By Baris Ergin
Nowistay is an ai software operator headquartered in Bordeaux, France, covering Europe + North America. This review sets out what it actually discloses about pricing, how its model works in practice, and what to compare before signing.
Nowistay review: the short answer
As of October 2026 Nowistay publishes its price on its own website: $3 per property per month for the digital welcome guide, $15 per property per month for the AI Channel Manager. That is a software subscription, not a management fee – it is charged per property per month, not as a share of your rental revenue.
The first month is free, and there are discounts for 5 or more properties.
Nowistay at a glance
| Item | Detail (as of October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Published price | $3 per property per month for the digital welcome guide, $15 per property per month for the AI Channel Manager |
| Model | AI software |
| Coverage | Europe + North America |
| Headquarters | Bordeaux, France |
| Scale | Europe, North America and beyond, multi-language. |
Software, not a management company. The AI Channel Manager plan is an AI co-host that answers guests 24/7, with calendar and price sync to Airbnb and Booking.com, an omnichannel inbox for the booking platforms and WhatsApp, a direct booking engine and team task automations. It does not clean, inspect or handle maintenance.
Software is not a manager, and the fee is not comparable
A tool automates work you would otherwise do yourself. It writes the guest replies, moves the prices, syncs the calendars. It does not carry linen up a staircase.
That makes any comparison with a management percentage misleading in both directions. A subscription looks cheap next to 20% because it is buying a fraction of the job — and it can work out dearer than a manager on a property that only earns in three months of the year.
The honest comparison is not tool against manager. It is tool plus your own hours plus a cleaner plus somebody local who can attend, against a manager.
What still lands on you when the software is running
- Turnovers. Somebody has to clean between guests, and to answer when they do not turn up.
- Attendance. A lockout, a leak or a broken boiler needs a person at the door.
- Restocking and laundry, which nobody automates away.
- Inspections, so damage is found before the next guest finds it.
- Judgement calls — refunds, bad reviews, a guest who will not leave.
Who Nowistay is best for
- Good fit: owners inside Europe + North America, where the operator has genuine local presence.
- Poor fit: owners outside that footprint, where coverage is thinner than the brand suggests.
- Good fit: owners who want to see a rate before a sales call — it publishes $3 per property per month for the digital welcome guide, $15 per property per month for the AI Channel Manager.
- Poor fit: owners whose first requirement is a written, itemised scope — always request one regardless of the brand.
A specialist is a different purchase entirely
This company serves a narrow niche rather than the general market. That focus is the product: a specialist knows one type of property, one type of guest or one type of problem far better than a generalist ever will.
It also means the comparison set is not the rest of this directory. Judging a specialist against a full-service manager on price alone compares two things that were never trying to do the same job.
The question is simply whether your property is in the niche. If it is, the specialist is usually the better answer and the premium is usually worth it. If it is not, no amount of expertise transfers.
How much does Nowistay charge?
Nowistay publishes $3 per property per month for the digital welcome guide, $15 per property per month for the AI Channel Manager. Because it is billed per property, the cost does not rise with your bookings the way a management percentage does – the top plan comes to $180 a year per property.
That price buys the software part of the job only. Cleaning, restocking, inspections and someone at the door when something breaks are still yours to arrange and pay for.
Nowistay vs One Fine BnB
Read from each company’s own website on 6 October 2026.
| Feature | Nowistay | One Fine BnB |
|---|---|---|
| Published price | $3 per property per month for the digital welcome guide, $15 per property per month for the AI Channel Manager | Full Service 20% / Partner 10% |
| Model | AI software | Owner chooses hands-off or partner |
| Coverage | Europe + North America | Nationwide US plus select international |
| Setup cost | Not published | $500 one-time onboarding retainer |
| What the percentage is charged on | No percentage – a flat price per property per month | Rental revenue only – never the guest-paid cleaning fee, lodging or sales tax, or damage deposits |
| Who pays for cleaning | Not part of the product – the owner arranges it | Guests, through the booking – turnover housekeeping costs the owner nothing |
| Price visible before a sales call? | Yes | Yes |
What to compare besides the management fee
Owners switch on a percentage and regularly end up worse off, because the rate is one of six variables. Four of them decide most of it:
- 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, billed, or yours?
- Maintenance markup – vendor invoices at cost, or with a coordination percentage on top?
- Who owns the listing account – if it is theirs, leaving restarts your review history.
