Choosing an Earnings Plan

Your earnings plan sets two things at once: how much of every trip you keep, and how much of a damage claim comes out of your pocket. Here's how to pick.

The three plans

Every vehicle you list gets its own earnings plan — you can run different plans on different cars in your fleet if you want. Here's the full breakdown:

|---|---|---|---|

| Max Protection | 75% | 25% | $250 |

| Balanced | 85% | 15% | $1,250 |

| Max Earnings | 93% | 7% | $2,500 |

"Damage responsibility" is the portion of a claim on your vehicle that isn't covered by Carvia's protection program — it's what you'd be on the hook for if a trip goes wrong. A lower number is the safer financial position. Max Protection trades some of your earnings share for the lowest possible exposure; Max Earnings pays you the most per trip but leaves more of a claim on your side.

At every tier, Carvia's host share runs several points above what's typical in this industry — we'd rather compete on giving you more of every trip than on fine print.

The tradeoff, plainly

Think of it as a dial between earnings and protection, not a "best" and "worst" option:

Max Protection (75%) is the conservative choice. You give up 18 points of share versus Max Earnings, but if something goes wrong, you're capped at $250 out of pocket.
Balanced (85%) splits the difference — a solid middle ground for most hosts once they've got a trip or two under their belt.
Max Earnings (93%) pays the most per trip, but a claim could cost you up to $2,500 — ten times your Max Protection exposure.

Who should pick which

There's no universally "right" plan — it depends on your car, your risk tolerance, and how much cash cushion you want on hand.

New to hosting, or hosting an expensive/hard-to-repair car? Start with Max Protection. You're still learning how guests treat your car and how the platform works; capping your worst-case exposure at $250 while you get comfortable is the safer bet, even at a lower share.
A few trips in, comfortable with your screening and your car's value? Balanced is a reasonable default for most hosts — a meaningfully higher share with exposure that's still manageable if a claim does come through.
Experienced host, confident in your guest screening (or running Instant Book with tight guest requirements), and driving a car where a $2,500 worst case wouldn't sting? Max Earnings gets you the most out of every trip.

Your history on the platform, your car's replacement/repair cost, and your own comfort with risk all matter more than any one-size-fits-all rule.

Changing your plan

You can change your earnings plan for a vehicle at any time in your listing settings — there's no lock-in period and no penalty for switching. The one rule: the plan that's active when a trip starts is the plan that governs that trip. Changing your plan mid-trip doesn't retroactively apply, and it won't affect a trip already underway. If you switch plans, the new plan applies to every trip booked from that point forward.

This means you can start conservative on Max Protection while you're new, then move to Balanced or Max Earnings once you've built a track record — or dial back to Max Protection any time your risk tolerance changes, no explanation required.

How this connects to claims

Whatever plan you're on, every claim follows the same published timeline — acknowledgment within 1 business day, an initial determination within 2 business days of evidence being submitted, final resolution within 7 business days, and payout within 3 business days of a final decision. Your damage-responsibility figure only determines how much of an approved claim is yours to cover, not how the claim itself is decided or how long it takes. See Claims SLA: What to Expect and Filing a Damage Claim (Host).