Short-term rental & Airbnb management in London
Professional Airbnb management in London, end to end: we build and optimise the listing, price every night against live demand, and look after guests across Airbnb, Booking.com and seven more platforms to keep the calendar full. One fee of 12% plus VAT — lower than any national operator publishes, and we only earn when the flat earns.
Net a year, same flat, after fees and bills.
From the first photograph to the guest who checks out at 11am, we run the day-to-day of short and mid-term letting in London. You keep the decisions; we do the lifting.
Working abroad for a year, or simply away most weekends? The flat pays for itself instead of sitting dark — and you keep the dates you want for yourself.
Rents have flattened while your mortgage and obligations have not. Short-letting the same flat lifts the take by roughly three quarters, without turning you into a host.
A portfolio is an operation: rotas, certificates, chasing. You get one named account manager for all of it, one statement, and pricing that treats your flats as a set.
Send the address before you exchange. We run it against real bookings on the same streets, read the lease for short-let restrictions, and say plainly when the numbers will not work.
What we actually do
From the photographer who shoots it to the person who answers a guest at 2am, every job is ours — and it is all inside the same 12%.
One calendar, nine channels
Nine platforms at once puts the flat in front of every kind of guest — business travellers midweek, families in August, couples on a long weekend — instead of whoever happens to open one app.
It all runs on a single calendar and a single statement, so wider exposure never turns into more admin for you. Double bookings are impossible by design.
Get my forecastYour dashboard
Who is staying, what the flat earned, when the money lands — one screen, updated as it happens. No chasing us for a statement.
Simon H.
Anna H.
Alex M.
Jenny E.
Marco B.
Elena V.
Statement attached to every payout. Fee already deducted — nothing to reconcile.
The StayQ app
Occupancy, tonight's price, guest reviews and the exact money owed to you — live, the moment anything changes. Block your own dates, see a photo of every clean, and compare your flat with the street it stands on.
Nothing to chase, nothing to reconcile. Open it when you are curious; ignore it for a month and the money still lands on the 5th.
Verified · Airbnb
Simon H.
Anna H.
Alex M.
Jenny E.
Marco B.
Elena V.
Owners, not guests
Guest reviews tell you the sofa was comfortable. These are the numbers our owners see, against what the same flat made the year before.
Drag sideways to read them all
01 / 12
Six years with a high-street agent and I never questioned it. The first full year with StayQ paid for the kitchen I had been putting off.
Daniel R.2 bed, Canary Wharf · owner since 2024I live in Hong Kong, so I needed people who would not ring me at 3am. Two calls in eighteen months, both to approve a repair over the limit.
Amy C.1 bed, Southwark · owner since 2023Two flats in the same block, one with StayQ and one still on a long let. After a year the difference was impossible to argue with, so the second one moved over too.
Marek S.2 × 2 bed, Stratford · owner since 2023My last tenant left the place in a state and I lost two months sorting it. Now the flat is checked and photographed every few days. That alone was worth the switch.
Priya N.1 bed, Wembley · owner since 2024I was sceptical about the occupancy they quoted on the call. Twelve months later they had beaten it by four points, and the statement is detailed enough that my accountant stopped asking questions.
Julian W.3 bed, Kensington · owner since 2023What sold me was that they talked me out of two things I wanted to spend money on before I had earned a penny. Felt like advice rather than a sales pitch.
Hannah B.2 bed, Islington · owner since 2024Mine is a studio, so the uplift was never going to be dramatic. It is still nearly nine thousand more than the agent managed, and I have not thought about it once.
Tom H.Studio, Croydon · owner since 2025I fly for work, so I keep three weeks a year in the flat for myself. Blocking the dates takes ten seconds and nobody has ever argued about it.
Elena V.2 bed, Battersea · owner since 2023The building manager was the obstacle, not me. StayQ wrote to the freeholder, sorted the permission and the insurance, and told me exactly what it would cost before I signed anything.
Adeola F.2 bed, Greenwich · owner since 2024A guest broke the shower screen in month three. I found out when the replacement had already been fitted and the cost recovered. That is the entire story.
Chris M.1 bed, Hammersmith · owner since 2024I had inherited the flat and was about to sell because managing it from Manchester was impossible. Two years on it pays more than the sale would have returned in interest.
Sarah L.2 bed, Shoreditch · owner since 2023First quarter was slower than the forecast and they told me why before I had to ask. It caught up by summer. I would rather have that than an agent who goes quiet.
Rob T.1 bed, Camden · owner since 2025
Built in-house
One platform behind every booking, clean and repair — and your flat sits at the centre of it. Pick a part to see what it looks like.
Start with a free forecast. If the number works for you, we take the flat from there — and you go back to your own week.
Book the call
20minute call
It starts with a phone call and your address.
We model the flat against real bookings on your street and tell you what it should earn — including the months it will sit empty. If short-letting is wrong for your building, you hear that on the call, not after you have spent money.
We set it up
5days to your first guest
Then you can stop thinking about it.
Day two the photographer comes and the paperwork is checked. Day three the flat is live on nine platforms. From day four it can take a booking. You hand over one set of keys and approve the photographs — that is the whole of your part.
You get paid
170%more than a long let
£90,365 net a year against £33,500 from an agent on the same flat — the whole sum is set out further down this page, deductions included. Money lands on the 5th of the month with a statement your accountant can use.
Get my forecast
One city, forty countries
We work in London and nowhere else. The people who book your flat do not.
