The platforms take their share first
Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo pay you after their fees, and sometimes after refunds and adjustments. What reaches your bank looks like income. It is not yet profit.
Stoneledger Hosts · for UK short-let hosts
Airbnb tells you what you earned. Stoneledger Hosts tells you what you actually made.
Bring in your Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo payout files, add what your lets cost you, and see your true profit - property by property, payout by payout, with every figure opening to what makes it up.
The free check reads your file in your browser. It never leaves your device.
A sample month · made-up figures
What Airbnb shows£4,820.00Gross earnings, June
What you actually made£3,327.0069% of what guests paid
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3.6% of each booking, as your payout file shows it. 8 bookings, June.
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8 changeovers at £80, paid to your cleaner on 30 June. From your bank statement.
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8 changeovers at £24, linen hire.
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Electricity £131.20 and water £55.28, from your bank statement.
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Toiletries, tea and coffee, two receipts.
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A month of the holiday-let insurance (£153) and the broadband (£36).
Click it. Every figure opens to what makes it up.
Making Tax Digital is coming for hosts
Know where you stand before HMRC asks.
From April 2027, if your rent and any self-employed income - before costs - came to more than £30,000 in the 2025 to 2026 tax year, you keep digital records and send HMRC an update every quarter. From April 2028 the line is £20,000. Get a real picture of where you are first: what came in, what it cost, and what you made.
- 6 April 2026Over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025
- 6 April 2027Over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026
- 6 April 2028Over £20,000 in 2026 to 2027
Why your payouts are not your profit
The money that lands is not the money you made.
Your costs are everywhere
The cleaner, the laundry, the energy bill, the toilet rolls - on your bank statement, your card and in a pile of receipts. Until they sit beside your payouts, there is no profit to see.
The tax rules changed
The furnished holiday lettings rules ended in April 2025. A short let is now taxed like any other letting: mortgage interest gives a 20% reduction, and furniture bought for the first time gets no relief.
How it works
Three steps, and the first takes two minutes.
- 1
Download your earnings file
From Airbnb, Booking.com or Vrbo. We show you exactly where it is.
- 2
Drop it in, and add your costs
Every payout and fee is read for you. Add costs as you pay them, or bring in your bank statement and they arrive with a category already suggested.
- 3
See what you actually made
Property by property and month by month, with every figure opening to the records behind it.
What Stoneledger Hosts does
Everything a host's money needs. Nothing a booking calendar does.
- Your true profit. What you made after the platforms' fees and every cost - not what the platforms paid you.
- Every payout matched to your bank. Booking, payout, bank line: each payout found on your statement as the one line it is, so nothing is missed or counted twice.
- Property by property. Which let earns most, what each makes a night, and its margin beside the others.
- Shared costs, split fairly. One insurance policy across three lets? Share it equally, by percentage or by rent - with a record of how each was shared.
- Click any figure. Every number opens to what makes it up. You never have to take ours on trust.
- Your tax, estimated honestly. Your letting profit for tax, mortgage interest as the 20% reduction, and what the estimate cannot know.
- The records Making Tax Digital asks for. Digital, property by property, in the categories HMRC uses.
- A pack for your accountant. One PDF and one spreadsheet: the year's figures and every record behind them.
Reads files from Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo, in CSV or Excel, and direct bookings typed in. It keeps your books; it does not take bookings or message guests, so keep the tools you use for that.
From booking to bank
Every booking, to the payout that paid it, to the line on your statement.
- Booking3 nights, Seaview CottageGuest paid £1,100.00, with £100.00 for cleaning
- Payout£1,067.00 on 15 MarchAfter Airbnb's fee of £33.00
- Bank£1,067.00 on 16 MarchFound on your statement and ticked off
A payout is one line at the bank but two or more records in your books - the rent, less the platform's fee. Stoneledger Hosts matches them as one, so your income is counted once, at its full value, with the fee as a cost. Why payouts and bank lines do not always match
Instead of a spreadsheet
What a platform's earnings page cannot tell you.
| What you need | A platform's earnings page | A spreadsheet | Stoneledger Hosts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profit after every cost | No - earnings and payouts | If you build it | Yes |
| All your platforms together | One platform each | By hand | Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and direct |
| Payouts matched to your bank | No | By hand | Yes |
| Property by property | Listing by listing | If you build it | Yes, side by side |
| Tax estimate and MTD records | No | No | Yes |
| Ready for your accountant | A download | Depends on the spreadsheet | A pack, in one click |
Tax, plainly
A short let is a property business. Stoneledger Hosts treats it as one.
Property income
Short-let rent goes on the property pages of your tax return, not as a trade, and pays no National Insurance.
Mortgage interest
Not a cost of the let. 20% of it comes off your tax instead, capped - worked out for you.
