By the Unity Stays directors, Marcus Chong & Gadir Al-Khatib · Last updated 12 August 2026
In short: A proper statement starts at gross booking revenue and itemises every deduction — management fee, platform commission, payment processing, cleaning per changeover, linen and pricing software — so you can rebuild the net figure yourself. Query anything labelled only 'adjustment' or 'sundry', and keep every statement: it is your accountant's evidence and proof of nights let for business rates.
Start at gross, not at net
The top line should be gross booking revenue — the total value of stays attributable to the property in the period, before anything comes off. Everything else on the statement is a deduction from it, and the net figure at the bottom should be reconstructable by subtracting the lines in between.
If you cannot do that arithmetic yourself from the statement in front of you, the statement is not doing its job. That is the single test worth applying, and it is the reason to look at a real one before signing with anybody.
The deduction lines
These are what should appear between gross and net on a fully managed property, and roughly in this order.
- Management fee — a percentage of gross booking revenue. Ours runs 22% to 14% depending on commitment and portfolio size, and the rate on your statement should match your agreement
- Platform commission — what Airbnb, Booking.com or another channel took on bookings made through them, passed through at what it cost
- Payment processing — card and payment provider fees, separate from platform commission
- Cleaning and laundry — the servicing cost of each changeover. This is charged per stay, so the figure moves with how many bookings there were, not with how many nights
- Linen — supplied through a linen provider and charged at cost. It is not inside the management fee
- Pricing software — £15 a month
- Any agreed pass-through costs — consumables, a specific purchase you approved, an agreed contractor cost
What should not be on it
Some things belong to you directly and should never appear as a deduction without your agreement.
Maintenance contractor invoices are paid by you to the contractor, not deducted at source — under our agreement that is explicit. Larger works are agreed with you before anything is spent, so a repair you have not heard about should not first appear as a number on a statement.
Utilities, council tax or business rates, the TV licence and broadband are yours and are paid directly. And nothing described only as an adjustment, a sundry or a fee should appear without a line explaining what it is. If it does, ask, and expect a specific answer rather than a category.
Reconciling it yourself
Once a quarter is enough, and it takes about twenty minutes.
Take the number of bookings that checked out in the period and multiply by your changeover cost. It should match the cleaning line closely — if it is materially higher, either there were more changeovers than you think or something is being charged that should not be. Take gross times your platform's commission rate and compare it to the commission line. Take gross times your fee percentage and compare it to the fee line.
Then check the timing. Money for a stay arrives after the guest has stayed, not when they booked, so a strong booking month and a strong payout month are different months. Under our agreement the balance reaches your account by the 10th of the following month.
A discrepancy is usually a timing difference or a cancellation, both of which have innocent explanations. What matters is that you can ask a specific question and get a specific answer.
Keep them, because you will need them
Statements are the evidence base for two separate things beyond checking the arithmetic.
They are what your accountant works from at the end of the year, and a set of monthly statements showing gross and itemised deductions is considerably easier to work with than a bank statement showing net transfers.
They are also the evidence of actual letting that the business rates thresholds now require — nights let and income by property, by year. That evidence requirement is the thing that changed in 2023, and it is worth having the records rather than reconstructing them. The rates guide covers the thresholds.