Flexiestays: winter and long stays for the properties we manage

Flexiestays is the booking platform of the Flexiestays group, at flexiestays.com. Sea Breeze Property Services is part of the same group, and every property we manage is listed on it. It is Bournemouth's number one platform for winter and long stays, and it charges only 8% on the bookings it brings.

That matters because most holiday let managers on this coast are built for summer. They fill July and August, then accept a quiet calendar from November to March. We do not. Keeping properties earning through the winter is the main difference between Sea Breeze and a manager that only chases the summer weeks, and Flexiestays is how we do it.

What Flexiestays is for

Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo are built around holidays and short breaks. Their search results, their pricing tools and their guests lean towards a few nights at a time. Flexiestays is built the other way round: for people who need a furnished home in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch for weeks or months, and who want to book it as easily as a hotel room.

Those guests are there all year, but they matter most when holiday demand drops. A property that sits empty from November to March loses five months of income. A property that takes a six-week stay in November and a three-month stay from January has a different year altogether.

Who books there

The people who book on Flexiestays are mostly in the area for a reason other than a holiday:

• Contractors working on construction, infrastructure and refurbishment projects, often for several weeks at a time.
• People relocating for a new job, who need somewhere to live while they look for a permanent home.
• Insurance and displacement guests: households placed by their insurer while their own home is repaired after a flood, fire or leak.
• NHS and university staff on placements, rotations and fixed-term contracts at the local hospitals and universities.
• Visiting families, staying near a relative in hospital or a student at university.
• Remote workers who want a few weeks or months by the sea, and need good broadband and a proper desk to do it.

These guests usually stay longer, change over less often and look after a property as a temporary home. Fewer changeovers mean fewer cleans to pay for and less wear between them.

Only 8% on the bookings it brings

Flexiestays charges only 8% on the bookings it brings. For comparison, Airbnb's own help centre says most hosts on its single, host-only service fee pay 15.5%, and the rest typically between 14% and 16% (checked 1 October 2026). On a long stay, where a single booking can run to several months, that difference is a meaningful share of the income.

Because Flexiestays is part of our own group, a guest who books there and wants to come back, or a company that needs to house a second member of staff, can book again directly. That relationship stays with the group rather than with an outside platform.

How your property is listed there

If we manage your property, it goes on Flexiestays as part of the set-up. You do not apply separately or write a second listing. The same professional photographs and description are used, adapted for a longer stay: the desk, the broadband, the parking, the heating and the washing machine move up the page, because they matter more to someone staying for a month than to someone staying for a weekend.

Flexiestays runs from the same calendar as your listings on Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and our other channels. A booking anywhere closes the dates everywhere. Our pricing covers every channel: nightly rates for short breaks, and weekly and monthly rates for longer stays, set against the season and what the property can earn in its best weeks.

What it means for your winter

For an owner, the change is simple. Instead of a summer that pays for the year and a winter that costs money, the property has two seasons that both earn.

In practice we plan the year backwards from the dates that earn most. Easter, the school holidays and the summer are kept for holiday guests at holiday rates. The weeks between, and most of November to March, are offered to the longer stays that Flexiestays brings, with end dates that clear the next peak. Where a long stay would block a valuable week, we turn it down or shorten it.

Longer stays come with rules of their own. Stays of 28 nights or more count differently towards the business rates letting test for self-catering property, and a stay of several months can raise tenancy questions. We use the right agreement for each stay and explain the effect before a long stay is accepted. The holiday let regulations guide sets out the wider rules.

Find out more

How we run a property through the colder months is on the winter let management page, and stays of one to six months are covered under mid-term let management. Our commission is 16%, with no retainer and no monthly fee; our pricing has the detail. If you host on Airbnb yourself and your winters go quiet, read Airbnb hosts in Bournemouth.