London's Top Rated Airbnb management
services.

The real story based on Landlords' reviews

London's Top Rated Airbnb management
services.

The real story based on Landlords' reviews
We've reviewed the best Airbnb and short let management
companies so that you don't have to.
#1
SMARTHOST
The essential purpose of Airbnb Management company has been understood by SmartHost creators from the fundamentals of the meaning ‘management’. The company was founded in 2016 by hospitality and hotel industry professionals who take their job seriously and treat both home-owners’ and guests’ needs as their top priority. They clearly want to be leaders when it comes to satisfying  landlords and guests. Having just over 100
properties on its books, SmartHost does provide a boutique / tailor made service to each client, compared to bigger companies with a large number of properties under their management, what leads their clients to reaching SmartHost status in short a period of time. According to SmartHost reviews, everything – from the responsiveness of managers and cleanliness of the apartments to their payment system – is flawless and is a subject of admiration. When it come to increasing rental income, SmartHost are simply the best at it. Reaching 95% occupancy rates throughout the year is not an easy task at hand, but these guys really cracked it and do extremely well in this competitive industry. Offering 3 packages, SmartHost keeps it simple and gives their clients full access to their account and calendar reservations. They also allow landlords to track all financial transactions with AirBnB and other platforms.  Their “basic” service is for those who would want to go with a key safe option and allow their guests to access the property on their own, the “premium” service includes meet and greet/key exchange, and both packages include a 24/7 assistance for all guests, almost like an AirBnB concierge service ! With all of the above being said, it is evident that if you are a home-owner and would like to short let your property, you got all boxes ticked here and shall not look further.
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Customer service
9/10
Occupancy rates
10/10
Demand Enhancement
9/10
Guest Communications
10/10
Maintenance
10/10
Cleaning service
10/10
London
Listing live
in 24 hours!
#2
YourSquare
YourSquare is one of the smaller and younger short let property management companies out there. They are trying to tough it out, but it seems like they might need to be a bit more professional and selective with their staff. While the company offers personalized check ins, meaning that their staff meets the guests and gives them an overview of the property, many YourSquare reviews that staff didn’t have the necessary knowledge
about the property to provide them with basic information (heating, wifi, extra linen, etc). Moreover, the listings inaccurately reflected the properties only showing the best parts of the apartment and giving false information about the amenities. While this helps landlords to initially get more bookings, it raises the guests’ expectations, and later leads to their disappointment and negative reviews. Clients also report that they often had to step into conversations between guests and staff as they were very unprofessional, staff wasn’t paying attention to the guests’ gender, personal details and seemed to just use templates. One of the most important aspects of both, Airbnb hosting and short let property management, is to tailor your service to each and every customer, and YourSquare seems to neglect that, what will eventually strongly affect their chances of succeeding in the industry.
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Customer service
9/10
Occupancy rates
8/10
Demand Enhancement
9/10
Guest Communications
6/10
Maintenance
7/10
Cleaning service
8/10
London
#3
ExpressBnb
ExpressBnB has been around for almost two years and provides all basic Airbnb management services from checking in guests and cleaning to managing listings. They also offer a pay-per-service option where the landlord can choose specific services and get a fixed price. ExpressBnB seems to be very flexible in its approach to working with landlords and allows the client to customize their service package.   One of the essential
services that short let companies should provide is making suggestions to maximize your booking, and while ExpressBnB does so, they also misinform their clients on what is being done to the property. Several clients who were checking in on their apartments were surprised to find new furniture bought and renovations done that they have not approved, but were charged for. The company also charges their clients for a personalized check in service, basically a meet and greet for guests, however, multiple landlords found key safe locations near their properties and reviews that stated that guests were just instructed to pick up the key and no staff member was there to greet them. On their website, ExpressBnB puts a strong emphasis on getting their clients to a SuperHost status, however, there is no evidence of that taking place, and in fact, clients report that their property’s ratings have gone down after receiving multiple negative reviews.
