For owners who want their holiday let booked, not just managed.
We run your holiday cottage or second home from the first photograph to the monthly statement. It goes on 30+ booking sites and its own booking page, priced through the year, with every guest, changeover and repair handled.
“Very happy with our stay. Perfect location and homely environment. Walking distance to the train station for big city trips and a short 5 minute walk into town.”
Holiday let management means someone else markets and runs your holiday cottage or second home. Straight Up Stays does both: the cottage’s own booking page and 30+ booking sites from one calendar, pricing worked through the year, short breaks and longer winter stays as well as the peak weeks, every guest message, changeovers by a vetted local professional cleaning 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. Rules from GOV.UK, GOV.WALES and legislation.gov.uk, sourced in the table below.
“Great apartment, nice and peaceful in a handy location. Clean and comfortable well equipped apartment.”
“Was a great place to stay, nice and clean and very spacious”
£67,500
One booking, found by marketing the home properly
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.
Want to know what your cottage could earn?
Get my free revenue estimateMost holiday cottages are listed once, in one brochure or on one site, at seasonal price bands set the winter before, with a Saturday changeover.
That fills the school holidays, when families come looking. Outside them the listing waits, and the guests who book short breaks, midweeks, last-minute and for work never come across it.
Those quiet months decide a cottage’s year. They’re also where England’s 70-night business-rates test is passed or missed.
So we market your cottage everywhere each of those guests looks: its own booking page, 30+ booking sites, priced as the season books, with longer work stays filling the winter.
The same cottage, the same year, drawn the way a booking calendar shows it. Switch between a listing that waits in one brochure and the way we run it.
Booked in the school holidays, quiet either side. Saturday weeks from one channel, and the months around them left to chance.
The peak weeks still sell, and the rest of the year gets worked. Short breaks, gap nights, direct bookings and one long winter stay, from many sources at once.
January and February
A five-week work stay, booked direct, fills the quietest weeks with one changeover. Stays over 28 nights don’t count towards England’s 70-night business-rates test, so long stays are planned around it.
Spring and autumn
Friday-to-Monday weekends, Monday-to-Friday midweeks and single gap nights, with minimum stays set by season so one short booking can’t strand the nights either side.
Every month
Airbnb, Booking.com and the rest run from one calendar, so a night is never sold twice. Returning guests book direct on the cottage’s own page, with no booking-site commission.
The school holidays
The family weeks fill in both calendars. Ours are priced week by week as the season books, and the changeover days either side are kept useful.
September
The dates you want for yourself are blocked on every site at once before the season goes on sale.
The weeks either side of the school holidays decide a cottage’s year.
Short-break, midweek and work guests book them. They have to be found.
Yes. Direct bookings and mid-term stays are our speciality, and they’re the two things a brochure listing rarely goes after.
Every home gets its own booking page on our website, marketed alongside the booking sites, so guests can book you direct with no booking-site commission. It’s where returning guests come back to, year after year.
See our homes’ booking pagesDirect bookings for a holiday let
Contractors, work crews and people relocating stay for weeks or months. We market homes to them directly and through contractor and relocation partners, so January and February can fill with one long booking. Stays over 28 nights don’t count towards England’s 70-night test, so we plan them around it.
April 2025 ended the old tax regime and let English councils charge up to double council tax on second homes. That makes the business-rates test matter more than it used to, and a well-marketed calendar is how a cottage stays on the right side of it.
| The rule | England | Wales | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business rates or council tax | Business rates if available to let for 140 nights and actually let for 70 in the last 12 months, and available for 140 in the next 12. Only stays of 28 nights or fewer count as let. | The same test at 252 nights available and 182 let. | GOV.UK, self-catering property in England, updated 29 Sept 2026GOV.UK, self-catering and holiday let accommodation |
| Second-homes council tax premium | Since 1 April 2025 a council can charge a premium of up to 100% on a furnished home nobody lives in: up to double the normal bill. Each council decides. | A premium of up to 300% since 1 April 2023, set council by council. | Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, s.80GOV.UK, second homes and empty propertiesGOV.WALES, empty and second homes |
| Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime | Abolished across the UK: from 6 April 2025 for income tax and capital gains tax, and 1 April 2025 for corporation tax. Holiday lets are now taxed like other residential lettings. | GOV.UK policy paper, updated 7 Nov 2024 | |
| Fire safety | A written fire risk assessment by the “responsible person”, under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, with the precautions it calls for. | GOV.UK, letting a self-catering holiday home, updated 2 Oct 2026 | |
| Gas safety | Where there’s gas, a check every 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and the record kept (Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998). | Our gas safety guide, with its sources | |
| Registration | A national register is law but not live. GOV.UK expects it to begin in March 2027. | The register is open now. Every provider must be on it by 31 March 2027. | GOV.UK, updated 2 Oct 2026GOV.WALES, updated 8 Oct 2026 |
Checked 29 October 2026. Scotland runs its own licensing scheme and rates thresholds; our guide to UK short-let rules covers each nation. The holiday-let tax guide explains the 140 and 70 night test in full. These are the rules as published, not advice on your own tax position.
