Birmingham's serviced accommodation market is driven by business travel as much as tourism. Contractors, hospital visitors, university families and exhibition and conference guests at the NEC create steady weekday demand, and many operators mix nightly short lets with longer corporate stays. Tally Stay provides specialist serviced accommodation bookkeeping and accounting for Birmingham operators, delivered remotely by an ACCA-qualified team.
Mixing short lets and corporate stays
Corporate and contractor bookings often arrive by invoice and bank transfer rather than through Airbnb or Booking.com. They can involve deposits, monthly billing, and guests who need a VAT invoice. We record them as a separate income stream from OTA bookings so you can see which channel earns more after costs, and so deposits and part-payments are never counted as income too early.
Know your numbers before you take on another unit
Rents in Birmingham are often lower than in London or central Manchester relative to achievable nightly rates, which is why the city attracts R2SA operators who are growing quickly. Growth only works if each unit is profitable. We track rent, utilities, cleaning, consumables, furnishing and platform fees by property, and give you a monthly profit-per-unit report. Before you sign a new lease, run the deal through our free SA profit calculator.
VAT, rates and limited companies
Once taxable turnover passes £90,000 in a rolling 12-month period you must register for VAT. We monitor this monthly. We also record whether each unit pays council tax or business rates. In England a self-catering unit is assessed for business rates if it's available for at least 140 days and actually let for at least 70, and small business rate relief can then reduce or remove the bill. Most growing Birmingham operators trade through a limited company, and we keep the company's books ready for Corporation Tax and year-end accounts.
What we handle for Birmingham SA operators
- Monthly bookkeeping in Xero or QuickBooks with tracking by property
- OTA payout reconciliation and invoiced corporate stays
- Owner statements for managed properties
- VAT threshold monitoring and VAT returns
- Company formation and accounts-ready figures
Read more about our serviced accommodation accounting across the UK.
Frequently asked questions
What does a serviced accommodation bookkeeper do for a Birmingham operator?
We record and reconcile every booking, payout and expense each month, track profit per property, produce owner statements for managed units, monitor VAT and prepare the figures your tax returns are based on.
Can contractor and corporate stays be in the same books as short lets?
Yes. We record them as separate income streams, so you can see how each one performs and handle invoices, deposits and VAT correctly for business guests.
Do you work with operators across the West Midlands?
Yes. We support SA operators in Birmingham, Solihull, Coventry, Wolverhampton and the wider West Midlands, all remotely.