For Cotswold owners who want their cottage booked, not just managed.
We market and run your cottage end to end: weekends priced as weekends, midweek sold as breaks, your own direct booking page and 30+ booking sites, and every guest, clean and repair handled. You read one statement a month.
“Very clean space and welcoming host”
Straight Up Stays markets and runs holiday cottages and Airbnb homes across the Cotswolds from end to end: stay rules and pricing set for Cotswold weekends, midweek breaks and the festive weeks, each cottage’s own booking page plus 30+ booking sites, every guest message and arrival, professional cleaning through a local company, repairs through local trades, and 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 for Cotswold District from AirROI and Airbtics; council rules from Cotswold District Council and GOV.UK.
One of our first homes
£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. See The Bungalow.
“Very nice place to stay. Leo was exact to describe the house. We liked our stay.”
If that’s all you needed, see what your cottage could earn.
Get my free revenue estimateWhy Cotswold cottages underearn
Most Cotswold cottages are run on one rate and one set of stay rules all year: either Airbnb’s defaults or the old Friday and Monday changeovers.
The Cotswolds doesn’t book like that. Couples want two-night weekends, walkers want midweek, Christmas sells in September, and January’s guests stay longest of all.
At £307 a night on average, the highest of any South West market we checked, every stranded Sunday and every turned-away weekend costs more here than anywhere else in the region.
So we run your cottage the way the Cotswolds books: weekends protected, midweek sold as its own break, festive weeks priced months ahead, and the quiet weeks filled with longer stays.
The Cotswold weekend
Same cottage, same fortnight, same guests asking. Only the stay rules change. Pick a set of rules and watch which bookings the calendar can take.
Airbnb’s defaults, left alone
The bank holiday Saturday sells first, to a one-night booking. The Friday and Sunday either side are left as single nights few guests want, and the couple or family who wanted all three have already gone elsewhere. Every booking is a changeover, so the cleaning bill rises as the weekend falls apart.
The traditional cottage pattern
Tidy, and it protects the bank holiday. But the couple driving from London for two nights is turned away by the rule, and the four-night midweek break sits empty at the same price as a weekend. The calendar looks orderly and earns on one stay in a fortnight.
How we set a Cotswold cottage
Two nights minimum at weekends and three on the bank holiday, so a single Saturday can’t break them. Midweek is sold as its own break, at a midweek price, to the guests who want it: walkers, older couples, people working nearby. A night stranded between two stays drops its minimum and its price, so it sells instead of sitting there.
The settings, the sums behind them and the 28-night line are in our guide to minimum stays, and how rates move with demand is in the dynamic pricing guide.
£307 a night. The highest average of any South West market we checked.
Cotswold District, 12 months to September 2026. AirROI. England’s average is £180.
The Cotswold year
Twelve months of Cotswold District short lets, as AirROI records them. Switch between how full the district was, what guests paid, how far ahead they booked and how long they stayed.
AirROI, Cotswold District, September 2025 to August 2026, shown January to December. “d” is days booked ahead; length of stay is in nights. Market averages, not a forecast for any one home.
44% of open nights booked, against 40% across England
August is the peak at 61%. From November to February the district still books between 35% and 46% of open nights, so a Cotswold cottage is a year-round business if it is run as one.
£307 a night on average, against £180 across England
Even November, the cheapest month, averaged £282. When every night is worth that much, an empty Friday or a stranded Sunday costs a Cotswold owner more than it would almost anywhere else in England.
Booked 80 days ahead on average, July 107
December is booked 95 days ahead, so Christmas and New Year sell in September at whatever price is on them then. That is why festive pricing is set in the summer, not in December.
Stays average 3.7 nights, and January’s run longest
January’s stays average 4.9 nights. The quietest month is the one where longer bookings fill the calendar: people between homes, families whose own house is being repaired, work stays. Longer stays are one of our two specialities.
| Month | Nights booked | Average night | Booked ahead | Average stay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2026 | 35.4% | £284 | 63 days | 4.9 nights |
| February 2026 | 38.7% | £284 | 50 days | 3.2 nights |
| March 2026 | 40.5% | £296 | 66 days | 3.2 nights |
| April 2026 | 46.4% | £302 | 71 days | 3.2 nights |
| May 2026 | 52.7% | £325 | 93 days | 3.3 nights |
| June 2026 | 51.9% | £332 | 89 days | 3.5 nights |
| July 2026 | 54.2% | £347 | 107 days | 3.7 nights |
| August 2026 | 61.2% | £348 | 95 days | 3.6 nights |
| September 2025 | 50.2% | £300 | 82 days | 3.3 nights |
| October 2025 | 50% | £296 | 71 days | 3.1 nights |
| November 2025 | 40.5% | £282 | 66 days | 2.9 nights |
| December 2025 | 46.4% | £298 | 95 days | 3.3 nights |
Who books the Cotswolds
A Cotswold listing isn’t written for “guests”. It is written for whoever books that cottage in that season, and the photographs, the stay rules and the price follow.
