The winter lets season in Bournemouth runs from November to March, and it opens now. The guests are not holidaymakers: they are contractors on project work, people relocating for a job, hospital staff on rotation, academics on a term's contract and households placed by an insurer while their own home is repaired. They want a furnished flat for weeks or months with bills included. Flexiestays fills 130 properties this way, and a landlord's furnished flat can join the platform for 8% of the bookings Flexiestays brings.

Who is booking

Flexiestays has let furnished apartments in Bournemouth since 2018, and the winter guests fall into familiar groups:

  • Project workers and contractors, often for three to twelve months, who need parking and a washing machine more than a sea view.
  • People relocating for a job at the Lansdowne, the airport or the universities, who need somewhere while they look for a permanent home.
  • Remote professionals spending two to six months by the sea.
  • Healthcare staff and visitors, close to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, and families visiting someone in hospital.
  • Corporate teams, who need VAT invoices and a single point of contact.
  • Students and academics on a placement or a term.
  • Insurance placements, where a household's home is being repaired after a flood, a fire or a leak.

The average Flexiestays stay is over 19 nights across the year. In winter the long stays carry the calendar.

Why owners take part

Holiday let owners have a strong summer and a thin winter. Winter stays keep the flat earning and lived in from November to March, and each stay ends before the summer bookings begin.

Owners of furnished flats who do not want a tenancy keep the flat flexible. Since 1 May 2026 a tenancy is periodic and cannot be ended at the owner's choice. A stay has an end date.

Owners between plans, such as a flat waiting to be sold in spring, earn from it in the meantime and still sell with vacant possession.

How a flat joins

  1. Check the permissions. The lease must allow it, and the mortgage lender and the insurer must know how the flat is let.
  2. Meet the furnishing standard. A full kitchen, a washing machine, a comfortable bed, a desk or table to work at, fast Wi-Fi and a smart TV. Linen and towels for each stay. Parking helps a great deal.
  3. Check the safety file. Gas safety record, electrical report, alarms and a fire risk assessment, as for any let.
  4. Agree the dates. Tell us which weeks are available, especially if summer holiday bookings resume in April or May.
  5. Photographs and listing. We photograph the flat and list it on the platform.
  6. Stays begin. Guests book stays of 28 nights or more; the bills, council tax and Wi-Fi are in their price.

The rules that matter

Guest or tenant. A guest with a home elsewhere who stays for work, a move or a repair is not a tenant. A guest who makes the flat their only or main home may be a tenant whatever the booking says, and since 1 May 2026 a new tenancy has no end date. That is why we check who is staying and why, and use the right agreement for the stay. This is not legal advice.

Business rates. A holiday let is assessed for business rates only if it was available for short lets of 28 nights or less for 140 nights and actually let for 70 of them in the last 12 months. Winter stays of more than 28 nights do not count towards the 70, so the summer has to carry the test. Miss it and the flat returns to council tax, where BCP Council has charged a 100% premium on furnished second homes since April 2025.

Council tax during a stay. The owner remains liable while the guest has a main home elsewhere, which is part of why the price includes it.

Next steps

Read winter lets for how the service works and our comparison of a tenancy and furnished stays for the trade-offs. Our guide to winter lets covers the detail. If your flat runs as a holiday let in summer, holiday let management through Sea Breeze covers that half of the year.