Short-Let Starter Guide
The fundamentals for making your holiday home or Airbnb a success. Are you setting the right price? Are you attracting the right customer? See what it’s like working with us, and what our detailed onboarding process is like.
Really peaceful and comfy house. Nice location in beautiful Lewes.
Hanna3/19/2025
Property Management Guide: Onboarding Facts
As one of the UK’s leading (and favourite) property management companies, HelloGuest provides clients with a starter short-let guide, which breaks down every aspect of the short-stay process, from what you need to provide to how you’ll get paid.
Our onboarding process is simple, and within this guide, we hope to cover the basics and the fundamentals of running a successful holiday let with us. When owners sign up for our services, they can expect to receive various bits of information, mostly pdfs, which we advise they read carefully before beginning.
Housekeeping Rules
HelloGuest works with independent local cleaners, or if you already have a preferred choice, we’re happy to form a partnership with them.
Otherwise, our co-hosts can rest assured of our local partnerships with vetted professional cleaning companies in your area.
Our housekeeping staff will take care of the changeover of the short-let and will report back to us if there is anything wrong in the flat or house after each stay.
They’ll be responsible for resetting your space after each guest visit, so do let us know if you have any specific requirements. Deep periodic cleans are scheduled every so often.
Required Cleaning Equipment And Product List
Maintenance Support
- We will coordinate and raise any items identified arising from short letting.
- Depending on the issue to fix, we can coordinate with the handyman and contractors on your behalf. You will need to cover the contractor costs. Please note this does not include any larger building projects or maintenance activities unrelated to short-letting management.
- Typically, we aim to inform and consult with you before acting when significant damages arise unless it’s an emergency and you are otherwise engaged.
What Owners And Hosts Need To Provide
- You will need to provide at least two sets of bedding and towels for each guest, preferably three sets in case of any marks or damages and preferably white for the cleaning company to wash and iron in between guest stays.
*We recommend using good quality linen & towels and ideally have the linen sets matching.
If you have linen or towels for your personal use, we do not take any responsibility for them and advise you to lock them away, so guests don’t have access to them.
The guests pay the cleaning fee, but the replenishments of essentials (such as WC roll and hand soap) and cleaning products will be charged to the owner at the end of each month.
Your First Guest Stay
Before we completely take over the management of your holiday let, you must ensure that the property has been deep cleaned and is ready for its first check-in – and we’ll take over from here.
We’re always very happy to help our partnered hosts reach out and use certified cleaning companies in their local areas if they’re struggling to find a fit.
The first clean will be the only cleaning cost you’ll have to cover in the process unless you have additional requests. The guests will cover the cleaning charges after each stay.
Property Access & Guest Check-In Times
We handle the guest check-in and out process via self-check-in points (such as using a key safe or collection box). If you have a key safe installed, please let us know the code before launching your short-let.
If not, they are easy to install; we can recommend a similar, suitable product or arrange for the device to be installed on your behalf.
Ideally, we hope you can provide four sets of keys and more, if possible – this is to ensure we can provide entry for all relevant parties like housekeeping without any delay.
Personal Protection And Damage Insurance
- We recommend removing any valuable or sentimental items from the property or locking them away so guests cannot access them.
Guests rarely intentionally cause damage; however, opening your home to guests means they will naturally use household items, which might expose them to greater usage and wear and tear.
*NOTE: We are not responsible for guest damages. With short-lets, inventory checks might be limited compared to long-term letting as the property is serviced seven days a week, which might mean certain housekeepers won’t be familiar with the condition of each property between guests.
Any damages, missing items or maintenance issues are identified and reported as they need to be addressed. Claims can be raised if valid.
Guest Damage Claims
- Any potential damages need to be assigned to a particular guest booking.
- Proof is required that damage was caused by the guest’s actions rather than usage or some default with the item. Estimates are required for replacement or repair.
- We will notify property owners if we have found any significant damages to the property and can help you with your claim.
- We can process your claim on your behalf. However, we might need your prompt response in some cases to ascertain the cost of replacement or repair. If the guests accept responsibility, then it’s pretty straightforward. However, guests sometimes dispute the damage claim, wherein the following steps vary by channel. Finally, if Airbnb takes the booking, it gets escalated to the Airbnb resolution team, who will arbitrate and give a final decision.
Host And Property Insurance
- We take deposits from guests (the amount taken depends on the property size and contents).
- Some channels, such as Airbnb, offer a host guarantee (airbnb.co.uk/guarantee), providing additional protection if damages exceed the deposit amount.
- Your home insurance policy may also cover you, but we recommend you check with your provider and the terms beforehand. You might also consider taking out a specialised policy for short lettings to give you full cover and peace of mind. Again, we can recommend to you suitable providers to contact.
Pricing is an estimate; we need to see how the property performs when live.
Pricing for holiday lets can vary due to many factors, including length of stay, demand, occupancy, if a listing is established, etc. New listings will need time to get established and gain traction and reviews, so they will initially achieve lower prices.
To get the best returns, it’s better to be flexible and adjust prices to match demand and optimise occupancy. We set prices, monitor them and adjust accordingly. We can consider this if you prefer to set a minimum night price.
We set at least a minimum of a 2-day stay to help protect your property from parties and improve returns as one-night visits prevent guests from booking longer stays (e.g. typically, Friday or Saturday nights will get booked out, leaving other days empty).
We set a 2-day booking notice to ensure the property can be serviced in time, to allow enough time to process payments, and protect your property against parties/last-minute bookers.
We will prepare a monthly summary of the bookings, any expenses and your earnings, which will be sent to you in the first week of the following month alongside payment.
We only include bookings where the guest has paid so that some bookings may be included in the next month’s statements.
If your account ends that month, the statement will take a bit longer to send to you to allow for any last expenses to be accounted for.
What Hosts Should Equip The Property With
Some of these are optional, but several items are commonly requested/required – most critical is the internet, hairdryer cleaning equipment and sufficient kitchen items/utensils.
Property Management Across The UK
Our service provides full UK coverage for short-term letting. Our Airbnb manager services extend to short, medium and long-term lettings to provide a full range of rental options to help homeowners and landlords maximise their earnings and minimise any problems. Visit this page.
We manage many rental properties in popular areas and tourist destinations. This includes accommodation in all the UK’s major cities and holiday destinations.
Contact us to find out more.
Book A Free Earnings Assessment
Toby France
Account Manager
Toby will be one of your key contacts during your partnership with us – he’ll help you get set up and then work to increase your passive income month to month.
Veronica Tribolati
Airbnb Manager
Being a natural extrovert and a go-getter, Veronica is a great communicator and is the face of HelloGuest.