A vacation rental website for one property
Every other theme asks which listing? This one has an answer. PrivateLet is arranged around a single holiday let — there is no search page, no categories and no member listings to configure, because the property is yours and there is one of it. What you get instead is the page that sells it: photographs, facts, amenities, reviews, a map and a booking box.
Keep what the platform takes
Booking platforms take 15–20% between guest and host. On a property earning £20,000 a year that is £3,000–£4,000 — every year, forever.
A guest who stayed once already knows the place. Give them somewhere to book it again and the whole booking is yours: no commission, no monthly fee, and their email address in your database rather than withheld behind a platform.
A calendar that counts nights, not appointments
A stay is a range: arriving the 4th, leaving the 11th. One guest's departure day is the next guest's arrival day, so no phantom night is charged or blocked, and the same week can never be sold twice.
- Changeover days
- Minimum stay
- No double bookings
Your own weeks, marked as yours
Ordinary booking software knows only bookable and not bookable. An owner needs a third answer — “we are using it that week” — so a block carries a reason. Your calendar says Owner staying; a visitor simply sees the dates are gone.
- Owner stays
- Maintenance closures
- Private notes
Seasons that don't expire
Set a standard nightly rate, then as many seasons as you like on top. Christmas is stored as 20 December to 2 January and repeats every year — so you cannot sell Christmas week at the standard rate because you forgot to re-enter the dates.
- Recurring seasons
- Weekly discount
- Short-break surcharge
Elementor-Ready Holiday Let Templates
Elementor-friendly: rearrange your property page in the free Elementor plugin — or never open it, and just change the words and photos.
Every part of the page is a block — hero, photo wall, amenities, availability, rates, reviews and the booking box — so a new page is assembled by dragging them into place.
See the twelve designs110 Purpose-Built Property Blocks
Built for this product line, not borrowed from a directory theme: hero booking bars, photo walls, amenity grids, availability calendars with rate tables, host introductions, nearby guides and guest reviews.
Explore Our ThemesOne quote, from enquiry to invoice
Nights, weekly discount, cleaning, pets, extra guests and the refundable security deposit are separate lines — and it is the same calculation on the booking box, the confirmation and the invoice, so the figure a guest is quoted can never drift from the one they are charged.
- Itemised
- Deposit then balance
- Refundable deposit line
Bookings taken any way you take them
Most private lets still get bookings by phone, email and word of mouth. Enter one by hand and it blocks the same nights on the same calendar, with the party recorded properly — adults, children, infants and pets, because the extra-guest and pet charges are priced off it.
- Online or manual
- Party breakdown
- Your own guest notes
The photographs do the selling
A holiday let is booked on its pictures. Six purpose-built gallery layouts — full-bleed heroes, photo walls, arched frames and mosaics — with the facts a guest scans for sitting right beside them.
- Six gallery layouts
- Sleeps & beds facts
- Lightbox
An amenities list that knows your property
Five shipped groups — kitchen, comfort, outside, practical, access — and you add your own from the same screen. No catalogue ships with the boat mooring, the pizza oven or the paddock for the pony, so yours doesn't have to pretend otherwise.
- Five groups
- Add your own
- Shown as guests scan
Built for the phone in the guest's hand
Holiday searching happens on a sofa, on a phone. The whole flow — photos, dates, guests, quote, deposit — is designed for a small screen rather than squeezed onto one.
- Mobile booking flow
- Fast photo pages
- Tap to call
A design for the kind of property you actually have
A caravan on a holiday park sells on the park as much as on the van; a seafront flat sells on the lift, the parking bay and the balcony. So these are four families of three, not one layout recoloured twelve times. Every one is a finished homepage — import it, change the words and photographs, and you are live.
Full-bleed photography with the dates bar sitting over it.
Quiet, typographic opening then a five-photo wall.
Centred serif masthead for a cottage that sells on the view.
Bright seaside styling that prices a break, not a night.
Hero photograph with the quote card floated over it.
Warm, editorial layout for a lodge with a hot tub.
Split hero for a larger house let to one party at a time.
Dark, cinematic hero for an off-season, hot-tub let.
Photo mosaic with the booking box beside it.
Arched imagery, a priced quote and a deposit note in the hero.
Grand, full-width hero with an all-in price and Reserve bar.
Bold sans headline over a six-photo grid.
What you can build
If somebody stays in it for whole nights and you own it, PrivateLet is built for it — whether that is a thatched cottage, a static caravan, a lakeside lodge or a flat above a harbour.
Holiday cottages
A self-catering cottage let by the family who own it, with changeover days and a minimum stay.
Static caravans & lodges
A van or lodge on a holiday park — priced by the break, with the park's facilities part of the sell.
