Owner Guide
& FAQs.

You'll receive a booking confirmation email with guest details and stay dates. Your calendar will automatically block out the dates via iCal sync. Please be aware iCal connections sync every 15 minutes, so allow a little time if it hasn't appeared immediately.

If you use Supercontrol as your own booking platform, the client's details will also automatically pull through. With all other platforms, iCal will ONLY block out the dates - you'll need to manually add guest details from the confirmation email.

The guest details we capture and send are: property name, booking number, arrival and departure dates, lead guest name, email, contact number, address, total guest numbers (adults/children), and any extras booked such as additional sleeping space, baby cots, dogs, sauna sessions etc.

The guest will also receive email confirmation including your contact details and a payment summary.

If a guest needs to make any amendments - dates, guest numbers, anything - please refer them back to . We need to manage all changes within our system so that dates can be released on our calendar, financials are correctly recorded, and any new confirmation emails are triggered.

Any amendments before the booking becomes non-refundable must be administered by Kip. After the non-refundable date, amendments are at owner's discretion - we'll contact you to check.

Please note: we charge the guest a £40 admin fee for any amendments, which they agreed to when making their booking.

Before the non-refundable date: We cancel the booking in Supercontrol (which syncs to your calendar and unblocks the dates) and refund the client. We'll email you to confirm.

After the non-refundable date: Cancellations are at owner's discretion. If the client contacts us, we'll come to you to decide.

All amendments and cancellations before the non-refundable date are subject to a £40 admin fee payable to Kip, which replaces any amendment fees of your own, unless otherwise agreed.

Our business relies on calendars being accurate. It is the owner's responsibility to keep calendars and iCals up to date and inform Kip of any changes. Where double bookings occur due to inaccurate calendars outside our control, even if alerted within 12 hours, we would expect a goodwill gesture towards the guest.

If you receive a Kip booking and a booking has just come in via another channel, we'd expect you to honour whichever booking was made first - please send us screenshots as proof.

If you tell us you can't honour a booking after 12 hours have lapsed, we would expect you to still pay our commission and give the guest a free night in the future or contribute £100 as a voucher towards a future Kip booking.

If you have to cancel within the T&Cs period for unexpected maintenance or emergency issues, we'd expect to still take our commission, and for you to offer our guest a free night in the future or £100.

If you're unable to honour a booking at the last minute due to a maintenance problem, personal emergency, or adverse weather, please phone the guest immediately and send an email confirmation copying in . We'll get back to you as a matter of urgency.

If this happens over a weekend when our office is closed, please handle it as you would for a direct client - legally the booking is with you, not us. Please keep us copied into all correspondence.

We advise guests to take travel insurance, however it's also important you have your own insurance in place.

For any last-minute cancellations on your part, we will expect to keep our commission and a goodwill compensation gesture to be offered to the guest.

It's entirely up to you. Some guests love to be met, others prefer to be anonymous - if you're unsure, just ask them in advance.

Bare minimum: Tea bags, ground coffee, sugar, olive oil, salt, pepper, washing-up things, bin bags and toilet rolls. If there's a woodburner, enough logs, kindling, firelighters and matches for a couple of fires - especially if it's the only heat source.

Kitchen minimum: A couple of saucepans, chopping board, good knives, peeler, wooden spoons, baking tray, heatproof bowl, cafetiere. Double crockery to guests (e.g. for 2 guests: 4 plates, 4 bowls, 4 sets of cutlery, 4 mugs, 4 glasses, 2 wine glasses).

Generous basics: Herbal teas, a pint of milk, fresh bread and butter.

Well-equipped kitchen: Grater, various pans, scales, baking tins, additional crockery, electric whisks, blenders, coffee machines, etc.

We'd really encourage it - Kip guests love to browse! It doesn't have to be vast but should include:

• Check-in/out info
• Any expectations you have (e.g. no shoes indoors, close the Velux in rain, dogs out of the bedroom)
• Codes for WiFi, key box, gates
• Instructions for anything complicated - heating, TV, grill etc.
• Bin and recycling info
• Who to contact in the event of a complaint
• Useful local contacts - hospital, pharmacy etc.
• What to do in the event of a fire

We'd also love you to include:

• Your story of how the hideaway came about, and who you are
• Your recommended things to do - great walks, pubs, restaurants, shops, days out. The more specific and detailed, the better.

