The SA CEO Programme. Two cohorts a year, maximum 10 places each.Find out more
A lounge designed by Samantha McHattie

Serviced accommodation specialists

Serviced accommodation is a hospitality business, not a property strategy.

We build, run and teach serviced accommodation the way professional hoteliers would. Each year we work directly with a small number of serious operators, and most of them start by reading.

Read The SA Paradigm How we work with you
McH and Co

Airbnb Guest Favourites

Every home we run

PIN Best SA Award

2025

Lux Life Magazine Best SA Award

North West England 2026

SA experts and educators

PIN Home Study and Mastermind programmes

Same house. Two very different questions.

Most serviced accommodation education starts with property and works backwards. We start with the guest and work forwards. Choosing a good management partner, or running it yourself, takes more capability, not less.

The property investor asksWhat's the yield?
The hospitality operator asksWho is this for?

The SA CEO Programme

Most courses sell content. We measure ourselves by what you build.

A year working directly with David and Samantha, alongside a small cohort making the same decisions: buying, building and launching. With help when a decision can't wait for the next call.

  1. It starts in our homesThree days living in our properties. The foundations, and a cohort comfortable enough with each other to share openly.
  2. A board, not a classroomCalls run so everyone is heard. Anything private is dealt with privately.
  3. Help when it matters, not when it's scheduledProblems don't wait for call days, and neither do we.
Find out more Apply for a place
A bedroom in one of our homes
CohortsTwo a year
PlacesMaximum 10 each
Next residentialSpring 2027

Five gaps separate amateur operators from professional ones.

Close them and the numbers follow. Leave them open and no amount of occupancy will save the return.

A bedroom with a velvet headboard and wall lights
01

Acquisition intelligence

How many come here, who are they, and what for? Read the demand before you view a property.

Most investors find a property and then look for reasons to buy it. We start with the demand: the wider market first, then the neighbourhood within it, and only then the house. It is never a simple choice between contractors and holiday lets. Software forecasts show you what the average operator achieves. Where they exist, the hotels show you the ceiling.

  • The market. Who visits, why they come, when, and what they can already book.
  • The neighbourhood. Costs, access, safety, and whether it can reach that demand.
  • The property. Whether it suits your guests, and the capital cost and profit realities.
How we research a market
The lounge in the Albion loft apartment
02

Market positioning

Be the obvious choice for a specific guest, so you're never competing on price alone.

A market full of average listings is not saturated. It is waiting. The demand research tells you who your guests could be and who already serves them. Define your primary, secondary and tertiary guests, and what each needs, expects and hopes for. Everything else, from the design to the experience, flows from them.

  • The demand research. The target guests, and the supply already serving them.
  • The target guests. Primary, secondary and tertiary, each one defined.
  • The foundation. Design, utility, amenity and experience built around them.
“Saturated” Is the Wrong Word
Stacked vintage books beside a brass candlestick
03

Design as conversion

Design that earns its rate, chosen for the guest you want, not the catalogue you were sent.

The photographs sell the stay before a guest reads a word. Every home is designed for the guest it is meant for, under Samantha's direction: the colour, comfort and detail that stop the scroll, and the practicality that stands up to a turnover every few days. It is also why our homes value well.

  • Designed for a named guest, not assembled from a catalogue.
  • Built for turnover. Durable, cleanable and easy to replace.
  • Matched to the guests it sleeps. Bathrooms, beds and space planned around the full house.
The Ticking Stripe
Lamps, flowers and a mirror on a hall console
04

Revenue architecture

Engineer profit, not occupancy.

Profit comes from the balance of occupancy, nightly rate and length of stay. A full calendar can mean the wrong rate and more wear and tear. Revenue is the number that pays a management company. Profit is the number that pays you. Start from what a stay costs you, and price for the guest you want, not the empty nights you fear.

  • Know your floor. Fixed costs, per-stay costs and the contribution each stay leaves.
  • Give price its three jobs. Leave a profit, attract the right guest and protect your position.
  • Sell the night people book. Built to deliver one-night stays, the widest access to demand.
Read Pricing Judgements, free
A loft bedroom under a skylight
05

Guest experience systems

Standards that hold whether you're there or not.

