By Kent Morgan
STR Assistance is a remote va operator headquartered in Bury St. Edmunds, UK, covering US + international (remote). This review sets out what it actually discloses about pricing, how its model works in practice, and what to compare before signing.
STR Assistance review: the short answer
As of July 2026 STR Assistance does not publish a management fee on its own website. That is a fact about the site, not a claim about the price — the only way to learn the rate is to request a proposal.
No hourly rate or plan price published.
STR Assistance at a glance
| Item | Detail (as of July 2026) |
|---|---|
| Published management fee | Not published |
| Model | Remote VA |
| Coverage | US + international (remote) |
| Headquarters | Bury St. Edmunds, UK |
| Scale | States 50+ virtual assistants supporting operators globally, covering Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia and others. Registered at Bury St. Edmunds, England. |
A virtual-assistant company, not a manager: ‘a dedicated short-term rental virtual assistant company offering trained professionals’ working remotely across time zones. Nobody is in the property.
Remote assistance means nobody is at the property
A virtual assistant service takes the desk work: messages, calendars, bookkeeping, listing upkeep. It is real work and it is often well done. It is also, by definition, done from somewhere else.
So the question is not whether the assistants are good. It is who you are going to pay, separately, to be physically present — because that person is not included.
Owners who already have a reliable cleaner and a handyman can do well out of this arrangement. Owners who assumed they were buying management find the gap at the worst possible moment.
What to settle before signing with a remote team
- Time zones. Ask which hours are genuinely covered by a human in your market’s evening.
- Escalation. When a guest has no water, what exactly happens next, and who pays?
- Your local contractors. Do you supply them, and who instructs them?
- Account access. What does the team hold, and how is it handed back?
Who STR Assistance is best for
- Good fit: owners inside US + international (remote), where the operator has genuine local presence.
- Poor fit: owners outside that footprint, where coverage is thinner than the brand suggests.
- Poor fit: owners who need to compare on price before committing time to a proposal.
- 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 STR Assistance charge?
No rate is published. Any specific percentage you find attributed to STR Assistance elsewhere is a third-party estimate, and many circulating estimates originate from rival management companies.
The practical consequence: you cannot shop on price until you hold a written proposal. When it arrives, the percentage is only the first line — ask what sits underneath it.
STR Assistance vs One Fine BnB
Read from each company’s own website on 1 August 2026.
| Feature | STR Assistance | One Fine BnB |
|---|---|---|
| Published management fee | Not published | Full Service 20% / Partner 10% |
| Model | Remote VA | Owner chooses hands-off or partner |
| Coverage | US + international (remote) | Nationwide US plus select international |
| Setup cost | Not published | $500 one-time onboarding retainer |
| What the percentage is charged on | Ask | Rental revenue only – never the guest-paid cleaning fee, lodging or sales tax, or damage deposits |
| Who pays for cleaning | Ask | Guests, through the booking – turnover housekeeping costs the owner nothing |
| Price visible before a sales call? | No | 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 a lower percentage actually cheaper?
Only when the scope is identical – and STR Assistance publishes no rate, so the comparison starts with getting one. On a home grossing ~$72,000 a year, the gap between a 10% arrangement and 20% full service is exactly $7,200.
| Line | 10% model | 20% full service |
|---|---|---|
| Gross booking revenue | ~$72,000 | ~$72,000 |
| Management fee | $7,200 | $14,400 |
| Local cleaning, restocking, on-site response | 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 STR Assistance sits against the rates US managers actually publish
STR Assistance publishes no rate, so there is nothing to place in this table directly. Only 17 of the 94 US companies we verified publish one at all – these are they, read off their own sites, and they are the range to hold any quote against:
| Company | Highest published rate | On a $72,000 year |
|---|---|---|
| Awning | 10% | $7,200 |
| Tampa Bay Stays | 10% | $7,200 |
| Evolve | 15% | $10,800 |
| MasterHost | 15% | $10,800 |
| Guest Haus | 15% | $10,800 |
| Checkmate Rentals | 15% | $10,800 |
| Air Concierge | 20% | $14,400 |
| Superstays | 20% | $14,400 |
| SEA Getaways | 20% | $14,400 |
| Stay Awhile Cohosting | 20% | $14,400 |
| Host & Keep | 20% | $14,400 |
| Rest Easy Nashville | 20% | $14,400 |
| Open Air Homes | 25% | $18,000 |
| COBnB | 25% | $18,000 |
| HostWise | 25% | $18,000 |
| JaxBNB | 25% | $18,000 |
| Alluvion Vacations | 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 STR Assistance 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 management rate | No – quoted on enquiry |
| Scale, in its own words | Yes – States 50+ virtual assistants supporting operators globally, covering Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia and o |
| 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 |
2 of the first four answered in public. The rest is a sales call, which is normal – and is why it is worth writing your questions down before you make it. Any performance figure a company publishes is always its own number about its own portfolio, and is reproduced here as such.
The best STR Assistance 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 Air Concierge review, AvantStay vs Vacasa, our Awning review, or the full directory of Airbnb management companies and their published fees.
Local alternatives in markets where STR Assistance appears
In most markets the strongest option is a regional operator with people on the ground. Our market-level comparisons include local operators alongside the national brands: Hill Country Lakes Texas, Martinez Georgia, Marlborough Massachusetts, Palm Harbor Florida, Parsippany New Jersey, Vila Nova De Milfontes Portugal, Roseville Michigan.
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 STR Assistance
- 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 STR Assistance’s own website on 1 August 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 STR Assistance. 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 July 2026.
Written by
Kent Morgan
Kent Morgan is the founder and president of One Fine BnB, a short-term rental management company running hundreds of vacation rentals from its Austin home base, with properties in several U.S. markets and internationally. The portfolio ranges from single condos to homes well over $2 million, which are managed on a dedicated luxury service tier. A San Diego native, he started managing short-term rentals in Austin in 2010 and has lived in most of the markets he's since grown into — NYC, the Florida beaches, Nashville, Las Vegas, Palm Desert, and Southern California. His companies have been early testers and development partners for major OTAs and short-term rental platforms.
