For Exeter owners who want their home booked, not just managed.
We run your Exeter holiday let from first photograph to monthly statement: priced for a city that books all year, marketed on 30+ booking sites and its own booking page, with work and mid-term stays filling the weeks that visitors don’t. You get the income without the work, and no lock-in.
“Great find! So close to everything we needed. Flexible and easy check in and exactly as described. Leo was a very responsive and helpful host. Also very useful to have a parking permit.”
Straight Up Stays runs Airbnb and holiday-let homes in Exeter from end to end: pricing set for each month of a city that books all year, the listing and marketing on 30+ booking sites and the home’s own booking page, short breaks plus work and mid-term stays, every guest message and arrival, professional cleaning through an Exeter-area 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 from AirROI; council rules from Exeter City Council and GOV.UK.
£67,500
One booking, found by marketing the home properly
“The room is clean and cozy, fully equipped, and the parking space is right next to it, which is very convenient! Convenient location, only a few minutes walk to the city centre, we really liked this accommodation”
“It was a very pleasant stay and very close to the centre. Leo was very kind and answered our questions. Thank you very much.”
If that is all you needed, see what your Exeter home could earn.
Get my free revenue estimateWhy Exeter homes underearn
Most Exeter homes are set up like seaside holiday lets: priced for the summer, listed on one or two sites, with the winter written off.
Exeter doesn’t book like the coast. January was still booked on 39% of nights, and January and February brought the longest stays of the year, 5.4 and 5.8 nights.
The gap is real. The busiest quarter of Exeter listings are booked on 72% or more of their nights; the median manages 53%. That is about six nights a month. And only 9% of Exeter listings are professionally managed.
So we run your home the way Exeter books: priced month by month, marketed to workers, hospital staff and mid-term guests as well as visitors, cleaned by a professional local company, and reported in one statement.
The level year
Exeter’s short lets were booked on 49% of open nights over the last year, against 40% across England. Pick a month to see how full the city was, what guests paid and how long they stayed. Then lay the north Devon coast over it.
ExeterNorth Devon coastExeter year 49%England 40%
The whole year 12 months to September 2026
49%
The shapeExeter’s quietest month was 39% and its busiest 61%. The coast ran from 24% to 62%. A smaller swing means fewer empty weeks to make up, and a year you can plan.
January Market figures for January 2026
39%
Booked 35 days aheadThe quietest month, and still booked on nearly four nights in ten. Stays run long, so the calendar opens to weekly and monthly bookings while the weekends stay priced as weekends.
February Market figures for February 2026
45%
Booked 35 days aheadThe longest stays of the year, 5.8 nights on average. Weekly and monthly prices earn their keep here, with the half-term weekend held at full rate.
March Market figures for March 2026
47%
Booked 32 days aheadGuests book only a month ahead, the shortest lead of the year. Prices are checked every week, because a slow fortnight can’t be made up later.
April Market figures for April 2026
44%
Booked 44 days aheadEaster and the first holidaymakers. Fresh photographs and listing copy go live now, before the summer weeks are chosen.
May Market figures for May 2026
50%
Booked 51 days aheadRates start to climb. July is booked about twelve weeks out, so the summer is priced now, while plenty of listings are still on last year’s settings.
June Market figures for June 2026
53%
Booked 62 days aheadOpen days and the start of the holiday season. Weekends go up a step, and minimum stays are set so a short booking can’t strand the nights either side.
July Market figures for July 2026
58%
Booked 82 days aheadThe highest nightly rate of the year, booked furthest ahead. Graduation and holiday weeks are protected from blanket discounts.
August Market figures for August 2026
56%
Booked 57 days aheadThe one month the coast books better than the city. Exeter is sold as the base for the coast and Dartmoor, and weekday rates keep moving.
September Market figures for September 2025
61%
Booked 58 days aheadExeter’s busiest month, as the university returns and the rugby season starts. Hold the rate: an empty September night is a pricing mistake.
October Market figures for October 2025
56%
Booked 41 days aheadStill busy while the coast quietens. Christmas dates go on sale now, at full rate.
November Market figures for November 2025
50%
Booked 42 days aheadHalf the open nights booked, with long stays again. Work and mid-term stays carry the weekdays; weekends are kept for city breaks.
December Market figures for December 2025
52%
Booked 52 days aheadChristmas in the city and families home for the holidays. Festive weekends are protected from awkward one-night gaps.
46%
Exeter’s winter. November to February averaged 46.4% of open nights booked, and the city out-booked the north Devon coast in eleven months of the twelve.
29%
The coast’s winter. The same four months averaged 29.1% in north Devon. Only August went the coast’s way, 62% to Exeter’s 56%.
−15%
Fewer Exeter listings than a year earlier, 357 in all. Less competition for the guests who book the city, and room for a home that is run well.
