For landlords in Manchester, Old Trafford and Trafford
231 nights let. 69% occupancy.
One two-bed in Old Trafford.
Eleven months of trading figures for a two-bedroom apartment in M16, published month by month — including the January trough that most agencies would rather show you an August instead of.
These figures were produced under the property's previous manager, and are labelled that way throughout.
Why we operate here
We manage where we own.
Two markets, two properties, both ours: a three-bedroom house near Gatwick and a two-bedroom apartment in Old Trafford. We don't take on management in a market we wouldn't put our own money into, which is why the list is short and why the figures on this page are real.
The Old Trafford apartment ran under third-party management until 1 August 2026 and has been run in-house since. That handover is the reason the figures below exist in the detail they do — eleven months of owner statements, every booking and every cost itemised.
Publishing them serves a simple purpose. A Manchester landlord weighing up short letting wants to know whether the demand is really there, what a realistic nightly rate looks like, and how bad January gets. Those questions have answers, and they're below.
Reporting you can audit
Every cost except the management fee is passed through at what it costs, itemised line by line on a monthly statement. No bundled charges, no margin quietly added to a clean, and no line item you have to ring up and ask about.
The standard we hold ourselves to is simple: you should be able to reconcile a statement against the bookings without needing to phone anyone.
211 Alexander House, Old Trafford — April 2025 to March 2026
Eleven months of what this flat actually did.
A two-bedroom apartment in M16, let short-term through a full seasonal cycle. Taken from the owner statements for the period, which was under the property's previous manager. Published in full because it answers the question every Manchester landlord asks first.
Gross revenue by month — the shape of a real year
Peak to trough runs a little over two to one. October grossed £4,117 at 90% occupancy; January grossed £1,962 at 55%. Anyone quoting you a summer month as a monthly average is showing you the top of this chart and hoping you don't ask about the bottom. Percentages beneath each month are occupancy.
| Month | Occupancy | Gross revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 2025 * | 33% | £1,651 |
| May 2025 | 74% | £2,789 |
| Jun 2025 | 83% | £3,466 |
| Jul 2025 | 87% | £3,724 |
| Aug 2025 | 71% | £2,914 |
| Sep 2025 | 53% | £2,258 |
| Oct 2025 | 90% | £4,117 |
| Nov 2025 | 67% | £2,788 |
| Dec 2025 | 74% | £2,933 |
| Jan 2026 | 55% | £1,962 |
| Mar 2026 | 65% | £2,070 |
| Eleven-month average | 69% | £2,788 a month |
Three notes on the data. February 2026 is excluded — no statement held for that month, so the period is eleven months and nothing is scaled up to imply twelve. April 2025 carries an asterisk: it was the first month the property was live and the first booking landed on the 4th, so its 33% isn't a representative month. May's occupancy is the single estimated figure here — that statement lists stay lengths without dates, so nights are inferred from the lengths.
Reading the numbers
Demand is not the problem in M16.
Sixty-eight separate stays across the period, in every month of the year. Old Trafford draws business trips, event weekends, relocations and short city stays, and it draws them through January as well as July. A two-bedroom apartment here does not sit empty for want of interest.
What the pattern does show is where the margin goes. The median stay was two nights, and 74% of stays ran three nights or fewer. Every changeover costs a clean, and at that stay length cleaning came to roughly £27 for every night the flat was let — more than the management fee cost.
Which is why we push for longer stays
Filling a calendar two nights at a time looks like good occupancy and reads badly on the statement. Fewer, longer bookings mean fewer changeovers, less wear, more predictable revenue and a higher share reaching the owner — at the same occupancy.
Our three-bed near Gatwick runs at an average stay of 4.8 nights on the same approach. Applied here, that difference is worth around £150 a month in cleaning alone, without selling a single extra night.
Minimum stays, rate strategy and channel mix are the levers. They are also the ones most commonly left where somebody set them at the start.
Your property
Start with what you're actually keeping.
This works out what your current tenancy leaves you after the agent, the lender, the upkeep and the tax — from your figures, not my assumptions. It doesn't estimate short-let income for your property. One flat is a data point, not a market, and I'd rather build your comparison properly than run yours through an average.
Set it to company ownership if that's how yours is held. My own apartment here sits in a limited company, so I know it's a common structure in this market and that the tax works differently — Section 24 doesn't apply, and corporation tax does.
Your standard tenancy —
Now the half I can't calculate.
What your property would do as a short let depends on the building, the parking, the lease and the condition. Send the details and I'll build the comparison from local listing data — and tell you honestly if short lets don't suit it, or if I'm not the right person for it yet.
What it costs
Same terms as everywhere else.
One fee structure, published, whichever market your property is in.
Twelve-month agreement
Of gross revenue, before platform fees. Four weeks' notice, both ways.
Rolling monthly
Of gross revenue, before platform fees. Same notice period, no commitment.
Setup and launch — £250
Listings built across Airbnb, Booking.com and direct; copywriting and photography coordination; dynamic pricing configured; automated guest messaging; compliance review; channel calendars and rate plans; guest welcome pack. Several days of work, priced as the start of a relationship rather than as a revenue line.
Photography is about £250, at cost. On top of that, month one usually includes a deep clean, linen and consumables, and a smart lock. Real costs, and you'll hear the actual figure for your property on the call rather than a range I've rounded in my own favour.
Everything except the management fee is passed through at what it costs me, itemised on the monthly statement. And because the fee is a percentage of what the property earns, a month where it earns nothing costs you nothing.
Availability
One property a month.
We onboard around one property a month, in markets we own property in ourselves. That is a deliberate limit rather than a sales line — it is what allows the standard on the Surrey and Sussex page to be an actual standard rather than an aspiration.
In Manchester that means Old Trafford, Trafford, Salford Quays, MediaCityUK and the city centre. If your property sits outside that, or the timing doesn't line up, we'll tell you when it would.
Twenty minutes, and you'll know.
Run your numbers above and send the details, or email me and we'll find a time.