In more detail
Fourteen guides is a lot to choose from. Here's how to pick the right one, what you'll come away with, and where each guide fits if you're working towards a licence or a plan for your home.
01How to use our free short-let guides
Most guides take five to ten minutes. Pick the one that matches where you are today, and come back for another when your situation changes.
When you tap a download, we ask for your name and email first. That's so we can send you a copy and, if you tick the box, tell you when a new guide comes out. The download itself starts straight away, so you're not waiting on an email. You can unsubscribe any time, and we never share your details. Our privacy policy explains the rest.
A few ways owners use them
- Print the A4 edition and keep it with your house papers. The checklists are made to be ticked with a pen.
- Read the phone edition on the bus or between meetings. Same content, bigger text, one column.
- Bring your questions to a call. If a chapter raises something about your own home, book a 15-minute call and we'll answer it properly.
The guides give you the general picture. For the detail on licensing, our short-term let licensing pages go further, and the short-let glossary explains the terms in plain words.
02Which guide is right for you
Start with the guide that matches your situation.
| If you are… | Start with | Then read |
|---|
| New to short lets | The short-let starter pack | What every Edinburgh host should know |
| Letting your own home while you travel | Letting your home while you're away | The Guest Message & House Manual Kit |
| Hosting it yourself | Tools, tips and tricks for self-hosts | The Guest Message & House Manual Kit |
| Unhappy with your manager | Is your short-let manager working for you? | Short-let tax after April 2025 |
| A student or HMO landlord | Summer lets for student landlords, or Short lets for HMO landlords | The Fringe Host's Guide |
| Deciding what to do with a flat | Short let or long let? The Edinburgh numbers | Inherited a flat in Edinburgh? What to do next |
If you're on a shared stair, as many Edinburgh flats are, the tenement guide is worth reading whatever else you choose. Our page for people who live next to one of our homes shows how we look at it from their side.
If you already host and want to check your listing rather than read about it, a free listing review may be quicker. And if you're letting while posted overseas, our page on letting your Edinburgh home while you work abroad sits alongside that guide.
03From guide to licence: where each one fits
Every short let in Scotland has needed a licence since 1 October 2023. The guides follow that journey.
- Working out what's allowed. The starter pack explains the four licence types, whether you need planning and every cost, with the council fees on our licence costs page. All of Edinburgh has been a short-term let control area since 5 September 2022, so letting a home you don't live in needs planning permission first. Our page on secondary letting and planning covers that route.
- Your main home. If you'll let the home you live in while you're away, the away guide pairs with our page on the home letting licence.
- Just the Fringe. The Fringe Host's Guide starts in spring, because that's when the paperwork for a temporary exemption or temporary licence needs to begin.
- Getting ready. The 12-point checklist in the starter pack covers the same ground as the licence requirements: certificates, alarms, insurance and a floor plan.
- Once you're letting. The Visitor Levy applies to stays in the City of Edinburgh from 24 July 2026. Our Visitor Levy page for hosts explains how it's collected.
The council's own guidance is always the final word.
04What you'll learn, and what the guides won't do
The guides are practical. You'll come away with checklists, real figures from homes we manage, and the questions to ask before you spend money. A few examples:
- How to set prices that move with the seasons, from August and Hogmanay to a wet Tuesday in February.
- What a guest actually needs on arrival day, and the messages that prevent most problems before they start.
- How council tax and business rates work for short lets, including the 140/70 rule. Our page on council tax or business rates goes deeper.
- What the end of the furnished holiday let rules in April 2025 means for your tax, and what records to keep.
There are also things the guides won't do. They won't tell you what your own home could earn, because that depends on the street, the size, the stair and your dates. For that, our earnings calculator gives a quick range, and a plan made for your home gives the full picture. They won't give tax or legal advice either. Where tax comes up, speak to your accountant. Our blog covers many of the same topics in shorter pieces.
05After the guides: a plan for your own home
Some owners read a guide and decide to host themselves. That's a good outcome. Our page on hosting it yourself has an honest audit to help you decide what to keep doing and what to hand over.
Others read a guide and realise they'd rather not manage the licence, the cleaners and the 11pm messages. If that's you, the next step is a free plan. Ask for a plan made for your home and you'll get what it could earn month by month, the licence route and every cost, by 11am the next working day.
Full management is from 15% + VAT of net booking revenue, which works out at 18% including VAT. New owners who sign a 1-year agreement by 31 December 2026 pay 10% + VAT for their first four months, on every tier. Our pricing page sets out the tiers and the one-off onboarding fee.
If you'd rather talk it through first, our team is on the phone Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm, on +44 (0)131 560 6614. You can also send us a message. Let's talk about your property whenever it suits you.
Rather talk it through?Book a 15-minute call with one of the co-founders, or get a free plan for your home: what it could earn, the licence route and every cost.