That last one is the most expensive detail in the whole decision and it never appears on a fee comparison. Setup costs, contract length and notice periods matter too and are the same questions everywhere – the management FAQ has the full list in a form you can paste into an email.
Is software cheaper than a manager?
Nowistay has no percentage, so the question is a different one. On a home grossing ~$72,000 a year, its top plan costs $180; our Partner Management costs $7,200 and Full Service $14,400.
| Line | Nowistay top plan | One Fine BnB Partner 10% | One Fine BnB Full Service 20% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price on ~$72,000 a year | $180 | $7,200 | $14,400 |
| Guest messaging and pricing | Software | Our team | Our team |
| Local cleaning, restocking, on-site response | Owner arranges and pays | Owner arranges and pays | Included |
So the real question is whether you can cover local cleaning, restocking, inspections and on-site response for less than $7,200 a year. Near the property with a cleaner you trust, often yes. In another state with no vendor bench, usually not. Our guide to vacation rental management works it through a full year.
Where Nowistay sits against the rates US managers actually publish
Nowistay charges a software subscription, not a share of revenue, so it has no place in a table of management rates. For a manager quote held next to it, only 51 of the 302 US companies we verified publish a rate at all – these are they, read off their own sites:
| Company | Highest published rate | On a $72,000 year |
|---|---|---|
| BeenStay | 5% | $3,600 |
| HostStarter | 5% | $3,600 |
| ATLStay | 10% | $7,200 |
| Awning | 10% | $7,200 |
| Luxury Lodging | 10% | $7,200 |
| Martindale Hospitality | 10% | $7,200 |
| MyHouseMgmt | 10% | $7,200 |
| Stillwater Vacation Rentals | 10% | $7,200 |
| Tampa Bay Stays | 10% | $7,200 |
| Keybee | 14% | $10,080 |
| My Tampa Rental | 14% | $10,080 |
| Checkmate Rentals | 15% | $10,800 |
| Evolve | 15% | $10,800 |
| Guest Haus | 15% | $10,800 |
| Happy Vacations Hawaii | 15% | $10,800 |
| MasterHost | 15% | $10,800 |
| Smoky Mountain cohosting | 15% | $10,800 |
| Sun Mountain Stays | 15% | $10,800 |
| HeartHomes | 18% | $12,960 |
| NextGen Coastal | 18% | $12,960 |
| Air Concierge | 20% | $14,400 |
| Anchor Down Vacation Rentals | 20% | $14,400 |
| Blue Coast Manage | 20% | $14,400 |
| BnB My Place | 20% | $14,400 |
| BonVoyageAZ | 20% | $14,400 |
| Host & Keep | 20% | $14,400 |
| Host Haven | 20% | $14,400 |
| Casiola | 20% | $14,400 |
| Rest Easy Nashville | 20% | $14,400 |
| SEA Getaways | 20% | $14,400 |
| Sid Was Here | 20% | $14,400 |
| Stay Awhile Cohosting | 20% | $14,400 |
| Stay Maven | 20% | $14,400 |
| Stay Porter | 20% | $14,400 |
| Superstays | 20% | $14,400 |
| Speed Keyz | 20% | $14,400 |
| The CT Brothers | 20% | $14,400 |
| Chādy | 22% | $15,840 |
| Cypress & Pine | 22% | $15,840 |
| Hearthstone Management | 22% | $15,840 |
| TruStay | 23% | $16,560 |
| AirSimplicity | 25% | $18,000 |
| COBnB | 25% | $18,000 |
| HostWise | 25% | $18,000 |
| Hoste | 25% | $18,000 |
| JaxBNB | 25% | $18,000 |
| Open Air Homes | 25% | $18,000 |
| SWAP CoHosting | 25% | $18,000 |
| Weekender Management | 25% | $18,000 |
| Alluvion Vacations | 30% | $21,600 |
| Savvy VRM | 30% | $21,600 |
| One Fine BnB | 20% full service / 10% partner | $14,400 / $7,200 |
A wide spread is not evidence that the cheap end is a bargain. It usually means the plans are not the same job – the lowest published US rates are co-hosting or remote tiers, with the cleaning, the keys and the call-outs left with you.