Villas & holiday homes
A larger house let to one party at a time, with a pool, a cleaning charge and a security deposit.
Seaside apartments
A flat with a lift, a parking bay and a balcony — the details a beach holiday actually turns on.
Cabins & glamping
Off-grid stays with short-break pricing, a hot tub and a two-night minimum out of season.
Harbour & waterside lets
Moorings, boat storage and tide-dependent access, added as amenities the shipped list doesn't know.
Ski & mountain chalets
Saturday-to-Saturday weeks in season, flexible short breaks the rest of the year.
Escaping platform fees
Any owner already fully booked who simply wants the 15–20% back on next year's repeat guests.
One screen, called My Property.
You own one property, so you do not want a listings table with one row in it. You want your cottage: what it is, what it costs, and which nights are spoken for. That is the whole back office — three tabs.
The property, its pricing and its availability — three tabs, and nothing else to learn.
views and enquiries tracked, so you can see what a photograph is worth.
Elementor-ready with 110 purpose-built property blocks — colours, fonts, photographs and layout from the admin.
Collect, approve and reply to guest reviews on your own site.
Guests get a login to see their booking, what they have paid and what is still due, and to book the same week again next year — the repeat booking a platform would otherwise charge you for twice.
No booking plugin to buy or configure
Availability, rates, quotes, deposits and guest records ship with the theme. There is nothing to stitch together, nothing that breaks when one piece updates, and nothing extra to renew every year.
Availability calendar
Nights, not appointments. Arrive on the 4th, leave on the 11th — and the 11th stays free for the next guest.
Seasons & rates
A standard nightly rate plus as many seasons as you like, including ones that repeat every year.
Itemised quotes
The guest sees the same breakdown the invoice prints — nights, extras, deposit and balance.
Deposits & balances
Take a deposit to secure the dates and the balance before arrival. The theme tracks what is still owed.
Owner blocks
Close weeks for your own stay or for maintenance, with a note saying which — visible only to you.
Photo galleries
The big, generous photography a holiday let is sold on, in six purpose-built gallery layouts.
Amenities you can extend
Five shipped groups of amenities, plus anything yours has that no catalogue knows about.
Manual bookings
Enter a booking taken by phone or email and it blocks the same nights on the same calendar.
Guest reviews
Collect and moderate reviews on your own site, where they help you sell the next stay.
Map, directions & nearby
Where it is, how to find it and what there is to do — the pages guests read before booking.
Multilingual & multi-currency
Sell a British cottage in dollars or a Spanish villa in euros, in your guests' language.
Elementor-ready
Every section is a block. Rearrange your homepage in the free Elementor plugin, or leave it alone.
Your own site vs the alternatives
The two usual ways to let a holiday property: list it on a booking platform and give up a share of every stay, or rent a hosted booking website by the month for as long as you own the place.
| PrivateLet | Booking platform | Hosted rental software | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | $99 one-time | Free to list | $25–$80 / month |
| Commission per booking | 0% | 15–20% between guest and host | 0–3% + card fees |
| Monthly fees | None | None | Forever |
| Whose website is it | Yours, on your domain | Theirs | Rented |
| Guest email addresses | Yours, in your database | Withheld | Yours, on their server |
| Who ranks in Google | You do | They do | You do |
| Repeat guests book direct | Yes | Discouraged | Yes |
| If you stop paying | Site keeps working | Listing removed | Site goes offline |
| Unlimited installs | Yes | N/A | Per property |
Platform and software figures are typical category ranges, not quotes from any one provider — check the current terms of whichever you are comparing.
See it letting a real property
The twelve designs are built and the booking engine works. Walk through the demo as a guest would — pick your dates, watch the quote itemise itself, and see what the owner sees in My Property.
- All twelve designs, switchable
- A live availability calendar
- The booking box, quote and deposit
Try the demo
No sign-up, nothing to install — it opens in a new tab.
Live DemoThe theme itself isn't on sale yet.
How to build a direct-booking website for your holiday let
Five steps from an empty domain to a vacation rental website taking its own bookings — no WordPress knowledge, no booking plugin and no commission.
- 1
Install WordPress and the PrivateLet theme
Any host that runs WordPress will do. Upload the theme, activate it and import the demo property — you start from a finished holiday-let site rather than a blank page. Free install and setup is included if you would rather we did it.
- 2
Pick one of the twelve designs
Choose the one closest to your property — country cottage, static caravan, lakeside lodge, villa, harbour apartment or seafront flat. Each is a complete homepage, not a wireframe, and swapping between them does not lose your content.
