Block Viewings for Lettings: When to Run Them and How to Fill Them

A block viewing is a set window, often an hour or two, when several applicants view the same property in booked slots or back to back. Instead of eight trips across the week, you make one.

Done well, it saves time, respects the tenant who is still living there and makes no-shows cheap. Done badly, it is a crowded hallway and eight people who all feel rushed. The difference is in the preparation.

When a block viewing beats one-by-one

Block viewings work best when:

• Interest is high. You have more enquiries than you can show individually in a sensible time.
• The property is empty, or the tenant would rather have one disruption than several.
• Access is awkward. Keys have to be collected, a concierge has to be booked, or the property is a long drive away.
• No-shows keep costing you trips. With several households booked into a window, one absence costs nothing.

When not to use one

• Occupied properties with a reluctant or vulnerable tenant. A stream of strangers through someone's home is a lot to ask. Talk to them first and go with what they can manage.
• Low interest. If three people have enquired in a fortnight, a block viewing just makes three people wait around. Offer individual times.
• Properties that need explaining. An unusual layout, shared access or works in progress may need more time with each applicant than a block allows.
• Small spaces. Two households in a studio is already a crowd.

Slot length and the number per slot

Decide two numbers before you invite anyone: how long each slot is, and how many households can be in it.

These are starting points to adjust, not rules. Walk the property yourself and time it: front door to the last room, a look at the garden or bike store, a minute for questions. That is your slot length. The number per slot is how many households can move around without queuing in a corridor.

Leave a short gap every few slots. Someone always arrives late, and someone always has more questions.

What to send beforehand

The confirmation is where a block viewing is won or lost. Send it as soon as someone books, and include:

• The exact address and entrance, plus parking or the nearest station.
• Their slot time and how long it lasts. Make it clear this is a booked slot, not an open house.
• Who will meet them, with a number for the day.
• What to bring: nothing more than photo ID if you check it at the door.
• What you will ask for later if they want to go ahead, for example proof of income or a reference, so nobody is surprised. You do not need these at the viewing.
• A way to cancel, so a freed slot can go to someone else.

Send a reminder the day before with the same details and the cancel link. The no-show post covers why the cancel link matters more than the reminder.

Running the viewing

• Sign people in. A simple list with names and slot times tells you who came, and who to follow up.
• Stay with the group. Show the property yourself rather than leaving the door open. It is safer for you and for the property, and you hear the questions.
• Answer the same questions the same way. Have the facts to hand: rent, deposit, council tax band, available date, bills, pets, parking. The UK material information checklist is a good list to prepare from.
• Tell a colleague where you are. A block viewing means you are alone with strangers for longer than usual. Share your location and a time you will check in.
• Keep it calm. If a slot runs over, let the next group wait outside rather than squeezing everyone in.

After the viewing

Send one message to everyone who attended, the same day or the next morning. Say how to register interest or apply, and give a clear deadline, for example 5pm on Tuesday. A deadline is fair to everyone: nobody is left wondering, and you have a clean point to take things to the landlord.

Do not suggest that applicants should compete on price. In England that is now against the law, which brings us to the next section.

Block viewings and the Renters' Rights Act (England)

Block viewings are sometimes criticised because a room full of applicants can look like an invitation to outbid each other. In England, from 1 May 2026, the Renters' Rights Act 2025 settles the point. According to the government's implementation roadmap, landlords and letting agents cannot ask for, encourage or accept an offer higher than the advertised rent, and cannot ask for more than one month's rent in advance (gov.uk, Implementing the Renters' Rights Act 2025: our roadmap, checked September 2026).

The same roadmap says it is illegal to discriminate against renters who have children or receive benefits, and that this includes stopping someone from viewing (gov.uk, as above, checked September 2026). In practice, for a block viewing:

• State the rent in the advert and stick to it. Do not say "offers invited" or ask attendees what they would pay.
• Do not let the room turn into an auction. If someone offers more, explain that you can only accept the advertised rent.
• Offer slots on the same terms to everyone who enquires, rather than deciding who gets one based on children or benefits.

Separately, under the Tenant Fees Act 2019 a holding deposit in England cannot be more than one week's rent (legislation.gov.uk, Tenant Fees Act 2019, Schedule 1, paragraph 3, checked September 2026). Wales and Scotland have their own rules, so check them if you let there.

This is general information, not legal advice. If you are unsure how a rule applies to a particular let, ask your redress scheme or a solicitor.

Where Loftfolio fits

Loftfolio does not have a separate "block viewing" button. It does not need one: when you set viewing times on a listing, you set a limit per slot, so four half-hour slots with three households each is a block viewing. Applicants book their own slot from the listing page on your lettings website, get an email confirmation and an email reminder the day before, and can cancel themselves, which frees the place for someone else. Viewings are on every plan, from US$39 a month, charged in US dollars.

It will not check anyone's references or vet applicants for you, and only people who enquire through your own Loftfolio site become applications. Anyone who contacts you from a portal can be sent the listing's link to book there.

See it working

The demo agency shows a listing with bookable viewing slots from the applicant's side. It is a demo, so book as many slots as you like.