What Nowistay discloses, and what it leaves for the sales call
How much a company says in public is not how good it is, but it decides how much homework you can do before you pick up the phone. This is what sits on its own site:
| What we looked for | On its own site |
|---|---|
| A price | Yes – $3 per property per month for the digital welcome guide, $15 per property per month for the AI Channel Manager |
| Scale, in its own words | Yes – Europe, North America and beyond, multi-language. |
| How the model works | Explained in detail |
| What sits outside the fee | Not itemised publicly |
| Numbers that look like fees but are not | None found |
3 of the first four answered in public. That is unusually open for this market. Any performance figure a company publishes is always its own number about its own portfolio, and is reproduced here as such.
The best Nowistay alternatives
Best full-service alternative
One Fine BnB charges 20% for Full Service Management: 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.
A one-time $500 onboarding retainer funds setup – photography, listing creation, property prep – after which we are paid only when you are paid, with no long-term contract. Properties needing extras such as in-person meet-and-greets at every check-in may be quoted above 20% based on scope.
Best alternative if you keep a local team
Partner Management at 10% covers listing optimization, dynamic pricing, booking management and 24/7 guest communication, plus coordination with your own cleaning and maintenance vendors, while you provide local cleaning, restocking and on-site support.
Comparing the other national operators
See our Awning review, Evolve alternatives, AvantStay vs Vacasa, or the full directory of Airbnb management companies and their published fees.
Local alternatives to compare
Our market-level comparisons list local operators alongside the national brands: Woodlawn Maryland, Athens Texas, Quincy Illinois, Nogales Arizona, Urbana Ohio, Trenton Michigan, Channelview Texas.
If your market is not listed, find an Airbnb manager near you.
How to judge whether this manager is performing
Occupancy on its own tells you almost nothing – any property fills at a low enough price. Ask monthly, in writing, for revenue per available night rather than occupancy, the share of nights won outside peak season, average length of stay, and the trend in review scores rather than the headline number. A manager who reports those without being chased is telling you something about how the business is run.
You are also allowed to ask for a price on your specific property before you sign. A good answer names numbers – a nightly rate for July and one for November, an expected number of booked nights, what the percentage is charged on, what cleaning costs per turnover, and who holds the listing account.
An answer about passion and peace of mind that arrives at no number at all is the same non-answer you would not accept from a contractor.
How to switch to or from Nowistay
- Read the termination clause first — notice period, termination fee, and whether booked reservations transfer.
- Confirm who owns the listing account before giving notice. This is the detail that turns a routine switch into a restart.
- Agree how in-flight bookings are serviced and who is paid for them, in writing.
- Get the new terms on one page — rate, inclusions, setup cost, maintenance markup, notice period.
- Move in the shoulder season. Switching at peak risks revenue you cannot recover.
What no management fee covers
Property taxes and insurance written for short-term letting rather than for a home you live in. HOA or condo dues, which do not pause out of season. Furnishing and replacement, because guest turnover wears a property faster than a tenant does. Utilities. Permit and licence fees where your city requires them. And major repairs, whoever coordinates them.
Budget for those separately or the percentage will look cheaper than the year turns out to be.
Two contract terms that cost more than the fee
If you read nothing else in a management agreement, read these two.
Who owns the listing account. If the listing lives on the manager’s account, your reviews and search history belong to them. Leaving means starting a new listing from zero, which on a well-reviewed home is worth far more than several percentage points of fee.
How the agreement ends. Notice period, termination fee, and what happens to reservations already on the calendar. A low rate inside a multi-year term with an exit penalty is not a low rate.
Both are answerable in one email before you sign, and both are effectively unfixable afterwards.
Sources and method
Details were read from Nowistay’s own website on 6 October 2026 and are stated as of that date; companies change pricing and terms without notice, so treat this as a snapshot rather than a live quote. Model, coverage and headquarters come from our own management-company dataset.
We publish no star rating or review score for Nowistay. We have never been its customer and we compete with it, so a score from us would not be evidence. One Fine BnB’s own rates are stated in full above: Full Service 20%, Partner 10% of rental revenue, 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 October 2026.
Written by
Baris Ergin
Baris Ergin is a co-owner of One Fine BnB, a management company running hundreds of vacation rentals, and one of the three founders of BnB Genius, Inc., along with Chad Ozgur and Kent Morgan. Before short-term rentals he built and exited three tech companies. At BnBGenius he works on the automation itself — the guest messaging, the task dispatch that fires on checkout, and the voice agent that answers the phone when a guest calls and nobody is free to pick up. He built it to give a host with one to five listings the tools a manager with hundreds of properties already has.
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