Serviced Accommodation Management Cost Nottingham — Full Fee Breakdown
The most common surprise for owners who are new to short letting is not the management fee itself — it is discovering that the management fee is one of three separate costs that come out of gross booking revenue before anything reaches their account.
This page shows every deduction, in the right order, using real Nottingham figures — so you know exactly what the fee load actually means for your net income before you make any decisions.
The short version: for a 2-bedroom Nottingham property at Stayful's 72% average occupancy and £140 average nightly rate, the net income after all deductions is approximately £2,054 per month.
How we get there is what this page explains.
How much does serviced accommodation management actually cost in Nottingham?
Stayful charges 15% + VAT of booking revenue. No setup fee. No minimum term charge. No onboarding cost.
Platform feeAirbnb and Booking.com charge approximately 15% of each booking directly. This is deducted by the platform before Stayful's fee is applied.
CleaningCleaning costs are passed to guests at cost within the booking charge — they do not come out of your income and Stayful adds no margin to them.
Net to ownerA 2-bed Nottingham property grossing £3,066/month (72% occupancy × £140/night) nets approximately £2,054/month after both fees.
The full gross-to-net calculation — Nottingham 2-bed example
This is every number in the right order for a 2-bedroom Nottingham property at Stayful's average occupancy and nightly rate.
- Nights booked (72% × 30.4) 21.9 nights
- Gross booking revenue (21.9 × £140) £3,066
- Platform fee — Airbnb / Booking.com (~15%) −£460
- Revenue after platform fee £2,606
- Stayful management fee (15% + VAT = 18% of gross) −£552
- Cleaning cost (charged to guests — not deducted here) £0 from owner
- Net to owner £2,054 / month
The platform fee and management fee together account for approximately 33% of gross revenue — leaving 67% as your net income.
Cleaning adds no further reduction because it is recovered from guests as a separate line item in each booking — typically £50–£80 per stay depending on property size, which guests pay directly when they book.
Gross bookings: 13.7 nights × £140 = £1,918
Platform fee (−£288) + Stayful fee (−£345) = −£633
Net to owner in January: approximately £1,285 — which is still £375 above what a standard long-let tenancy nets after agent fees and costs (£910/month).
Gross bookings — typical month at 72% occupancy, £140/night
Total deductions — platform fee (£460) + Stayful fee (£552)
Net to owner — what lands in your account each month
2-bed Nottingham property. Stayful portfolio data 2024–25. Run your postcode-specific estimate →
Net income — not gross bookings. Every deduction already applied: platform fee, management fee and cleaning recovered from guests. Based on live Nottingham occupancy and rate data for your specific postcode. Including the quieter months.
There is no charge to get started. Stayful earns only the 15% + VAT management fee — and only on bookings that actually happen.
Monthly income paid directly to you between the 1st and 5th of each month — no chasing platform payouts or reconciling statements.
How each fee works — and what it actually means for your income
Every booking made through Airbnb or Booking.com carries a platform fee — typically 15% of the total booking value — which is deducted by the platform before the remainder is paid to the host or management company.
This fee is not charged by Stayful — it goes directly to the platform and is the same regardless of which management company you use or whether you self-manage.
Where management companies differ is in how much of their booking volume they route through platforms versus generating directly — Stayful's 40% direct booking rate means that on four out of every ten bookings, no platform fee is charged at all, improving the effective net income over time.
On a typical month where gross bookings total £3,066 for a Nottingham 2-bed, the platform fee is approximately £460 — before Stayful's fee is calculated.
See how direct bookings reduce the effective fee load over the first and second year of management.
Stayful's 15% + VAT management fee is calculated on gross booking revenue — not on the revenue after platform fees.
At 20% VAT that means the effective total is 18% of gross bookings — for a month with £3,066 gross revenue, that is £552.
The 15% + VAT fee covers: guest communication 24/7, dynamic pricing updated daily, key management, cleaning coordination, maintenance coordination, quarterly property inspections, guest ID verification, multi-platform listing management, review management and monthly owner reporting.
It does not cover: the platform fee (charged by Airbnb/Booking.com directly), cleaning costs (passed to guests at cost), or maintenance works above an agreed threshold (quoted and approved by you before being actioned).
There is no setup fee, no photography fee and no minimum term fee — the only ongoing cost is the 15% + VAT on bookings.
See the full list of what is included in the management fee for Nottingham properties.
Every short-let booking requires a turnover clean between stays — typically costing £50–£80 for a 2-bedroom property depending on the level of specification and the cleaning company used.
With Stayful, this cost is passed to guests as a separate cleaning fee within the booking total they pay when they reserve the property — it appears as a line item in their booking confirmation and is paid directly through the platform alongside the nightly rate.
This means cleaning does not reduce the revenue that flows to you — the £3,066 gross figure in the example on this page is booking revenue only, and cleaning is recovered from guests separately on top of it.
