About Straight Up Stays
We market, let and run short-let properties across the UK, for owners who want their property booked, not just managed. Eight short chapters on who is behind it, why it exists and where it is going, so you can judge us before you speak to us.
A property should be booked, not just managed.
The marketing comes first, and the operation is held to the same standard.
A valuation is only worth having if it is right.
Every figure we give you carries the assumptions behind it, so you can check the thinking.
Sometimes the answer is no.
Finding that out for free, before you spend anything, is a good result.
Owners stay because the arrangement works.
Thirty days' notice, no lock-in, no exit fees.
The properties that won weren't always the nicest. They were the best marketed.
Before I managed properties, I marketed them. For more than a decade I helped short-term rental businesses build their brands, win direct bookings and rely less on Airbnb and Booking.com. I have worked with more than 250 short-term rental brands: building holiday-let websites, running SEO campaigns and planning content marketing.
One client stands out: a striking coastal property that had been on television, with an owner paying a large agency fee for mediocre results. We repositioned the brand, rebuilt the website and raised prices by 30%, adding an estimated £250,000 in revenue within 90 days. That changed my career. I wanted to do the work for owners myself.
Most management companies are built to run stays. Straight Up Stays is built to win them and run them, with the booking strategy taken as seriously as the booking operation. Accountable for both sides. That's the whole point of it.
Leo Simpson, Founder
Alongside the company, Leo runsa community on Skoolof 500 people getting into short-term rentals. Much of the thinking on this site is tested there first.
The industry is organised around running stays: cleaning, keys, messages, changeovers, statements. The part that decides whether there is a stay to run at all, the marketing, is usually a listing and a hope. Straight Up Stays was set up to do that part properly and to be accountable for the operation at the same time.
Before 2023
More than a decade marketing short-term rentals. Websites, SEO and content for more than 250 short-term rental brands, winning direct bookings and reducing their reliance on the platforms.
4 January 2023
Straight Up Stays Ltd incorporated in England and Wales, registered in Hartland, North Devon.
Today
Fully managed Airbnb and short-let management for suitable properties throughout the UK, each one distributed across 30+ booking sites from a single calendar.
One service, described the same way everywhere on this site: fully managed Airbnb and short-let management. The owner journey is Valued, Set Up, Booked, Paid. Behind it, the marketing runs on four moves: position the property, distribute it, price it, and keep optimising.
Before anything else you get a realistic revenue range for your property with the assumptions shown, and a recommendation that is sometimes "don't".
Preparation, photography, listing creation, pricing and the operational workflows behind a property that is ready to be booked.
Distribution across 30+ booking sites, synced from a single calendar, with pricing moved as demand, season and booking pace move.
Guests, vetting, check-ins, changeovers, cleaning, linen, restocking, maintenance coordination and reviews.
A statement in plain figures, then your payout. The full service, itemised.
Straight Up Stays helped turn the property from something we weren't sure how to launch into a properly prepared short-let. The setup was clear, the advice was practical, and it felt like there was a proper plan behind the listing rather than just putting it online and hoping for the best.
AngelaI wanted the property to work as a short-let, but I didn't want the constant messages, guest issues and changeovers. Straight Up Stays made the whole process feel much simpler. I know what's happening, but I'm not dragged into the day-to-day running of it.
The bookings came in much quicker than I expected, and it was clear there was proper marketing experience behind the launch. Straight Up Stays think carefully about the listing, the pricing and the type of guest the property would appeal to.
SeanMore of each year's bookings should come from guests who return, recommend, or found the property without a marketplace in between.
The booking platforms are distribution. They are very good at it, and every property we manage is on them. They are also the most expensive way to reach a guest who already knows and likes the property, and they keep the relationship for themselves.
Building the other kind of demand is slower than writing a listing, and it compounds. It is the reason a marketer started this company, and it is what the marketing side of the service is built around.
500
Leo runs a community on Skool for people getting into short-term rentals: owners at the start, people weighing up a first property, and hosts who want to run theirs better. Questions get asked in the open, and much of what ends up on this site was answered there first.
Written to be useful before you are a customer: what properties really earn, what management costs, and what the rules mean for you. Every figure traces to a source; regulation pages carry a visible checked date; no competitor is named and no income is promised; corrections are same-day and dated. Read the guides.
Email leo@straightupstays.com and it lands with him. A valuation request gets a reply within one working day.
A North Devon business, run from North Devon, serving suitable properties throughout the UK. The operation runs through one central system and local cleaning and maintenance partners, so the service is the same in Gloucester or Winchester as it is on the North Devon coast.
The next step
One short form. A realistic range, the assumptions behind it, and a clear recommendation on whether it is worth doing.
Get a free Airbnb valuationAbout a minute, no obligation, and we reply within one working day.
