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I've used both Peerspace and Giggster for UK studio bookings over the past couple of years. Not obsessively — maybe six bookings on Peerspace and three on Giggster — but enough to have a clear view of what each platform is actually good for, and to be mildly annoyed by both of them in different ways.

The fee structures alone are worth understanding before you make any booking decision. Because the advertised rate on either platform is rarely what you pay — and the gap between what you see and what you spend is often large enough to change which studio is actually cheapest.

How Giggster charges — both sides of the transaction

Giggster takes 19% commission from the host — the studio owner — on every booking. That's 19% off the total before it reaches the studio's account, taken by the platform as its cut. The host's listed hourly rate is what they expect to earn before that deduction. So a studio that lists at £100/hr and wants to net £80/hr should be listing at roughly £98/hr on Giggster — but many don't do that maths, and just list their standard rate and absorb the platform cut.

On top of that, Giggster collects a processing fee from the renter — you, the person booking the studio. This fee is variable: it depends on the booking total, the type of booking, and other factors the platform doesn't fully disclose. Giggster's own documentation describes it as covering "payment processing, product development, customer support, and fraud prevention." For a short low-value booking, this can be a noticeable percentage. For a full-day booking at a higher rate, it's proportionally smaller. The platform's own guidance suggests the fee decreases as the booking value increases, but exact numbers aren't published.

The practical result: a studio listed at £80/hr on Giggster might net the owner around £65/hr after the platform's 19% commission. You, the booker, might pay £88–£92/hr after the processing fee. Neither side receives or pays the headline number. The gap between what you pay and what the studio gets is material — and it's entirely platform margin.

How Peerspace charges

Peerspace charges guests a service fee that typically lands between 10–15% of the booking subtotal. Unlike Giggster's processing fee, Peerspace's guest fee is displayed at checkout before you confirm, so you see the exact amount before committing. That transparency is genuinely useful when you're comparing two studios on the platform and the fee percentage is slightly different due to booking characteristics.

On the host side, Peerspace also takes a fee — the platform describes it as percentage-based and varying by booking total — though the precise figure isn't disclosed as explicitly as Giggster's 19%. The structure is similar in principle: the host lists a rate, Peerspace takes its cut, and you pay a guest service fee on top.

For a £100/hr Peerspace listing, working on the assumption that you'll pay £110–£115/hr as the effective rate is a reasonable starting estimate. That's £10–£15 per hour in platform fees on your side alone, before whatever the studio loses on theirs.

Where the two platforms actually differ in the UK

The fee structures are roughly comparable once you account for both sides of the transaction. Where the platforms genuinely diverge is in inventory depth and listing character — and this matters more than the fee difference when you're trying to find a specific type of space.

Peerspace has been in the UK longer and has built more inventory. In London particularly, you'll find spaces on Peerspace that aren't on Giggster at all — smaller independent studios, lifestyle apartment spaces used for brand shoots, rooftop locations, creative office spaces that double as content days. The diversity reflects Peerspace's origins as a venue platform for events and corporate work that expanded into photo and video production. You're browsing a mix of dedicated studios and spaces that primarily serve other markets but happen to list on the platform. That can be frustrating when you're filtering through yoga studios and art galleries to find an actual photography studio. But it also means more options to compare.

Giggster is more explicitly production-focused in its framing. The platform was built for film, photo, and video production work, which means listings tend to skew toward spaces that understand what a crew needs — load-in access, rigging points, power supply specs listed in the description. The downside is that the UK inventory outside London is genuinely thin. Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Edinburgh — the options on Giggster are a fraction of what London carries, and many of the best regional studios simply don't list there.

The UK regional market problem

This is the specific thing that frustrates me about both platforms in the context of UK studio hire: outside London, the platforms don't solve the discovery problem particularly well.

Manchester has a solid studio scene — Ancoats, the Northern Quarter, Trafford — but the inventory on both Peerspace and Giggster doesn't represent it accurately. Studios that are well-known locally, decently priced, and properly equipped for commercial work often aren't listed on either platform. You'd find them through a local search, a recommendation from another Manchester photographer, or a directory that specifically focuses on UK studios.

For cities like Sheffield, Nottingham, Bristol, and Leeds, the platform coverage is even thinner. For a Birmingham photographer booking a Birmingham studio, turning to Peerspace or Giggster first is likely to give you an incomplete picture of what's actually available.

Direct booking: when the maths actually work

Both Peerspace and Giggster prohibit off-platform payments for initial bookings made through their platforms. That's standard marketplace policy and protects the platform's revenue. But it doesn't prevent you from contacting a studio directly for future bookings after you've established a relationship through the platform — and most studio owners are happy to work directly once they know you.

