Not every holiday home upgrade pays for itself. This guide ranks the refurbishments with the strongest ROI — and the ones that rarely justify the spend.
Every pound you spend on your holiday home should be measured against one question: does this increase my annual revenue, occupancy, or nightly rate by more than it costs? That sounds obvious, but most hosts don't apply this lens consistently. They renovate based on what they personally find appealing, or what a letting agent suggests, without calculating whether the numbers actually stack up.
This guide is a practical ROI framework for holiday rental upgrades. We'll look at which investments reliably generate returns, which are hit-and-miss, and which are vanity projects that rarely pay for themselves.
The return on a holiday home upgrade comes through one or more of these levers:
A good rule of thumb: any upgrade should pay back its cost within 2-3 years through incremental revenue. Anything that takes longer than 5 years is questionable.
Typical cost: £3,000–£12,000 installed Typical revenue uplift: 20–40% increase in nightly rate; 15–25% occupancy improvement in shoulder seasons
For the right property, a hot tub is the single highest-ROI upgrade available. It transforms a standard property into a 'destination' stay — groups book specifically because of the hot tub, particularly for hen and stag parties, anniversaries, and family celebrations.
The effect is most pronounced in autumn and winter, when outdoor soaking in a heated tub on a cold night is a genuine luxury. Many hosts report filling previously dead October, November, and February weeks almost entirely on the strength of their hot tub.
Key considerations:
Typical cost: £30–£80 per month (or £500–£2,000 for rural fibre installation) ROI category: occupancy and reviews
This sounds mundane compared to hot tubs, but reliable broadband is now listed as a primary search filter by a significant proportion of guests — especially since the pandemic normalised remote work and 'workcations'. A property that can't reliably stream Netflix or support video calls will be actively filtered out by a growing segment of the market.
For rural properties where FTTP (fibre to the premises) isn't available, Starlink satellite broadband has been genuinely transformative. The hardware is around £450 and the monthly service around £75. Multiple rural holiday let hosts report meaningfully higher nightly rates and occupancy after installation.
Of all the upgrades on this list, broadband has the most reliable ROI per pound spent.
Typical cost: £500–£8,000 depending on scope ROI category: nightly rate, photography, reviews
A well-designed outdoor space photographs beautifully, extends usable living space, and creates memorable experiences — barbecues, morning coffees with a view, evening wine. Guests consistently rate outdoor spaces highly in reviews, and reviewers who mention the terrace or garden tend to write longer, more enthusiastic reviews that attract future bookings.
The investment is highly variable. A quality rattan dining set and parasol for £600 can transform an unloved patio. Full decking with built-in seating and lighting is a larger project but often worth it for properties where the outdoor space is a core selling point.
What to prioritise:
Typical cost: £2,000–£15,000 ROI category: nightly rate, review quality, audience expansion
Guests increasingly choose self-catering over hotels specifically to cook — family holidays, celebrations, and longer stays all centre on the kitchen. A genuinely well-equipped kitchen with quality appliances, good knives, a proper coffee machine, and enough crockery for the party size is noticed and reviewed.
You don't need a full kitchen refit to see results. Often the highest-impact interventions are:
A full kitchen refit at the higher end of the cost range is harder to justify unless the current kitchen is genuinely tired — in which case it can be transformative for review scores and positioning.
Typical cost: £2,000–£5,000 installed (including flue) ROI category: extended season, nightly rate, atmosphere
Like hot tubs, log burners are highly effective at converting shoulder-season browsers into bookers. 'Cosy cottage with log burner' is a specific search intention, and properties that satisfy it can charge a notable premium in autumn and winter.
The ROI is strongest for rural cottages and properties marketed as retreats or romantic breaks. It's less impactful for beach properties where the market is inherently summer-focused.
Typical cost: £500–£3,000 (sofabed, bunk beds, studio conversion) ROI category: expanded audience, nightly rate for larger groups
Every additional person a property can sleep increases the potential market. A cottage that sleeps 4 and a cottage that sleeps 6 are in different market segments — the latter can accommodate larger families and groups willing to pay more.
Simply adding a quality sofabed or bunk beds in an existing room is often the lowest-cost, highest-impact capacity expansion. If your property has an underutilised space — a large utility room, a garage, an annexe — converting it to additional sleeping is worth evaluating carefully.
Typical cost: £500–£5,000 depending on scope ROI category: underserved market access
Properties that are accessible to guests with mobility limitations serve a dramatically underserved and loyal market. Level access from parking, a wet room or walk-in shower, wide doorways, and grab rails can open your property to guests who struggle to find good holiday accommodation — who then become repeat visitors and advocates.
Accessible properties command competitive rates and often achieve higher occupancy because the accessible market is poorly served relative to demand.
Typical cost: £20,000–£60,000 installed; £3,000–£8,000 per year to maintain ROI verdict: high upside, high risk
A private pool can dramatically increase nightly rates — particularly for larger properties, villa-style rentals, and properties competing in the premium leisure market. However, the ongoing costs are substantial and the liability considerations significant.
A pool typically needs to generate £5,000–£10,000 of additional annual revenue to cover running costs alone. For a high-performing property that can achieve high occupancy, this is plausible. For a property with moderate occupancy, it may simply add costs.
Rules of thumb:
Typical cost: £1,000–£8,000 ROI verdict: effective for specific audiences
Pool tables, table tennis, arcade machines, home cinema setups, and games consoles are popular for group bookings, family holidays, and rainy-day contingency. If your target market is groups or families, a dedicated games space can be a meaningful differentiator.
The ROI is harder to measure precisely but shows up consistently in reviews — guests who mention the games room in their review are signalling it made their stay memorable, which helps future conversions.
A beautifully designed property photographs well and can command a rate premium — but only if guests can tell the difference from the photos. Spending £15,000 on a designer interior when £4,000 of targeted, photogenic improvements would produce similar photos is poor economics.
Focus interior design spend on the rooms that photograph (main living area, master bedroom, kitchen) and use cost-effective approaches (paint is cheap; a feature wall or ceiling colour can transform a room for £100).
Smart locks, smart TVs, smart lighting, and voice assistants appeal to some hosts (particularly for keyless entry, which genuinely simplifies operations). However, most guests don't pay more for a smart property, and tech that malfunctions generates bad reviews. Prioritise smart features that solve operational problems (keyless check-in) over those that simply sound impressive.
Quality matters, but there's a point of diminishing returns. A good mattress (£500–£800) genuinely improves sleep quality and reviews. A £2,000 mattress does not generate £1,500 more revenue than the £500 option. Invest in quality here, but don't overinvest.
The most effective approach is to:
Once your upgrades are in place and bookings start flowing, managing everything — across channels, seasons, and properties — becomes the new challenge. LetPilot is built specifically for small and medium holiday home hosts who want clean, simple management without per-booking fees eating into the revenue those upgrades just earned you. Try LetPilot free at letpilot.co — no credit card required.