- 3
Add your property
In My Property, fill in the facts that sell a stay and answer the questions guests ask: bedrooms, bathrooms, how many it sleeps, arrival and departure times, whether the dog can come, house rules, directions and what there is to do nearby. Upload your photographs and tick your amenities — then add any the list doesn't have, like a boat mooring or a pizza oven.
- 4
Set your rates and open your calendar
Enter a standard nightly rate, then your seasons, your weekly discount, your cleaning and pet charges and your minimum stay. Block the weeks you are using it yourself, and the calendar is ready for guests.
- 5
Take bookings direct
Guests pick their dates, see an itemised quote and pay a deposit to secure the week — straight into your own payment account. You confirm, take the balance before arrival, and keep every penny of it.
WordPress Vacation Rental Theme FAQ
The questions we hear most before people buy. Still unsure? Our support team is happy to help.
What is a vacation rental WordPress theme?
It's a WordPress theme that turns an ordinary website into a booking website for a holiday property. PrivateLet is built for one property rather than a listings site: the photo gallery, availability calendar, nightly and seasonal rates, guest details and deposit-taking are all part of the theme, so you install it, add your own property and start taking bookings. There is no separate booking plugin to buy, wire up or renew.
Can I build my own Airbnb for a single property?
That's exactly what PrivateLet is. You get the parts of an Airbnb listing that actually sell a stay — a large photo gallery, sleeps-and-beds facts, an amenities list, guest reviews, a map and a date-and-guests booking box — but on your own domain, with your own brand, and with no commission taken out of the booking. Guests who found you on a platform once can book with you directly ever after.
How much commission do you take on each booking?
None. You buy the theme once and every booking taken on your site is yours in full. For a property earning £20,000 a year, the 15–20% a booking platform typically takes between guest and host is £3,000–£4,000 — which is the whole argument for having your own site.
Do guests pay the full amount up front, or a deposit?
Either — you choose. A holiday let is normally paid in parts, so PrivateLet models it that way: a deposit secures the dates, the balance is due before arrival, and the theme tracks what has been paid and what is still outstanding. A refundable security deposit can be added as its own line on the invoice.
Can I charge more at Christmas and in the school holidays?
Yes. You set a standard nightly rate and then as many seasons as you like on top of it. Seasons can be recurring — “Christmas” stored as 20 December to 2 January repeats every year, so you cannot accidentally sell Christmas week at the standard rate because you forgot to re-enter the dates. You can also add a weekly discount for stays of seven nights or more, a short-break surcharge under a set number of nights, and a last-minute discount inside a set number of days from arrival.
Can I block out dates when I'm using the property myself?
Yes, and the theme knows the difference. A blocked period carries a type, so your own calendar says “Owner staying” where a visitor simply sees that the dates are not available — your calendar is both a sales tool and your own diary. Blocks are entered as arriving and leaving dates, so a week you drive home on is free for the next guest that same afternoon.
What about bookings I take by phone or email?
Most private lets still take bookings by phone, email and word of mouth, so you can enter one by hand. It is recorded the same way as an online booking, blocks the same nights, and appears on the same calendar — so there is only ever one place to look to know whether a week is free.
Does it work for a static caravan or a lodge, not just a cottage?
Yes. The twelve ready-made designs cover four kinds of property — holiday cottages, static caravans and lodges on holiday parks, holiday homes and villas, and coastal apartments — because a caravan on a park sells on the park as much as on the van, and a seafront flat sells on the lift, the parking bay and the balcony. Pick the design nearest your property and change the words and photos.
Can I use it for a holiday let in the UK?
Yes. The theme is multilingual and multi-currency, and the designs are written for British cottages, caravans and self-catering lets as readily as for US and international rentals. Nightly prices, weekly prices, changeover days, arrival and departure times, pets, house rules and directions are all part of the property record.
Do I need to know WordPress to use it?
No — that is the point of the product. You import the demo property, then work in one admin screen called My Property with three tabs: the property, its pricing and its availability. There is no listings table to learn, no page builder to master and no plugin stack to assemble. If you want to redesign a page, every section is an Elementor block you can drag, but you never have to.
How is this different from Lodgify, Guesty or Hostaway?
Those are monthly subscriptions, and you rent your website from them for as long as you let the property. PrivateLet is a WordPress theme you buy once and install on your own hosting, on a domain you own, with the guest data staying in your own database. There is no monthly fee, no per-booking fee and nothing to lose access to if you stop paying.
When does PrivateLet launch?
Very soon. The twelve designs are built, the booking engine is working, and the demo is live now — try it and see exactly what you would be buying. The theme itself goes on sale once the download package is finished.
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Let your property privately.
One-time $99 · twelve designs · availability, rates and deposits built in · 0% commission · unlimited installs · no monthly fees.