Bought a holiday let? The launch checklist before your first guest

Buying the property was the easy part. Now the mortgage payments have started, the house is sitting empty, and every week without bookings costs you money. The launch order that works: compliance first (licence or registration before you take booking one), money plumbing second, then your own website and booking stack, insurance and safety, and photography last. Most owners are live in 8 to 12 weeks. Here is the checklist most new holiday-let owners wish someone had given them on completion day.

Month 1: Get compliant before you take a booking

The rules depend on where your property is, and they are not optional.

Scotland: you need a short-term let licence from your council before you accept your first booking. Operating without one risks a £2,500 fine.

Wales: free visitor accommodation registration is required by 31 March 2027. Registration is currently open, so do it early rather than queuing behind thousands of other owners in the final month.

England: a national register has been announced but is not yet open. The position is expected to develop during 2027, so check the current requirements before you launch and keep an eye on updates.

Whatever nation you are in, build a licence or registration number field into your website from day one. Guests increasingly look for it, and it shows you are a legitimate operation.

Month 1: Money plumbing

Open a separate business bank account. Set up your payment processor (Stripe is the common choice for UK hosts) so guests pay you directly. Decide your pricing: look at comparable properties on the OTAs, then set your direct rate. Most owners find that charging the same nightly rate direct as on Airbnb or Booking.com leaves them 12 to 15 percent better off per booking, because there is no commission to pay.

Months 1-2: Your booking stack

You need three things that talk to each other:

1. A real website of your own. Not just an Airbnb listing. OTAs charge commission on every booking and they own the guest relationship. Your own site takes bookings directly, commission free, and builds your repeat-guest list. This is the piece most new owners postpone and later regret.
2. A booking engine with calendar sync. If you list on multiple platforms, a channel manager keeps availability in sync and stops double bookings. Lightweight options such as freetobook work well for a single property.
3. Clear policies. Write your cancellation terms, check-in instructions, and house rules now, while you are calm, not at midnight when a guest asks.

Month 2: Insurance and safety

Standard home insurance does not cover paying guests. Arrange specialist holiday-let insurance. Get your gas safety certificate, electrical checks, and fire risk assessment sorted. These are legal requirements, not nice-to-haves, and they take longer than you expect.

Months 2-3: Photography and listing

Book a photographer after the deep clean and styling, not before. Good photos are the highest-return marketing spend a new holiday let has. Write your property description around specifics (the walk to the pub, the sunrise from the kitchen) rather than adjectives. Launch your OTA listings first for reviews, but point every returning guest and every social post back to your own site.

The week before launch

Run a test booking end to end: enquiry, payment, confirmation email, check-in instructions, calendar block. Then ask a friend to do it on their phone and watch where they hesitate. Fix those points before real money is involved.

Why launch with your own website from day one

Owners who start on OTAs alone often find the platforms eating 15 percent of revenue and owning the customer list. A direct-booking website costs a known, fixed amount. Ours at directbook.uk is £1,999 once, hand-built for your property, with your booking engine embedded, and no commission on any booking, ever. When you do the maths on a single season of OTA fees, the website usually pays for itself within months. See what a holiday let website includes.

Common questions

How long does it take to launch a holiday let after buying?

Most owners need 8 to 12 weeks: compliance and insurance in month one, website and photography in month two, test bookings in month three.

Do I need a website if I am listed on Airbnb?

You do not strictly need one, but without one you pay commission on every booking and never build your own guest list. A direct-booking site is how owners keep the margin and the customer.

What does a holiday-let website cost?

Prices range from a few hundred pounds for a template to five figures from an agency. A one-off, hand-built site (like ours, £1,999) is the middle path: no monthly fees, no commission, you own everything. The full route-by-route comparison is in our B&B website cost guide.

Checked 21 October 2026. This page is guidance, not legal or financial advice. Licensing and registration rules change; always confirm the current position with your council or the official source for your nation before acting.