Property management in Toronto is priced as a percentage of what the property earns, not a flat monthly retainer. Certus publishes three tiers for short-term and furnished rentals, Essential Stewardship at 10% per booking, Refined Residence at 15%, and Prestige Management at 20%, each adding more of the work below the surface. Toronto’s 6% Municipal Accommodation Tax and any platform fees sit on top of that, and long-term tenancies are typically quoted separately from these booking-based tiers.
For a nightly-booked or furnished mid-term unit, Certus charges a percentage of each booking rather than a flat monthly fee, so the dollar amount moves with what the unit actually earns rather than staying fixed whether it is full or empty. The three published tiers cover a different amount of work, not just a different number.
| Tier | Fee | Built for |
|---|---|---|
| Essential Stewardship | 10% per booking | An owner who wants the basics handled: listing, calendar, guest messages, cleaning |
| Refined Residence | 15% per booking | An owner who wants pricing and positioning actively managed, not just maintained |
| Prestige Management | 20% per booking | An owner who wants reporting, licensing and staging handled without being asked |
Full inclusions for each tier are published on our pricing page. Long-term tenancies are usually priced differently across the industry, as a percentage of collected rent plus a placement fee when a new tenant signs, and Certus quotes that separately for a specific long-term rental rather than folding it into the booking-based tiers above.
The jump between tiers is not cosmetic. Essential Stewardship, at 10%, covers listing management, booking and calendar management, guest communication, maintenance and cleaning, and rental insurance. That is the full operational floor: someone else answers the messages, coordinates the clean, and the property is insured while it is being rented out.
Refined Residence, at 15%, adds premium listing management, listing SEO, dynamic pricing, inventory management, and concierge service. The addition that shows up on the statement fastest is dynamic pricing: a nightly rate that gets adjusted against demand and events earns more over a year than one that gets set once and left alone, which is part of why this is the tier Certus sees chosen most.
Prestige Management, at 20%, adds financial reporting, licensing support, furnishing and staging, and a dedicated account manager. This tier suits an owner who wants the paperwork done for them too: City registration renewals tracked, a statement that reconciles revenue against tax owed, and one person to call rather than a rotating support queue.
A flat monthly management fee is the same whether the unit is fully booked or sitting empty for two weeks. A percentage-of-booking fee moves with the unit’s own performance: nothing earned means nothing charged, and a strong month costs more in fee only because it also paid out more in revenue. That structure lines up the manager’s incentive with the owner’s, since a manager earning a percentage has a direct reason to keep the calendar full and the nightly rate correct, not just to keep the account on the books.
The management fee is not the only number on the page. Toronto’s short-term rental bylaw, Chapter 547, applies a 6% Municipal Accommodation Tax to short-term rental revenue, collected on top of whatever tier fee is charged. Booking platforms also take their own cut of each reservation before the payout reaches the owner, separate from the management fee entirely. For a furnished or boutique unit, the initial cost of furnishing and staging is a one-time expense outside any tier, though Prestige Management includes coordinating that work.
The honest comparison is not the fee against zero. It is the fee against the hours a property actually takes and the revenue lost to a vacancy or a nightly rate left flat too long. A unit priced correctly against demand routinely earns back more than the gap between the 10% and 15% tiers, and a turnover handled the same day rather than three days later is often the difference between one booking and a gap in the calendar that never gets recovered.
Owners weighing this against a short-term rental management service should compare the tier fee against what they are currently losing to an under-priced calendar or a slow turnover, not against the idea of paying nothing at all. Self-managing is not free, it is paid in hours and in the risk of a missed compliance deadline instead of a percentage.
The three tiers are not good, better, best versions of the same task list. Each one answers a different question about how much of the work an owner still wants to do personally.
Property type matters as much as owner preference. A single downtown condo with a stable booking pattern rarely needs Prestige Management to perform well. A character property or a multi-unit portfolio, where positioning, staging, and reporting compound across more than one listing, is where the higher tier tends to earn back its fee fastest.
Certus charges 10%, 15%, or 20% per booking depending on the tier, rather than a flat monthly fee, for short-term and furnished rentals. Long-term tenancies are typically quoted separately as a percentage of collected rent.
Essential Stewardship, at 10% per booking, covers listing management, booking and calendar management, guest communication, maintenance and cleaning, and rental insurance. It is the full operational floor, not a stripped-down version of the service.
No. The 6% Municipal Accommodation Tax is a separate charge on short-term rental revenue under Chapter 547, collected on top of whatever management tier fee applies, and it does not go to Certus.
Refined Residence, at 15% per booking, is the tier Certus sees chosen most, largely because dynamic pricing tends to recover more revenue over a year than the extra 5% it costs over the base tier.
Yes. The 10 to 20 percent tiers above are built for booking-based, short-term and furnished management. A long-term rental is typically priced differently, as a percentage of collected rent, and Certus quotes that separately for the specific property.
Certus manages rentals across Toronto, North York, Etobicoke, Scarborough, Mississauga, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, and Oakville, and can walk through which tier fits a specific property before anyone signs anything.
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Toronto property management and short-term rental specialists. We manage Airbnb, mid-term, and long-term rentals across the GTA.
