How To Find Short-Term Tenants/Guests (Under 6 Months)?

Before we dive in, I want to clarify that there are no legal definitions for “short-term” or “long-term” rentals. The term “short-lets” generally refers to agreements lasting less than six months. So I’m going to go ahead and use that as the benchmark definition. Cool? Cool.

So, if you’re searching for short-term tenants, you likely fall into one of these two categories:

• Landlords seeking short-term tenants
• Sellers looking for short-term tenants while marketing their property for sale

While both scenarios ultimately require short-term tenants, different approaches may be more suitable for each. So I’m going to try and be useful by breaking down this blog post into two sections so you can easily find the information that’s most relevant to your situation. Feel free to jump to the area of relevance.

If you’re a landlord…

Some landlords require or prefer short-term tenants (or “guests” as they’re often referred to) over long-term tenants, which is all good, as both options come with their own advantages and disadvantages.

If you’re still deciding which option is best for you, I recommend checking out my blog post on short-term vs. long-term lets.

If you’ve already committed to short-term tenants, you’re in the right place.

Once again, I’m going to break this section down into three categories to help you find what you’re looking for:

• If you’re looking for tenants for 6+ months
• If you’re looking for tenants for less than 6 months (including holiday rentals)
• If you’re a live-in landlord looking for a short-term occupant

If you’re looking for tenants for 6+ months…

If you’re looking for a tenant for exactly 6 months (or longer), then I recommend using an online letting agent that will market your rental on Rightmove & Zoopla.

The reason for this is that 6-month rental terms are quite common for standard tenancy agreements, so you’re likely to attract plenty of interested prospective tenants who are browsing major UK property portals like Rightmove.

If you’re looking for tenants for less than 6 months (including holiday rentals)…

If you’re looking for a tenant or guest for a period shorter than 6 months, then you’d be wise to use marketplaces like Airbnb to list your rental property. These platforms attract prospective guests from around the world who are specifically searching for holiday and short-term lets, typically ranging from one night to a few weeks – or even a few months.

Below, you’ll find a list of marketplaces where you can advertise your short-let vacancies, whether it’s an entire house or just a single room. Some of these options are very similar to Airbnb – the platform that has elevated the cool-factor of short-term rentals – while others cater to specific niche markets…

Marketplace	Avg Price	Advertises	Notes
Marketplace	Price 3% per booking	Advertises Single rooms Entire property	Notes The most popular marketplace for holiday-lets Surely no intro is required, Airbnb is the most popular holiday-let marketplace in the world. If any landlord wants to maximise their chances of filling those voids, Airbnb is a must! It’s also worth noting that Airbnb provide “Host Guarantee“, which includes property damage protection of up to $1 million USD for every host and every listing at no additional cost. Lovely!	More Info
Marketplace	Price 3% per booking	Advertises Entire property	Notes World’s largest travel community! TripAdvisor (“world’s largest travel community”) receives massive amounts of exposure, and while a lot of it is due to its gigantic ‘reviewing’ platform, its short-let/holiday rental area is also a hive of activity. But perhaps the most compelling reason to use TripAdvisor Rentals is the fact that TripAdvisor automatically posts all of its listings on its sister website FlipKey, which in itself is very successful for specifically holiday rentals. Essentially, you’ll get two for the price of one! Unlike Airbnb, TripAdvisor doesn’t offer shared rooms with live-in landlords/hosts, it only advertises private rooms or whole properties.	More Info
Marketplace	Price 3% per booking	Advertises Single rooms	Notes Hosted experience Homestay is a “hosted experience”, which means the landlord/host stays in the property with the guest, so they can provide a genuine and local experience. That does mean it’s a hands-on experience for the landlord. If hosting and being the local expert is your calling, stick your property on their website!	More Info
Marketplace	Price 8% per booking	Advertises Entire property	Notes Large holiday/vacation properties for families & groups VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner) is part of the Expedia group, the world’s leading online marketplace for vacation/holiday rentals. In addition to the 8% pay-per-booking fee model, VRBO also provides an alternative option: an annual subscription priced at $499. This subscription model could be more advantageous for hosts managing a high volume of bookings.	More Info
Marketplace	Price 10-25% per booking	Advertises Entire property	Notes Private homes and apartments for world-travellers! Booking.com is up there as one of the most popular hotel booking websites on the planet. But what you may not have realised is that Booking.com also lists private homes and apartments for world-travellers! Like and use booking.com already? Then you may want to use them to market your short-let.	More Info

Please note, I try my best to keep the information of each service up-to-date, but you should read the T&C's from their website for the most up-to-date and accurate information.

Just as a side note, if you decide to restrict yourself to just Airbnb (as many do), you might be missing out on a lot of great bookings! Remember, all the marketplaces listed above charge commission on confirmed bookings only (at least, at the time of writing this blog post)!

If you’re a live-in landlord looking for a short-term occupant…

While platforms like Airbnb and Homestay allow live-in “hosts” to market single rooms, they’re more likely to attract extremely short-term guests. If that’s your objective, both are solid options.

However, if you’re a live-in landlord or host looking for a longer-term occupant, I’d personally recommend going down the “lodger” route. This option tends to attract occupants seeking a more stable, longer-term arrangement. Where’s the best place to find a lodger, you ask? SpareRoom.com, by far. It’s not even close.

Service	Price	Notes / Includes
Service	Price Free	Notes / Includes SpareRoom is huge, and it’s the to-go for live-in landlords with a spare room and prospective lodgers looking for a spare room.	Visit Website

For more details on being a lodger landlord, you may want to hop on over to my lodger guide, which is jam packed full of useful info, including your rights and responsibilities, and details on tax-breaks available to landlords that take in lodgers.

If you’re a homeowner looking for short-term tenants while marketing your property for sale…

By all means, you can use the methods I’ve discussed above to hunt down short-term tenants – they’ll work for your situation. Hopefully.

However, I’d be remiss (and a terribly lousy host) if I didn’t mention flyp’s lettings & house-selling services, because they’ve packaged together a unique solution specifically designed for homeowners in this very scenario.

Honestly, it’s all very neat and impressive, and there’s actually a lot more to their service than what I’m going spew in this post (including a multi-agent sales strategy, which drastically speeds up the sales process). But here’s a quick overview to wet your appetite:

(Urgh, in my head I sound like a proper toupée-wearing used car sales man. Forgive me if that is the case! I disgust myself some times).

Fully managed Sales & Short-let Service!

Service	Rating	Notes / Includes
Service	Rating 4.7 TrustPilot Reviews	Notes / Includes flyp’s service is designed for sellers to make as much money as possible from the sale of their house. Key features Multi-agent sales strategy, minimum of 5 agents or your money back (resulting in a quicker sale and maximising sale price) Earn rental income with short-term guests while property is for sale (flyp list short term lets on over 300 platforms and corporate partners) Furnish and stage your property for no upfront cost Bespoke service just for you and your situation, so it’s best to get a free appraisal to see how flyp can maximise your income. Fully managed sales & rental service: Marketing Viewings House-keeping If you want to know more, I’ve written a full-on hefty overview of how flyp’s short-let & sales service works, including their fees (which might surprise you!).	Book FREE Appraisal

In other words, if you have (or are going to have) an empty property to sell, flyp can assist with renting it out on a short-term basis while it’s being marketed for sale. Yes, they handle both the lettings and sales side of the process, so you don’t need to use separate services.

Personally, I’m not aware of any other company that offers a similar service, let alone executes it as well as they do. Real talk.

Landlord out xo