Summer short stays start in October

Welcome back to The Shortletter, Bloqq's monthly look at what's happening in the short stay market in the UK and Ireland. After a brief summer break, The Shortletter is back and better than ever.

It's been a busy summer at Bloqq HQ. We've gone into September with a refreshed brand look (you're looking at it) and some very exciting news to share. See this month's Insight of the Month, below, for the big reveal.

Elsewhere in this issue, we're comparing what it's like to go live with rooms in the months well before summer versus going live during peak summer and the impact it has on revenue, we're heading to Bristol for our City Spotlight and sharing a few recommendations from Team Bloqq on what we've been listening to and reading lately.

Let's get into it.

"The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious."

Insight of the month: meet Nomad Student

It's time to turn empty student accommodation into a travel opportunity. Meet our sister company, Nomad Student.

A significant amount of student accommodation sits empty outside of term time, despite being purpose-built, high-quality space in some of the UK and Europe's most attractive cities and towns, because it is limited to use by those in active study.

At the same time, there's a large community of students across the UK, Ireland and Europe that have the appetite and flexibility for travel, though often also with the need to keep accommodation costs down.

Currently, there's an untapped opportunity to connect the two. So we've done just that: created a platform, Nomad Student, that connects verified students looking for affordable places to stay with empty student rooms.

Nomad Student makes student accommodation available to students travelling outside their home city, giving operators a way to generate additional income from existing assets while giving students access to purpose-built accommodation at potentially more affordable prices. We are launching with a network of preferred partners to manage the rooms on behalf of operators, which opens the doors to student bookings through Nomad Student and existing OTAs such as Airbnb and Booking.com. There will also be an option for self-management, where operators can list their empty rooms, manage pricing and handle guest communications directly on the Nomad Student platform.

The proposition also goes beyond the room itself, with a community element designed to help students connect with others staying in the same property (meaning they could arrive in a new city already knowing a few people).

We've been trialling the platform over the summer, and now we're moving into the next phase: bringing it to market. We also have short stay specialist Ben Painter joining to lead the growth of the business.

Performance dashboard: why summer 2027 starts now

Over the coming weeks, students will be moving into their accommodation for the academic year ahead, with contracts ranging from 44 to 51 weeks.

As busy as this time will be, for providers with lots of 44-week contracts, there's no doubt the focus will soon shift to planning for summer 2027 revenue.

Often summer revenue will come from student extensions and group bookings, but more and more, summer short stays are becoming a core part of the annual revenue strategy. So how do you maximise it?

One of the most effective ways to set yourself up for a strong summer is to use the academic year to build your listing's foundations: reviews, revenue history, guest data, guest feedback and, importantly, pricing intelligence.

The challenge: how to maximise your summer revenue. Here are two scenarios to show the impact it can have on a building's summer performance.

Scenario one: launching in July with no track record

A brand new listing with no reviews entering the market in July is starting from behind. Here's how that transpires on the ground:

• Weeks 1 to 3: Bookings can be sparse because there's little lead time on initial bookings. This means revenue loss in these weeks whilst the listing builds visibility and credibility. Large discounts are essential to drive initial occupancy.
• Weeks 4 to 8: Occupancy starts to stabilise and reviews begin to land, but pricing can still sit well below the market as guests favour listings with a stronger track record.

Scenario two: launching a small batch of rooms the October before

Launching a small batch of rooms, typically just for student-only stays, in October the year before means transitioning into summer with 35 to 65 reviews, a revenue track record and a better understanding of the building in the context of the local market. Here's how that looks:

• Weeks 1 to 3: Summer is kicked off in a much stronger position, with established reviews, guest trust and listing performance already working in your favour. Doors open to many guest arrivals on day one and in the initial weeks, as you've had the benefit of a long booking lead time from October to May.
• Weeks 4 to 8: Focus is on optimising occupancy rather than chasing it, meaning fewer discounts needed. The building benefits from better data and stronger market confidence, plus a strong baseline of reviews means the strategy is focused on extracting higher nightly rates. Reviews continue to build too.

The difference is simple: you're not starting from zero when summer arrives. And this can all be achieved with as little as five student-only units listed with Bloqq from October to May.

Two Leeds sites, two very different summers

Let's look at two Bloqq sites in Leeds and their summer 2026 performance. Both sites only have studios, have roughly 35 units each and are located in the city centre.

The story behind the numbers: To drive occupancy with such a short lead time, price had to be the driving factor because with zero reviews, there's no social proof to lean on. This is most intense during July when the listing was launched and calendars were opened for Site 1, whereas Site 2 had the added benefit of an already long-standing open calendar, meaning a longer average booking lead time (20 days). Which, in turn, meant it didn't have to chase occupancy, and its solid base of reviews meant the average nightly rate could be held at a much higher level whilst still achieving strong occupancy across the site. Although Site 1 did hit a strong occupancy in August, again, this was done at the "cost" of a much discounted rate when compared to Site 2's nightly rate in August.