Your part
Ours
The work is run centrally. Changeovers go to a vetted local professional cleaning company, with local trades for repairs, trialled before your first guest. Every job we do, in full.
Before we managed holiday lets, we marketed them. Leo Simpson has specialised in UK holiday lets since 2020: first building websites and marketing for owners, then training more than 300 hosts, then running the whole operation. Ring him on 01271 447054. Our story.
Rules checked 29 October 2026 against GOV.UK, GOV.WALES and legislation.gov.uk; sources are linked in the table above. Nothing here is tax or legal advice for your own property.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons, cropped and resized: Mousehole harbour by ArildV, CC BY-SA 4.0; Buttermere by Julian Herzog, CC BY 4.0; East Stonesdale, Keld, by Kreuzschnabel, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Everything between a guest finding your cottage and your money arriving: the free revenue estimate and launch plan, photography and the listing, the cottage’s own booking page on our website and 30+ booking sites from one calendar, pricing worked through the year, every enquiry, message and arrival, a vetted local professional cleaning company for changeovers and linen, local trades for repairs within the limit you set, and one monthly statement.
A traditional holiday-letting agency mainly markets the cottage: it lists it in its brochure and on its partner sites, takes the bookings and charges commission on each one. Cleaning, keys, repairs and guest problems often stay with you or cost extra, and prices are often set in seasonal bands for the year. Full holiday let management covers the marketing and the running of the home, and we treat the marketing as a weekly job: where the cottage is listed, which guests see it, and what each night is priced at.
Full management is charged as a percentage of booking revenue, so we earn when your cottage does. Your rate and anything charged separately are confirmed in writing in your proposal before you sign. There is no lock-in, no exit fee and 30 days’ notice.
Yes, and the handover is ours to run. We go through your current agreement and notice period with you first, so you know the date you’re free. Guests who have already booked still get their stay: we agree with you how each existing booking is handled and plan the launch around them, so the calendar doesn’t go dark in between.
Returning guests are among the best bookings a cottage has, so we want them back. Your cottage gets its own booking page on our website, where they can book direct with no booking-site commission. What you can send to past guests depends on your old agency agreement and data protection law, so we check that with you before anyone is contacted.
In England it pays business rates 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 12. Only stays of 28 nights or fewer count towards the 70. In Wales the figures are 252 and 182. A home that misses the test goes back on council tax, where a second-homes premium can apply (GOV.UK, updated 29 September 2026).
Only while they are on council tax. Since 1 April 2025 a council in England can charge a premium of up to 100% on a furnished home that nobody lives in, so up to double the normal bill, and each council decides whether to (Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, section 80). Welsh councils can charge up to 300%, since April 2023. A holiday let that passes the business-rates test is rated as a business instead, which is one reason we watch the let nights through the year.
The regime was abolished from 6 April 2025 for income tax and capital gains tax, and from 1 April 2025 for corporation tax (GOV.UK policy paper). Holiday lets are now taxed under the same rules as other residential lettings. What that means for your own figures is a question for your accountant.
A written fire risk assessment under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, a gas safety check every 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer if there is gas, and electrics kept safe to a recognised standard. Getting that paperwork in place is part of setting your cottage up with us.
No. Saturday changeovers often suit the peak school-holiday weeks, and we keep them there when they do. Outside the peak, the cottage takes short breaks and midweek stays on the days guests want, with minimum stays set by season so one short booking can’t leave awkward nights either side.
Yes, and it’s one of our specialities. Contractors, work crews and people relocating stay for weeks or months, and we market homes to them directly and through contractor and relocation partners. A stay of more than 28 nights doesn’t count towards England’s 70-night business-rates test, so long stays are planned around it.
Yes, it’s your cottage. Tell us your weeks before the season goes on sale and they are blocked on every booking site at once. If you want a peak week, we’ll show you what that week tends to book for, so you choose with the figures in front of you.
We manage holiday lets across the UK. The marketing, pricing and guest care are run centrally, and changeovers go to a vetted local professional cleaning company, with local trades for repairs, trialled before your first guest. We don’t keep local offices, so the fee goes into marketing and running your cottage.
Coast or country, tell us about the property. You’ll get a realistic revenue range, month by month, built from paid market data on comparable homes near you, and a straight answer on whether full management fits. Leo rings to talk you through it.
