By the Unity Stays directors, Marcus Chong & Gadir Al-Khatib · Last updated 12 August 2026
In short: Check three permissions in writing before anything else — your mortgage lender, your lease if leasehold, and local planning or licensing rules — then end the tenancy properly with advice. Once the property is back, complete fire and safety compliance, change the insurance, furnish, photograph and only then list; compare net income against net rent, not gross figures.
Check permission before anything else
Everything downstream depends on three permissions, and all three can be checked before you spend a penny or give anyone notice. Checking them first is the difference between a plan and a stalled project.
Your mortgage. A buy-to-let mortgage typically permits letting on an assured shorthold tenancy specifically. Short-term and holiday letting is a different permission and lenders vary widely on whether they grant it. Ask in writing and keep the reply.
Your lease, if leasehold. Look for restrictions on subletting, short-term occupation, business or trade use, and holiday letting. These are separate clauses and permission on one does not imply the others.
Planning and licensing. Greater London applies a 90-night annual limit before planning permission is required. Scotland requires a licence. Northern Ireland requires Tourism NI certification. Wales operates its own arrangements. Anywhere in England may sit under an Article 4 direction removing permitted development rights.
Ending the tenancy properly
This is the part where haste causes the most damage, and it is worth taking advice specific to your situation rather than working from a general guide.
The routes available to end a tenancy, the notice required and the procedure have changed with recent reform, and getting the process wrong can invalidate the notice entirely and cost months. Deposit protection, the condition of the property at the end of the tenancy and the return of the deposit all need handling correctly regardless of what the property is doing next.
The practical point is one of sequencing: do not commit to furnishing, photography or a launch date until you know when you will actually have the property back.
What changes about the property
A tenanted property and a short let are physically different products, and the gap is usually larger than owners expect.
- It has to be fully furnished and equipped, down to crockery, linen, towels and a kettle. Compliant upholstery only.
- Fire safety obligations change and a written fire risk assessment is needed, which a tenancy did not require
- You take on the utilities, council tax or business rates, and the broadband — all of which were probably the tenant's
- Access has to work without you: a key safe or smart lock, and instructions a stranger can follow at midnight
- Insurance has to change to a policy that covers short-term letting
- Someone has to be available to answer a message on a Sunday evening
What changes about the money
Income goes up gross and the cost base goes up considerably more than most first models allow for. Revenue also stops being level: it moves with season, day of week and local demand, and it arrives after a platform has taken its cut and a changeover has been paid for.
The comparison worth making is net against net. Take the tenancy figure and remove voids, agency fees and maintenance. Take the short-let figure and remove platform commission, cleaning per changeover, linen, utilities, rates or council tax, broadband, software, insurance, management and a replacement provision. The gap between those two numbers is the real answer, and it is usually smaller than short-let marketing suggests and larger than tenancy defenders claim.
Our calculator runs the short-let side of that comparison on your own figures, including a direct comparison against a monthly rent if you enter one. It is deliberately built to tell you when the tenancy wins.
A workable order
Confirm the three permissions in writing. Get an honest projection for the address, including the low months. Decide on the numbers, not on the peak-season figure. Then serve notice properly, with advice.
Once the property is back: compliance first — fire risk assessment, alarms, certificates, insurance changed. Then furnish. Then photograph. Then list. Launching a half-finished property to catch a season is the most expensive corner to cut in this business, because early reviews set a listing's trajectory and are very hard to correct.
If you would rather have the whole sequence run for you, that is what onboarding is: roughly five to seven days from us collecting the keys, covering compliance checks, device installation, staging, photography and the listing build across the channels.
General guidance on a process, not legal, tax or mortgage advice. Get proper advice on ending a tenancy and on lender and lease consents before acting.