For Bristol owners who want their home booked, not just managed.
Bristol’s short lets grew by about half in a year. We make yours the one guests choose: marketed to the people who really book the city, from hospital staff and contractors to concert weekends, priced through the year and run from first photograph to monthly statement.
“Beautiful apartment close to centre of town. Hosts were very accommodating”
Straight Up Stays runs Airbnb and short-let homes in Bristol from end to end, and specialises in the two kinds of booking that make a Bristol home earn all year: mid-term stays (hospital staff, contractors and people relocating) and direct bookings through the home’s own booking page. We write the listing for the guests who book Bristol, price it month by month and event by event, list it on 30+ booking sites, look after every guest, send a professional Bristol cleaning company to every changeover and report in one monthly statement. The fee is a percentage of booking revenue, with no lock-in and 30 days’ notice.
Updated 29 October 2026. Market figures from AirROI and Airbtics; council tax from Bristol City Council; business rates from GOV.UK.
“Lovely apartment very well located great central heating comfortable beds and had everything that I needed thank you Leo”
“Kitchen was small but well equipped, so great even for a small family like ours. Leo was very responsive and helpful, would defo stay again”
The long stay
£67,500
A three-bedroom bungalow that had earned around £1,100 a month as a long let took a single booking of 546 nights at an average of £171.82 a night, paying out £67,500. That is one property, not a typical or guaranteed result, and it is the kind of long stay we specialise in. See The Bungalow.
If that is all you needed to know, see what your Bristol home could earn.
Get my free revenue estimateWhy Bristol listings underearn
Because most are built for a city-break weekend, in a city that books by the working week.
Most Bristol listings are set up for one- or two-night stays. Three in four take them, and only about one in fifteen sets a minimum of a week or more.
Bristol’s guests stay longer. The average booking lasts 5.3 nights, and January’s 5.7. Hospitals, contractors and relocations book the working week and the month.
Meanwhile the city keeps getting more crowded. Listings grew about 51% in a year. The bottom quarter of Bristol listings are booked on 24% of nights or fewer; the top quarter on 70% or more.
So we write your home’s listing for the guests who book Bristol, give it its own booking page for direct bookings, sell its weekdays by the week and month, and price its weekends one event at a time.
Standing out in a crowded city
Write it for the guest who books it. Here is one Bristol two-bed listed four ways. Choose a guest and watch the title, the lead photograph, the highlights, the stay terms and the places it’s listed change with them.
Listed the usual way
Written for any guest at all, it looks like most of the 1,622 active listings around it and competes on price. Three in four Bristol listings are set up this way, for one or two nights.
Written for: hospital staff
Placements run for weeks or months, so these guests choose on quiet, a desk and the journey to the ward. The Bristol Royal Infirmary and Southmead Hospital bring them all year, including January.
Written for: contractors
Teams on aerospace, construction and regeneration work book Monday to Friday, week after week, and their company pays the bill. One good contractor relationship can fill a flat’s weekdays for a season.
Written for: event weekends
Concerts, matches, graduations, the Harbour Festival in July and the Balloon Fiesta in August. These weekends are known months ahead, so they go on sale at their own price as soon as the date is announced.
One flat can carry more than one of these at once: its weekdays sold to a contractor or a hospital placement, its weekends to an event crowd, and its own booking page taking the repeat guests direct. How direct bookings work · Mid-term lets explained
Who books Bristol
More kinds of guest than almost anywhere in the South West, and most of them aren’t on a weekend break. Each gets its own listing, price and minimum stay.
The longest stays come in January (5.7 nights) and September (5.1), so the quieter months are carried by longer bookings. AirROI, September 2025 to August 2026.
All year, by the week and month
The Bristol Royal Infirmary in the centre and Southmead Hospital in the north take staff on placements and rotations. They want somewhere quiet near the ward for weeks at a time.
Monday to Friday, all year
Aerospace work at Filton, the Temple Quarter regeneration and building sites across the city send teams who book the working week, often for months, on a company invoice.
Weeks to months
New jobs and house moves that don’t line up. A furnished flat for a month beats a hotel room, and it is marketed to them through relocation partners.
Set dates, known a year ahead
The University of Bristol and UWE Bristol bring open days, moving-in weekends and graduations: dates we price for before they arrive.