Two- and three-night breaks, chosen on photographs and the drive. The listing leads with the village, the walk from the door and the fire, and Friday and Saturday are priced as the weekend they are.
Booked about three months ahead, so the festive weeks go on sale in the summer at their full rate and are sold as whole weeks, never broken up by single nights.
Barn and manor venues fill the cottages around them on the same Friday and Saturday. Those dates are known months out and priced for the wedding, not for the month.
In March, race-goers look well beyond Cheltenham for somewhere to stay. Homes within a drive of the course are priced for that week rather than for a quiet spring month.
The Cotswold Way and the footpaths between villages bring walkers and older couples midweek. They get a midweek break at a midweek price, which is how the nights between weekends earn.
People between homes, families whose house is being repaired and work stays book for weeks at a time. We market to them directly and through relocation partners, so January can fill with one long booking.
Dogs and hot tubs
What we’re known for
Yes, and it is one of our two specialities. Every home we run gets its own booking page on our website, marketed alongside the booking sites, so a guest who finds your cottage can book it without a booking-site commission. Repeat guests are worth the most when they come back direct.
The other speciality is longer stays: weeks and months, booked by people between homes and on work placements, which fill January and February with one booking. See our homes’ booking pages, how direct bookings work, or mid-term lets explained.
Council tax and business rates
They can. Cotswold District charges second homes double, unless the cottage passes the business rates test. In a district booked on 44% of open nights, the number of nights you open decides it.
The second-homes premium. Charged by Cotswold District Council since 1 April 2025, decided at full council on 20 March 2024. A furnished home that is nobody’s main home pays double council tax.
The business rates test. Available to let for at least 140 nights and actually let for at least 70 in the last 12 months, in stays of 28 nights or fewer, and available for 140 in the next 12. Pass it and the cottage moves to business rates, where small business rate relief can apply.
The nights to open. At the district’s 44% average, 140 open nights lets about 62, short of the 70. Opening for roughly 160 nights or more, and marketing them properly, is what clears it. A cottage kept mostly for the family is the one at risk.
The figures here are Cotswold District’s. Cottages in Stroud, West Oxfordshire, Wychavon, Wiltshire and the other Cotswold councils follow their own council’s premium. The Valuation Office Agency decides on business rates. The holiday let tax guide explains the test in full and our guide to UK short-let rules tracks the registration scheme. Checked 29 October 2026: Cotswold District Council, GOV.UK.
What’s included
The marketing and management are run centrally; the physical work is done near your cottage by professionals we vet and trial; we answer for both. Your part is approving the plan and reading one statement a month.
Valued
Your cottage against comparable Cotswold listings: bedrooms, village, parking, garden, dogs, hot tub. A range month by month with the assumptions shown, and a straight answer if short letting doesn’t suit it.
Set up
Changeovers go to a vetted professional cleaning company near you, with photo checks after every clean and a second company on file as cover. Then photography, the listing, the stay rules and the calendar for the year ahead.
Booked
Your cottage’s own booking page on our website first, then Airbnb, Booking.com and the rest, so wider reach never means a double booking. Pricing is worked as the calendar fills, not set once a year.
Paid
Every enquiry and message answered, local trades for repairs within the limit you set, and a monthly statement showing what was earned and what was spent, then your payout.
The full scope, more than 50 jobs, is on the Airbnb management page.
Your options
Each suits someone. This is how they compare on the things that decide what a Cotswold cottage earns.
| Option | Who does the work | How stays are set | Where it’s listed | Your terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Run it yourself | You do everything, or find a cleaner and handyman yourself | Whatever rules you set, and keep up with | Usually one or two booking sites | Your evenings and weekends |
| A traditional cottage agency | Bookings and guests; cleaning and repairs vary by agency | Often fixed changeover days and set short breaks | Mostly the agency’s own website and its partners | Varies: check the notice period and any exit fee |
| An Airbnb co-host | Often the listing and messages; cleaning and repairs vary | Often left to an automated rate tool | Mostly Airbnb | Varies |
| Full management with us | Everything, end to end | Weekends and midweek priced apart, set month by month | Your own direct booking page and 30+ booking sites, one calendar | A percentage of booking revenue. No lock-in, 30 days’ notice |
Who you’d be working with
Leo Simpson. He started in 2020 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 the family business that grew from it, built to get homes booked.