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Customer service
9/10
Occupancy rates
7/10
Demand Enhancement
9/10
Guest Communications
8/10
Maintenance
7/10
Cleaning service
8/10
London
#4
Lavanda
Lavanda is perhaps the most innovative and relatively young agencies that provide AirBnB management in London. They were also backed up by the founders of Rightmove and Purplebricks who have invested in the start-up. The company claims to be very tech-savvy, however, maybe it is not the best idea to rely solely on technology, or at least rely on it as much. Several hosts claim that there have been recurring problems with the
calendar, what is crucial in building up your properties reputation through reviews. There have been several instances of double bookings and reservations on dates when the host asked to have the property to themselves. Staff also misinformed the guests on available dates and they were unable prolong their stay also due to disfunction of the calendar. On top of it, when the problem occurred, Lavanda failed to resolve the issue and at least offer the guests a different accommodation. This of course resulted in the guests being unsatisfied and leaving negative Lavanda reviews what lead to a decline in the listing’s rating. Overall, clients were unsatisfied as this only brought them more problems to solve instead of taking work off their plate. They also have guests checkout at 10am when in reality it is not necessary to have so much time before the check in to clean the property. This very frequently just leads to having to refuse a late check out for guest what obviously affects the quality of their stay.
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Customer service
9/10
Occupancy rates
8/10
Demand Enhancement
9/10
Guest Communications
4/10
Maintenance
6/10
Cleaning service
7/10
London
#5
City Relay
City relay launched in 2015 and is now one of the bigger AirBnB management on the short let market with 300+ flats. They have a large team and what really differentiates them from others is that they market their flats on 20+ channels. They do advertise well what helps listings get attention, however, when it comes to taking care of guests, their staff needs to improve in communication with clients and maintenance problem
solving. According to City Relay reviews, many stays were strongly affected by the amenities on the property not working well, and City relay didn’t seem to be proactive when it came down to these issues, even though this is the prime responsibility of a property management agency. Communication to cleaners is also not perfect as often apartments were not ready for guests to check in due to either misunderstanding of the schedule or poor cleaning service. This resulted in landlords having to deal with these problems themselves in order to avoid negative reviews what defeats the purpose of hiring an agency. On top of this, staff doesn’t always respond to complaints, ignores negative reviews and leaves guests and even landlords waiting for a response, despite the fact that communication is key when it comes to customer service. Having said that, communication is definitely the area where City Relay needs to improve if they want to stay in this business.
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Customer service
8/10
Occupancy rates
7/10
Demand Enhancement
9/10
Guest Communications
7/10
Maintenance
4/10
Cleaning service
3/10
London
#6
Hello Guest
Hello Guest Airbnb management company was founded in 2016 and within a year made a big progress by collecting properties. It seems as if they tried to grab onto too much too fast and more control needs to be taken before they should allow more growth. According to Hello Guest reviews, generally their staff is very friendly and polite, always responsive. However, when it comes to taking care of guests, they needs to improve in communication
within the company and service. Communication to cleaners is also not perfect as often apartments were not ready for guests to check in due to either misunderstanding of the schedule or poor cleaning service. This resulted in landlords having to deal with these problems themselves in order to avoid negative reviews what defeats the purpose of hiring an agency. Their cleaners seems to lack professionalism and experience. Also, many report that their staff lost the keys and in some cases, didn’t notify the landlord until they asked to have all keys back. Having said that, communication, professionalism and costumer service to both guests and landlords is definitely the area where Hello Guest need to improve if they want to stay in the hospitality business.
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Customer service
6/10
Occupancy rates
5/10
Demand Enhancement
6/10
Guest Communications
6/10
Maintenance
3/10
Cleaning service
3/10
London
#7
Veeve
Established in 2011, Veeve now operates in London and Paris, arguably the two most visited cities in the world. The company not only manages short let properties, but also has the option for guests to rent through Veeve’s own online platform.
