Checkmate Rentals Review
Checkmate Rentals sells a simple, clearly published deal — a 15%-of-nightly-rate co-host fee and permanent ownership of your Airbnb listing — backed by a real, named founder, though almost every rating and revenue figure on the site is self-reported with no independent platform we could use to check it.
Pros
- Publishes a clear headline fee — starting at 15% of the nightly rate only, explicitly excluding cleaning fees and other charges — well under the 25–40% range it contrasts itself against on its own pricing page
- Genuine co-host structure: the property stays on the owner's own Airbnb/VRBO/Booking.com account, so the owner keeps the listing, its guest reviews, and Superhost status permanently, and platform payouts go directly to the owner rather than through Checkmate
- No annual contracts, with new properties reportedly listed and live within about 3 days
- Included damage protection up to $3,000 per reservation, plus discounted insurance through a partner network
- Real, checkable identity behind the business — founder Chad Phillis is named with a direct email and phone number, LinkedIn independently confirms a 2020 founding and an 11–50-person company, and he's been interviewed on the Hospitable software podcast
- Genuinely broad footprint for a co-host operation — 25+ states with individual landing pages for 4,940 named locations rather than a handful of metro pages
Cons
- No independent platform corroborates the self-reported 4.9–5.0★ ratings on its own site: a direct BBB search for "Checkmate Rentals" in Pittsburgh, PA returns zero results, and our own attempts to open Trustpilot and Yelp directly both returned HTTP 403 errors
- Scale figures are entirely self-published and hard to square with each other: the homepage claims "10,000+ stays managed" and "$12M+" in hosted revenue across 25+ states, while the only outside data point we found — a Hospitable podcast interview with the founder — puts his current portfolio at roughly 220 properties
- Public-facing team is effectively one person: every contact path on the site (email, phone, booking link) routes to founder Chad Phillis, with no other staff named anywhere despite LinkedIn listing 11–50 employees
- No physical office address is published anywhere — only a Pittsburgh area code — even though a separate "local team" service page markets in-person, on-the-ground presence that sits in tension with the fully remote, direct-payout model on the pricing page
- Runs self-published content that blurs marketing with independent review — a blog post styled as a "review" of Checkmate written by Checkmate, plus dozens of "5 Best Airbnb Management Companies in [State]" posts; we opened the Kansas edition directly and confirmed it ranks Checkmate first, ahead of AvantStay, Vacasa, RedAwning, and Awning
Checkmate Rentals is a Pittsburgh, PA-based Airbnb co-hosting company founded by Chad Phillis in 2020. The pitch centers on one headline number and one structural promise: a management fee that “starts at 15%” of the nightly rate only, and a co-host model where the owner keeps their Airbnb listing, its guest reviews, and Superhost status permanently — not something every full-service manager on this list can say. This review is based on Checkmate's own site plus what we could independently confirm on LinkedIn, the Better Business Bureau, Yelp, Trustpilot, and Facebook.
How it works for owners
Checkmate operates as a co-host rather than a full-service manager that takes over the listing: the property stays under the owner's own Airbnb, VRBO, or Booking.com account, and Checkmate is added as a co-host. Per its pricing page, the fee “starts at 15%” and is charged on the nightly rate only, explicitly excluding cleaning fees and other charges — a narrower base than managers who take a cut of total revenue. Published services cover 24/7 guest messaging (1–15 minute response times claimed), professional cleaning and restocking, maintenance coordination, dynamic pricing, guest screening, post-booking inspections, and damage coverage up to $3,000 per reservation, plus discounted insurance through a partner network. New properties can reportedly go live “in as little as 3 days,” under “no annual agreements.”
Checkmate lists coverage across 25+ states, and its own city directory shows individual landing pages for 4,940 named locations — a genuinely broad footprint for a co-host operation. A separate local-team page on the same site markets an on-the-ground, in-person service (“a dedicated local team… not… a call center”) without naming which markets that covers — language that sits in some tension with the otherwise fully remote, direct-payout model described on the pricing page.
Case studies on the site put names to the pitch: Josh P. (Jamul, CA) says Checkmate got his rental-arbitrage unit to the $10,000-a-month he needed to break even; Ryan O. (Amelia Island, FL) says a condo that was “barely breaking even” under a prior on-site manager has generated more than $460,000 in revenue across roughly four years with Checkmate. These are specific, named accounts rather than generic praise — though published by Checkmate itself rather than an independent source.
What we could verify
Checkmate's own site states a 4.9★ Google rating, a 5.0★ (“Excellent”) Trustpilot rating, “10,000+ stays managed,” and “$12M+” in hosted client revenue across its 25+ states. We could not independently confirm any of these figures: a direct BBB search for “Checkmate Rentals” in Pittsburgh, PA returned zero results — there is no BBB profile, rating, or complaint history to check at all. Our own attempts to open Trustpilot and Yelp directly both returned HTTP 403 errors, and Checkmate's Facebook page loaded with no review content visible through our tools — three separate verification dead ends we're flagging rather than guessing around.
What we could confirm independently: LinkedIn lists Checkmate Rentals as founded in 2020, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, with 11–50 employees, which matches the founder's own account of the company's pandemic-era origin. A Hospitable (guest-messaging software) podcast interview with Chad Phillis corroborates his background and puts his current portfolio at roughly 220 managed properties — a more concrete number than anything published on Checkmate's own marketing pages, and a smaller one than the “25+ states, 4,940 locations” footprint might suggest by itself. Beyond Phillis, no other team member is named anywhere on the site; every contact path — email, phone, scheduling link — routes to him directly. We also found that Checkmate's own blog runs a post styled as a “review” of Checkmate written by Checkmate, plus dozens of “5 Best Airbnb Management Companies in [State]” posts; we opened the Kansas edition directly and confirmed it ranks Checkmate first, ahead of AvantStay, Vacasa, RedAwning, and Awning.
How it compares to our top pick
One Fine BnB is the standard we hold every manager on this list against, because it's owner-first and transparent about terms from the first call, with no gap between what's marketed and what a real team can back up. Checkmate's 15%-of-nightly-rate co-host fee is a genuinely competitive, clearly published number, and its permanent-ownership structure is a real advantage over managers who effectively hold your listing hostage if you leave. But its scale and rating claims currently rest entirely on its own site, with no BBB profile and blocked Yelp/Trustpilot access to check them against, and the public operation is built around one named person. See how it stacks up against the full field on our best Airbnb management companies ranking.
Bottom line
Checkmate Rentals offers one of the more clearly structured co-host deals in this set — a published 15%-of-nightly-rate fee, no annual contract, and an ownership model that leaves the listing and its reviews with the owner for good. It's a reasonable option for an owner in one of its 25+ states who wants that structure and is comfortable working directly with a small, founder-led team by phone and email. Get the full fee schedule and current in-state references in writing before signing, and go in aware that we could not independently verify the ratings or revenue figures the company publishes about itself.