Please explain to guests that they should contact you directly, during the stay itself, in the event of any problem. This gives you a chance to rectify it. The worst thing is if they say nothing then complain afterwards - though if that does happen, we'll come to you to discuss it and agree a fair outcome.

It is your responsibility to regularly ensure your page displays accurate and up-to-date information. Please let us know of any changes. Should a complaint relate to incorrect information on your Kip page, we are not liable for any share of the refund unless the fault is with our editorial not being updated despite you having informed us of changes.

In the unfortunate (and rare) incident that a guest causes damage beyond reasonable wear and tear:

• Take photos of everything as soon as you or your cleaners are aware
• Keep receipts and invoices for repairs
• Raise it directly with the guest as soon as possible, as amicably as you can - most of the time it's a complete accident
• If you don't feel comfortable speaking to the guest directly, send all info to and we will help seek compensation on your behalf
• Any payments will be made directly from the guest to you
• If you hold a damage/security deposit, this needs to be sorted directly with the guest as we are unable to hold these funds

Post-stay, we ask guests to leave reviews via Trustpilot, which we then add to your hideaway page. If you receive independent guest feedback, please type it out and email it to so we can add it to your page.

Unfortunately not. We retain full editorial control to ensure consistency across the collection. If you need updates, changes, or have new photos to share, please email .

Please periodically check your Kip listing is accurate and up to date, as incorrect details may affect responsibility for refunds.

You can access your pricing on Kip via your Supercontrol login. If you've forgotten your account details, email .

We'll load your initial rates, but you need to keep them up to date going forward - including when you tweak them and when you add new seasons.

No. The basis of your agreement with us is a complete match of your direct base rates, availability and minimum stays, and for you to have chosen the Kip Booking Policy that most closely aligns with your own.

If we cannot ensure rate and availability parity it damages our reputation - it goes against our promise to give members the exact same thing as booking direct. Kip members must never be able to find your hideaway cheaper elsewhere online, or find less restrictive minimum stays, additional availability, or more lenient booking conditions. This is something we keep a careful eye on - please ask us if you have any concerns.

We expect you to let us know about any special offers or discounts you run on your own site so we can match them. You can load them yourself using your Supercontrol login. Please also email to alert us so we can promote them effectively on our special offers page.

Because Kip is VAT-registered, we're legally bound to add VAT to all commission sales.

iCals are calendar feeds that sync availability between booking systems. When you joined Kip you imported our iCal into your booking system and provided us with your iCal(s) from each site you're listed with. This syncs bookings both ways.

iCals are NOT an API - unless you use Supercontrol, all they do is block out dates. Guest details always come through in the booking confirmation email.

If something looks wrong, check:

• Have you joined another booking platform recently and not given us their iCal?
• Have you had notification from another platform that their iCal link has changed?
• Do you have the Kip export iCal correctly in your own system?

When reporting issues, please send: the affected dates, screenshots of what you're seeing, and ALL iCal links you're using, to .

If you're unsure where to paste the Kip iCal link in another agency site, contact that platform's Support team.

If possible, we'd encourage you to accept dogs - 71% of our audience book with dogs and it's a huge market!

If you're happy to accept dogs, email and include:

• Cost (average is £30-40 per dog per stay)
• Whether outdoor spaces are secure
• Any off-lead rules
• Furniture policies
• Anything provided - bowls, treats, towels, bedding?

We're an entirely different proposition. Those platforms operate on a volume-driven model with minimal curation or collaboration - your property sits among thousands of others without active brand positioning, a quality showcase, or any partnership support.

Kip is intentionally small, highly curated and editorially driven. We only feature the very best rentals in the UK and accept less than 10% of the hideaways we assess.

A 20% commission is standard across boutique travel platforms. Our owners see value through:

• Personal account management and responsive support
• Guest admin handled by our team
• Exposure to a highly engaged, quality audience
• Top-level press and influencer coverage
• Long-term brand positioning that drives direct bookings too
• Regular and personalised performance reviews

So we can continue to run a very personalised service and maintain a small, high-quality portfolio - the antithesis to a high-volume, variable-quality marketplace.

The annual fee covers:

• Personal account management and collaborative advice
• Listing updates and behind-the-scenes admin
• Ongoing brand positioning and PR
• Partnerships and collaborations with premium brands to elevate Kip as a whole
• Influencer coverage and marketing campaigns carefully tailored to our audience

Being part of Kip carries a strong endorsement value that drives visibility, direct traffic and repeat bookings - often reducing the need for owners to invest in their own PR separately.