Our Fees
| Charge | Amount | When |
|---|---|---|
| Management fee | 12% of the nightly rent | Each booking |
| VAT | None — Railton-Meeks is not VAT-registered | — |
| Set-up fee | £250 | On signing |
| Photography and inventory | £160 | On signing |
| Full Set-Up Service (optional) | £750, plus furniture and contents at cost | On instruction |
| Cleaning and linen | Arranged by Railton-Meeks; each property's cleaning fee is on the listing and paid by the guest | Each booking |
| Your own direct bookings | No commission | — |
| Minimum term | None | — |
| Notice | 30 days, either side | — |
| Exit fee | None | — |
| Repairs and maintenance | The contractor's cost | When needed |
The set-up and photography fees are non-refundable once the work has started, except where your legal right to cancel applies. If you sign at a distance or away from our office, you can cancel within 14 days.
Optional
Some owners hand us an empty property. Where a property needs furnishing and equipping before it can be listed, Railton-Meeks will prepare it for you.
The Full Set-Up Service is £750. It covers sourcing and buying the furniture, beds and mattresses, kitchen equipment, crockery and utensils, linen and towels, and the small items a guest expects to find, then installing and styling the property ready for photography and the first booking. You pay for the furniture and contents at cost, on an itemised list agreed with you before anything is bought.
It is optional and one-off, charged in addition to the £250 set-up fee and the £160 photography and inventory fee. A furnished property that is ready to list does not need it.
What You Get
The 12% is charged on the nightly rent only. It is not charged on the airbnb cleaning fee, and not on bookings you take yourself.
Your listing kept current on Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo through one calendar, and priced against the Manchester event and conference calendar rather than left on a flat rate.
Enquiries, vetting, identity checks and guest records, house rules, check-in instructions, and a local out-of-hours number answered by a person, day or night.
Railton-Meeks arranges cleaning and linen for every changeover, with hotel-standard linen and photographic sign-off before the next guest arrives.
A compliance register for the property, maintenance arranged through tradespeople we already use, and an itemised monthly statement for every booking.
How the work runs day to day is set out on our airbnb management page.
VAT
Railton-Meeks is not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to our fees. Every published Manchester short-let management fee we have found is quoted plus VAT.
That matters to most owners, because most individual owners are not VAT-registered either and cannot reclaim VAT charged to them. For them, a 15% fee plus VAT costs 18%, and a 20% fee plus VAT costs 24%.
Holiday let management fees should always be compared on what the owner actually pays, not on the headline rate.
If Railton-Meeks ever registers for VAT, owners will have at least 30 days’ written notice and can leave without penalty.
Manchester Rates Compared
How much do airbnb management companies charge? On £30,000 a year of nightly rent, for an owner who cannot reclaim VAT, the published Manchester rates work out like this.
| Operator | Published rate and basis | Annual cost | One-off at start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass the Keys | From 20% + VAT of net booking value | £7,200 | Onboarding “may apply”; photography charged separately |
| City Superhost | 15% + VAT | £5,400 | £400 + VAT (£480), photography included |
| Houst (full-time) | 14% + VAT | £5,040 | None stated |
| GuestReady | From 12% + VAT | £4,320 | Variable, taken from the first month's revenue |
| Railton-Meeks | 12% of nightly rent, no VAT | £3,600 | £410 (£250 + £160) |
In the first year, including set-up, that is £4,010 with Railton-Meeks against £5,880 with City Superhost. Rates and bases are as published by each operator and checked on 30 October 2026; operators calculate on different bases, so check each one’s own terms before comparing.
| Railton-Meeks | City Superhost | Pass the Keys | GuestReady · Houst | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VAT on the fee | None | + VAT | + VAT | + VAT |
| Set-up | £250 + £160 photography and inventory | £400 + VAT, photography included | “May apply”, amount not published | Not published / none stated |
| Minimum term | None | Rolling | Not published | Not published |
| Notice | 30 days | One month | Not published | Not published |
| Exit fee | None | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Whose account holds the listing | Yours | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Commission on your own bookings | None | None on owner stays | Not published | Not published |
| Cleaning and linen | Arranged by Railton-Meeks; guest pays each property's cleaning fee | Guest pays a cleaning fee; linen supplied | Charged separately | Not published |
| Regulated letting agency (ARLA Propertymark) | Yes | — | — | — |
“Not published” means we could not find the term on the operator’s own website on 30 October 2026. Ask any manager for these terms in writing before signing.
Tara founded Railton-Meeks in 2006 to manage her own growing portfolio and has spent over 20 years investing, developing, and letting property across South Manchester. As an ARLA Propertymark Member, she leads the agency’s compliance and asset-protection strategy — landlord-to-landlord.
Sylwia leads day-to-day property management across the Railton-Meeks portfolio, holding the MARLA Propertymark Member qualification (MARLA). She specialises in compliance documentation, mid-tenancy issue resolution, and the digital safety records required under the Building Safety Act 2022.
Jorge brings nearly four decades of customer-service experience to landlord and tenant relations at Railton-Meeks. From property viewings and Right-to-Rent verification to reference handling and move-in inventories, his proactive approach keeps every tenancy starting on a compliant footing.
The Platform Fee
What does Airbnb charge hosts? UK hosts now pay a single host-only service fee of 15.5% of the booking subtotal. VAT at 20% is charged on that fee, so a host who is not VAT-registered pays an effective 18.6%.
Airbnb deducts it from your payout. It is separate from our fee, and it applies whoever manages the property.
The questions owners ask about short-let management fees before they sign.
No. Railton-Meeks is not VAT-registered, so the fee we quote is the fee you pay.
The £250 set-up fee and £160 photography and inventory fee are non-refundable once the work has started. If you sign at a distance or away from our office, you can cancel within 14 days, and if you asked us to start in that time you pay only for work already done.
No. The 12% is charged on the nightly rent only.
No. Give 30 days' written notice. Bookings arriving after the end date stay on your account and are yours.
No. Your own direct bookings and your own stays carry no commission.
Airbnb co-host fees vary, and a co-host often leaves cleaning, maintenance and compliance with the owner. Our 12% covers full management, and Railton-Meeks arranges cleaning and linen for every changeover.
Send us the postcode and a few details.
We will check the property is suitable before you sign or pay anything, and tell you the cleaning fee we would set for it.
