How we worked out the sums
One three-bedroom home in Staines, on September 2026 market data. A projection, not a guarantee, and not a real owner's result.
Bookings against rent, before costs
Let on a tenancy
£19,200
a year in rent, before costs
If we ran it as short stays (projection)
£52,400
a year in bookings, before costs
In bookings, that's 2.7 times the rent. The valuation puts it at £52,401 a year, which we show as £52,400. Bookings are what guests pay, cleaning fees included. Our fee, the booking site's cut, cleaning and bills all come out of them, so they aren't what you'd keep. The lines below take every cost off both sides.
Four to six bed homes we've valued nearby: £64,000 to £105,000 a year in bookings, before costs.
The range for bigger homes comes from Property Market Intel valuations we ran for homes with four to six bedrooms in Slough, Egham and Reading between September and October 2026: £64,180 to £104,780 a year in bookings, cleaning fees included, shown to the nearest thousand. That's before our fee, the booking site's cut and running costs. They're valuations, not homes we run, and not a guarantee.
Every line, both sides
Let on a tenancy
- Rent, a month
- £1,600
- Less the letting agent's 12%
- £192
- Less VAT on the agent's fee
- £38
- Less empty weeks between tenants
- £34
- Bills and council tax (your tenant pays)
- £0
- Less insurance, safety checks and repairs
- £110
- What you'd keep, a month
- £1,226
- What you'd keep, a year
- £14,712
If we ran it as short stays (projection)
- What guests pay, an average month
- £4,367
- Less our 15% of the stay price, not cleaning fees
- £549
- Less the booking site's cut (18.6%)
- £812
- Less cleaning and linen
- £710
- Less bills and council tax
- £506
- Less insurance, safety checks and repairs
- £220
- What you'd keep, a month
- £1,570
- What you'd keep, a year
- £18,840
Projected difference
+£344 a month, +£4,128 a year: 28% more than the tenancy would leave, after fees and running costs on both sides.
Fig. 03. Projection for a three-bedroom home in Staines. Market data, September 2026.
Where the figures come from
What guests pay
- What guests pay comes from a Property Market Intel valuation of this home in September 2026: £52,401 a year, an average of £203 a night including cleaning fees, with 70% of nights booked, built from 12 short lets within a mile and a quarter.
Our fee and the booking site's cut
- Our 15% is taken from the price of each stay, before the booking site's cut, and not from cleaning fees, which pay for the cleaning.
- The booking site's cut is 18.6%, Airbnb's 15.5% fee plus VAT.
Running costs
- Cleaning, linen and supplies come to £100 a changeover, with stays averaging three nights.
- Bills are energy, water, broadband and a TV licence.
- Council tax is assumed at Spelthorne's 2026/27 Band D rate.
- Spelthorne plans to double council tax on second homes from April 2027, which would take about £210 a month off the short stays side until the home moves to business rates.
The tenancy side
- The rent is £1,600 a month.
- The tenancy side allows a letting agent's fee of 12% plus VAT and about three weeks empty every three years.
- Both sides pay their own insurance, safety checks and repairs.
What could change it
- The figures are averaged over a year: in the quietest months, such as February, short stays would leave less than the tenancy.
- A new listing usually takes a few months to build up its bookings.
- If bookings came in 10% lower, the difference would fall to about £650 to £1,400 a year.
What's left out
- Before income tax and one-off costs such as furnishing.
- Mortgage and any service charge are the same either way, so they're left out.
Whether it suits your home
- It only works where your mortgage lender, insurer and any lease allow short stays.
- Some homes do better as short stays and some don't, and we'll tell you which yours is.
How this home compares
Guests would pay about 2.7 times the rent here, but most of that goes on our fee, the booking site, cleaning and bills. That's why we show every line. We've set seven homes against a tenancy this way, on the same costs, and this one sits in the middle. For one of them, the tenancy came out slightly ahead. If yours is one where the tenancy wins, we'll tell you before you commit to anything.
Want the sums for your own home?
Some houses do better as short stays and some don't. Your projection is built from real short lets near you, and we'll tell you straight which yours is.