Airbnb and short-let management in London

Why London short stays earn all year

The guests are mostly working. The hospital trusts, from Guy's and St Thomas' and King's College Hospital south of the river to Barts Health, UCLH and Imperial north of it, bring locum, training and contractor stays of a week to a month, booked Sunday to Friday. People relocating to the City, Canary Wharf or a university post want a furnished flat for the first few months while the home is found. Students arrive in September and leave in June, and their families visit in between. Weekends and school holidays fill from visitors, and the big events lift demand in their own weeks.

We price by season and by day of the week: a higher rate for summer and busy weekends, a midweek rate for the hospitals and the contractors, minimum stays in the quiet weeks after Christmas, and a monthly review against what is actually booking in your part of London, never a city-wide average. A flat near the Royal London in Whitechapel and a house in Kingston book differently and are priced differently.

The fee and the choices

• SA Co-Host, 12% of net booking revenue: pricing by season, guest messages and the listing. You keep your own cleaner. The usual London starting point.
• Full SA Management, 18% of net booking revenue, cleaning at cost: everything: guest vetting and messaging around the clock, cleaning and linen, restocking, repairs, reviews, the register admin when it opens, and one monthly owner statement with the night count for the business-rates test.
• SA Launch, £495: photography, listings, a direct-booking page, pricing rules, house manual, the borough licensing check and the compliance pack. Waived with 12 months of Full SA Management.

No VAT, no 12-month minimum, and you can leave on 30 days' notice. Ina does the inspections and the owner meetings in person; head office runs the guest side around the clock.

Flex Switch: short stays, longer lets and a tenancy

One property, three shapes, one agent: short stays priced by season; furnished, bills-inclusive lets of a month or more for contractor, relocation, insurance and hospital stays, which suit the quieter months and mean fewer changeovers; and a tenancy, managed at 12% capped at £150 a month. Flex Switch moves the property between them with no re-onboarding and the same owner statement.

A let of a month or more to someone as their home will usually be an assured periodic tenancy under the Renters' Rights Act, and we say so before you sign. A national co-host cannot take a flat back as a tenancy and a high-street agent will not run it as a short let; we do both.

Business rates, council tax, the register and the honest answer

In England a self-catering property is rated as a business only if it was available to let for 140 nights and actually let for 70 in the past year. Below that it pays council tax, and several boroughs, including Brent, Croydon, Havering and Tower Hamlets, have charged a 100% premium on furnished second homes since 1 April 2025. We check yours, and the monthly statement carries the night count. The government has said a national short-let register for England will be running by March 2027; we register your property when it opens.

For many London flats the honest answer is the tenancy. A Southwark flat averages £2,474 a month as a long let, and a short let has to beat that after cleaning, platform fees and empty nights. We recommend whichever figure is higher, and we manage either.

Next step: the free short-let appraisal

Request the free short-let appraisal with the address. You get the tenancy figure and the short-let figure side by side, each net of every cost and priced for your part of London by season, with the borough licensing position and the night-test position in writing. If the tenancy wins, the free rent review figure is the same one and we manage it at £150 a month.