Short-term lettings in London

I find the argument that short term lettings improves local economies false. Having a full time occupant contributing to the local economy and community 24/7 would be a much better situation. Homes need to be lived in.

Most short lettings and short letting contracts are fake in London. People just live there and has to accept any contract because of 1) lack of knowledge (most renters don't know that being a Lodger means having ZERO rights, but still pay the room at market price like a proper tenancy) 2) lack of availability of decent housing / rooms.

S short-term accommodation is far better than a hotel for people like me with food allergies I need to prepare my own food I can’t do that in a hotel and it’s very difficult for me to eat out in restaurants so this option is incredibly important but renting a hotel room that has a kitchen is prohibitively expensive. This also applies to families with young children where restaurants are not really suitable for them either and they need more space than a hotel room for the child to feel able to express themselves in the normal manner.

Short term let allows to see if the area is good enough in terms of safety, finance, convenience distance to work or University, allows to assess/experience ones stay before a permanent contract.

AirBnB is also regulated, smoke and carbon monoxide alarm and requests a decent accommodation standard.
London lacks accommodation at all levels, short and long term and to limit the opportunity to good people who could do with an extra income is just too not democratic. Not only does it help the tenant, but the host, the area, businesses, tax office.

By not helping prospective serious and honest landlords to let out short term, the Council is only making the area worse as there’s a lack of accommodation. This in turn bring rogue landlords/hosts as they will do it anyway without the care of the law.
Short term could also increase the term.
I work in the travel industry, and hear horrid stories from colleagues. Some people will not let via AirBnB for exactly the same reason that the government does not allow them to.
One colleague from Manchester couldn’t find accommodation for her 2 months training as there was no availability around Heathrow or City airport. Hotel highly expensive when starting a new job just to sleep at the airport!, horror!. Other people chose to sleep in their car just for their training or early starts when working early shifts. Others are staying at the report centre on a chair before their duty day at 5.00 am!, there’s a shortage of employees and employees need jobs!. Being in the airline industry or working at the airport , commuting can be daunting, specially when traveling from within the country. Allowing short let’s helps enormously not only the student, the worker, the trainee, the student from another country to only find disappointment.

Private short term lets during holiday or other absences was a good idea. However, the commercial exploitation of short lets has had two seriously detrimental effects. One is the loss of residential accommodation at a time of housing need. The other is the impact of antisocial behaviour on neighbours. Among other things, this can mean disturbance at night, loss of security in blocks of flats and rubbish dumped on streets. Stricter regulation, enforceable penalties and effective enforcement are essential.

Good morning, I want to bring to your attention that Spareroom is only a "marketplace", there are only listings for Rooms / Properties for rent and requests to room / properties, they don't provide any kind of guarantee or checks for landlords, properties and tenants. They don't even list specific properties (many landlord just put ageneric advertisement and show multiple properties to people that contact them). Airbnb is in an intermediate position, it does some checks on landlords and tenants and has a feedback system therefore they are both induced to behave fairly and give what they promise; they also list SPECIFIC rooms / properties so the photos and descriptions are the ones of the rented property. Booking provides guarantee, feedback system, one advertisement per property with precise room descriptions and punctual description of the services provided by the landlord. They don't list HMOs or shared occupations for private landlords. I would like also to let you know that Spareroom is used for long term rentals, the advertised rooms / homes are often long term or with no predeterminated end of the contracts. You just should make a sharp distincion between people LIVING in that flat (so residing there) and REAL short term. At the moment this distinction has no real applcation. And make all the residential contracts the same with longer commitment and tacit renewals, because people needs a place where to live and can't risk every 6 months a rent increase or a contract termination. Who is registered at the Council, has the right to vote and/or has a job in London must have a long term contract while now most of them have fake "short term" contracts.

Colleagues & friends who let out rooms or space in their properties tell me they need the income to help stay afloat.