Last year guests from forty countries slept in the flats we manage. That is the reason a well-run London flat does not sit empty in February: when one market is quiet, another is on half-term, and the pricing follows the demand rather than the calendar.
Every one of those bookings arrived through the nine platforms we list on — you keep one point of contact and one statement.
Share of all nights sold across 240 flats in the last twelve months. The average night across every market works out at £370 — the same figure every other number on this page is built from.
Work trips are the quiet half of the business: they fill Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which is where a self-managed flat usually loses its month.
London, month by month
Demand in London is not flat, and neither should your rate be. This is the curve we price a two-bed against — and the score the guests give it back.
Spotless, and the entry code arrived the night before without my having to ask. The kitchen actually had what a kitchen should have.
Anna H.Booking.comThird stay in this flat. Same standard every time — that is why I stopped looking at hotels for London.
Marco B.AirbnbMessaged at eleven at night about the heating and someone answered. Fixed the same evening.
Elena V.StayQ directLanded at one in the morning after a delayed flight and the code simply worked. A small thing until it is not.
Simon H.AirbnbSix nights with two small children. Cot, high chair and a stair gate were already there before we thought to ask.
Jenny E.VrboThe photographs were accurate, which sounds like faint praise until you have booked a few London flats.
Alex M.Booking.com
The comparison nobody publishes
Two-bed in Canary Wharf, one full year, net of everything.
From call to first payout
You leave the address; we ring the same day, or first thing the next. Twenty minutes: we model your flat against real bookings nearby and tell you the number. If short-letting is wrong for your building, you hear it on that call.
Our photographer shoots the flat while we check the lease, the mortgage and the insurance for short-let permission, and write to the freeholder on your behalf. Both happen the same day.
Listings written for each platform, rates set against the demand curve, smart lock fitted and safety certificates in hand. Nothing publishes until you have seen the photographs and the prices.
Linen in, consumables in, cleaner briefed, keys and codes handed to our team. From this day the flat can take a booking.
Someone checks in. Money lands on the 5th of the following month with a statement your accountant can use.
240 flats, one city
National operators run tens of thousands of flats from a central desk. We work in London only, at a size where the person answering has stood in your hallway.
All 32 boroughs, plus the City
One London team, one fee, one standard — from a Mayfair pied-à-terre to a new-build in Romford. The rates differ by borough, of course, and the calculator knows each of them.
Outside the M25, or a building you are unsure about? Send the postcode anyway — we will tell you straight whether it is worth doing.
We manage short lets and holiday lets for owners across every London borough: Barking & Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, the City of London, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth and Westminster. Same service and same 12% plus VAT everywhere: photography, listings, nightly pricing, guest vetting, housekeeping, maintenance and compliance — with the money in your account on the 5th of each month.
The question every owner asks first
Damage is rare and boring when somebody else handles it. Here is exactly who pays for what, in the order it happens — and where our own money starts.
Fourteen photographs before each guest and after each guest, time-stamped and kept for twelve months. Damage is found the same day, not at the end of the season, which is what makes every step below possible.
A cracked tile, a broken blind, a chipped worktop. Our tradespeople go in, it is done the same day, and it costs you nothing. No claim, no excess, no phone call asking your permission for a £40 job.
We hold the evidence, so we make the claim: first against the guest, then the platform guarantee, then the short-let policy we arrange for the flat. You are never the one chasing a booking platform or filling in a claim form.
Our own £5,000 protection per booking sits on top of the platform guarantee. If a guest we accepted causes damage and the claim does not pay out in full, the shortfall is ours, up to that limit. Written into your agreement, not promised on a call.
One team covers everything a listing needs to earn: professional photography, listing copy written for each platform, nightly pricing against live demand, guest vetting and check-in, housekeeping with hotel-grade linen, maintenance, safety certificates and the monthly statement your accountant will ask for.
Whether it is the flat you moved out of, one you inherited, or the fourth in a portfolio, the service and the fee are the same — 12% of what the flat collects, plus VAT.
Find out what your flat would earn
Asked on nearly every call
Yes: 12% of what the flat collects plus VAT, and no onboarding, photography, linen or maintenance markup. The only things you pay separately are repairs over £150 at cost, your own bills and council tax, and anything you choose to buy for the flat.
Most flats take their first booking within days of going live, and the calendar fills properly over six to eight weeks as reviews build. We price the opening weeks to win those first stays, then move the rate up as the listing gains history.
Yes. Block the dates in your dashboard and we will not take bookings for them. A few weeks' notice costs you nothing; blocking a peak week at short notice may mean turning down a booking we already have interest in.
Usually yes. We read your lease and mortgage terms during onboarding and write to the freeholder for you. If permission is refused, you find out before you have spent anything.
A standard residential policy will not cover paying guests, so we arrange the correct short-let cover for the flat and add our own £5,000 protection per booking on top of the platform guarantee. The full order of who pays for what is set out in damage cover.
No. The fee is a share of what the flat collects, so an empty week costs you nothing in fees. It costs us too, which is precisely the incentive you want your manager to have.
On the 5th of each month for everything that checked out the month before, with a statement itemising nights, rates, fees and expenses.
Anything under £150 we simply fix, same day, at our cost. Above that we make the claim — against the guest, the platform guarantee, then the policy — and if it falls short, our own £5,000 cover pays the difference. You are not chasing anybody. See damage cover.
Thirty days' written notice, no penalty. We honour bookings already taken and hand over the keys, the listings and the review history.
A London consultant runs your address against real bookings nearby and comes back within one working day. Free, and we say so if the flat is wrong for this.
Prefer email? owners@stayq.co.uk