Some management companies charge the cleaning cost to the owner rather than passing it to guests, or add a margin on top of the actual cleaner's invoice before passing it on — in both cases the effective net income for the owner is lower than the headline management fee would suggest.
Stayful does not mark up cleaning — the cost passed to guests reflects the actual cleaner's invoice.
Property developers selling new-build or off-plan units in Nottingham — particularly apartment blocks in NG1 and NG2 — often provide cashflow projections to support the purchase decision.
These projections typically show gross annual income rather than net income, and frequently omit the platform fee (15%) and cleaning recovery entirely — showing only the management fee as a cost.
A projection showing £30,000 gross annual income after a 15% management fee produces an apparent net of £25,500 — but the reality, once platform fees and accurate occupancy assumptions are applied, is typically closer to £19,000–£22,000 net.
Before purchasing a Nottingham property specifically for short letting, run the income estimate here to get a figure based on Stayful's actual Nottingham portfolio data — and compare it against the developer's projection line by line to understand where the difference comes from.
This is not a criticism of developers — it is a known feature of how these projections are typically prepared, and it is worth being aware of before you commit to a purchase.
How Stayful's total fee load compares — Nottingham properties
The table below shows the real gross-to-net journey under three common management structures — Stayful, a typical co-host arrangement and a national platform with a higher headline fee.
All three use the same gross booking revenue figure (£3,066) for a fair comparison.
| Deduction | Stayful | Typical co-host (12%) | National platform (22%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross bookings | £3,066 | £3,066 | £3,066 |
| Platform fee (~15%) | −£460 | −£460 | −£460 |
| Management fee | −£552 (15% + VAT) | −£432 (12% + VAT) | −£800 (22% + VAT) |
| Cleaning mark-up | £0 — passed to guests at cost | Often −£90 (20% on £75 clean) | Often included — hidden in fee |
| Effective net to owner | £2,054 | ~£2,084* | ~£1,806 |
| *Co-host net looks similar to Stayful but typically reflects lower occupancy (55–60% vs 72%) — at 60% occupancy, gross drops to £2,555 and net falls to approximately £1,678. The management fee percentage means less if the occupancy it achieves is lower. Always ask for occupancy data alongside fee data. | |||
Illustrative. Based on 2-bed Nottingham property grossing £3,066/month at Stayful average occupancy. Co-host and national platform columns represent typical market ranges, not named companies.
Serviced accommodation management fees — questions owners ask
Stayful's management fee is 15% + VAT (18% total) of gross booking revenue.
The platform fee from Airbnb and Booking.com adds approximately 15% on top of that — meaning the combined deductions from gross revenue are approximately 33% before cleaning is considered.
Cleaning is recovered from guests and does not form part of this calculation.
After all deductions, owners typically receive approximately 67% of gross booking revenue as net income — for a Nottingham 2-bed grossing £3,066 in a typical month, that is £2,054 net.
No — there is no setup fee, no onboarding fee and no photography charge.
Stayful covers the cost of professional photography, listing creation and platform setup as part of the service.
The only ongoing cost is the 15% + VAT management fee — which applies only to bookings that actually happen.
If a month produces no bookings, Stayful earns nothing for that month.
A company charging 12% on a gross revenue of £2,555 (60% occupancy) returns £1,678 net after platform fees — less than a company charging 15% on £3,066 (72% occupancy) which returns £2,054 net.
Occupancy is the primary driver of net income — a 12-percentage-point occupancy difference at £140 per night generates £511 more gross revenue per month, which more than offsets a 3-percentage-point higher management fee.
This is why the income estimate matters more than the fee rate alone — always compare companies on the basis of the net income their occupancy achieves, not the management fee percentage they charge.
See how to evaluate SA management companies in Nottingham using occupancy data as the primary comparison metric.
Short-let income in Nottingham is taxable as UK property income under Self Assessment — the net income you receive from Stayful each month must be declared on your annual tax return.
Since April 2025 the Furnished Holiday Let regime has been abolished — short-let income is now treated as standard UK property income, meaning mortgage interest relief is capped at the 20% basic rate tax credit rather than being fully deductible.
Allowable deductions include the management fee, platform fees, cleaning costs, maintenance, insurance and a proportion of mortgage interest at the basic rate — Stayful's monthly statement provides the breakdown you need for your accountant.
Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances — always confirm the position with a qualified accountant who understands short-let property income before you make decisions based on post-tax projections.
Related pages
See your net income — all fees already applied
The estimate shows what lands in your account after the platform fee, Stayful's management fee and cleaning recovered from guests — for your specific Nottingham postcode, including the quieter months.
No setup fee to get started. If you need a guaranteed fixed monthly amount rather than a net short-let income, compare both options here.