@Selena Walsh I do the same here in Denver. I think its wonderful that Airbnb pushes hosts to keep the personal touch and keep property managers out of co-hosting but the reality is that running an AIrbnb is a business and property managers are a much needed part of the short term rental industry. As Airbnb grows guests expect better more “hotel like” service, and here in Denver you may only rent out your Airbnb if it is your primary residence. Therefore many of the current listings are rented out when the owner’s go on vacation and are not available to address guest concerns, further requiring a property manager.
In regards to your post I also use a property management agreement that says that I am acting as a manager in regards to my LLC, not as an individual. This agreement is signed with the owner and is totally separate from the Airbnb agreement. I also have a $1 million general commercial liability policy that covers me if anything were to happen. I am definitely going to ask my lawyer how co-hosting as an individual would change anything regarding my agreement or insurance coverage but I currently have no idea how the Airbnb terms and conditions come into play, although I doubt they have read them in any detail.
I also know that the larger property management companies take your listing over completely and don’t use the co-hosting feature. Some of them leave your photo and profile but change the bank account to their account info and pay the owner monthly, similar to a traditional property management service. I will probably eventually have to go to this but for a small PM company with little reputation, you can imagine some owners are weary of turning over all their payouts to a small firm, so for now the co-hosting feature works great.
If you find out more from your lawyer I would love to hear how it went and anyone else’s opinion on this matter as well. Hope this helps!