Ask which platform takes the least and you will be given a percentage. It is the wrong number, and comparing two of them tells you almost nothing. The same headline rate can mean two very different things depending on what it is charged on, whether tax is added on top, whether the guest is also charged a fee that suppresses your bookings, and how long the platform sits on your money before releasing it.
This comparison therefore avoids quoting rates, for two reasons. They change, and no source worth trusting publishes them in a form that stays true for a year. What does not change is the structure of the deal, and the structure is what decides your net. Below are the four routes a British host can take, the questions that reveal the real cost of each, and the tax rules that apply before any platform takes anything.
Letting is seasonal wherever you do it, and an app such as I am Beezy generates earnings from the content you already look at, which some hosts use to even out the months when the calendar is empty.
Why is the advertised commission rate the wrong number to compare?
Three variables sit behind the percentage, and any one of them can reverse the ranking between two platforms that look identical on paper.
There are three fee models, not one
In a host-only model, you pay the whole commission and the guest sees the price you set. In a split model, you pay a smaller share and the guest pays a service fee on top, which raises the price shown in search results and can cost you bookings you never learn about. In a full-service model, an agency takes a much larger share but handles marketing, pricing, guest communication and often changeovers. Comparing a host-only rate against a split rate as if they were the same measurement is the most common mistake hosts make.
The percentage of what, exactly?
Ask what the commission is calculated on before you ask how big it is. Some platforms charge on the accommodation total only. Others include the cleaning fee, extra-guest charges, pet fees and anything else on the booking. A lower rate applied to a wider base regularly costs more than a higher rate on a narrow one, and this single question separates two apparently similar offers faster than any other.
Value added tax on the fee, and who holds the money
Check whether tax is added to the commission or included in it, because the difference is real money on every booking. Then check the cash timing, which hosts consistently underrate. Platforms take the guest's payment and release yours on their own schedule, typically around check-in rather than at booking. Ask when the payout is initiated, what rail it uses and whether they pay a British account directly. A UK account is identified by a six-digit sort code and an eight-digit account number rather than an IBAN, and there is no SEPA payment inside the United Kingdom, so a platform that insists on paying a euro account is charging you a currency conversion on every single booking.
The four routes open to a British host
Each route buys you something different, and the right answer depends far more on how much of the work you want to do than on the rate.
The large listing platforms
Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo bring demand and take a cut of it. Their advantage is reach, which matters most if your property is somewhere people search by name rather than by region. Their fee models differ from one another and have changed over time, so read the current host terms of the specific platform rather than a summary. The practical questions are the ones above: what the fee applies to, whether tax is added, and when you are paid.
Full-service agencies
Agencies such as Sykes Cottages sit at the other end of the range, taking a substantially larger share and doing substantially more for it. This is the route that suits a host who does not want to answer messages at ten at night, who lives away from the property, or who would otherwise pay separately for cleaning, photography and pricing. Judge it on what you would have paid to do those things yourself, not on the headline percentage, which will always look bad next to a listing site.
Direct booking, which is not free
Taking bookings yourself removes commission entirely and replaces it with costs that arrive in a different shape: payment processing, your own insurance arrangements, a cancellation policy you have to write and enforce, and the marketing you now do instead of the platform. It works well as a second channel for repeat guests who found you elsewhere. As a first and only channel, it usually costs more in empty nights than it saves in fees.
| Route | What you pay | What you get | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Listing platform, host-only fee | The whole commission | Reach, and the price the guest sees is yours | Hosts who want control of the displayed price |
| Listing platform, split fee | Less, but the guest pays a fee too | Reach, with a higher price in search results | Properties with little direct competition |
| Full-service agency | A much larger share | Marketing, pricing, guest handling, changeovers | Absent owners, or anyone short of time |
| Direct booking | No commission, but real costs | Full margin and the guest relationship | Repeat guests and a strong local reputation |
What does the tax system take before any platform does?
Two thresholds and one calendar cover almost every small host, and one of them is regularly missed by people who also have another side income.