Share of open nights booked, by month. AirROI, September 2025 to August 2026, for Exeter and North Devon. Winter figures are our average of the November to February months. Market averages, not a forecast for any one home.
| Month | Exeter, nights booked | North Devon | Exeter, average night | Average stay | Booked ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2026 | 38.8% | 23.7% | £108 | 5.4 nights | 35 days |
| February 2026 | 44.8% | 32% | £107 | 5.8 nights | 35 days |
| March 2026 | 47.3% | 30% | £109 | 5.1 nights | 32 days |
| April 2026 | 43.6% | 36.5% | £112 | 5.2 nights | 44 days |
| May 2026 | 49.9% | 42.5% | £120 | 4.8 nights | 51 days |
| June 2026 | 53.4% | 44.1% | £124 | 5.2 nights | 62 days |
| July 2026 | 58.3% | 51.9% | £132 | 4.8 nights | 82 days |
| August 2026 | 56.4% | 61.9% | £131 | 5.1 nights | 57 days |
| September 2025 | 60.8% | 46.4% | £114 | 4.7 nights | 58 days |
| October 2025 | 56.4% | 38.3% | £112 | 5.1 nights | 41 days |
| November 2025 | 49.7% | 29.8% | £109 | 5.4 nights | 42 days |
| December 2025 | 52.4% | 30.8% | £111 | 4.9 nights | 52 days |
Exeter out-booked the Devon coast in eleven months of the twelve.
Exeter booked more of its open nights than north Devon in every month but August, September 2025 to August 2026. AirROI.
Who books Exeter
Exeter’s year stays level because different guests take over as the months turn. Choose one to see when they book, how we reach them and the booking they make. Work and hospital stays are where our mid-term speciality earns its keep.
All year
Exeter is Devon’s county city. The Met Office, the county council and a steady run of construction and engineering contracts bring people for a week, a month or a season. They book Monday to Friday and come back, and they are the heart of the mid-term stays we specialise in.
How we reach themMarketed directly and through contractor and relocation partners, with a weekly and a monthly price ready, and every stay over 28 nights planned around the business rates test.
All year
The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital brings agency and locum staff, people on placement and families visiting patients, all year round. They book weekdays and whole weeks, often at short notice, and want quiet, parking and a proper kitchen.
How we reach themListed for work stays on the booking sites and on the home’s own booking page, with flexible start days and the parking and kitchen in the first photographs.
June, July and September
The University of Exeter brings parents for move-in weekends, open days and graduations: dates the university publishes well ahead.
How we reach themPriced months ahead on the university’s own dates, with minimum stays that keep the weekend whole.
September to May
Exeter Chiefs home games at Sandy Park, concerts and conferences fill Friday and Saturday nights from September through to the spring.
How we reach themFixture weekends priced as soon as dates are announced, with two-night minimums so one booking can’t leave a single night stranded.
November and December
Shopping weekends, carol services at the cathedral and families home for the holidays keep December busy in Exeter while the coast goes quiet.
How we reach themOn sale from October at full rate, with the festive weekends protected from awkward one-night gaps.
April to August
Families and couples who want the cathedral and the quay, with Dartmoor and the coast both within reach. They choose on photographs, location and parking.
How we reach themListings and photographs that sell the location as the base for a Devon holiday, on 30+ booking sites and the home’s own booking page.
Booking cards are illustrations of the stays each guest makes, not real bookings. Months come from the university, fixture and school calendars. Every home gets its own booking page on our website, so guests can book you direct with no booking-site commission: see our homes’ booking pages, or read how direct bookings work and whether mid-term lets are worth it.
Council tax and business rates
They can. Exeter City Council charges a 100% premium on second homes, and a holiday let only escapes it by moving to business rates. In Exeter that test sits right on the market average, so how the home is run decides which side it lands.
Second-homes premium. Charged by Exeter City Council from 1 April 2025 on a furnished home that is nobody’s main residence: double the council tax.
The business rates test. Available to let for at least 140 nights in the last 12 months, actually let for at least 70, and available for 140 in the next 12. Small business rate relief can then apply.
The hinge. At Exeter’s average of 49%, a home open for 140 nights would be let for about 69: one short. A home open most of the year and properly marketed clears it with room to spare. A part-time let on one rate is the one at risk.
The mid-term catch. Only stays of 28 nights or fewer count towards the 70. A six-week contract stay counts for nothing, so the year is planned: the short stays clear 70 first, and the long stays fill the weeks around them.
A guide, not tax advice: the Valuation Office Agency makes the call. England’s short-let registration scheme isn’t live yet; our guide to UK Airbnb rules tracks it, and the holiday let guide explains the 140/70 test in full. Rules checked 29 October 2026: Exeter City Council, GOV.UK.
Your Exeter homeMonthly statement
What’s included
The marketing and management are run centrally. The physical work is done by professionals in and around Exeter, 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 Exeter listings, month by month: size, area, parking, who is likely to book it. A range with the assumptions shown, and a straight answer if short letting doesn’t suit it.
Before the first guest
Changeovers go to a professional cleaning company in the Exeter area, checked with photographs after every clean, with a second company on file as cover. Weekly cleans for long stays are part of the plan.