The saving can be significant. A London studio listed at £100/hr on Peerspace, with a 12% guest service fee, costs you £112/hr through the platform. The same studio on direct booking might offer £95–£100/hr with a long-term client discount. Over a full 8-hour shooting day, the difference is £96–£136 saved. Over 20 shooting days a year at a studio you use regularly, that's £1,920–£2,720 in platform fees you could be redirecting.

That's the case for building a working list of studios you book direct — and why finding studios that actively offer direct booking matters. The platform is useful the first time you encounter a space. After that, the relationship should probably move off it.

Insurance and booking protection: the platform advantage

One thing both platforms offer that direct booking typically doesn't: formal booking protection and dispute resolution. If a studio cancels day-of without adequate notice, or if there's a dispute about damage or condition of equipment, both Peerspace and Giggster have documented processes for handling it. Direct bookings are governed by whatever the studio's own T&Cs say — which varies from very clear and detailed to essentially nothing.

For high-stakes bookings — a large commercial production day with significant kit, cast, and crew, where a cancellation would cost thousands in wasted spend — that protection is worth something. Particularly for first-time bookings at a studio you haven't used before. For a regular studio you know well and have used half a dozen times, the protection argument weakens considerably.

What happened when Splacer shut down

Splacer, which operated as a platform for creative studio hire in the UK until its closure last spring, left a noticeable gap. The studios that were on Splacer have largely moved to direct booking, Peerspace, or a mix of both. Some of them went to Giggster; most in my experience have either gone back to direct booking or picked up a Peerspace listing.

If you had a favourite studio through Splacer and haven't been able to find it since, search for the studio name directly rather than assuming it's gone. Many of them are still operating, just harder to surface through the usual platform searches.

Which one I'd use and when

Peerspace for London content studios — the inventory depth means I can compare more genuine options in the same session. Giggster occasionally, when the brief is specifically production-focused and I want to filter the listing quality toward spaces that understand crew needs. Direct booking for anywhere outside London and for repeat work at studios I already know and trust.

Neither platform is necessary for finding good UK studios. They're discovery tools — useful for the first time at a new location, less essential once you've built a working list of spaces that deliver consistently. The 10–19% you save by going direct on repeat bookings adds up to something meaningful over a year of regular studio work.

Cancellation policies and what they actually mean

Both platforms offer cancellation policy options — typically ranging from flexible (full refund up to 24 hours before) to strict (no refund within 7 days). The studio owner selects their policy when listing. You see it before booking.

What's worth knowing: platform-mediated cancellations get processed through the platform's own system, which usually means the refund timeline is clear and documented. If a studio cancels on you — as opposed to you cancelling on them — both platforms have policies that should result in a full refund plus some form of compensation or rebooking assistance.

Direct bookings leave you entirely in the hands of the studio's own T&Cs. A well-run studio with clear written terms is no worse than a platform booking for cancellation risk. An informal studio without a written cancellation policy is considerably worse. When I'm booking a studio direct for the first time, I always get the cancellation terms in writing — email is fine — before paying a deposit.

Searching for UK studios on each platform: practical tips

On Peerspace, the filters are better developed than Giggster's for production-specific requirements. You can filter by ceiling height, whether the space has a cyc wall, natural light availability, and production amenities. Those filters aren't perfect — self-reported studio data varies in accuracy — but they narrow the field more efficiently than scrolling through every listing in a postcode.

On Giggster, the production category filtering is useful for separating film and photo studios from general event spaces. The "production friendly" tag is applied by Giggster based on the listing content and is somewhat more reliable than self-applied filters on Peerspace.

For both platforms, ignoring the star ratings almost entirely and reading the written reviews is more useful. A studio with 4.8 stars on 40 reviews where all the reviews are from event planners rather than photographers or video crews tells you something specific. A studio with 4.2 stars on 15 reviews where three of the reviews are from directors of photography with named production companies tells you something else.

The wider UK studio discovery problem

The honest truth is that neither Peerspace nor Giggster covers the UK studio market fully. There are excellent studios in Sheffield, Nottingham, Bristol, and across Northern Ireland that don't list on either platform, have no marketing budget, and survive entirely on word-of-mouth and local repeat clients. Finding those spaces requires a different approach — local photographer networks, regional directories, and sites that specifically focus on the UK creative studio market.

Platforms are a starting point. They shouldn't be the whole search.

Find UK studios that take direct bookings at creativestudiohire.com.

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