People renting out a spare room as a b&b or renting out there home for a short period while they go on holiday are not causing the problem. The only issue here is securing the safety of both the hosts and guests. So a register or review system is need here to make sure the host or guest is not personally a danger to others. (This is especially true for the safety of single women travelers and host)

The the significant problems comes from absentee landlords renting out second, third, forth etc homes. They have no care for the effect on the local community because they don't live there. They don't care about noise or pollution or antisocial behaviour or distortion of the rental market in the area. They only care about profits while ignoring any downsides. These are the people who need to be regulated more strictly.

I really have no personal experience with short -term lettings around my area but have noticed that around my area some properties have a high turnaround numbers of occupants but that is none of my business.
I do not have any concerns as long as people do as the Romans do, keep area clean, no noise pollution, are respectful towards the property and are reasonable and decent within communities.
Benefits are only for those participating in such. Obviously they need to gain profits and pay due taxes to the government or local authority.

Underoccupation is a major contributor to high housing costs, the system militates against downsizing. I rent out the 2 spare rooms in my house on a long term bills & sinking fund for repairs basis, so ideally tenants can build up capital to move on & would strongly encourage others to do the same.

Where someone letting a room out short term allows them & their children to stay in a community, I strongly support that. I stayed in an Air BnB in Wales that the landlord let out the weeks his daughter wasnt staying, providing both him & her with stability. Similarly a woman who lives near my partner in Dalston when the childrens' father moved out did Air BnB talking to neighbours throughout, again providing both them & her with stablity. A simple register would not be a deterrent to either.

The main issue is funding local government EHOs to inspect.

Our experience is that there is a problem with litter from short lets being left out on the wrong day and inadequately sealed.

There are a number of short term lettings in our council owned block which is badly managed by a dysfunctional residents' co-operative.
I am concerned that these make profits for absentee landlords in the block and contribute to the serious shortage of secure rentable properties available for our key workers, our adult children who want to live close by and our sense of community. In our case they also contribute to our block being managed in the interests of buy to let landlords rather than resident leaseholders and council tenants. Short term letting in council or housing association owned blocks should be banned outright as they reduce the number of homes available for affordable rent and represent a misuse of housing built at taxpayers' expense and intended to provide homes for local people. Short term lets threaten community cohesion as those in short term lets don't get involved in community initiatives and civic life because they are itinerant. The benefits of short-term accommodation are limited to extra profit for owners of multiple homes and are a threat to hotels we need to thrive for a successful tourist industry. The lack of regulation also leads to unsafe properties - fire risks, health risks (vermin, unsanitary waste disposal) and maintenance problems such as unresolved water ingress into neighbouring flats caused by bad plumbing, bad waterproofing of shower units etc.

Prices in London are skyrocketing and living here is becoming more and more struggling. London is now just a place for rich people!
Solutions like Airbnb etc are more than welcome for short term. They can only provide benefits to whomever has a property or a little space to rent.
Of course more people in the areas implies the need of more safety and security etc

I don't think there's anything wrong in someone letting out a spare room or house if they are going away for a holiday or something. I do NOT think that people should own more than one home. I do NOT agree with second homes etc. They just make it harder for other people who need to find somewhere to live. We need to build more council houses. Oh some of the questions in the survey are not very well put and can be ambiguous.

This is a very difficult issue with both pluses and minuses. We own a maisonette which used to be rented out through Airbnb. Many of our guests were people of modest means who couldn’t easily afford to visit London. And many were parents or grandparents visiting family in the area whose houses or flats were too small for them to stay.
The 90 day rule means that the Airbnb option is no longer viable for us. The good news is that the property is now let to a wonderful family who love living there. So there’s no prospect of our going back to the Airbnb arrangement. But there’s no doubt that London does need a flexible supply of short term accommodation that can serve the needs of a complex, diverse city.

I live in social housing (a council block) in which at least 5 properties are now being run by leaseholders as short term lets. Many of the visitors have no respect for other residents - they come to London to party - and these are mostly flats that London really needs to house key workers.

There has to be a limit on the intrusion of authorities on citizens lives. There is no need for a register of short lets, it is only another tax. I haven't used a short let nor have I offered it but I understand that the companies that offer it, like Airbnb do their checks and provide cover and alternative solutions in case there is any problem. Those that rent out will be paying their taxes on the income they gain already so there is no need to pay extra for another registration.