Websites for bed & breakfasts
Websites for B&Bs and guest houses that turn guests who found you on a booking site into guests who book direct next time, and give new ones a reason to skip the commission.
What they need →Websites for holiday lets
Websites for holiday lets that win the work.
Websites for holiday cottages and self-catering lets that take direct bookings from returning guests and word of mouth, instead of paying a platform or agency on every stay. From £99 a month, live in 3 working days.
Your customers
How people actually choose a holiday let.
Holiday let guests plan further ahead and in bigger groups than hotel guests. A family books the summer week in January; a group of friends books a hen weekend months out. Most start on Airbnb, Vrbo or a cottage agency, filtering by sleeps, dates, dogs and hot tub, and then a meaningful share search the property name to find a direct site. Returning guests are the heart of a good holiday let business: a family who loved the place will book the same week next year and tell friends, and none of that should cost platform commission. Guests read everything - the sleeping arrangements, how steep the stairs are, whether the garden is enclosed for the dog, what is in the kitchen, whether there is a travel cot, how far the beach really is. They want to see the calendar and the total price before they send anything.
When demand peaks. School summer holidays sell first and furthest ahead, typically booked in the first weeks of the year. Christmas, New Year and half-terms follow; winter midweeks are the gaps to fill.
The problem
What most holiday lets websites get wrong.
Many owners with a single cottage decide a website is not worth it and stay entirely on the platforms, accepting the fees and the platform’s rules on cancellation and guest contact. Those who do build a site usually stop at a gallery and a contact form, which asks the guest to email and wait - a step most will not take when the platform shows availability instantly. A direct site needs a real availability calendar synced with every channel, a clear total price including cleaning and any dog fee, a secure deposit and balance payment, and a stated reason to book direct. The other trap is photography that flatters the view and hides the bedrooms: guests arriving to a box room they did not expect is how bad reviews start.
What it has to do
The jobs a holiday let website is built for.
Direct booking with deposit
Keeps the whole booking value and gives you the guest relationship.
Returning guests rebooking
The cheapest and most loyal bookings a let will ever get.
Shoulder and short-break bookings
Direct offers fill the gaps the platforms leave empty.
The pages we build for you
- Home
- Sleeps, the setting, availability and a book-direct reason.
- The property
- Every room photographed, floor by floor, with bed sizes.
- Availability and prices
- Live calendar with the full price including extras.
- Book
- Deposit, balance date and cancellation terms.
- Local guide
- Beaches, pubs, walks and shops with real distances.
- Guest information
- Arrival, parking, wifi, dogs, and what to bring.
What moves the needle
- Availability calendar synced with Airbnb, Vrbo and any agency
- Double bookings are the fastest way to lose a guest and a review.
- Total price shown before enquiry, including cleaning and pet fees
- Surprise extras at the end are why guests abandon direct bookings.
- Secure deposit and balance payments
- Guests will not bank-transfer a stranger for a week in August.
- Floor-by-floor photographs and a sleeping plan
- Groups need to know who sleeps where before they book.
- Clear house rules on dogs, parties and changeover day
- Sets expectations and filters out the wrong bookings.
- A returning-guest route to rebook
- Makes next year’s booking a two-minute job.
Trust signals we put on every page: VisitEngland star rating, where assessed · Complete photographs of every room · Clear cancellation and deposit terms · Named owners or local housekeeper
Concept build
What a holiday let website could look like.
Guests booking a small St Ives guest house want the view, and they also need to hear the awkward details before they arrive. The page opens full-bleed on a still harbour at blue hour, with sea fog drifting across it in three layers at different speeds and a warm lighthouse beam sweeping slowly through the mist. The headline, in light Zalando Sans, reads "Six rooms, a harbour view & a proper breakfast", with the middle line in faded Newsreader italic as if lost in the fog.
The market, in real numbers
6,605
holiday lets and other short-stay accommodation registered across 325 UK local authorities.
Source: ONS UK Business Counts, SIC 55209, 2025. Open Government Licence v3.0.
| Local authority | Businesses |
|---|---|
| Cornwall | 310 |
| Highland | 255 |
| North Yorkshire | 240 |
| Westmorland and Furness | 160 |
| City of Edinburgh | 125 |
| South Lakeland | 120 |
| Dorset | 100 |
| Somerset | 100 |
| Cumberland | 95 |
| Argyll and Bute | 90 |
£299to set up
£99a month
3working days to launch
You approve it before anything goes live.
Designed from scratch, every word written for you, hosting and Google setup included. Or pay £1,795 once and £49 a month with no minimum term.
Questions
Holiday Lets: what people ask us
Is a website worth it for a single holiday let?
Often yes, because returning guests and word of mouth can then book without platform fees. You do not need to leave Airbnb or your agency; the website sits alongside them, synced to the same calendar. A single cottage with loyal guests can fill a meaningful share of its weeks directly over a few seasons.
How do I take deposits and balances safely through my own site?
Use a booking system with card payments that takes a deposit at booking and collects the balance automatically before arrival. Guests are wary of bank transfers to a private owner, and card payment through a recognised provider reassures them. Your cancellation and refund terms should be shown clearly before they pay.
How important is photography, really?
In visual trades it is the entire decision. Customers shortlist from photographs and read the words afterwards, if at all. It is worth paying a photographer for half a day once a year - it will change the size of the jobs you are asked to quote for more than anything else you could spend the money on.
Can you add online booking?
Yes. Every plan includes a booking-request form, live-availability booking can be added to any plan (quoted on your call) and comes as standard on Pro, and we can connect whichever booking system suits your business rather than forcing you onto ours. For appointment businesses it is usually the highest-return feature on the site, because the phone going unanswered while you are working is a constant source of lost bookings.
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Read →Let’s get your holiday let phone ringing.
£299 setup, then £99 a month. Live in 3 working days. Tell us what your business does - we reply the same working day.