A room in your home
A furnished room in your own home can come under Rent a Room: up to £7,500 a year tax-free.
When it counts
Rent counts when the guest pays the platform, which takes it as your agent - not when the payout arrives - and costs when you pay them: the cash basis most hosts use.
More on holiday let tax since April 2025 and what a host can claim.
Pricing
Three ways in. Round numbers, nothing added.
Free Profit Check
£0
Drop in your Airbnb, Booking.com or Vrbo file and see what you were paid and what the platform kept, by listing and by month. Add your costs roughly for an estimate of your profit.
- Your file never leaves your device
- No account, no email
Snapshot
£10 once
Your own analysis of up to 12 months and five properties: your platform files, your costs and your bank statement. What each property made, every figure opening up, and a report to keep.
- 30 days to get it right
- Kept to read, print and export after
- No account needed
For the whole year
Stoneledger Hosts
£10 a month
or £80 a year - £6.67 a month
Everything in the Snapshot, kept going all year: new payouts and statements as they come, every payout matched to your bank, your tax estimate, Making Tax Digital records and your accountant's pack.
- Up to five properties
- On any device you sign in on
- Cancel any time
No VAT to add: Stoneledger is not registered for VAT. Subscribe on the device your Snapshot is on and everything in it carries into your account. More than five properties? Stoneledger, the full product, handles any number - and your books come with you.
Who it is for
Hosts with one to five lets, however they own them.
Whole places, or a room
A cottage, a flat, a lodge - or a room in your own home, with Rent a Room worked out for you.
Owned your way
In your own name, jointly with someone (your share is what counts for tax), or through a company - where Stoneledger, the full product, prepares the company's accounts from the same books.
Room to grow
Start a trade, form a company, register for VAT or let a sixth property, and move to Stoneledger with everything as it is.
For accountants
Clients who host? Their books arrive ready.
A Stoneledger Hosts client keeps their payouts, costs and bank in order all year. Their accountant's pack is one PDF and one spreadsheet, and a practice on Stoneledger sees them beside its other clients and opens their books with every tool it uses.
Questions
What hosts ask first.
Does the free check upload my file?
No. It is read in your browser, on your device, and nothing in it is sent anywhere. Close the page and it is gone.
Which files can I bring in?
Airbnb's transaction history, Booking.com's payouts file and Vrbo's payout summary, as CSV or Excel. Stoneledger Hosts reads the columns by their names, so a file with its columns in another order still reads. Bookings taken directly are typed in.
Do I have to connect my Airbnb account?
No. Stoneledger Hosts never asks for your platform passwords. You download your file and drop it in, whenever you like.
Is it on HMRC's list of software for Making Tax Digital?
Not yet. Stoneledger has completed its testing in HMRC’s sandbox and is preparing its applications; until HMRC grants live access it cannot send anything to HMRC. Stoneledger Hosts keeps the digital records in the meantime.
What happens when my Snapshot's 30 days end?
It is kept for you to read, print and export. Subscribe on the same device and everything in it carries into your account - nothing is entered twice.
Why not a spreadsheet, a landlord app or general accounting software?
A spreadsheet does what you build into it, and keeping it right is your evenings. Landlord apps are made for long lets - tenancies and rent due - and general accounting software for every kind of business; both need your platforms' payouts typed in or an add-on to bring them. Stoneledger Hosts is made for short lets: it reads the files Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo give you, matches every payout to your bank, and shows what each let made, with every figure opening to what makes it up. Try it on your own file first, free.
Where are my books kept, and who can see them?
A Snapshot keeps them on your own device, in your browser - save a backup file from Settings now and then. A subscription keeps them on Stoneledger's server in London, behind your password and an authenticator code, with earlier versions kept. Nobody sees them unless you invite them, and guests' names are never kept.
Can my accountant see my figures?
Yes. Send them the accountant's pack, or give them their own sign-in to your books with the subscription.
Do I need to register for VAT?
Only if your takings go over the VAT registration threshold, £90,000 a year: short-stay accommodation is standard-rated. Stoneledger Hosts tells you when you are close; Stoneledger, the full product, keeps VAT records and prepares VAT returns from the same books.
Can I cancel?
Any time. You keep everything to the end of the month or year you have paid for, and you can export your books whenever you like.
Guides for hosts
Short lets, money and tax, in plain words.
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.
Beyond the host spreadsheet
What a spreadsheet does well, and where it starts to cost you.
Free Airbnb profit check
Your own file, read on your device: what you were paid, and what you made.
See what your lets actually made.
Start with the free check on your own file. When you want the whole picture - costs, bank and tax - a Snapshot is £10.
Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo are trademarks of their owners. Stoneledger Hosts is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by them; it reads the files they let you download.