Researching what makes STR businesses work, starting with our own.

When we first started properly getting into short-term rentals, I found the industry incredibly fragmented. There was plenty of information out there, but it was scattered everywhere.

One person talked about pricing. Another talked about Airbnb. Someone else sold direct-booking websites. Software companies naturally talked about their own software. Facebook groups were full of conflicting opinions.

The difficult part was not finding advice. It was working out which advice applied to our business, who to trust and whether the potential result justified the cost.

Hosts should be able to see what is actually worth doing before spending their own time or money on it.

I want to build the resource I wish existed when I started. That means testing what actually improves an STR business inside one real operation, rather than simply repeating industry advice.

We’re not pretending our STR business is finished or perfectly optimised. We’re trying to improve it in public and applying the same discipline to every test.

We’ll show where we started, what was promised, what changed, what it cost, how much work it required, what happened and whether it was worth it.

Before each change we record the baseline, the claim and what we expect. Afterwards we record the cost, the result and whether the change can honestly take the credit.

For existing hosts, the aim is to show what may actually move the needle before they spend time or money implementing it themselves.

We plan to run the experiment from 1 November 2026 to 31 October 2027, while arrangements are being finalised. October is preparation and onboarding. No new properties: just the existing business, the changes we make and what actually happened.