How to Get Paid Automatically as a Concierge Company (Without Chasing Owners)
Split payment automatically divides your concierge commission at the moment the guest or tenant pays, at the same time as the owner’s share. No more invoices to send, no more bank transfers to chase: the money goes straight where it’s supposed to.
In this article, you’ll learn how split payment works, why it’s become unavoidable, and how Unlocker made it 100% compliant for your concierge company.
Why split payment is becoming unavoidable
If you manage short-term rentals, you already know this scenario:
A guest pays for their booking or rent, the money lands with the owner, and you send your invoice hoping they remember to pay your commission. Sometimes it goes fine, and sometimes it sounds more like this:
- “Oh sorry, I forgot.”
- “I’ll do it this weekend, promise.”
- “I’m waiting on a transfer, I’ll pay you as soon as it arrives.”
- “Can you resend the invoice? I can’t find it.”
- “I’m traveling, I’ll do it when I’m back.”
In short: you’re not paid automatically, you depend on the owner’s goodwill. You sometimes even front the cleaning fees without collecting anything, and you lose time chasing, calculating, checking and reconciling. The bigger you grow, the more unmanageable it gets.
How automated split payment works
Split payment automatically divides a payment among several recipients as soon as it’s made, without a single manual bank transfer:
- The guest or tenant pays.
- The owner receives their share, and yours arrives right alongside it.
- Cleaning fees are split automatically too.
No chasing, no waiting, no cash flow advances.
This topic is becoming strategic because the market is exploding, even if many concierge companies don’t see it yet: more than €43 billion generated by short-term rentals in France in 2023 according to Airbnb, and about 12 million long-term rentals a month according to Insee (the French national statistics office).
And yet most concierge companies still handle payments the old way: the owner takes care of the bank transfer, an Excel file, reminders. There’s a second problem, less visible but more serious: a concierge company isn’t allowed to collect funds on behalf of an owner without a real estate professional license for property management (the carte G, the French property management license). Even if you “receive the money and pay it out,” you’re technically outside the framework of the Hoguet Law (the 1970 French law regulating real estate professionals). That’s exactly where split payment makes the most sense: Unlocker carries the compliance for you.
How split payment makes life easier for concierge companies and owners
Split payment isn’t just a handy tool: it changes the financial mechanics between you and your owners.
For the concierge company
| Current problem | With split payment |
|---|---|
| You have to ask for your commission | You’re paid automatically with every booking |
| You have to trust the owner | You become financially independent |
| You sometimes front costs | No more cash flow advances |
| You lose time chasing | Zero chasing because zero manual bank transfers |
| You risk an inspection if you collect without a carte G | Unlocker carries the legal side for you |
| You have to create invoices | The commission is deducted automatically |
And if the carte G is still a sticking point, we detailed the best way for a concierge company to manage mid-term or long-term rentals while staying compliant, through delegation, in our article on managing long-term rentals without a carte G.
Simply put: you save time and cash, and you remove most of the friction with owners.
For the owner
| Before | After split payment |
|---|---|
| They have to remember to pay you your share | They have nothing left to do |
| They feel “skimmed” when you send your invoice | They receive their net payout directly |
| They can delay, forget, round off | Everything is automatic |
| They have to justify their transfers to their accountant | Flows are tracked and documented |
| They sometimes doubt the transparency | They see the details and the numbers in real time |
Split payment secures the relationship on both sides: no more gray area, no more “we’ll see.” Less human handling of money means fewer tensions and more business.
And if you sense an owner is comparing you to an agency, we put together a guide to answering an owner tempted by an agency that helps you explain clearly what you bring.
Real-world cases: what split payment changes in numbers
Here are 3 different profiles for 3 measurable results. At Unlocker, we don’t sell a promise, we show what it changes for real concierge companies.
Léna, 9 properties: getting out of cash flow advances
Goal: stop fronting cash and get paid automatically.
| Before split payment | After Unlocker split payment |
|---|---|
| She pays the cleaning company before being reimbursed | All payments are split automatically at collection |
| 7 to 10 days of cash flow lag | Cash available immediately with every booking |
| She chases owners for bank transfers | Owner paid automatically, zero chasing |
| No accounting structure | Statements and data handled automatically per unit |
| Legal risk if she collects on behalf of others | Compliant (Unlocker legally collects) |
Result: a big chunk of cash flow saved every month and no more personal advances.
Manu, 24 properties: more margin, fewer errors
Goal: increase margin and reduce errors.
| Before split payment | After Unlocker split payment |
|---|---|
| 4 software tools and Excel to track payments | Automatic split and one IBAN per property |
| 2 to 3 payout errors a month | 0 errors, everything goes through the platform |
| 2.5 hours a week “doing the books” | 0 hours, everything is reported automatically |
| The owner sees nothing | Owner dashboard, more trust |
| 18% real margin | 23% thanks to time saved and zero errors |
Result: margin recovered and a professional image to sign properties faster.
Marie, 55 properties: scaling without hiring
Goal: scale without hiring and secure herself legally.
| Before split payment | After Unlocker split payment |
|---|---|
| 1 full-time assistant dedicated to payments | Position eliminated, about €34,000 a year saved |
| Legal risk because she collected without a carte G | Compliant through Unlocker’s delegation |
| Manual accounting per unit | Automatic traceability and accounting export |
| Mixed flows, tension with some owners | Separate IBAN per property and real-time balance |
| Impossible to manage more than 60 units without hiring | Capacity of 120 units or more without a dedicated team |
Result: 21 properties signed in 8 months without hiring, and no risk of an inspection.
These three cases show the same thing: once split payment is in place, the concierge company can breathe again. You collect your commission automatically, you stop fronting cleaning costs, you eliminate payout errors, and the relationship with owners becomes simpler and more transparent.
Book a split payment demo
Want to see split payment for real, not just in theory? In the demo, you’ll see:
- how your commission arrives without chasing;
- how the owner is paid directly;
- how accounting exports generate themselves;
- how you never have to front money for a cleaning or a service again.
No commitment, no sales fluff: you come with your questions, and we show you live how we split a rent payment and why more than 100 concierge companies have already switched.
- Loi n° 70-9 du 2 janvier 1970 (loi Hoguet), articles 1 et 3 (Légifrance) — verified on September 26, 2026
Fabrice Stehlin has been Unlocker's founder and CEO since June 2022. He holds a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Haute-Alsace. Before Unlocker, he led teams and projects in major medical biology laboratories in Switzerland, which gave him a strong culture of rigor and compliance. He founded Unlocker so that a rental management professional controls the account where the money lands.
Frequently asked questions
What is split payment for a concierge company?
Split payment automatically divides a payment among several recipients as soon as the guest or tenant pays. The owner gets their share and the concierge company gets its commission at the same moment, with no manual bank transfer and no invoice to chase.
Is split payment legal without a carte G (the French property management license)?
Yes, as long as you go through a provider that carries Hoguet Law (the 1970 French law regulating real estate professionals) compliance for you. A concierge company can't legally collect funds on behalf of an owner without a property management license, unless it delegates to an authorized third party like Unlocker.
How does a concierge company get paid with split payment?
Its commission is deducted automatically with each payment, with no separate invoice to issue. Cleaning fees and other vendors can be split the same way, straight from the guest's payment.
Does split payment work for long-term rentals?
Yes, the same mechanism applies to rent on a furnished or unfurnished lease: the owner and the concierge company are paid at the same time, without the concierge company having to chase a bank transfer every month.
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