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Guide · UK hosts

How to price a holiday let when you sell on more than one channel

List a cottage at £100 a night and, depending on where it’s booked, you keep anything from £80 to about £98. That’s the first thing to know when you price a holiday let in the UK: the same price doesn’t pay the same everywhere. Here’s what each channel takes, how to choose between one price and a price per channel, and how to price the weeks and short breaks cottages actually sell.

By the PeakRate team. We're UK holiday-let hosts. Facts checked on ; sources are listed at the end.

Prefer to watch? How to Price a Holiday Let (UK): Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and Direct on our YouTube channel.

In short

What each channel takes

Every channel takes its cut differently, and some don’t publish it at all. Here’s what each one says on its own pages (read 17 October 2026).

ChannelWhat it takesCharged on cleaning fees?You keep on £100
Airbnb15.5% for most UK hosts, since 22 June 2026, all from your payoutYes£84.50
VrboA flat 12% on bookings made from 29 October 2026, payment processing included; Vrbo says 12–15% by region (check your dashboard). Guests also pay Vrbo a service fee.Yes£88
Booking.comNot published for the UK: “depends on your country, property type and the accommodation agreement”. Preferred Partner and Visibility Booster add more.YesYour rate is in your extranet
Cottage agencyClassic Cottages publishes 20%. Sykes, cottages.com, holidaycottages.co.uk and Original Cottages don’t publish a rate on their owner pages.Ask the agency£80 at 20%
DirectCard fees: Stripe charges 1.5% + 20p on a standard UK card. Plus your website and marketing.n/a£98.30

“You keep” is our maths on a single £100 night, before VAT. Airbnb says VAT may apply to its fees; Booking.com says it charges commission on VAT in most countries.

One price, or one per channel?

Option one: the same price everywhere. It’s simple, and easy to keep in step across your calendars. The cost is that you keep less wherever the fee is higher.

Option two: start from what you want to keep, and add each channel’s fee. Divide the amount you want to keep by one minus the fee:

Our maths: to keep £100 a night, list at £100 ÷ 0.845 = £118.34 on Airbnb (+18.3%), £100 ÷ 0.88 = £113.64 on Vrbo (+13.6%), and £100 ÷ 0.8 = £125 through a 20% agency (+25%).

A channel manager can do this for you: Hospitable, for example, can push a marked-up rate to each channel without changing the base price on your calendar.

Two checks before you mark anything up:

  1. Read your contracts. Booking.com applies different parity rules depending on where your property is, from none to “same or better than any channel”. The wording is in its General Delivery Terms.
  2. Guests still compare. A markup is still the price guests see on that site. Before it makes you the dearest cottage there, check what similar places charge on the same site, for the same dates.

Direct bookings: give guests a reason

If your own website costs the same as Airbnb, a guest has little reason to book direct. The fees give you room. On our numbers, a direct price of £110 still keeps you about £108 after card fees: £8 more than Airbnb leaves you at £118, while the guest pays about £8 less.

Direct isn’t free, though. Card fees are only the start; the website, the booking engine and the marketing that brings guests to it all cost money and time.

Price weeks, not months

Holiday lets still sell by the week. Sykes, one of the large UK cottage agencies, describes the year like this in its own pricing guide (agency advice, 13 May 2026):

So a February half-term week isn’t a February week. Find half-term dates on your local councils’ websites, mark them alongside the bank holidays and big local events, and price those weeks first.

Changeover days and short breaks

Sykes says Friday, Saturday or Monday arrivals help maximise occupancy. And short breaks matter: 51% of Sykes’ 2025 bookings were short breaks of six days or fewer (its own data for 25,000 properties).

A simple pattern is a weekend from Friday to Monday and a midweek break from Monday to Friday, which together cover the week. Price the pair above the week, because two stays mean two cleans:

Illustrative, our maths: a £700 week, or two breaks at £420 each = £840. Take off an extra £60 clean and the pair still makes £780.

Sykes’ own approach is to start rates high to win full weeks, then adjust closer to arrival for short breaks. If a week is still empty a few weeks out, that’s the moment to open it up.

Selling mainly on Airbnb? Read how to price your Airbnb for Airbnb’s own tools.

Questions hosts ask

How do I price a holiday let in the UK?

Start from what each booking channel leaves you, then decide whether to charge the same price everywhere or add each channel’s fee. Price by the week rather than the month (school holidays, bank holidays and local events first), and build short breaks around your changeover day. Check what similar holiday lets charge on each site for the same dates.

What commission do UK holiday let channels charge?

As of 17 October 2026: Airbnb charges most UK hosts 15.5%; Vrbo moves to a flat 12% (payment processing included) on bookings made from 29 October 2026, and says it can be 12–15% by region; Booking.com doesn’t publish a UK rate; of five cottage agencies we checked, only Classic Cottages publishes its commission (20%).

Should my holiday let be cheaper to book direct?

It’s one way to give guests a reason to book direct. On our numbers, a £110 direct price keeps you about £108 after card fees, which is more than Airbnb leaves you at £118, and the guest pays about £8 less. Check your channel contracts for parity rules first.

Should I accept short breaks at my holiday let?

Short breaks are a big share of UK cottage bookings: 51% of Sykes’ 2025 bookings were six days or fewer. A Friday-to-Monday weekend plus a Monday-to-Friday midweek break can earn more than one week if you price the pair to cover the extra clean.

Check it against your real competitors

Whatever you charge on each channel, the price guests compare is the one next to similar places. You can check those by hand, or let PeakRate track them night by night.

Audit your Airbnb listing free Or start your free 30-day trial →

Sources

  1. Airbnb Resource Centre, "Simplifying service fees" (22 March 2026, article 761): UK hosts switch to the single 15.5% fee on 22 June
  2. Airbnb Help Centre, "Airbnb service fees" (article 1857): most hosts pay 15.5%, taken from the payout; VAT may apply
  3. Airbnb Resource Centre, article 771 (7 July 2026, updated 24 August 2026): the single fee applies to cleaning, pet and extra-guest fees
  4. Expedia Group newsroom, "Vrbo Compensation Model Changes" (1 October 2026): flat 12% including payment processing, 12–15% by region, from 29 October 2026, traveller service fee
  5. Booking.com Partner Help, "Understanding your commission" (read 17 October 2026): rate depends on country, property type and agreement; charged on cleaning fees; programmes add more
  6. Booking.com Partner, "How parity works" (22 April 2025)
  7. Classic Cottages, "Rates and policies" (20% commission); Sykes, cottages.com, holidaycottages.co.uk and Original Cottages owner pages (no rate published), all read 17 October 2026
  8. Stripe UK pricing: 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards
  9. Hospitable Help Centre: channel markups
  10. Sykes, "How to Price Your Holiday Home" (13 May 2026): seasons, arrival days, full weeks first
  11. Sykes Staycation Index 2026: 51% of 2025 bookings were short breaks of six days or fewer
  12. gov.uk, "School term and holiday dates": dates are on your local council’s website
  13. Our maths: 100 × 0.845 = 84.50; 100 × 0.88 = 88; 100 − 1.50 − 0.20 = 98.30; 100 ÷ 0.845 = 118.34; 100 ÷ 0.88 = 113.64; 100 ÷ 0.8 = 125; 110 − 1.65 − 0.20 = 108.15; 420 × 2 − 60 = 780

PeakRate makes pricing and competitor-benchmarking software for hosts. Where this guide mentions it, we say so; everything else is sourced above.