Short-let investing, as it works in practice.

Occupancy decides most of it

Occupancy is the share of available nights that are booked. A long let pays the same rent whatever the calendar looks like. A short let earns only on the nights someone stays, so occupancy and the nightly rate together set your income.

Across our Hayes flats, occupancy was 94% from January to August 2026. That's what those flats achieved over those months. It isn't a forecast for any other home, because occupancy moves with location, season and how well a home is run.

So test any purchase at lower occupancy as well. The investor calculator works out the occupancy at which a short let breaks even, and shows what happens 10 points either side of your estimate.

Price by the night, not by the month

Demand isn't flat. Weekends, school holidays, local events and how far ahead someone books all change what a night is worth. Prices work best reviewed night by night against similar homes nearby, not set once for the year.

Stay length matters too. Every stay brings a clean, fresh linen and a check-in, whatever its length. Fewer, longer stays mean fewer of those costs for the same number of nights booked. A minimum stay of two or three nights is one way to get there.

Cleaning sets the standard

Our homes held a 4.9 average guest rating as of September 2026. In our experience, the turnover between one guest and the next is where a rating like that is kept or lost.

Most hosts charge guests a cleaning fee for each stay and pay a cleaner for each turnover. The two rarely match exactly. Budget for linen, laundry and consumables such as soap, toilet roll and tea, and plan for same-day turnovers, when one guest leaves in the morning and the next arrives that afternoon. You need a cleaner who can come at short notice.

What the platforms take

Airbnb's host-only fee is 15.5% for most hosts. It's worked out on your nightly price plus any fees you add, cleaning included. Airbnb says the fee it shows is VAT-inclusive where VAT applies, and on our UK listings the 15.5% already includes it. Other platforms set their own commission, so read each one's terms before you list.

Here's one stay, followed through to what's left.

Illustration · one 3-night stay at £130 a night	Amount
Room revenue, 3 nights	£390.00
Cleaning fee paid by the guest	£60.00
Airbnb host-only fee, 15.5% of £450	−£69.75
Cleaning cost	−£55.00
Management, 15% of the £325.25 left	−£48.79
Left for running costs, finance and you	£276.46

The nightly rate and cleaning figures are examples, not a forecast. The 15.5% is Airbnb's fee as published on 5 October 2026. The 15% is the full-management fee of Naras Property Management, part of our group: it includes VAT and is charged after cleaning and platform fees.

What's left still has to pay for utilities and broadband, council tax or business rates, insurance, repairs, safety checks, replacing worn furnishings and any mortgage. The calculator adds all of these up for a full year.

Safety checks before the first guest

Letting a home to paying guests brings a landlord's safety duties and some of a business's. In England, as of 5 October 2026:

• Gas. The Health and Safety Executive's landlord duties cover rented holiday accommodation, flats included. A Gas Safe registered engineer checks every gas appliance and flue you provide each year, and you keep the record for two years.
• Electrics. Government fire safety guidance for small paying guest accommodation says the electrical installation should be inspected and tested at least every five years. That inspection produces an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR).
• Fire. Fire safety law applies once you charge someone to stay, even for one night. You need a fire risk assessment, and since 1 October 2023 it must be recorded in full, whatever the size of the business. For a small home, the guidance expects interlinked smoke alarms, a heat alarm in the kitchen, and a carbon monoxide alarm if the home has a gas or solid-fuel appliance.

Check in writing, too, that your mortgage lender, your insurer and, for a leasehold flat, your lease all allow short lets. GOV.UK's guidance for self-catering homes says you should have dedicated holiday let insurance and public liability cover.

Council tax or business rates

In England, a home let for stays of 28 nights or less is valued for business rates instead of council tax if it:

• was available to let for at least 140 nights in the last 12 months
• was actually let for at least 70 nights in the last 12 months
• is planned to be available for at least 140 nights in the next 12 months.

If it's the only property you let in England and its rateable value is under £15,000, you may qualify for small business rate relief. A home that misses the tests pays council tax. Since April 2025, councils in England can add a premium of up to 100% to the council tax on a furnished home that is no one's main residence. It's each council's choice, and some exceptions apply. Wales sets its own, higher thresholds.

Tax and registration

The furnished holiday lettings tax regime ended on 6 April 2025 for income tax and capital gains tax, and on 1 April 2025 for corporation tax. Income from a short let is now taxed like other rental income. Holiday let tax after FHL explains what changed.

You must register for VAT if your total taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000. If you run several homes, ask your accountant how that applies to your lettings.

As of 2 October 2026, GOV.UK says a mandatory national registration scheme for short lets in England is expected to begin in March 2027. England's short-let register covers what we know so far.

Running it from overseas

Most of this is daily work: pricing, guest messages, cleans, keys, checks and the paperwork behind them, often at short notice. If you'd rather not run it yourself, we can arrange it through Naras Property Management, on full management or on guaranteed rent. On the guaranteed-rent route, you're paid a fixed monthly rent for an agreed number of years, whether or not the home is booked.