every owner has direct contact with the operations lead handling their portfolio. That’s a function of size, not virtue, and it cuts both ways: less infrastructure, more access.
When Vacasa is probably the right answer
I want to be straight about this. Vacasa is the right call if:
- You own a property in a market where Vacasa has deep on-the-ground crews and you genuinely want zero involvement, including not seeing guest messages
- You’re optimizing for absolute hands-off over net revenue and the fee differential doesn’t materially change the investment thesis
- Your property is in a remote vacation market (think Outer Banks, certain Cape Cod sub-markets, parts of the Gulf Coast) where Vacasa’s local maintenance network is genuinely hard to replicate
If any of those describe you, switching probably isn’t worth the friction.
When HostStarter usually wins
HostStarter tends to be the right move if:
- Your property is in one of the 33 markets we cover and you have (or can find) a reliable local cleaning partner
- Your gross revenue is high enough that the fee delta meaningfully changes your annual net — that threshold is usually around $35,000 a year in gross bookings
- You want to retain your Airbnb listing identity, reviews, and Superhost status
- You’re willing to be lightly involved (about an hour a week) in exchange for keeping 17–22 percentage points more of revenue
What the switching process actually looks like
If you decide to switch, here’s the realistic timeline:
- Week 1: Review your Vacasa contract for the termination clause. Most contracts let you exit with 30 days’ notice; some require 60.
- Week 1–2: Onboarding call with HostStarter. We pull AirDNA comps, run a revenue projection for your property, and confirm the management plan.
- Week 2–3: We help you stand up your own Airbnb and VRBO listings if you don’t already have them. This is the rebuild-from-zero part — review history doesn’t transfer.
- Week 3–4: Notice goes to Vacasa. We sync the new listings, set pricing, identify a cleaning partner (or transition the one Vacasa was using if it’s local-direct).
- Week 4+: First bookings start coming through under your new setup. We monitor for the first two months closely while reviews build.
It’s not painless. The biggest cost is the review reset — six to eight weeks of slower booking velocity while you get your first 10 reviews on the new listing. The fee differential typically recovers that gap inside the first year for most owners.
Frequently asked questions
Does HostStarter work in every Vacasa market? We cover 33 markets across the US and Canada, including most of Vacasa’s core markets — Nashville, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Scottsdale, Sedona, Las Vegas, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Destin, Charleston, Gatlinburg, Atlanta, Savannah, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs, Seattle, Chicago, Denver, Breckenridge, and Toronto. The full market list is here.
Will switching hurt my rankings on Airbnb? Short term yes, long term no. The new listing starts without a review history, so the first six to eight weeks will see lower booking velocity. From month three onward, performance typically matches or beats the prior Vacasa-managed listing because the pricing and content optimization is more aggressive.
Is the 12.5% all-in? Yes. There’s no setup fee, no photography fee, no listing fee, no marketing add-on. The only optional charge is the Field Support add-on for fully remote owners who want someone physically on-call for the property.
Can I run both at the same time during the transition? No. Vacasa requires exclusive listing rights, so the timeline has to be linear — terminate Vacasa, then onboard your own listings.
What if I’m under contract for another nine months? Most Vacasa contracts allow early termination with the standard 30–60 day notice. There’s no early-termination fee in most agreements. We help you read your specific contract on the onboarding call.
Next step
If you want to see the actual numbers for your property, the fastest path is to send the address. We’ll pull AirDNA’s revenue projection for your specific home, model what 12.5% looks like against your current Vacasa take-home, and give you a real number — not a sales pitch — within 24 hours.
Get my property’s projection →
Last updated: May 19, 2026. Pricing and contract terms reflect the post-Casago-merger Vacasa entity. All comparison numbers are based on publicly available Vacasa rate cards and HostStarter’s flat 12.5% fee. Your actual Vacasa rate may differ; the comparison call will use your specific number.