Holiday let management in Dorset and Hampshire

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Holiday let management means one company runs your holiday home as a letting business for you: it markets the property, sets the price, looks after the guests and organises the cleaning and repairs. Sea Breeze Property Services does this for whole-property holiday lets in Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and across wider Dorset and Hampshire. The fee is a commission of 16% of booking revenue, with no retainer and no monthly charge. Cleaning, linen and maintenance are paid separately, directly to the local companies we recommend or to your own.

Who this service is for

It is for owners of a holiday home or second home who want the property to earn when they are not in it, without running it themselves. That is usually one of three owners.

• You live somewhere else. Keys, cleans and a guest locked out at 11pm cannot be handled from two hours away. Our guide to managing a holiday let remotely sets out what has to be covered.
• You manage it yourself and it has become a second job. Self-managing against full service compares the two, including where doing it yourself still makes sense.
• You pay an agency for bookings and organise the rest. If you are weighing a national agency against a local manager, Sykes vs Sea Breeze sets the two side by side.

We have more than 100 properties under management. The area pages cover holiday let management in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch.

How it works in practice

Set-up. We visit the property, agree what it needs and send a professional photographer. The listings then go on Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and 20+ channels, plus the group's direct booking site, Flexiestays. A new listing is typically live within a week of the photographer's visit.

Pricing. Rates are set by dynamic pricing and reviewed daily. The reasoning is in our holiday let pricing strategy guide.

Guests. Messages from every channel arrive in one inbox. Guests have 24-hour support, and we manage the check-in.

Changeovers. We arrange the cleaning and the linen through trusted local companies you pay directly, or through your own cleaner if you have one. Each changeover includes an inventory check.

Upkeep. We inspect the property regularly and arrange repairs with trusted local tradespeople, or your own contractors.

The owner portal shows your income throughout. The full task list is on what we handle.

What it costs and how you are paid

Commission is a flat 16% of booking revenue, and we confirm it, with any VAT, in writing before you sign. There is no retainer and no monthly fee, so we earn only when you do.

The one-off onboarding fee varies with the size and location of the property. It is not charged up front: it is deducted from the first month's rental income, and pays for the photo shoot, the listings and the set-up visit. We quote it for your property before you sign.

Cleaning, linen and maintenance are not part of the commission. We recommend trusted local companies for each, you pay them directly, and we arrange and coordinate them for you if you want. If you already have your own cleaner, linen supplier or contractors, you can keep them.

• Cleaning. Paid directly to the cleaning company we recommend, or to your own cleaner.
• Linen and laundry. We suggest three sets per bedroom, bought outright or rented per changeover through the linen company we recommend.
• Maintenance and repairs are paid to the tradesperson who does the work.

You are paid in one of two ways. Either Airbnb pays you directly and we invoice our fee monthly, or we pay you by bank transfer at the start of each month for the previous month, less the agreed fee.

Notice to leave is 45 days. Bookings already taken are honoured, or you pay the cost of cancelling them. The detail is on our pricing page, and agency commission explained shows how to compare one manager's quote with another's.

What changes through the year

Peak summer and the school holidays carry the highest demand. Spring and autumn lean on short breaks, and events move individual dates.

Winter is where management shows. We fill the quiet months with a mix of short lets and mid-term lets: stays of several weeks or months for people who need a furnished home in the area. How that works is on the short let management page.

Keeping the property earning in winter is the main difference between us and managers that only chase the summer weeks. Every holiday let we manage is also listed on Flexiestays, the group's own platform and Bournemouth's number one for winter and long stays, where contractors, relocations, NHS and university staff and insurance guests book for weeks and months. It charges only 8% on the bookings it brings. Our winter let management page explains how we plan November to March around your summer.

Your own use sits on top of this. You block dates in the portal whenever you like, and it is worth knowing which weeks cost you most. A week in the summer holidays gives up far more bookings than a week in November, so plan your own stays for the quieter months where you can.

Compliance, tax and risk

Management does not transfer legal responsibility. You remain the owner, so these need to be in place before the first guest:

• A written fire risk assessment, recorded in full whatever the size of the let. Fire safety law applies to self-catering accommodation.
• A gas safety check every 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer if you provide gas appliances, and an electrical installation inspected and tested at least every five years.
• Insurance written for holiday letting. A standard home policy is unlikely to cover paying guests: see our holiday let insurance guide.
• Consent from your mortgage lender and, in a leasehold flat, a lease that permits short lets.

The full list is in holiday let regulations in England and the compliance checklist. The government has also said it will introduce a national registration scheme for short-term lets in England. At the time of writing it has not opened.

On tax, the furnished holiday lettings regime was abolished from April 2025, and holiday let income is now taxed like other property income: holiday let tax after FHL explains what changed. In England a holiday let is assessed for business rates instead of council tax only if, among other conditions, it was available to let for at least 140 nights and actually let for at least 70 in the last 12 months. Confirm your own position with an accountant.

On damage, guests are screened through the platforms' own tools and platform protection applies where available, such as Airbnb's AirCover for Hosts. It does not replace your own policy.

How to start

1. Send the details through list your property, or call 01202 619868 between 9am and 5pm on any day.
2. We visit and tell you what the property needs before it is let.
3. The photographer comes and the listings go live, typically within a week of the shoot.

If you already have a good listing, we can co-host it instead of rebuilding it: see Airbnb management. If you are not yet sure a holiday let is the right use of the property, look at our wider property management service. The steps in full are on how it works.