Mid-term and long stay management in Bournemouth

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Mid-term and long stay management covers furnished stays of one to six months: a relocation, a contract, a hospital placement, an insurance claim or the months between two homes. Sea Breeze lets your Bournemouth, Poole or Christchurch property to guests like these, checks the purpose of every stay, uses the right agreement for it and runs the property while they live there. Every property we manage is also listed on Flexiestays, Bournemouth's number one platform for winter and long stays, which charges only 8% on the bookings it brings. Our commission is 16% of booking revenue, with no retainer.

What a mid-term let is

A mid-term let sits between a holiday let and a long let. The property is furnished and equipped like a holiday home, the bills and wifi are included in one price, and the guest stays for weeks or months rather than nights. It is not a tenancy of a year or more on an unfurnished basis, and it is not a weekend by the sea.

We lean into long stays. They fill the winter, they fill the gaps between summers, and they suit properties that are not obvious holiday homes: a flat near a hospital, a house inland with a drive, an apartment close to a station or a campus.

Who books long stays locally

• Relocations. People who start a new job in Bournemouth, Poole or Christchurch before they have bought or rented, often with a family and a school place to sort out.
• Contractors. Engineers, fitters and project teams on jobs that run for months, frequently booked by their employer.
• Insurance and displacement. Households whose own home is uninhabitable after a flood, fire or escape of water, placed by an insurer or a claims agent for as long as the repair takes.
• NHS staff. Doctors, nurses and therapists on placements and fixed contracts at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and Poole Hospital.
• University staff and families. New and visiting academic staff at Bournemouth University and Arts University Bournemouth, and students' families staying near them for a term.
• Remote workers. People who can work from anywhere and spend a season on the coast.
• People between homes. A sale that completes before the purchase, a renovation that overruns, a return from working abroad.

Flexiestays: where long-stay guests book

Holidaymakers search Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo. Long-stay guests often search Flexiestays, the Flexiestays group's own platform and Bournemouth's number one platform for winter and long stays. Contractors, relocations, insurance and displacement guests, NHS and university staff, visiting families and remote workers book there for weeks and months.

Every property we manage is listed on Flexiestays as well as on Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and 20+ channels. Flexiestays charges only 8% on the bookings it brings, about half of Airbnb's 15.5% host-only fee. On a booking that runs for months, that difference stays with the property.

Fewer changeovers, less wear

A three-month stay replaces many short bookings. That means far fewer changeovers to pay for, fewer linen sets through the laundry, fewer empty nights between guests and less wear on doors, floors and furniture from arrivals and departures. A guest who lives in a property for months usually keeps it as a home.

Long stays need a different kind of attention. We check the property in with an inventory, inspect it regularly during the stay and inspect it at checkout. A mid-stay clean and linen change can be booked through the recommended companies, paid by you directly.

How long stays pair with summer holiday lets

For most coastal properties the best year is not one or the other. It is short stays in summer and long stays in winter.

From Easter to the end of the summer holidays, families and couples pay most for short holiday stays. From autumn to spring, holidaymakers thin out and people working locally take their place. A property that runs short stays through the summer and mid-term stays through the winter keeps earning all year. The detail of the winter months is in winter let management.

What makes the pairing work is the end date. A four-month stay that starts in November must finish before the Easter holidays, and we agree that before the booking is accepted. The holiday let calculator gives a first estimate of your property's year.

Pricing a long stay

A long stay is priced on its length, not just its dates. A month saves several changeovers and the gaps between short bookings, so a monthly rate can sit below the nightly rate and still earn well over the quiet months. We review pricing daily, set weekly and monthly rates and minimum stays for each part of the year, and price a long stay against the bookings already in the calendar. The method is in our pricing strategy guide.

Because the guest pays one price, utilities, broadband and council tax or business rates stay with you. Allow for them when you compare the income with a long let.

The 28-night line and the right agreement

Two rules change once a stay passes 28 nights.

Business rates. In England a self-catering property is rated for business rates only if it was available to let for 140 nights and actually let for 70 nights in the previous 12 months, and only lettings of 28 nights or less count towards the 70. A year of long stays alone can put the property back on council tax, where BCP Council and Dorset Council charge a 100% premium on furnished second homes. A mix of short and long stays keeps the test in view. Our guide to holiday let tax after FHL covers the tax side.

Licence or tenancy. A genuine holiday let is excluded from the assured tenancy rules. A guest staying for work, or while their own home is repaired, with a main home elsewhere, is generally not a tenant. A guest who lives in the property as their only or main home may be an assured tenant whatever the booking is called. Since the Renters' Rights Act took effect on 1 May 2026, assured tenancies in England are periodic with no fixed end, section 21 has gone and a landlord can only recover the property on a legal ground. A long stay that turns out to be a tenancy cannot be ended on a date you choose.

That is why we ask who is staying, why and where their main home is before we accept a long stay, and use the right agreement for each one. Take legal advice on your own property.

How we run it

We visit, photograph the property and list it on Flexiestays, Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and 20+ channels. We handle the guests through one inbox, check them in, inspect the property during and after each stay and provide support 24 hours a day. Cleaning, linen and repairs go through trusted local companies we recommend, which you pay directly, or through your own; we arrange them if you want.

Commission is 16% of booking revenue, with no retainer and no monthly fee. The detail is on our pricing page. For a property that is mainly a holiday home, see holiday let management; for every length of stay from a few nights up, see short let management.