Typing every payout in
Each payout, each booking, each fee, re-typed from the platforms' pages - and done again for every platform you use.
Guide for hosts
Beyond the host spreadsheet: what it does well, and where it starts to cost you.
Most hosts start with a spreadsheet, and for one let and a handful of stays it does the job. Here is when it stops being the cheap option - and what to look for when it does.
What a spreadsheet does well
It is free, it is yours, and it bends to whatever you want to track. If you let one place a few times a year and your costs are a cleaner and an energy bill, it may be all you need.
Where it starts to cost you
Payouts instead of rent
The easy thing to type is the payout. But the payout is after the platform's fee, so your income is understated - and your income before costs is what decides Making Tax Digital.
Nothing checks it
A formula copied one row short, a payout entered twice, a cost on the wrong property - a spreadsheet will not tell you. Matching it to your bank is a job of its own.
The tax is not built in
Mortgage interest is a 20% reduction, not a cost. The first furniture you buy is capital; replacing it is not. A spreadsheet has to be told all of it.
Making Tax Digital and spreadsheets
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax does not ban spreadsheets: you can keep your records in one and use software that sends the figures to HMRC. But the records have to be digital, every quarter, and the update has to come from software - so the spreadsheet has to be kept up to date all year rather than at the end of it. Who is in, and from when.
What to look for in host software
- It reads the files your platforms already give you, so nothing is re-typed.
- It records rent and fees separately, and matches each payout to your bank.
- It shows each property's profit, not just your total.
- It handles mortgage interest, furniture and shared costs the way the tax rules do.
- Every figure can be opened to the records behind it.
- Your data stays yours: you can export everything, any time.
Try it on your own file first
The free profit check reads your Airbnb, Booking.com or Vrbo file in your browser and shows what guests paid, what the platform kept and what reached you, by listing and month. Your file never leaves your device. When you want your costs, your bank and your tax beside it, a Snapshot is £10, and Stoneledger Hosts is £10 a month or £80 a year.
More for hosts
Keep reading, or try it on your own file.
Airbnb accounting in the UK
What to record, when it counts, and how to keep it right all year.
Holiday let tax after April 2025
What changed when the furnished holiday lettings rules ended.
What an Airbnb host can claim
The costs that count, the ones that do not, and the box each goes in.
Airbnb payouts and your bank
Why the money in your bank never matches your bookings, and how to tie them up.
Making Tax Digital for hosts
Who is in, from when, and what counts towards the line.
Booking.com for UK hosts
Commission, payment fees and VAT on fees, and how payouts are made up.
Free Airbnb profit check
Your own file, read on your device: what you were paid, and what you made.
See what your own lets actually made.
Stoneledger Hosts reads your Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo files, takes your costs and your bank statement, and shows your true profit, property by property. Start with the free check on your own file.
Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo are trademarks of their owners. Stoneledger Hosts is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by them. This guide is general information, not tax advice; for your own circumstances, speak to a qualified adviser.