AvantStay vs Vacasa in 2026: Fees, Coverage and Alternatives

AvantStay vs Vacasa is the comparison owners of larger and higher-end homes run most often, because the two occupy similar ground: full-service management, national reach, professional photography, a slick owner portal. It is also a comparison that stalls immediately, for one reason — neither company publishes a management fee.

This page sets out what each does disclose, and what to ask so the two become comparable.

AvantStay vs Vacasa: the short answer

As of July 2026, neither AvantStay nor Vacasa publishes a management rate; both quote per property. AvantStay is the smaller, design-led operator concentrated on larger group homes.

Vacasa is far larger by property count and, since May 2025, is owned by Casago and run through a franchise structure. Compare them on scope, contract terms and who is accountable locally — not on a rate you cannot see.

AvantStay vs Vacasa comparison table

Which is bigger, AvantStay or Vacasa?

Vacasa, by a wide margin. AvantStay states 2,500+ homeowners across 140+ markets; the Casago–Vacasa group reports more than 40,000 properties.

AvantStay and Vacasa management fees

AvantStay

AvantStay describes itself as “the largest and highest-rated luxury vacation rental management company in the U.S.” — its own marketing claim, not an independent ranking — and states that 2,500+ homeowners use it. Its owner page leads with revenue performance rather than pricing.

A warning about numbers on that page: it shows a “20%” and a “10%”, and neither is a management fee. The 20% refers to boosting annual revenue by 20%; the 10% is a 10% guest discount in its membership club. If you see “AvantStay charges 20%” quoted somewhere, that is almost certainly this misreading. We flag it because we nearly made it ourselves.

Vacasa

Vacasa’s own homeowner guide states that its fees are “tailored for each unique vacation rental property” and directs owners to request “a personalized management fee proposal”. The same guide says owners can anticipate management rates “anywhere between 10% and 50% of your revenue” — that is Vacasa describing the industry, not itself.

The ownership change matters practically. Casago completed its acquisition of Vacasa on 1 May 2025 at $5.30 per share, a deal valued at roughly $130 million, after shareholder approval on 29 April 2025; Vacasa’s stock is no longer listed on Nasdaq.

Casago runs a franchise model, so the team servicing your home may be a local franchisee. Ask who operates your market and how long they have held it.

Who owns Vacasa now?

Casago. The acquisition completed on 1 May 2025 at $5.30 per share, valuing the deal at approximately $130 million, and Vacasa is no longer listed on Nasdaq.

What to ask AvantStay and Vacasa before signing

Since neither publishes a rate, you are going to end up with two proposals. Make them answer the same six questions, in writing, or the proposals are not comparable:

• The rate for your property — not a range, not a starting point.
• What the rate covers — cleaning coordination, restocking, inspections, on-site guest support: included or billed?
• Setup cost — onboarding, photography, furnishing, listing creation.
• Maintenance markup — vendor invoices at cost, or with a coordination percentage on top?
• Contract length, notice period and termination fee — and whether existing bookings transfer.
• Who owns the listing account — if it is theirs, leaving restarts your review history.

That last one is the detail that most often turns a routine switch into a restart, and it costs nothing to ask before you sign. The vacation rental management FAQ has the full list in a form you can paste into an email.

Does AvantStay publish its management fee?

No. As of July 2026 AvantStay does not publish a management rate on its owner pages. The percentages shown there refer to a revenue-uplift claim and a guest membership discount, not to a management fee.

How to read a vacation rental revenue projection

When a manager does not lead with a price, they lead with a number: projected annual revenue. Both companies here market on performance, and AvantStay’s owner page headlines a revenue uplift claim rather than a rate. A projection is a legitimate sales tool, but it is a forecast produced by the party who benefits from you accepting it, so read it the way you would read any forecast.

• Ask what it is gross of. A projection is usually gross booking revenue — before the management fee, before cleaning, before platform fees and taxes. The number that matters to you is what lands in your account.
• Ask for the comparable set. Which specific homes was this modelled on: how many bedrooms, what distance from yours, what season? “Homes like yours in the area” is not an answer.
• Ask what occupancy it assumes. Then check it against your market rather than accepting it. If the projection needs occupancy well above what the market delivers, the revenue is arithmetic, not a plan.
• Ask what happens if it misses. Almost always nothing — which is fine, as long as you priced the decision knowing that.

This is where an unpublished fee compounds. With a published rate you can convert a projection into net income yourself in one line. With a custom quote you get an impressive gross figure first and the rate second, in a sales conversation, after you are already anchored on the upside. That ordering is not accidental, and it is worth resisting by asking for the rate before the projection.

