Every remote owner of an Orlando-area vacation home eventually asks the same question, usually at 11pm after a guest message about a dead AC: “What kind of local help am I actually supposed to have?” The market gives you four answers at four wildly different prices. Here’s the honest comparison.
Option 1: The mom-and-pop handyman (per job)
The default for most self-managing owners: a local guy someone recommended in a Facebook group. When he’s available, he’s great and affordable. The problem is the word when. He has no obligation to answer during your guest emergency, no documentation habit, and no backup when he’s on vacation, booked solid, or done with the trade. You’re not his client; you’re his voicemail.
Option 2: Home watch ($200–500/month)
A real, established industry — typically $40–75 per visit, or a few hundred a month for weekly checks with a written report. For a second home that sits empty, that’s genuine value: silent failures get caught. The structural limit: home watch looks; it doesn’t fix. Every finding becomes your problem to solve with a second vendor, a second schedule, and a second bill — coordinated by you, from another time zone.
Option 3: Full property management (15–25% of revenue)
The everything option: guest messaging, bookings, pricing, cleaning, maintenance coordination. For owners who want zero involvement, it’s the right product. But do the math on a home grossing $35,000 a year — that’s $5,000–$9,000 annually, and maintenance still usually bills separately (often with a coordination markup). Many owners also simply don’t want to give up control of pricing and the guest relationship they’ve built.
Option 4: The membership middle
The newest model — and the gap we built HostCare to fill: keep Airbnb, Vrbo, or your booking-only manager exactly as they are, and add a dedicated local maintenance layer under it. Scheduled wellness visits with photo reports, hurricane prep and post-storm checks, and — on the Ready plan — same-day response when a guest stay is on the line. From $99/month per home, with repairs at member pricing when something’s found.
So which one do you need?
- Empty second home, rarely rented: home watch works — or a Watch-tier membership that can also fix what it finds.
- Active rental, you enjoy self-managing: keep your booking stack, add a maintenance membership with an SLA. This is most owners we meet.
- Active rental, you want zero involvement: full management — ask hard questions about maintenance markups and response times.
- Any of the above with “a guy”: keep his number. Just don’t let your $400,000 asset depend on whether he picks up.
The bottom line
Price the options against one bad week: a mid-stay AC failure can cost a refund, a relocation, and a one-star review — real money against any plan. The right structure isn’t the cheapest monthly number; it’s the one where someone accountable, insured, and documented answers when it matters.