Weekends, booked early
Ashton Gate, Bristol Beacon, the Harbour Festival and the Balloon Fiesta. Each one is priced as its own weekend, with minimum stays that keep the nights around it sellable.
Weekends, all year
The harbourside, Clifton and the food and music scene. Short stays that fill the weekends a work booking leaves open.
Bristol’s quietest month brings its longest stays.
January 2026: 37.8% of open nights booked, and the average stay 5.7 nights. AirROI.
The gap
About half full, and the average hides a wide spread. In the same city and the same months, the bottom quarter of listings are booked on 24% of nights or fewer and the top quarter on 70% or more.
Occupancy tiers from AirROI, 12 months to September 2026, share of open nights booked. Market figures, not a forecast for any one home.
Where does your listing sit?
Around the middle.
About 7 more booked nights a month would put it in Bristol’s top quarter, which is booked on 70% or more.
A guide using Bristol’s market tiers. Your estimate looks at your home against comparable Bristol listings, with the assumptions shown.
Get my free revenue estimate| Month | Nights booked | Average night | Average stay | Booked ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2026 | 37.8% | £126 | 5.7 nights | 32 days |
| February 2026 | 44.7% | £126 | 4.8 nights | 32 days |
| March 2026 | 42.6% | £128 | 4.2 nights | 35 days |
| April 2026 | 43.7% | £131 | 4.6 nights | 43 days |
| May 2026 | 46.1% | £139 | 3.8 nights | 50 days |
| June 2026 | 48% | £141 | 4.9 nights | 46 days |
| July 2026 | 48.6% | £147 | 4.5 nights | 60 days |
| August 2026 | 48.9% | £144 | 3.8 nights | 54 days |
| September 2025 | 55.6% | £134 | 5.1 nights | 50 days |
| October 2025 | 52.3% | £132 | 4.7 nights | 39 days |
| November 2025 | 49.9% | £130 | 4.5 nights | 38 days |
| December 2025 | 44.5% | £133 | 4.2 nights | 37 days |
Flats, leases and council tax
Often, once five things are checked. Three in four Bristol entire-home listings are studios, one- or two-bedroom homes, and flats in England are almost always leasehold, so these come before the photographs.
A user clause requiring the flat to be used as a private residence can rule out short lets on its own, even where subletting is allowed with consent. We read it with you first. Airbnb in a leasehold flat.
A mortgage usually needs the lender’s consent before short letting, and the home needs holiday-let insurance in place before the first guest. Mortgage consent explained.
Bristol City Council has charged double council tax on furnished homes that are no one’s main home since 1 April 2025. Its listed exceptions don’t include short lets.
A short let moves to business rates instead if it was available for 140 nights and actually let for 70 in the last 12 months, in lets of 28 nights or less. Small business rate relief can then cut the bill. The test in full.
Monthly stays don’t count towards the 70. So a Bristol flat that takes mid-term stays is planned so its shorter stays still clear 70 nights, or run for monthly stays on purpose with the council tax costed in. We set that plan with you before launch.
England has no planning use class for short lets, so permission only arises if letting changes the home’s use materially (planning explained). There is no national register yet; GOV.UK expects the scheme to begin in March 2027 (registration tracker). Rules checked 29 October 2026: Bristol City Council, GOV.UK.
What’s included
The marketing and the management are run centrally. The physical work is done by professionals in Bristol, and we stay answerable for both. Your part is approving the plan and reading one statement a month.
Before you decide
Your home against comparable Bristol listings: bedrooms, area, parking, the guests it suits. A range with the assumptions shown, built from paid market data on comparable homes near you. We cover the cost.
Before the first guest
We read the lease and check mortgage consent and insurance, then trial a professional Bristol cleaning company, with a second on file as cover.
From launch
Photography and a listing for each guest the home suits, its own booking page for direct bookings, 30+ booking sites from one calendar, and pricing set for each month and each event.
Every month
Every message and arrival handled, repairs through local trades within the limit you set, and one monthly statement showing what was earned and what was spent.
The full scope, all 50+ jobs, is on the Airbnb management page. Want to see a city flat we already market for monthly stays to hospital staff? Winchester Nest. Every one of our homes has its own booking page: see them all.
Why a marketing-first manager
Leo Simpson has specialised in UK holiday lets since 2020. He began by building websites and marketing for holiday-let owners, went on to train more than 300 hosts through his own community, then took on running the whole operation. Straight Up Stays is a family business built on that background.
