Frequently asked questions

Book a 15-minute discovery call. We will ask about your property, your goals, and your current arrangement. If there is a potential fit, we deliver a free 48-hour listing audit with a four-week pricing calendar for your property. If the numbers work, we begin onboarding under a 90-day pilot.

We manage four types of short-term let property in Yorkshire: city-centre apartments (primarily Leeds), holiday homes and second properties, premium family homes (3-5 bedrooms in Harrogate, York, Ilkley), and rural cottages and barn conversions in the Dales and Moors. We do not manage HMOs, student lets, or long-term tenancies.

Every engagement starts with a 90-day pilot. Weeks 1-2 are onboarding and compliance checks. Weeks 1-6 are hypercare — intensive monitoring with your first stays carefully controlled. Weeks 7-12 move to steady state with a weekly scorecard tracking 10 leading indicators. At day 60 we review the trend together. At day 90 we conduct a full performance review against your baseline. If it is working, we continue on a rolling 30-day notice. If it is not, you leave with no penalties.

Typically 7-14 days from signed agreement to first live listing. This includes the compliance gate (insurance, safety certificates, lease checks where relevant), professional photography, listing creation across all channels, smart lock installation, guest guide creation, and cleaner briefing. We do not rush onboarding — getting the setup right prevents problems later.

We currently operate across Yorkshire: Leeds (our beachhead), York, Harrogate, Bradford, the Yorkshire Dales, the North York Moors, and the Yorkshire Coast. We expand deliberately — valley by valley in rural areas, building cluster by cluster in cities — to ensure operational quality.

Yes. Many of our target clients own 2-10 properties. We offer portfolio management with a single monthly statement covering all units, one relationship manager, and cleaner pods assigned by building cluster or valley. The 20% fee rate applies to each property individually.

20% of net accommodation revenue. Fixed. Net accommodation revenue is the gross booking amount minus platform commissions (Airbnb, Booking.com, etc.). This single fee covers pricing optimisation, guest communications, channel management, owner reporting, compliance oversight, and operational coordination. There is no VAT on top because we are below the VAT threshold.

No. There is no onboarding fee, no setup charge, and no upfront payment. We invest in the onboarding because we are confident the numbers will work. If they do not, we both find out during the 90-day pilot.

Three categories of pass-through costs sit outside the management fee. First, housekeeping: a published, all-in per-stay charge that covers cleaning, linen, and consumables — this is non-commissionable (we do not take 20% of the cleaning cost). Second, maintenance and repairs: passed through at cost with receipts, within an owner-approved spend threshold. Third, any owner-requested enhancements (professional photography refreshes, new amenities). All pass-throughs are itemised in your monthly statement.

No. Pass-through costs are charged at cost with receipts. Two-ledger accounting keeps your money separate from ours. Every line in your monthly statement reconciles to a channel payout, an invoice, or a receipt. This is a structural commitment, not a marketing promise.

Your statement arrives by the 5th working day each month. It shows: gross revenue by channel, platform commissions deducted, net accommodation revenue, management fee (20%), housekeeping charges per stay, any maintenance costs with receipts, and your net to owner. It also includes a short-let net vs long-let net comparison line so you always know whether the model is working.

We calculate the break-even at onboarding: required gross = your long-let baseline divided by 0.80. Every month, your statement includes a short-let net vs long-let net comparison. If short-letting is not beating your long-let line after our fee, you will see it clearly — and so will we.

Owner disbursements are made via bank transfer. Channel payouts (Airbnb, Booking.com, etc.) flow through our client account and are reconciled in your monthly statement. We operate two-ledger accounting — your money is held separately from our operating funds.

24/7 human guest support. Real people answering messages around the clock — within 15 minutes during operating hours (08:00-22:00) and 30 minutes overnight. We handle all booking enquiries, pre-arrival information, in-stay support, and post-stay reviews. Owners are removed from the notification cycle entirely.

Cleaner pods assigned by building cluster (in cities) or valley (in rural areas). Every turnover is photo-verified against a property-specific checklist. Confirmed defects trigger a re-clean or fix — documented and shared. For premium properties (4+ bedrooms), we use two-person clean teams with supervisor sign-off. We maintain a visual housekeeping standards document for each property and conduct quarterly presentation refreshes.

