Short-Term Rental Agreement Form | Editable

What's inside

The Short-Term Rental Agreement is a five-page A4 template (210 x 297 mm) for a holiday let. It is written as a licence to occupy for holiday purposes, between an Owner or Host and a Lead Guest, not a tenancy.

There are 15 numbered clauses:

• 1. The Parties — name, address, phone and email for both sides.
• 2. The Property — full address, plus optional unit or access notes.
• 3. Booking & Occupancy Period — dates, times, total nights, platform reference.
• 4. Number of Guests & Occupancy — maximum guests, children, and the names of everyone staying.
• 5. Payment — total price, currency/VAT note, booking deposit, balance date, payment details.
• 6. Security / Damage Deposit — amount held, refund window in days, cleaning fee, hourly late check-out charge.
• 7. Condition & Inventory — pre-existing damage is reported within 24 hours of arrival.
• 8. House Rules & Guest Conduct — eleven rules (smoking, parties, quiet hours, pets, illegal activity, occupancy and subletting, appliances, security, faults, parking/refuse/building rules, tidiness), plus boxes for quiet hours, agreed pets and your own extra rules.
• 9. Check-in, Check-out & Access — key or entry-code arrangements, and when the Owner may enter.
• 10. Cancellation & Refunds — a default schedule for direct bookings, a box to name a different policy, Owner cancellation and force majeure. Airbnb or VRBO policies override it.
• 11. Liability & Insurance — own-risk use, with a carve-out for death or personal injury caused by negligence.
• 12. Breach — the host reserves the right to end the stay for a serious breach such as a party or smoking indoors.
• 13. Data Protection — guest details are used only to run the booking.
• 14. Governing Law — a box that defaults to England & Wales.
• 15. Acceptance & Signatures — signature, printed name and date for both parties.

Page 1 carries a disclaimer box and page 5 a reminder that short-let rules vary by location. Every box is blank. The download holds two files: the five-page PDF and a one-page PDF with a Canva edit link.

Who it's for

This template suits a host in England or Wales letting a whole property, or part of one, for holidays and short stays: an Airbnb or VRBO listing, a direct booking, a cottage, flat or annexe let by the night or the week. For a Welsh property, see the note on its statutory references below.

It is not written for:

• Longer residential lettings. See the England Tenancy Agreement or the Residential Rental Agreement.
• Lodgers. The Room Rental Agreement covers a room in a shared home.
• Static caravans. See the Caravan Rental Agreement.
• Scotland or Northern Ireland. The document names England & Wales as its governing law. Scotland has its own framework and a licensing scheme for short-term lets. The document is not written for Northern Ireland.

How to fill it in

The PDF has no interactive form fields. The beige boxes are drawn shapes, so there are three ways to complete it:

1. Print and write. Print the five A4 pages and fill the boxes by hand.
2. Annotate the PDF. Open it in Preview, Acrobat Reader or any PDF app with a text tool and type into the boxes.
3. Edit in Canva. The second file in your download holds a Canva link. Open it, edit the text, then export a fresh PDF.

A few pointers as you go:

• Clause 3 asks for check-in and check-out times as well as dates.
• Clause 4 wants the full names of all guests, not just the lead guest.
• Clause 6 has boxes for the cleaning fee and hourly late check-out charge. Real figures belong there; an empty box leaves the charge unstated.
• Clause 8's no-smoking rule mentions a cleaning/deodorising charge but has no box for an amount.
• Clause 10's cancellation tiers are a default. A policy named in the box beneath overrides them.
• Clause 14 defaults to England & Wales. Write something else and the rest of the document may no longer fit.

There are around 41 boxes in all, and both parties sign on page 5.

Before you use it: the legal context

This is a template, not legal advice, and NanaKwanDesign is not a law firm.

Holiday lets sit outside the residential tenancy regimes. In England, a tenancy whose purpose is to give the occupier the right to occupy the dwelling for a holiday cannot be an assured tenancy (Housing Act 1988, Schedule 1, paragraph 9). That exclusion is still in force after the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changes of 1 May 2026. In Wales, a tenancy or licence for the purposes of a holiday is not an occupation contract unless the landlord gives notice that it is to be one (Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, Schedule 2, paragraph 3). Where the letting genuinely is for a holiday, the written statement of terms and the deposit-protection rules do not attach.

