Setting Your Price
You control your nightly rate, your mileage allowance, and your overage rate. Here's how each piece works and what actually lands in your account.
Your nightly rate
This is the base price a guest pays per night, before Carvia's commission, before extras, before the guest's own protection plan cost. You can update it any time from your listing settings — changes apply to future bookings, not trips already confirmed.
Pricing competitively
Before you set a number, look at similar listings in your area — same or comparable make/model, similar age and mileage. A price that's well above the local range will sit unbooked; a price too far below it leaves money on the table and can signal something's off with the car. Most hosts land close to the local range for their vehicle class and adjust from there based on how quickly (or slowly) their calendar fills up. You can also price higher for peak dates and lower for slower stretches — Carvia doesn't require a flat rate across your whole calendar.
Mileage allowance and overage rate
Every listing includes a mileage allowance — 200 miles per day by default — that guests get as part of their trip price. You can raise your allowance if you want to compete for longer road-trip bookings, though a higher included allowance is worth factoring into your nightly rate.
Miles driven beyond the allowance are billed at a per-mile overage rate you set, shown to the guest at booking so there's no surprise at return. Set this rate thoughtfully: too low and it doesn't cover your actual cost of wear and depreciation; too high and it can feel punitive to a guest who ran a few miles over. Overage charges are billed to the guest and paid out to you the same way as the rest of your trip earnings.
How your commission is calculated
Carvia doesn't charge a separate host fee on top of your rate — your commission is built into the earnings plan you choose per vehicle:
| Plan | Your share of trip price | Carvia's commission |
|---|---|---|
| Max Protection | 75% | 25% |
| Balanced | 85% | 15% |
| Max Earnings | 93% | 7% |
So if you set a $100/night rate and a guest books 3 nights ($300 trip subtotal) on the Balanced plan, you receive $255 — 85% of $300 — regardless of what the guest pays in service fees or protection costs on top. Your earnings plan also sets your damage-responsibility exposure per claim; see Choosing an Earnings Plan for the full breakdown and how to pick the right one.
Where extras fit in
Anything you add as an extra — child seat, roof rack, prepaid mileage, and so on — is priced separately by you and charged on top of the trip price. Your commission rate applies to extras the same way it applies to your nightly rate; Carvia doesn't take an additional cut. See Managing Extras as a Host.
Getting paid
Whatever you earn — nightly rate, mileage overage, extras — becomes payable 24 hours after trip completion (assuming no damage report is filed) and pays out on Carvia's fixed twice-weekly schedule, every Tuesday and Friday. See Getting Paid: Payout Schedule.