From launch
Photography and the listing, distribution on 30+ booking sites from one calendar, the home’s own booking page for direct bookings, and the work and mid-term guests reached directly and through partners.
Every month
Every message and arrival handled, repairs through local trades within the limit you set, pricing reviewed through the year, and a statement showing what came in and what went out.
The statement is drawn as it really looks, with the amounts left blank. The full scope, all 50+ jobs, is on the Airbnb management page, and Winchester Nest is a city flat we already run.
Why a marketing-first manager
Leo Simpson has specialised in UK holiday lets since 2020. He started by building websites and marketing for holiday-let owners, went on to train more than 300 hosts through his own community, and then took on running the whole operation. Straight Up Stays is the family business built on that: marketing first, and the running of the home to the same standard.
Questions
Market figures: AirROI, Exeter Airbnb market data, 12 months to September 2026 (monthly figures September 2025 to August 2026), updated 1 October 2026, 357 active listings; north Devon from AirROI’s North Devon page, same period. They are averages across each market, not a forecast for any one home. Checked 29 October 2026.
Photographs, from Wikimedia Commons, cropped and resized: the cathedral’s west front by Torsten Schneider, edited by Markus Koljonen, and the nave by David Iliff, both CC BY-SA 3.0; the quay by Dietmar Rabich and the Custom House by Herbythyme, both CC BY-SA 4.0.
On occupancy, yes. AirROI’s figures for the 12 months to September 2026 put Exeter listings at 49% of open nights booked, against 40% across England, and none of the eight neighbouring markets it tracks booked more. Nightly rates are lower than on the coast, at £111 on average, so Exeter rewards a home run to fill nights all year, including work and mid-term stays. Your home’s size, location and parking decide where it lands, which is what the free revenue estimate works out.
The market average was 49% of open nights over the last year. The median listing was booked on 53% and the busiest quarter on 72% or more. January, the quietest month, came in at 39% and September, the busiest, at 61% (AirROI, 12 months to September 2026). Those are market figures, not a forecast for your home. Your estimate gives a range for it, with the assumptions shown.
Because the city sells more nights, to work, hospital and university guests who stay longer and come back. Exeter averaged £111 a night against £228 in north Devon over the same 12 months, but was booked on 49% of open nights against 37%, and on far more of its winter nights. Running an Exeter home well means filling the year at the right rate for each month, which is why pricing is reviewed through the whole year.
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.
Yes, and mid-term stays are one of our specialities. Hospital staff, contractors and people relocating book Exeter by the week and the month. We market homes to them directly and through contractor and relocation partners, set each long stay up on the right agreement, and plan the year so long stays don’t cost you the business rates test. Our guide to mid-term lets covers the legal side in full.
Only stays of 28 nights or fewer count. GOV.UK treats those as short-period lets, so a six-week booking adds nothing to the 70 let nights a holiday let needs for business rates. Long stays still make sense in Exeter, they just need planning: we make sure the short stays clear 70 nights across the year, or keep work stays to four-week blocks where the line is close.
It can happen. Exeter City Council has charged a 100% premium on second homes from 1 April 2025, so a furnished home that is nobody’s main residence pays double. A holiday 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, and will be available for 140 in the next. At Exeter’s average occupancy, a home open only 140 nights would land about one night short, so both the nights open and the nights let matter.
The whole city and the villages around it: the city centre and the quay, St Leonards, St Thomas, Heavitree, Pennsylvania, St David’s, Newtown, Alphington, Pinhoe, Exwick and Topsham. Every home gets its own estimate, because a quayside flat and a family house near the hospital are booked by different guests in different months.
No, on purpose. Marketing, pricing and guest care are run centrally, and the physical work is done in and around Exeter by a professional cleaning company and local trades, trialled before your first guest. The fee is spent on getting the home booked and running it well, and you deal directly with the person setting its strategy.
As soon as the groundwork is in place: the agreement, your consents and insurance, the cleaning company trial and the photographs. Your proposal gives a launch date. If you are moving from another manager, every booking already in the calendar is kept.
Yes, once it is vacant and the tenancy has ended properly; we never suggest ending a tenancy early or outside the rules. The free estimate shows what short and mid-term letting could bring in for that home, so you can weigh it against the rent before deciding. Your mortgage lender and insurer need to agree to the change too.
There is no short-let licence or register in England yet; GOV.UK now expects the national registration scheme to begin in March 2027. Fire, gas and electrical safety rules apply now, and planning permission can matter if letting changes how a home is used. Our guides to UK Airbnb rules and to planning permission track both.
No, and be wary of anyone who promises a figure: bookings move with demand, pricing and the season. What you get is a realistic range for your home, built from real local booking data with the assumptions shown, and a manager paid on a percentage of what the home earns.
Tell us about the property. You’ll get a realistic revenue range built from real Exeter booking data, month by month, with the assumptions shown and a straight answer on whether full management fits. We pay for the market data behind it; it’s free to you. Leo rings to talk you through it.
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