As professional landlords begin to feel the effects of the Renters’ Rights Act, those who have spent decades letting cottages on long lets are reconsidering their options. Managing Director, Sophie Jones explains the short-let alternative and the conditions attached to it.
The short let has spent a decade defined by its worst examples. City flats churned through weekend guests, with absent hosts, unhappy neighbours, and a councillor’s email address. That version is real, and it has shaped both the regulation coming down the line and the instincts of many people who own the kind of property this article covers.
At the upper end, the short let has become something closer to a managed asset: a country house or barn conversion let by the night rather than the month, and run by an operator who handles the design, marketing, reservations, housekeeping and guests, giving the owner a return without giving them another job.
The economics are different from a tenancy in kind, not just in degree – nightly rates instead of monthly rent, occupancy risk instead of tenancy risk, and a service business built around the asset. The owner keeps the keys and can use the house.
That proposition has become more relevant since 1 May 2026, when the Renters’ Rights Act abolished Section 21 and the fixed-term tenancy. Owners who spent decades letting cottages on long tenancies to fund the upkeep of an estate are re-examining an approach that had held for a generation.
At We Stay, we manage around 100 such homes across the Cotswolds, other parts of rural England, and Prime Central London. Sophie Jones explains how the model works and how it offers landlords at a crossroads an opportunity to diversify.
I spend a good deal of my time telling landlords things they would rather not hear. That is not a complaint. It is the job.
If you have the right property, in the right location, finished to the right standard, it can outperform a long let – I will say that to anyone. But every part of that sentence depends on conditions, and those conditions are where owners can lose money.
Data is crucial. Without it, you are just another person with an opinion. So let me set out what our data highlights and what it asks of the people who own these homes.
The owners arriving now are not who you expect
The profile has changed markedly over the past two years. Some are high-net-worth owners with portfolios focused squarely on yield. Some held long lets and, with the reforms in force, have had to decide whether to sell the asset or use it differently.
Owners keeping a home for their own use
We work with overseas owners who want to keep a UK home available to visit rather than hand it to a tenant, and with people whose work takes them abroad for long stretches.
“We work with overseas owners who want to keep a UK home they can still visit rather than hand it to a tenant, and with people whose work takes them abroad for long stretches.”
Country estates and long-term upkeep
We also work with custodians of country estates who have let cottages on long tenancies for decades because that is how the upkeep of the main house has traditionally been funded. They are looking at this seriously now and understand what a professionally managed short let can do.
Increasingly, owners in this sector are seeking our guidance to maximise their investment.
Design is not decoration. It is the asset
Private home hospitality
At We Stay, we combine short-let management with hospitality. It is the two together that create the magic. We refer to this as private home hospitality.
Guests have their own space and their own hours, which a hotel cannot offer, supported by a concierge team who can send in a chef for the week or organise the details that turn a stay into something people remember.
Design as the shop window
When you advertise a property, all you have is a description and some images. That is the whole shop window, and it is where we have differentiated ourselves – which is why we built our own Design Studio. From the first impression in a photograph to a guest’s initial response when they walk through the door, design determines whether the property books and at what rate.
“At We Stay, we combine short-let management with hospitality. It is the two together that create the magic. We refer to this as private home hospitality.”
Willowberry Barn case study
Willowberry Barn in Weston Subedge is a good example. It was a seven-bedroom barn conversion, previously self-managed and in need of modernisation. We projected gross annual income of £222,000 following a design transformation and the addition of a hot tub. The team completed the work in 28 days.
It took its first booking within five hours of launch, against a market norm that can run to six weeks, and secured £38,000 in its first week at an average nightly rate of £1,188.
Across the properties we have taken through the Design Studio, the average uplift is around 40% more revenue. The caveat matters: design sits alongside location, amenities and ongoing management. It is this combination that delivers.
The discipline is the product
Choosing the right property
Not every property is right for this, and we believe owners deserve to know that.
Our properties perform best in rural locations. The one exception is Prime Central London – we have operated in other cities and the yield was not there. We are not precious about size; we will happily take a beautiful one-bedroom cottage. But if you have ten guests and one bathroom, you have a problem. If the analysis says a property will not reach a certain number, we say so and do not take it on.
Protecting guests and neighbours
Much of the rest is practical. We vet guests – who is staying, how old they are and what the occasion is. We do not take stag or hen parties. On larger houses, we install noise monitors and cut things off at eleven, because we are respectful of neighbours.
“Our properties perform best in rural locations. The one exception is Prime Central London. We are not precious about size, either; we will happily take a beautiful one-bedroom cottage.”
Balancing leisure and corporate bookings
We split the book deliberately between leisure and corporate: leisure carries the peak weeks at peak rates, while corporate bookings – families between houses, insurance placements and film crews – fill the months on either side.
Conservative forecasting
That balance is why the annual figures hold up. We build every market analysis on 60% occupancy because it is better to be conservative than to over-promise. The actual performance runs ahead of it. Across 2025, we operated at 66% average occupancy against 40% for the market, according to Key Data’s figures, and at peak season, 75% against 55%. Forward-booking revenue confirmed before 1 January was up 97% year on year.
Those numbers are not available to every property. They come back to what I say to every landlord: take our advice so that we can achieve the very best results.
This is not the end of the long let
Making the most of each property
There will be a place for both, and I hope there always is. This is about maximising a property for what it can actually be, given its size and location.
Professional management as regulation tightens
What will change is who can compete. Regulation is tightening – a national registration scheme is coming, and planning rules are moving with it. For a professional operation, that changes very little because we already do all of it. For someone running a property themselves from a laptop, it changes a great deal.
Supporting local economies
I do not regret that. There was a period when it was all about Airbnb, and the sector earned some of the accolades. But when I have a house cleaned, I am employing local cleaners, and we are bringing visitors and their spending into rural locations that want and need them.
Done properly, this not only benefits guests and owners but, just as importantly, supports the local economy. That is what I intend to keep saying.