The takeaway: if you already know summer is going to be a challenge, start preparing now. A good indicator for this is having a large amount of 44-week vs 51-week student leases, as the longer void period creates this summer revenue strain and an opportunity to introduce short stays.

You don't necessarily need two academic years to make it work either. An academic-year strategy can be used to fast-track the foundations for a successful summer operation, rather than waiting for the second summer to see the benefits.

City spotlight: Bristol

For this month's City Spotlight, we're off to the south west and shining a light on Bristol, a city known for its creative spirit, maritime heritage and distinctly independent character.

Set around the River Avon, Bristol has evolved from a historic port into one of the UK's most dynamic regional cities, attracting an eclectic mix of leisure visitors, students and business travellers. Its combination of culture, food, music and green spaces makes it particularly well suited to short breaks, while attractions including the Clifton Suspension Bridge, SS Great Britain, Bristol Harbour and the city's museums and galleries provide plenty to keep visitors entertained. The city also benefits from a strong events calendar (the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup alone brought more than 92,000 fans to Bristol) and ever-growing international connectivity via Bristol Airport.

From a rental market perspective, Bristol is one of the UK's most competitive regional markets, supported by a highly skilled workforce and a diverse economy anchored by the aerospace, advanced engineering, digital tech and creative media industries.

The student market is another major demand driver. Home to the University of Bristol and UWE Bristol, the city's PBSA market remains undersupplied, though the pipeline is growing, with new projects coming forward, led primarily by the University of Bristol's Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, which opens this month and will house 4,600 students.

When it comes to short stays, Bristol has a strong network of well-established independent hosts compared to other UK cities, whose quality of listings (photography, property descriptions and pricing strategies) is more on a par with professional short stay management companies. In the context of short stays in PBSA, this means you're competing directly with this wider market too.

Looking ahead, ongoing regeneration across areas like the Temple Quarter, as well as the city centre, Bedminster Green and Western Harbour, is set to further reshape Bristol and create new employment, residential and leisure opportunities.

But what does all this mean for the short stay market, and where are the opportunities? Here's what the numbers have to say:

Bristol short stay market at a glance

So, what does this tell us?

The demand for short stays in Bristol isn't anchored to a single driver. It has a diverse, skilled workforce, two universities and a genuinely strong leisure and events offering, so it draws visitors for work, study and pleasure in roughly equal measure. With a significant volume of new PBSA beds arriving via Temple Quarter, that breadth of demand matters: it gives operators somewhere to go as the supply picture shifts.

The seasonality tells its own story. July is the strongest earning month, which points to a summer market led by tourism and events, on top of a steady stream of business and leisure travel year round.

On pricing, rooms and studios sit close together at £70 and £79, while one-bedroom apartments command an average of £124, a clear step up in rates. This difference creates an advantage for those with these smaller unit types (namely PBSA), offering an opportunity to price to attract more budget-oriented travellers.

With average stays of two to four nights and a booking lead time of around 33 days, inventory can be released selectively around peak weekends and event periods without disrupting core lettings.

Bloqq's key takeaway: Bristol offers a genuinely year-round opportunity, underpinned by a diverse demand base that doesn't rely on a single seasonal spike. For PBSA and BTR operators, particularly those facing a more competitive supply landscape as new schemes come forward, short stays provide a practical way to capture leisure, events and business demand across the calendar, lift yield on higher-spec units and stay flexible as the market evolves.

News in brief

On the road again: Later this month (Monday 14 to Friday 25 September), I'll be back behind the wheel for my quarterly road show, seeing clients for post-summer debriefs, meeting some new ones and visiting sites up and down the UK and Ireland. If you're interested in meeting in the next few weeks to hear more about how Bloqq can support your business, I'd love to stop by. [Drop me a line](/contact?enquiry=Property owner).

Tune in: It was my turn in the hot seat this summer, as I joined Nils Erik Mattisson from Minut as a guest on his podcast, talking about all things short stays and how Bloqq came to be. You can listen to the full conversation here.

Read up: The future of the university experience, and more specifically life in student accommodation, has been a hot topic in recent weeks as new reports show how more and more young people are living at home during their time at university. This BBC article and this FT piece both provide some interesting perspectives and first-hand stories from students.

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The Shortletter is written by Tom Fisher, co-founder of Bloqq, and published monthly. This edition was first published on bloqq.co. Subscribe on LinkedIn to get the next one in your feed.