StayWorkbench has free guides, checklists and templates for UK hosts running their own holiday lets. It isn't a course you work through in order: pick the job causing you grief right now, open the guide, and you'll have something usable by the end of the page.
You'll get a message sequence covering booking confirmation, arrival details, check-in evening and checkout. Copy the templates, fill in your property details, and you have a repeatable system. Once it's set up, guests get the same clear information every time, so you answer fewer of the same questions.
Go to Guest MessagingYou'll get a room-by-room checklist you can run yourself or pass to whoever does your changeovers, a photo verification step that catches issues before the next guest arrives, and advice on scheduling tools like Turno if you're coordinating multiple cleans each week.
Go to ChangeoversYou'll get a weekly, monthly and seasonal checklist covering restocking, maintenance and the small jobs that prevent complaints. It takes a few minutes a week once set up. The guide also covers how to track issues so nothing slips between stays.
Go to Property UpkeepYou'll get a checklist of the safety checks most UK holiday lets need, including gas safety, electrical (EICR), fire risk assessment and EPC, plus a renewal tracker so nothing lapses. The rules differ between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the guides explain where.
Go to Compliance & SafetyYou'll get plain notes on tools such as Hospitable and Turno: what each one does, who it tends to suit, and whether you need one yet. Nothing is rated or recommended.
Go to Apps & SoftwareThe guides explain how things work; the free tools work out what it means for you. Enter your own figures to see what you keep from a short booking, every safety check your property needs and when it's due, whether you're on track for the business rates test, how many linen sets to buy, and when to flush the water while the property is empty. There's nothing to sign up for, and nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Go to Free Tools
UK hosts who manage their own holiday lets. If you do the changeovers yourself, or organise the person who does, this is written for you.
If you run an agency with dozens of units, the principles still apply, but the guides assume you're close to the day-to-day work.
No. Every guide works whether you run things from a notebook and a shared calendar or a full platform like Hospitable. Where software makes a job easier, the guide mentions it, but never assumes you own it. You can always add tools later once you know what problem you're solving.
Yes, in the Apps & Software section. For now these are plain notes on what each tool does and who it tends to suit. Nothing is rated or recommended. If that changes, the page will say so, and any affiliate link will be disclosed next to it.
When something changes, such as a platform update, a new regulation or an error in a guide, the existing page is corrected rather than a new one published on top. Guides covering legal, tax or insurance rules show the month they were last checked at the top of the page.
No. Every guide, checklist and template on StayWorkbench is free. There's no sign-up wall, no email gate, and no premium tier. The site may eventually include clearly disclosed affiliate links for tools that help, but the guides themselves are free to access.
Read Your first month self-managing a holiday let: what breaks versus what you worried about. It covers what tends to go wrong in weeks one to four, and the short checklist that catches it early.