Statutory references. The preamble and clause 3 both refer only to the Housing Act 1988, which applies to dwellings in England (Housing Act 1988, section 1). For a Welsh property the holiday exclusion is in the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, Schedule 2, paragraph 3, which the document does not cite.

The breach clause. Clause 12 rests on the fact that a licence to occupy premises for a holiday only is an excluded licence under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, section 3A. That exclusion applies only where the stay genuinely is a holiday. Nothing here promises that a guest can be removed.

Consumer law. Where a host lets in the course of a business to a guest booking for personal purposes, the guest is usually a consumer (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 2). Under section 62, an unfair term is not binding on a consumer, and Schedule 2 lists terms that may be regarded as unfair, including retained sums on cancellation and disproportionately high cancellation or breach charges. Clause 10's tiers are printed as a default that a different agreed policy overrides, and clause 6's charges are blank boxes. Clause 12 withholds a refund for remaining nights after a material breach. Section 65 bars any term excluding liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, which clause 11's carve-out reflects.

London. In Greater London, using a home as temporary sleeping accommodation is not a change of use needing planning permission where the nights in a calendar year do not exceed ninety and the provider was liable for council tax (Deregulation Act 2015, section 44). Under section 25B of the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973, inserted by the same section, the local planning authority or the Secretary of State may direct that the exception does not apply to particular premises or areas. The page 5 note flags the limit; the template has no night-counting.

Scotland. Scotland has a mandatory short-term let licensing scheme, set up by an Order that came into force on 1 March 2022; mygov.scot states that a licence must be obtained before taking bookings or receiving guests. A holiday letting also sits outside the Scottish private residential tenancy (Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, Schedule 1).

Registration. GOV.WALES states that from October 2026 anyone taking bookings for overnight stays in Wales must register with the Welsh Revenue Authority, by 31 March 2027. For England, GOV.UK states that the government is introducing a mandatory national registration scheme for short-term lets, expected to begin in March 2027. The template does not cover registration.

Data. Clause 13 refers to UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, both since amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025; what the host does with guest data in practice is theirs to manage.

Questions people ask

Is this a tenancy agreement?

No. It is written as a licence to occupy for holiday purposes, not a tenancy agreement. The holiday exclusions apply where the letting genuinely is for a holiday: in England such a letting cannot be an assured tenancy (Housing Act 1988, Schedule 1, paragraph 9), and in Wales it is not an occupation contract unless the landlord gives notice that it is to be one.

Can I type straight into the PDF?

The PDF has no interactive form fields; the boxes are drawn shapes. You can print it and write by hand, add text in a PDF app such as Preview or Acrobat Reader, or edit via the Canva link in the second file and export a new PDF.

Does it work for Airbnb and VRBO bookings?

Yes. Clause 3 has a box for the booking platform and reference. Clause 5 leaves payment for Airbnb or VRBO bookings to the platform's own terms, and clause 10 lets the platform's cancellation policy override the document's schedule.

Can I use it in Scotland or Northern Ireland?

It is written for England and Wales: the subtitle and clause 14 both say so. Scotland has its own law for holiday lets and a mandatory short-term let licensing scheme; mygov.scot states that a licence must be obtained before taking bookings or receiving guests. The document is not written for Northern Ireland.

Do I have to put the damage deposit in a protection scheme?

The statutory deposit-protection rules in the Housing Act 2004 apply to a deposit paid in connection with an assured tenancy in England. A holiday letting cannot be an assured tenancy, so where the letting genuinely is for a holiday, those rules do not attach to the damage deposit. In Wales, the deposit-scheme duty applies to a deposit paid under an occupation contract (Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, section 45), which a holiday letting is not unless the landlord gives notice that it is to be one. Clause 6 describes the deposit as refundable, with deductions itemised in writing.

Is the cancellation policy fixed?

No. Clause 10 prints a default schedule for direct bookings: a full refund less the booking deposit at 30 or more days, 50 per cent at 15 to 29 days, and no refund at 14 days or fewer. A box beneath lets you name a different policy, which overrides it. Where the guest is a consumer, an unfair term is not binding on them (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 62), so the figures are yours to adapt.

What paper size is it, and what do I get?

Two PDF files: the five-page agreement at A4, 210 x 297 mm, and a one-page PDF containing the Canva edit link. There is no US Letter version in the download. The licence page explains how the files may be used.