Questions
Market figures: AirROI, Bristol Airbnb market data, 12 months to September 2026 (monthly figures September 2025 to August 2026), updated 1 October 2026, 1,622 active listings; England figure from AirROI’s England page, same period. Airbtics, Bristol, September 2025 to August 2026, updated 16 October 2026: 1,974 listings, +50.9% in a year, median occupancy 66%. The two count listings differently. All are averages across the market, not a forecast for any one home. Checked 29 October 2026.
Photographs of Bristol by mattbuck, Wikimedia Commons quality images, cropped and resized: the docks and Windmill Hill (CC BY-SA 4.0 and CC BY-SA 3.0), Cumberland Basin and the Clifton Suspension Bridge (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Bristol has one of the biggest year-round demand pools in the South West: two big hospitals, two universities, a business district and a full events calendar. AirROI’s figures for the 12 months to September 2026 show Bristol listings booked on 43.7% of the nights they were open, at an average of £134 a night, with stays averaging 5.3 nights. The catch is competition, so whether your home does well depends on how it is marketed, which is what the free revenue estimate weighs.
It is crowded. Airbtics counts 1,974 Bristol listings, up 50.9% in a year (September 2025 to August 2026). That hits ordinary listings hardest: AirROI puts the bottom quarter of Bristol listings at 24% of nights or fewer, while the top quarter are booked on 70% or more. A home marketed to the guests who book Bristol for a week or a month competes with far fewer listings than one chasing the same weekends as everyone else.
Across the market, 43.7% of open nights over the 12 months to September 2026, with the middle listing at about 47%, the top quarter at 70% or more and the top tenth at 84% or more (AirROI). Airbtics, which counts differently, puts the median at 66%. These are market figures, not a forecast for your home. Your estimate gives a range for your property, with the assumptions shown.
Full management is a percentage of booking revenue, the same model wherever the home is, so we only earn more when your home does. The rate and exactly what it covers are confirmed in your proposal before you sign anything. There is no lock-in, no exit fee and 30 days’ notice.
Only if the lease allows it, and the clause that matters is often the user covenant, which can require the flat to be used as a private residence only. That can rule out short lets even where subletting is allowed with consent. We read the lease with you before anything else, then check mortgage consent and insurance. Our guide to Airbnb in a leasehold flat explains the clauses.
They can. Bristol City Council has charged a 100% premium on furnished homes that are no one’s main home since 1 April 2025. A short let is assessed for business rates instead if it was available to let for at least 140 nights and actually let for at least 70 in the last 12 months, in lets of 28 nights or less, and will be available for 140 nights in the coming year. Small business rate relief can then reduce the bill.
Yes. Mid-term stays are one of our two specialities, alongside direct bookings. We market homes to hospital staff, contractors and people relocating, directly and through contractor and relocation partners, and set each stay up on the right agreement for its length. Stays of more than 28 nights don’t count towards the business rates test, so we plan the mix with you.
The whole city: the centre and harbourside, Redcliffe and Temple Quarter, Clifton and Hotwells, Cotham, Redland and Bishopston, Montpelier and St Werburghs, Southville and Bedminster, and out towards Southmead and Filton. Every home gets its own estimate, because a Clifton two-bed and a Bedminster terrace book for different guests.
No. The marketing, pricing and guest care are run centrally, and the physical work is done in Bristol by a professional cleaning company and local trades, trialled before your first guest. Your fee goes on marketing and running your home, and you deal directly with the person who sets its strategy.
Usually not. England has no planning use class for short lets, so permission only comes into it if the letting changes the use of the home materially, which the council decides case by case. There is no national register yet; GOV.UK expects the registration scheme to begin in March 2027. Fire, gas and electrical safety rules apply now.
Yes, and the handover is ours to run. We go through your current agreement and notice period with you, keep every booking already in the calendar, and move the listings, cleaning and access across behind the scenes.
No. Bookings move with demand, pricing and the season, and anyone promising a fixed figure for a managed short let is guessing. You get a realistic range for your home, built from paid market data on comparable Bristol homes with the assumptions shown, and a manager paid on a percentage of what your home earns.
Tell us about the property. You’ll get a realistic revenue range built from paid market data on comparable Bristol homes, with the assumptions shown, and a straight answer on whether full management fits. Leo rings to talk you through it.