Although this sounds like a great idea, the company seems to have too much on their plate. There have been multiple instances where guests were left without an
accommodation due to silly mistakes such as double booking or mix ups of keys. Some Veeve reviews left by guests themselves claim that the apartments were clearly not ready for them and previous damages were not taken care of prior to the new guests’ arrival. Many hosts report that they do not give accurate pricing, nor do they adjust the prices according to the date/events going on in the city what doesn’t take into account the importance of demand, meaning that guests simply find better options and a fairer price. As a result of that, several clients have requested Veeve to change prices, to what the company was reluctant, and in response to what they kept promising that their “premium” guests will be willing to pay such high prices. However, they do not seem to have enough premium guests to book all the overpriced properties they manage.
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Customer service
6/10
Occupancy rates
4/10
Demand Enhancement
4/10
Guest Communications
4/10
Maintenance
1/10
Cleaning service
5/10
London
Los Angeles
Paris
#8
PassTheKeys
PassTheKeys launched in 2015, and quickly spread all over the UK. The company now operates in several cities across the UK, including London, Brighton, Manchester, and Edinburgh. PTK tries to keep it simple, all staff is very friendly and polite. Although easy to work with, the company seems to overestimate prices, and later does not charge guests nearly as much as the client was expecting to get paid. They also do not provide
personalized check ins, and do not assign you to a specific manager. Instead, the company has a general email from which they do not respond very promptly. In their PassTheKeys reviews, hosts report that it is often 5hard to get ahold of the company what leaves you questioning whether they really provide a 24/7 service for guests what is absolutely essential in this business. Although the staff is polite when you do reach them, they lack attentiveness when communicating to guests and creating listings, as many listings were found to have typos, errors with gender what looks like they just copy/paste previously written text rather than tailor it to each client. They do provide good cleaning and linen services, however, in several instances, staff failed to properly check for damages what lead to hosts not being able to justify the compensation they want to receive from guests.
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Customer service
6/10
Occupancy rates
2/10
Demand Enhancement
3/10
Guest Communications
2/10
Maintenance
4/10
Cleaning service
5/10
London
#9
Hostmaker
Launched in 2013, Hostmaker is one of the leading players in short let business in London. The company also operates in other European cities – Rome and Barcelona. Hostmaker staff is very responsive and communicative to both guests and clients online, does a great job on boarding new hosts and promptly responds to new bookings. However, their offline services often do not live
up to the hosts’ expectations even though the company’s fees are quite high. According to Hostmaker reviews, the company sets very high expectations for the nightly rate of the properties to get the client interested and later does not set the prices nearly as high as they initially promised. Many clients report that they have lost a lot due to the inaccurate judgement of damages done to their properties by Hostmaker staff. They often failed to properly inspect properties and record all damage after guests checked out what lead to the landlord not having proof for insurance companies and resulted in further losses. In addition to that, when the client contacted the company, they denied making the mistake and said that the damage done to the apartment was normal “wear and tear”, and only after rising the question up to management and providing pictures was the client able to come to a fair solution where the company agreed to pay for the damages.
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Customer service
3/10
Occupancy rates
2/10
Demand Enhancement
5/10
Guest Communications
3/10
Maintenance
2/10
Cleaning service
5/10
10 Cities
#10
Airsorted
AirSorted is one of the biggest AirBnb management companies. Founded in 2015, the company rapidly grew and now operates in 8 cities all across the UK, Ireland and Australia. Being quite a large and experienced company, Airsorted has very professional and well-trained staff, a good online system and a very easy on boarding process. However, there are also some downsides to working with a large company as opposed to letting through a smaller
agency. While they try to make things more efficient, they do not offer personalized check-ins and do not pay as much attention to resolving guest complaints what can potentially lead to bad reviews and quickly decrease your occupancy rate. Having said that, clients often do not get as much bookings as the company promises, and occupancy rates sometimes do not even reach 50%. In addition, several people who had left negative AirSorted reviews have mentioned that the company made attempts to get the reviewer to delete the post or marked it as spam. Air sorted also takes an initial deposit from their hosts and several clients have reported having problems getting it back.
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Customer service
1/10
Occupancy rates
5/10
Demand Enhancement
4/10
Guest Communications
2/10
Maintenance
4/10
Cleaning service
2/10
20+ Cities
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