Somebody is looking for somewhere for six people in August. They do not browse. They set the number to six and look at what comes back.
If your property says it sleeps five because you are being careful about the sofa bed, you were never in that list. Not ranked low in it. Not in it.
Filtered and read are not the same thing
Every holiday let listing carries a dozen facts, and they do two different jobs.
Capacity is filtered. It is the number a search starts with, and it decides whether you are in the set of results at all. Webkio treats it that way deliberately: of all the property specs, how many it sleeps is the one that is indexed and searchable, because "sleeps 6" is how a holiday let search begins.
Everything else is read. Bedrooms, bathrooms, size, parking, whether you take dogs - a guest looks at these once your property is already in front of them, to decide between you and the other three they have open in tabs.
That ordering is worth internalising, because it tells you where accuracy matters most. A vague line about parking costs you one guest's goodwill. A wrong capacity number costs you every search you should have appeared in, invisibly, and nothing in your stats will ever show you the bookings you were not shown for.
What counts as sleeping six
Be honest about what the number means, and then say what it is made of. "Sleeps 6" covering two doubles and two children on a pull-out is a real six for one family and a lie for three couples, and the review will say so.
The fix is not to lower the number. It is to publish the breakdown next to it:
- How many bedrooms, and what is in each one. "Two doubles, one twin" tells a group of six whether this works in a way "three bedrooms" never does.
- Bathrooms, because six people and one bathroom is a different holiday.
- Which beds are sofa beds or pull-outs, named as such.
- The maximum you will actually accept, if it differs from the number of beds.
Then the filter finds you and the page tells the truth, which is the combination you want. A booking from a group who misread your listing is worse than no booking: you lose the week to a bad review and a deposit argument you could have avoided.
The two facts guests will not email to ask
Parking and pets are a small category of their own. People do not usually write to check. They assume the answer is no and book the property that says yes.
- Parking. Not just whether there is any, but how much and where. "One space on the drive, further on-street parking" is a complete answer. For six people arriving in three cars, this decides it.
- Pets. If you take dogs, say so prominently, because dog owners search specifically. If you do not, say that too - it saves you the message and saves them the hope.
Both are properties you can set per listing in Webkio and show on the property page. Neither is a search filter, which is the right call: a guest who needs parking reads for it, while a guest who needs six beds filters for it.
Say it in the guest's words
The words around the specs matter as much as the specs. A holiday let has guests, not customers. It has check-in and check-out, not pickup and return. It is let by the night, and the thing being let is a property, not a unit.
That sounds like fussing until you see a holiday let page that has been built on car hire software and talks about collection times and drop-off locations. Webkio changes the whole vocabulary with the property type rather than relabelling one field, because half-translated software reads as rented software.
Where this leaves you
Capacity is the one number to get right first, the breakdown underneath it is what converts, and parking and pets are the two unasked questions that quietly lose bookings. The rest of the listing - photographs, the area, the arrival details - is covered in what guests actually look for.
If you are building the page itself, the holiday rental website builder carries the specs, availability and direct booking on your own address, and how to make a holiday rental website walks the whole thing end to end.
FAQ
What does "sleeps 6" have to include?
Six people who can each sleep properly, and the breakdown published next to the number. "Two doubles and one twin" tells a group of six whether the property works for them in a way "three bedrooms" never does. Name sofa beds and pull-outs as what they are.
Should I lower the number because some beds are sofa beds?
No - publish the breakdown instead. Capacity is the filter a holiday let search starts with, so a property listed as sleeping five is simply absent from every search for six, and nothing in your statistics will show you the bookings you were never shown for. Lower the number and you lose the search; misdescribe it and you lose the week to a bad review.
Do guests filter by pets and parking?
Not usually - they read for them and assume the answer is no. In Webkio, how many a property sleeps is the one spec that is indexed and searchable, because that is how these searches begin. Bedrooms, bathrooms, size, pets and parking are shown on the property page, where a guest comparing three open tabs actually looks.
What should the parking line say?
How many spaces and where, not just whether there is any. "One space on the drive, further on-street parking" is a complete answer, and for six people arriving in three cars it decides the booking.