Highlander House offers hosts an enviable lifestyle on the most accessible Scottish island in a beautiful part of the world.
Current owners, however, have incurable wander-lust (lol) and prefer to operate around 25 weeks of the year and travel the rest.
There are always requests for stays during October – March.
Turnover is easily verifiable by simply printing the Booking Analysis reports available through FreetoBook (the booking platform used).
Gross income
2026 average room rate for the year was £155 per night (£51632 / 332).
Current owners are mindful of juggling room rates, booking numbers and room availability to suit their lifestyle. Of the 5 guestrooms, one guestroom is closed the moment the other four are all booked.
Hence, maximum available booking nights for the approximate 25-week season the current owners operate are approximately 700 room nights (25 weeks x7 nights x4 rooms).
2026 occupancy was therefore approximately 47% (332/700). Similarly, 2025 occupancy was approximately 55% (385/700).
Highlander House has ALWAYS operated a strictly 2-night minimum stay and increases the minimum to 3 nights on popular rooms (Like Glenfinnan room) during peak season.
Of the 103 bookings for the 2026 year, 18 came via OTAs
Each year sees less reliance on commission-charging OTAs and more bookings generated through Highlander House’s own website in collaboration with FreetoBook’s access to Google Zero. This has been a conscious effort on the part of the current owners.
Current owner’s traditionally spend zero on advertising
For a few months in the 2026 year, some experimentation was done with Tripadvisor’s new Sponsored Placement product. It yielded 2 bookings (lol…but the concept is promising!)
Ways for new owners to easily increase income:
- operate a longer season than merely half the year
- adopt a more targeted approach to room rates (discounting when warranted)
- give more room-booking availability to the OTAs
- relax the minimum stay to fill gap nights
- Offer add-spends (honeymoon room appointments, birthdays, anniversaries etc)
- maybe spend a little on advertising (particularly Tripadvisor’s new Sponsored Placement which will eventually yield results)