Co-host tech lead specialist & backend operations (Airbnb, Booking.com, PMS) – Long-term. - Contract to Hire

Co-host rental Operations & Tech Lead (Airbnb, Booking.com, PMS)

ABOUT THE HOSTKEEPER

The Hostkeeper is a new, premium vacation rental management company in Belgium, expanding to Spain (Costa Blanca). We manage holiday homes for owners: listings on Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo, dynamic pricing, guest communication, cleaning, check-in and maintenance. We own no properties and work almost fully remote, with a smart tool stack, virtual assistants and local partners.

I'm the founder and I handle sales and owner relationships. I'm looking for the person who runs everything behind the scenes,

WHAT YOU WILL DO

Tech and systems

- Set up and run our PMS / channel manager (Smoobu or Hospitable) and connect Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo without double bookings

- Set up and manage PriceLabs: base and minimum prices, seasons, school holidays, minimum stays, gap nights, last-minute and winter strategy

- Connect cleaning and maintenance tools (Turno or similar), smart locks (Nuki, Igloohome), noise monitoring (Minut) and guest registration (Chekin)

- Set up AI guest messaging (Hospitable AI, HostBuddy or similar) with a knowledge base per property

- Build automations (Make, Zapier or n8n) between our tools, CRM and owner reporting

Operations

- Onboard new properties from signed contract to first guest in about 3 weeks

- Build and manage our network of cleaners, handymen and photographers, and set up checklists with photo proof

- Handle maintenance tickets, quotes and follow-up

- Write SOPs so virtual assistants can run daily tasks

- Lead and train our virtual assistants for guest communication

- Keep quality high: response times, reviews, cleaning scores and monthly owner reports

Growth

- Optimize listings: titles, descriptions, photo order, amenities, multi-language (NL, FR, EN, DE)

- Improve rankings, occupancy and average daily rate

- Build review strategies, upsells and direct booking setups

- Help scale from the first 10 to 100+ properties and into new regions

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Must have

- At least 2 years of hands-on experience managing short-term rentals on Airbnb and Booking.com

- Real experience with a PMS / channel manager (Hospitable, Smoobu, Guesty, Hostaway, Lodgify or similar)

- Experience with dynamic pricing tools (PriceLabs, Wheelhouse or Beyond)

- Experience coordinating cleaners and maintenance, ideally with Turno, Breezeway or similar

- Strong process and systems mindset: you like building things that run without you

- Excellent written English. Dutch, French or Spanish is a big plus

- Available for regular work in European business hours (CET), plus an on-call rotation for urgent guest issues

Nice to have

- Experience with smart locks, noise monitoring and guest registration tools

- Automation skills (Make, Zapier, n8n) or AI tools

- Experience managing VAs

- Experience with European markets and regulations (Belgium, Netherlands, Spain)

- You think like an entrepreneur, not like a freelancer waiting for tasks

HOW WE WORK

- Start: paid hourly or a fixed monthly retainer, depending on your experience. Please share your rate.

- Expected workload: part-time at the start (around 15 to 20 hours per week), growing to full-time as we add properties

- Long-term: this role can grow into Head of Operations

- Fully remote

HOW TO APPLY

Please start your proposal with the word "KEEPER" so I know you read this. Then answer these questions:

1. How many properties do you manage or have you managed, on which platforms, and in which countries?

2. Which PMS, pricing and cleaning tools have you used? Which one do you prefer and why?

3. Describe one property you improved: what did you change and what happened to occupancy, price or reviews?

4. How would you onboard a new property in 3 weeks, step by step? Keep it short.

5. A guest arrives at 11 PM and the smart lock does not work. What do you do?

6. What is your hourly rate or monthly retainer, and how many hours per week are you available?

7. Would you be interested in growing into a co-founder role? Why?

Shortlisted candidates get a short paid test task and a video call.

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