Questions
Market figures: AirROI, Cotswold District Airbnb market data, 12 months to September 2026 (monthly figures September 2025 to August 2026), updated 1 October 2026, 1,721 active listings; Airbtics, Cotswold, September 2025 to August 2026, updated 16 October 2026. The two measure differently (an average of open nights booked, and a median), so each figure is quoted with its source. They are market averages, not a forecast for any one home. Checked 29 October 2026.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons by Saffron Blaze, cropped and resized: Arlington Row, Bibury, Lower Slaughter and the mill at Lower Slaughter, all CC BY-SA 3.0.
It is one of the strongest short-let markets in England on price. In Cotswold District, AirROI’s figures for the 12 months to September 2026 show an average of £307 a night against £180 across England, with listings booked on 44% of the nights they were open against 40% nationally. Airbtics rates the district grade A, with a median of 63% booked over September 2025 to August 2026. It is also crowded and competitive, so how a cottage is presented, priced and run decides where it lands. Those are market averages, not a forecast for your home; your estimate gives a range for your cottage.
Full management is a percentage of booking revenue, the same model wherever the cottage is, so we only earn more when it does. Your rate, and anything charged separately, is confirmed in writing in your proposal before you sign. There is no lock-in, no exit fee and 30 days’ notice.
The marketing and the running of it: the revenue estimate, photography and the listing, your cottage’s own booking page on our website, distribution on 30+ booking sites from one calendar, stay rules and pricing worked through the year, every guest message and arrival, professional cleaning and linen, repairs through local trades within the limit you set, and a monthly statement and payout. The full scope is on our Airbnb management page.
All of it. The figures on this page are for Cotswold District, the Gloucestershire council area that includes Cirencester, Tetbury, Bibury, Bourton-on-the-Water, the Slaughters, Stow-on-the-Wold, Moreton-in-Marsh, Chipping Campden, Northleach and Fairford. The wider Cotswolds also runs into Stroud, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury, West Oxfordshire, Wychavon, Stratford-on-Avon, Wiltshire and Bath, and we cover those too. Council tax and planning rules belong to whichever council your cottage is in, so your estimate checks yours.
Different ones on different nights. We usually hold weekends at two nights, bank holidays and the festive weeks at three or more, and let midweek sell as its own break. When a single night is left stranded between two stays, its minimum drops so it can still sell. The exact rules depend on your cottage and are reviewed as each month fills.
Often, yes. Allowing dogs puts the cottage in front of every guest who filters for pets, and the Cotswolds is walking country. It needs house rules, a pet fee (Airbnb allows one up to your nightly base rate) and a clean that copes with hair, and assistance dogs must be accepted free by law. Your estimate looks at whether it suits your cottage and its furnishings.
It can be, because guests search for them, especially for celebration weekends. Once guests pay to use one, the Health and Safety Executive treats it as a business water system: a legionella risk assessment, daily checks and a drain between stays. We run that routine with the cleaning company, or tell you plainly if the cost and upkeep wouldn’t pay back for your cottage.
Cotswold District Council has charged a 100% council tax premium on second homes since 1 April 2025, decided at full council on 20 March 2024. A holiday let in England 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 stays of 28 nights or fewer, and will be available for 140 in the next 12. At the district’s average of 44% of open nights booked, that needs a cottage open for roughly 160 nights or more, so availability and marketing decide it. The Valuation Office Agency makes the call.
Yes, it is your home. Your dates are agreed up front and blocked in the calendar. Because Cotswold weekends and Christmas are the most valuable nights of the year, the statement shows what a blocked peak date was worth, so you choose it with the figures in front of you.
The handover is ours to run. We go through your current agreement and notice period with you, keep every booking already taken, and move the listings, cleaning and access across behind the scenes. Guests already booked still arrive to a cottage that is ready for them.
No. The marketing, pricing and guest care are run centrally, and the physical work is done near your cottage by a professional cleaning company and local trades, trialled before your first guest. Your fee pays for marketing and management, and you deal directly with the person who sets your cottage’s strategy.
No. Bookings move with demand, pricing and the season, and nobody can promise them. What you get is a realistic range for your cottage, built from real local booking data with the assumptions shown, and a manager paid a percentage of what your cottage earns.
Tell us about the cottage. You’ll get a realistic revenue range, month by month, built from real Cotswold booking data with the assumptions shown, and a straight answer on whether full management fits. We pay for the data; the estimate is free to you. Leo rings to talk you through it.
