A London flat is ready for short lets once four things are true: it is legally allowed to be let this way, its safety certificates are in place, it is set up for a guest rather than an occupier, and someone has checked it against the handful of things guests actually complain about. Skipping any of the four does not show up immediately. It shows up in a bad review, a cancelled booking, or a letter from a freeholder.
Clear the legal position first
This has to happen before a single photo gets taken, because it is the part that cannot be fixed after the fact. Check the lease for restrictions on sub-letting or business use, confirm the mortgage lender permits short-term letting, and arrange insurance written for short-term guests rather than a standard landlord policy. We have covered each of these in detail elsewhere on the site, but the summary is: all three have to say yes independently, and a flat that clears two of them is still not clear to list.
If the property is in Greater London, also work out from the start whether it will run short-let year-round or for part of the year, because of the 90-night limit on how long a whole property can be let short-term without planning permission. This shapes the calendar before it shapes the fit-out, so settle it early.
Get the safety certificates sorted
A short let has the same basic safety obligations as any rented property, and some of them need renewing more often given how many different people pass through. At minimum, a gas safety check from a registered engineer if the property has gas appliances, a valid electrical safety check, working smoke alarms on every floor and a carbon monoxide alarm wherever there is a gas appliance or fire. Fire safety more broadly, means of escape, a fire blanket or extinguisher in the kitchen, is worth setting up properly rather than minimally, because a short let has a new, unfamiliar occupant every few days who does not know the building.
None of this is a box to tick once and forget. Certificates expire, alarms run out of battery, and a flat left unchecked for months between a landlord's attention and a cleaner's visit is exactly where this slips.
Fit the flat out for a guest, not an occupier
A guest is not moving in. They are staying for a few nights and want the practical basics to work without having to ask. The fit-out that actually earns its money is rarely the stylish part:
- Fast, reliable wifi, clearly explained at check-in. This is the single most complained-about thing in short lets generally, and it costs little to get right.
- Good lighting, particularly in the kitchen and over the bed. Photographs sell the booking, lighting decides whether the stay feels right once they are in it.
- A kitchen that can actually produce a meal. A kettle and a toaster are not a kitchen. Guests cook more than owners expect, especially on longer stays, and a short let missing basic pans, a sharp knife or an oven that works properly gets noticed fast.
- Enough storage for a suitcase and clothes, not just surfaces for ornaments. Guests are living out of a case for the length of the stay and somewhere to actually unpack makes a longer stay feel liveable.
- Blackout or decent curtains, and heating or cooling that is simple to operate without an instruction manual.
None of this needs to be expensive. It needs to be functional, and functional is the part that is easy to underestimate when furnishing a flat you are not going to live in yourself.
Set up self check-in properly
Most short-let guests expect to let themselves in without meeting anyone. A smart lock or a key safe, with clear instructions sent before arrival, removes most of the friction around arrival times and late flights. Whatever system is chosen, test it yourself, as a guest would, before the first real booking. A key safe with a sticky code or a lock with a flat battery turns a straightforward check-in into a guest standing outside a flat at midnight, which is the kind of problem that generates a review regardless of how nice the flat is once they get in.
What guests actually complain about
The pattern is consistent across the market and it is rarely about taste. It is almost always: wifi that does not work, a check-in process that was unclear or failed, noise from the street or the building that was not mentioned, a shower with poor water pressure or inconsistent temperature, and a kitchen that looks good in photos but cannot actually be cooked in. None of these are decor problems. They are functional ones, and they are the reason a flat with modest furniture and everything working tends to review better than a beautifully styled flat where the boiler is temperamental.
Walk the flat as if you were staying there for three nights with nothing but a suitcase. Most of what needs fixing becomes obvious doing that once, before a guest ever does it for you.
Where this list stops being worth doing alone
Checking a lease, booking a gas safety engineer, furnishing a flat and setting up self check-in is all doable by an owner with time and a reasonable amount of patience. Where it tends to break down is consistency: certificates renewed on time, a fit-out that holds up after a year of guests rather than just the first photoshoot, and someone actually walking the flat between stays rather than assuming the cleaner caught everything.
If you want a straight assessment of what a specific London flat still needs before it is ready to list, send us the postcode and we will tell you honestly what is missing.