Every touchpoint, from confirmation to check-out, is designed around what your guest wants and needs, with the right messages at the right time: it is a stay, not an opportunity for free labour. Then the systems that deliver it, from pricing software and messaging to housekeeping, laundry and maintenance. Who delivers your standards, and how do they hold when you aren't there?

  • The experience. Mapped from confirmation to check-out.
  • Communication that helps. The right message and tone at the right time, and every comment acted on.
  • The systems. Pricing, messaging, housekeeping and maintenance: software or DIY, and who delivers each.
A Stay, Not an Opportunity for Labour

Two ordinary houses. Run like hotels.

The lounge at Arkles, Anfield

Arkles, Anfield

Three-bedroom terrace, sleeps five

£129,000Purchase price
£50,6192025 revenue
£24,7612025 profit after all costs
Guest FavouriteAirbnb

Profit after all costs, including mortgage. 2025 was the first full year of trading.

Read the case study
A bedroom at Magazine, New Brighton

Magazine, New Brighton

Five-bedroom townhouse, sleeps ten

£157,000Purchase price
£330,000Current open market value
£83,5342025 revenue
£39,9712025 profit after all costs

Profit after all costs, including mortgage. 2025 was the first full year of trading.

Read the case study

Four ways to work with us directly.

Each is deliberately limited, so the people we take on get our full attention.

A striped armchair in the Albion loft
2 to 3 projects a year

Turnkey

We source, renovate, design and launch the business. You own it.

Request an introduction
The dining table at Magazine
Two cohorts a year, maximum 10 places each

SA CEO Programme

A year working directly with us, starting with three days in our properties.

Find out more
A bedroom with a red door and framed prints
Six-month minimum

Coaching and mentoring

Direct, bespoke counsel for a small number of operators.

Apply to be considered
A bedroom with a patterned frieze and upholstered headboard
Commissions open

The Ticking Stripe

Samantha's heritage-led design studio. Design that earns its rate.

Visit the studio

A good fit if

you see serviced accommodation as a business to run well, and value expertise as an investment.

Probably not if

you're looking for passive income, the cheapest option or a shortcut.

Coming soon · One scholarship place every cohort

The SA CEO Challenge is returning.

We are committed to one fully funded scholarship place on every SA CEO Programme cohort. It goes to the winner of the SA CEO Challenge, chosen on the merit of their submission. If the winner has already signed up, we refund their fee in full, so there is no reason to wait. Last year’s winner, John Smits, joined the programme on a fully complimentary scholarship.

The next four-day Challenge will be announced soon. Register your interest and we will tell you first.

We will only use this to tell you about the Challenge. See our privacy policy.

Not ready for direct work? Start here.

Learn to read demand the way we do, step by step, and then run the research yourself.

1

Free

Reading demand

A free introductory post in The SA Paradigm on why a property search is a research project: the market, then the neighbourhood, then the property.

Subscribe free
2

Paid subscribers

The Macro and Micro reads

Two paid posts: “Is This a Good Place to Invest?” and “Is This the Right Neighbourhood?”

Become a paid subscriber
3

Two PDFs, one method

The Acquisition Toolkit

The Acquisition Decision Tree and the Self-Research Prompt Pack, Parts 1 and 2. The order we make acquisition decisions in, and the prompts to gather the evidence yourself.

£295

Credited in full against the SA CEO Programme if you join within 12 months.

Buy the Toolkit

Our story

David and Samantha McHattie

We spent our careers in hospitality and business leadership, from trainee manager to chief executive. In 2023 we bought two ordinary houses, in Anfield and New Brighton, and ran them the way a good hotel would.

Every home we run is an Airbnb Guest Favourite, and the UK's two leading property networks ask us to teach how. We still run every property ourselves.

The SA Paradigm

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We read every application ourselves and reply personally. If we are not the right fit, we will say so and point you somewhere better.

We use these details only to reply to you. See our privacy policy.

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The SA Paradigm

Most people who work with us started by reading. Free, regular observations and insights, with deeper analysis and our methodologies for paid subscribers.

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No sales calls. If there's ever a fit for direct work, you'll hear about it here first.