The first £1,000 of gross property income
The Property Allowance exempts £1,000 of gross property income a year, and GOV.UK is explicit that it is separate from the Trading Allowance, so someone with both types of income gets a £1,000 allowance for each. Gross means before any expense is deducted, which is the detail that catches people: a host taking £1,300 and spending £500 on cleaning is at £1,300, not £800, and is over the line. Below the threshold there is no tax and no return, but records still have to be kept. If what you are letting is a furnished room in your own home rather than a whole property, a separate scheme with its own threshold applies, so check the Rent a Room rules on GOV.UK rather than assuming the £1,000 figure covers you.
Above the threshold, register and then choose
Cross £1,000 and you register for Self Assessment, by 5 October following the end of that tax year. The return and payment are due by 31 January, or 31 October if you file on paper, which is a three-month difference that surprises people every autumn. The allowance then becomes an option rather than an exemption: you may deduct the flat £1,000 or your real expenses, whichever is better, but never both. One further rule applies to larger operations: Making Tax Digital for Income Tax has been mandatory since 6 April 2026 where combined self-employment and property income exceeds £50,000 measured on turnover before expenses.
| Rule | Figure or date | What a host should do |
|---|---|---|
| Property Allowance | £1,000 gross a year | Track gross receipts, not profit |
| Trading Allowance | A separate £1,000 | Claim both if you have both income types |
| Tax year | 6 April to 5 April | Close your figures in April, not December |
| Register for Self Assessment | By 5 October | Diarise it the year you cross the threshold |
| Paper return | 31 October 2026 | Decide in autumn if you cannot file online |
| Online return and payment | 31 January 2027 | Set money aside from every payout |
| Making Tax Digital | Above £50,000 turnover, since 6 April 2026 | Keep digital records if you are near it |
Evening out the empty months with I am Beezy
Commission is an argument about a fraction of the bookings you get. The quiet season is an argument about the bookings you do not get, and it is usually the bigger number.
How the earnings work
With I am Beezy you view content — videos, articles and adverts — and each view generates earnings, paid to your usual payment method. Active users report the equivalent of around £4 to £13 a day, which comes to somewhere between £130 and £385 over a month. Set against the standing costs of a property that sits empty in February, that is a useful offset rather than a rounding error.
Why it fits a seasonal let
It carries no commitment, so it can run hardest in the months when the calendar is empty and be ignored when you are busy with changeovers. That is the opposite shape to most side income, which demands the most attention exactly when the property does.
The calendar decides more than the commission does
A rate difference of a point or two is worth less than one well-placed week, and the British calendar is not uniform across the four nations.
Scotland runs on different dates
Edinburgh's festival season makes August the most extreme accommodation month anywhere in the country, and it drags demand across the central belt with it. Scotland also takes its Summer bank holiday on 3 August 2026, four weeks before England, Wales and Northern Ireland take theirs on 31 August, and it has a further public holiday on 2 January that the other nations do not. A pricing calendar copied from an English source will be wrong twice in the same summer.
Northern Ireland has its own peaks
Northern Ireland observes St Patrick's Day on 17 March and the Battle of the Boyne, with 13 July 2026 as the substitute day, neither of which appears in a Great Britain calendar. It is also the only nation with a land border with the European Union, which shapes where its visitors come from. If your property is there, price against local dates and not against a UK-wide template.
The winter shoulder, and where demand actually goes
There are no regulated sale periods in the United Kingdom, so retail demand clusters around Black Friday and Boxing Day rather than fixed dates. Boxing Day is the British markdown moment, and the days around it move people. School holiday dates vary across the four nations and are set locally in England and Wales, which is why a single half-term assumption produces empty weeks for one audience and overbooking for another.
How to compare two platforms in one afternoon
The comparison is quick once you stop looking at the rate and start filling in the same five columns for each candidate.
Five columns, one page
Write down, for each platform: the fee model and who pays what, the base the fee is calculated on, whether tax is added to the fee, when the payout is initiated and by which rail, and what happens on a cancellation. Fill those in from the platform's current host terms rather than from an article, then total a realistic month rather than a single booking. The ranking that comes out of that page is frequently not the one the headline rates suggested, and it is the only one that reflects what reaches your account.
Choose on structure, price against your own nation's calendar, and keep gross receipts in view so the £1,000 line never arrives as a surprise. For the months when the property is quiet and the standing costs are not, I am Beezy gives you something small coming in from the first day.