Urgent issues are triaged within 60 minutes during operating hours. We carry an owner-approved spend threshold for quick fixes (typically up to a set amount). Above that threshold, we send photos, a quote, and wait for your sign-off. All maintenance is passed through at cost with receipts — no mark-ups. We maintain a trades network built around the areas we serve.

We use dynamic pricing tools (Wheelhouse or similar) as a baseline, then layer on manual adjustments for local events. We maintain event calendars for each area — arena concerts, fixtures, festivals, graduations, conferences — and apply measured uplifts. In your monthly statement, we call out event impacts so you can see what the pricing strategy produced.

Every booking goes through a screening process: platform-native ID verification, third-party risk scoring for direct bookings and lower-verification channels, pattern checks (local one-nighters with no reviews are flagged), and a 25+ age floor for entire-property bookings. We take structured deposits, use Minut noise monitoring for occupancy and noise alerts, and enforce clear house rules.

Yes. You nominate protected weeks at onboarding. Those dates are held for you and only released for booking 120 days out if you have not reconfirmed. You can also make two emergency holds per year for dates not already sold. Your personal-use days are excluded from performance reporting so the numbers reflect genuine letting activity only.

We distribute across 60+ channels including Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia, Google Vacation Rentals, and direct booking sites. Multi-channel distribution maximises exposure and reduces dependency on any single platform. Channel performance is broken out in your monthly statement.

During the 90-day pilot: weekly scorecards plus a day-60 review meeting. After the pilot: monthly owner statement by the 5th working day. For premium properties: fortnightly owner summaries during the first 60 days. Same-day incident alerts with photos at any time. You are never left wondering — but you are never overwhelmed either.

Pre-launch compliance gate: we check planning status (especially for conversions and annexes), verify insurance coverage, confirm gas safety certificate (CP12), EICR (electrical), smoke and CO alarms, fire risk assessment, and — for properties with hot tubs — HSG282 Legionella risk management. We diarise expiry dates and coordinate renewals. We do not list until every required item is confirmed.

The UK government is introducing a mandatory registration scheme for short-term let properties, targeted for implementation from April 2026. All short-let operators will need to register with a central body and maintain evidence of compliance with safety and quality standards. We handle registration as part of onboarding and maintain the evidence pack the scheme requires.

Standard home insurance or buy-to-let policies almost never cover short-term letting to paying guests. You need a specialist serviced-accommodation policy covering guest damage, public liability for guests on the premises, and loss of rental income. We recommend obtaining quotes from providers such as Pikl, Guardhog, or Proper Insurance. We will not go live until your insurance is confirmed, and we track renewal dates.

We check lease covenants and block rules during onboarding. If short-letting is not permitted or the block manager is uncomfortable, we do not proceed. We provide an introducer letter to the block manager and a building brief to demonstrate how we operate responsibly. If the lease is ambiguous, we advise seeking freeholder permission before listing. We decline properties where the lease clearly prohibits short-term letting.

Most buy-to-let mortgages do not permit short-term letting without explicit lender consent. Lenders can call in loans or switch to costlier rates if short-letting is discovered without consent. We verify lender consent as part of the compliance gate before we list. This protects you from accidental breach.

National Park Authorities (Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors) can set local planning policies that affect holiday letting — including conditions on conversions, restrictions on change of use, and requirements for new tourism accommodation. We check your property's status against National Park plan policies during onboarding and advise you on any implications before the first guest arrives.

The 90-day pilot is the only commitment period, and even that has an early discussion at day 60. After the pilot, the agreement moves to a rolling 30-day notice period. No lock-in. No exit penalties. We rely on performance, not contracts.

Rolling 30-day notice. No exit penalties. We hand over neatly — calendars, access codes, photos, SOPs, supplier details — and complete any in-flight bookings. You retain all photos and content commissioned during the engagement.

If the numbers are not trending by day 60, we discuss it openly. If they are still not working at day 90, you leave with no penalties. We complete any in-flight bookings and hand over all documentation. A manager who relies on lock-in contracts needs you to stay regardless of performance. We rely on evidence.

Yes. All professional photography and listing content commissioned during the engagement belongs to you. If you leave, you keep the photos, the guest guide, and the operational documentation we created.

We manage security deposits and damage claims through a documented process: photo evidence before and after every stay, timestamped logs linked to guest communications, and a clear claim workflow. Damage is something we plan for, document, and recover from — with evidence ready before anyone asks for it.