What it costs.
How long it takes.
We will not publish a single headline number, because there is not one. What we can do is show you every line you will have to fund and tell you which ones people consistently underestimate.
Formation, registration, safety, listings, technology
Deposit or purchase, furnishing, cash buffer
Cleaning, platform fees, utilities, insurance, tax
Everything you will have to pay for.
Grouped into establishment, capital and running cost. Amounts vary enormously by city, model and property, so we show the structure rather than invented figures.
| Line | Group | What drives the number |
|---|---|---|
| Company formation | Establishment | Filing fees, registered agent or office, constitutional documents |
| Professional fees | Establishment | Lawyer or solicitor for the lease, consent deed or purchase; accountant |
| STR registration or permit | Establishment | City-dependent. Free in some places, a licensing scheme with fees in others |
| Safety certification | Establishment | Gas, electrical, fire and alarm compliance as the jurisdiction requires |
| Insurance first premium | Establishment | Short-term-let cover is priced differently and higher than a normal policy |
| Photography & listing setup | Establishment | Professional shoot, copywriting, listing build across platforms |
| Technology setup | Establishment | Channel manager, pricing tool, messaging, smart locks, direct booking page |
| Akontec setup fee | Establishment | Percentage of the above, with a stated minimum |
| Lease deposit | Capital | Model B. Often larger than a residential deposit where sub-letting is consented |
| Purchase price & costs | Capital | Model C. Includes transfer taxes, legal costs and any lender requirements |
| Furnishing & fit-out | Capital | Property size and standard. Buy for durability, not for the photograph |
| Cash buffer | Capital | Months of fixed cost before bookings stabilise. Largest and most ignored in Model B |
| Rent | Running | Model B. Fixed, monthly, payable whether or not anyone stays |
| Cleaning & linen | Running | Per turnover. Scales with occupancy, which makes it the friendliest cost line |
| Platform commission | Running | Deducted per booking. Direct bookings avoid it but must be won |
| Utilities & connectivity | Running | Included in the nightly rate, so they are your cost, not the guest's |
| Maintenance & replacement | Running | Short-stay wears a property faster than a tenancy. Reserve properly |
| Lodging or occupancy tax | Running | Per booking, where it applies. Sometimes collected by the platform, sometimes not |
| Akontec management fee | Running | Flat monthly, scoped to properties and hours of coverage |
What people consistently get wrong.
In roughly this order of how often it derails a plan.
Occupancy is not a number you choose
Business cases circulating online tend to assume high year-round occupancy at a high nightly rate. Real properties have quiet seasons, gap nights that cannot be sold, and a ramp period before reviews accumulate. Model the quiet months first and see whether it still works.
Revenue is not what you keep
Platform commission, cleaning, linen, utilities, consumables, lodging tax and replacement all come out of a headline booking figure. The gap between gross bookings and what reaches you is much larger than most first-time operators expect.
Furnishing overruns
It is the easiest budget in the venture to overspend, because every individual decision seems small. We specify to a costed list before anything is bought, and we buy for turnover durability rather than for the photograph.
Regulation moves
This sector has tightened steadily and continues to. A city that permits short letting today may register, cap or restrict it within your investment horizon. It cannot be eliminated as a risk, only weighted against in city selection and structured for in your commitments.
A foreign-owned single-member US LLC has an annual federal information filing obligation together with a pro-forma corporate return, and it applies even with no tax payable and no trading activity. The penalty for missing it is substantial and applies per year. Every venture we set up leaves you with a written compliance calendar carrying that date.
How long, realistically.
Ranges assume no unusual obstacle and prompt responses from you on documents. Stages depending on an authority, a landlord, a lender or an insurer are outside our control and we say so.
| Model | Typical range to first guest | What sets the pace |
|---|---|---|
| A — Co-hosting | Shortest | How quickly you sign the first owner. The property already exists and is furnished |
| B — Consented arbitrage | Medium | Obtaining written landlord consent, then furnishing and photography |
| C — Owned property | Longest | Purchase, conveyancing and any lender conditions, all on other people's timetables |
Preparation quality and pace
- Speed and completeness of every application and submission we prepare
- Coordination between professionals so nothing waits on us
- Furnishing specification, listing build and technology configuration
- Weekly written progress against the dated stage plan
- Whether a landlord grants consent, or on what terms
- How long a registration authority takes, or whether it grants
- Whether a bank opens the account, and when
- What the insurance market quotes on the day
- Property availability and pricing in the local market
- How quickly you return signed documents and identity evidence
Every proposal marks these dependencies explicitly. We would rather give you a wider range we can hold to than a confident date we cannot.
Get an itemised budget for your model and city
We build the establishment cost, the capital requirement and the monthly running cost line by line, with every assumption written down.