The check costs nothing: take the projected gross, subtract the management fee once you have it, subtract cleaning if it is not guest-paid, and compare the result with what your home earns today. If the manager will not give you a rate to run that subtraction, you cannot evaluate the offer — you can only believe it.

Benchmark the occupancy assumption against real occupancy rates by city, and if the projection assumes a market-beating figure, ask what specifically produces it.

Does Vacasa publish its management fee?

No. Vacasa states that fees are tailored per property and asks owners to request a personalized proposal.

Which is better for your property?

• AvantStay fits larger group homes in leisure markets where design, photography and a premium guest experience drive the nightly rate — and where the owner is comfortable with an unpublished fee and reviewing contract terms closely.
• Vacasa fits owners who value the breadth of a very large network and a local presence in a specific destination — with the caveat that under a franchise structure, service is set by whoever operates your market.
• Neither fits an owner whose first requirement is knowing the price before a sales conversation.

AvantStay and Vacasa alternatives

One Fine BnB publishes both of its rates, which is the whole point of this page.

Full Service Management is 20% — professional listing creation and photography, dynamic pricing, 24/7 guest communication, booking management across platforms, turnover cleaning coordination, restocking, inspections, maintenance coordination and on-site guest support as needed.

Partner Management is 10% for owners who keep their own local team, covering listing optimization, pricing, bookings and 24/7 guest communication while you handle local cleaning, restocking and on-site support.

A one-time $500 onboarding retainer covers setup — photography, listing creation and property preparation — and after that we are paid only when you are paid. No long-term contracts. Properties needing extras such as in-person meet-and-greets at every check-in may be quoted above 20% based on scope; we would rather write that here than surprise you in a proposal.

What full service includes is set out in our vacation rental management guide.

Comparing the others too? See Vacasa alternatives, Evolve alternatives and our Awning review — the two national managers that do publish a starting rate.

Local alternatives by market

In most markets a regional manager with people on the ground beats either national brand.

Market-level comparisons include local operators alongside the giants: Breckenridge, Colorado, Park City, Utah, Maui, Hawaii, Asheville, North Carolina, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Ocean City, Maryland and Seattle, Washington.

City pages cover Las Vegas, New Orleans and Salt Lake City.

Elsewhere, find an Airbnb manager near you, and benchmark any proposal against Airbnb occupancy rates by city before believing a revenue projection.

How to switch from AvantStay or Vacasa

Most people reading a head-to-head like this are not choosing from scratch — they are with one company and wondering about the other. That changes the order of operations.

• Read your existing agreement before you talk to anyone. Notice period, termination fee, and whether reservations already booked transfer or must be honoured under the current contract. Under a franchise structure, confirm which entity you actually contracted with — the national brand or the local operator — because that is who your notice goes to.
• Establish who owns the listing account. If it belongs to the manager, switching starts your review history over. On a well-reviewed home this is worth more than several percentage points of fee, and it is the detail most often discovered too late.
• Pull your own numbers first. Twelve months of gross revenue, occupancy and average nightly rate. Without them you cannot tell whether a new proposal is genuinely better or simply more optimistic.
• Ask the incumbent for a rate review. A manager facing a departure will sometimes improve terms, and that is the cheapest possible outcome for you — no handover, no lost reviews, no reset.
• Time the move for the shoulder season, and agree in writing how in-flight bookings are serviced and paid during the handover.

Switching manager is a smaller disruption than owners fear, but only when it happens in that order. Done backwards — sign first, read the contract later — it turns into a lost peak season and a listing with no history.

The owners who move successfully are almost always the ones who spent an unglamorous afternoon on the paperwork before they spent an hour on the sales call, because every expensive surprise in this process is written down somewhere in advance.

Local operators are worth putting on the shortlist alongside the two national brands, particularly in markets where a company-operated presence matters: Charleston, Illinois and South Miami Heights, Florida are examples of markets where the strongest option is not a national name. The vacation rental management FAQ has the full question list to send to any candidate.

Sources and method

AvantStay’s positioning, homeowner count and the absence of a published fee were read from its own owner page (avantstay.com/vacation-rental-management) on 31 July 2026, rendered in a browser because the site is built client-side and returns an empty shell to simple fetching. Vacasa’s fee language comes from its own homeowner guide on the same date.

Acquisition details are from Vacasa’s own announcement and its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, available at SEC EDGAR. Company model, headquarters and market counts come from our own management-company dataset.

All figures are stated as of July 2026; companies change terms without notice.

We publish no star rating or review score for either company. We have never been a customer of either and we compete with both, so a score from us would not be evidence. One Fine BnB’s own rates appear in full above: Full Service 20%, Partner 10%, plus a one-time $500 onboarding retainer, with no long-term contract.

Disclosure: One Fine BnB is a management company and competes with the companies named here. Every figure comes from each company’s own website and is dated July 2026.