Printed Methodology · No Pay to Rank

Find the right manager for your short term rental

STR Select ranks short term rental managers, revenue services and host tools on one printed formula with no paid placements. Ideal Property Management, Blackbird Hospitality and Galvanized Management lead the Poconos list, and every ranked page carries its sources and checked date. Checked October 25, 2026.

Ranked lists of STR management companies, revenue services and host tools. Fees compared from published rates, owner reviews verified, every fact sourced and dated.

Last updated: October 25, 2026
1 Ideal Property ManagementBest overall · Poconos, PA · 4.5 ★ 2 Blackbird HospitalityListing stays in your name · Poconos, PA 3 Galvanized ManagementMost transparent pricing · Poconos, PA
0 paid rankingsFees from published ratesReviews LinkedIn verifiedEvery fact sourced and dated

Top of each list

How ranking works

The number one pick on each of our current lists, plus the fastest way to compare what managers charge. No placement on this site is paid.

How STR Select works

Free for owners and hosts. No company can pay for a listing, a rank or a lead.

1

Pick your market or category

Managers by market and town. Services and tools by job.

2

Compare published fees

Our fee index records real published rates. Where a company hides pricing, we say so.

3

Read verified reviews

LinkedIn connected, editor approved. No anonymous reviews.

4

Go direct or get matched

Every listing leads with the company's own site, or ask us to match you with one well reviewed manager.

The Fee Transparency Index

Nobody publishes what STR managers charge. So we do. Every market page carries a fee index built from managers' own pricing pages, re-checked quarterly: 2 of 16 managers evaluated publish a rate in the Poconos.

See the Poconos index
CompanyPublished feeStatus
Galvanized Management25% of gross rental incomePublished
Pocono Pads12% of gross revenue plus $1,000 one time signing feePublished
Pocono PadsNot publishedQuote only
Home Team Luxury Rentals15 to 22% reported by a third party review site. Not confirmed by the companyThird party report
Ideal Property ManagementNot published. Charged on net rent, after platform and cleaning fees, per owner interviews, September 2026Quote only

Services and tools, ranked the same way

The stack behind a well run rental, held to the same standard as the managers.

For owners

Deciding between managers?

Start with your market page: fees compared, reviews verified, town by town.

Find your market
For managers and vendors

Run a company we should list?

Claim your free listing, correct your facts, get your ranking badge and qualify for free owner requests.

Claim your listing

STR Select currently covers 11 markets (The Poconos, The Smoky Mountains, North Myrtle Beach, Tucson, Broken Bow, Joshua Tree, Blue Ridge, Destin, Big Bear Lake, Palm Springs and Sedona), with 60 ranked and 57 evaluated and not ranked managers across them. Beyond managers, 10 category rankings cover services and tools, with 53 ranked vendors between them. The fee index behind the market pages holds 116 records, each with its source and the date it was read.

Common questions

Straight answers about how this site works.

How much does STR management cost?

Full service management typically runs 18 to 30% of gross revenue depending on market. Our fee index records each company’s published rate or its refusal to publish one, per market.

Do companies pay to be on STR Select?

No. There are no sponsored or featured slots. Listing, claiming a profile, the ranking badge and lead matching are free, and none of them moves a company on a list. The methodology and its weights are printed for every list.

Are the reviews real?

Every review requires a connected LinkedIn profile and editor approval before it publishes, and nothing publishes until a company has at least two approved reviews. Anonymous reviews do not exist here.

How are the rankings scored?

Every ranked company is scored out of 100 on four printed inputs: fee transparency at 30%, verified owner reviews at 25%, local depth at 25% and service scope at 20%. Each ranked page lists its sources and the date we checked them.

Which markets are covered?

The Pocono Mountains, the Smoky Mountains, North Myrtle Beach, Tucson, Broken Bow, Joshua Tree and Blue Ridge are live with market and fee data. The top 20 US STR markets roll out through 2026. Tell us where to go next.

Which Smoky Mountains managers publish a rate?

Two of the 16 managers we evaluated there do. Cabins For You publishes a 10% management fee, and Short Term Coops publishes a flat 20% of net rental revenue plus a $75 monthly technology fee. The rest quote privately.

What should I ask before signing a management agreement?

Ask for the fee in writing before a walkthrough, plus the contract term and the cancellation notice, what is included, such as cleaning, versus billed separately, whether you keep owner use nights, and who legally holds the listing. National brands’ own sites range from no long term contract to a 12 month term with mutually agreeable termination.

Do I need a permit or registration to rent short term?

Almost always a local registration, plus tax registration. In the Poconos our dataset found registration or licensing required in 19 of the 23 municipalities (last checked September 26, 2026), and Mount Pocono’s application lists a $500 fee. Rules differ by township, so check the one your property is in.

What taxes apply to a short term rental?

Pennsylvania applies a 6% hotel occupancy tax to rentals arranged through online or third party brokers, and Monroe County adds 3%. In Tennessee the state sales tax is 7% with a local sales tax of 1.50% to 2.75%, and Sevierville adds a 3% lodging tax. Rates read from state and county pages on October 11, 2026; confirm yours before you file.

What do STR compliance tools cost?

Published host side pricing runs from $8.25 per month for one property at HostReady and $14.99 per month for up to 5 properties at STR Comply. Avalara MyLodgeTax does not publish a price on its site. We checked each vendor’s own pricing page for the ranking.

What does a management fee cover, and how is co-hosting different?

Full service usually covers listing management, pricing, guest messaging, turnover coordination and maintenance dispatch. Co-hosting and online tiers cut the on the ground work and cost less, for example the Pocono Pads online tier at 12% of gross revenue. Cleaning is often billed separately, so get the inclusion list in writing.

Transparency: STR Select has no paid placements. Every ranking follows the same printed methodology applied to the same sourced facts.

Sources

This page cites no outside pages. It is built from these STR Select data pages and files: