Short-term lettings in London

I have noticed keyboxes dotted around my Camden Council block of flats suggesting holiday let's, even my neighbour who rents from the council has done it. My concerns are it is often illegal, even when permitted reduces the housing stock, pushes up rents, short term renters often don't care and have less responsibility. I see this as a London wide issue. Also it damages the local hotel market. Investment landlords and second home owners should not have this perk, restrictions are needed to return accommodation to the housing market, not lucrative fast buck tourism which should sit with licensed competent hoteliers and even commercial bed and breakfast businesses not empty units.
The only advantage I see is spare room lettings where an owner rents out a room, not that this shouldn't be permitted for public housing.

I think it’s very important people are free to do what they like with their properties. It’s vital government does not interfere with free market. Obviously rules and regulations must be followed. Rent controls never work.

Our experience with short-term lets in our neighbourhood has been a very poor and frustrating one. Apart from on-going arrivals and departures at all hours, often the short term guests appear to be people who want to party without having to care about accountability to the neighbourhood, as they have gone before one can do anything about it.
The police or Westminster Noise Team often appear hours after the events.
Whilst there are undoubtedly respectful people who rent out rooms or their house occasionally, many are unscrupulous operators who see this as a business opportunity whilst circumventing the laws and regulations applying to hotels.
It is difficult for neighbours to hold the owners to account as one rarely knows who they are or how to get hold of them. When we have been able to do so, the interaction has not been a fruitful one as they hide behind their 'rights' to sublet as they please.
As to the benefits to local retail, we have noticed that many often come with suitcases and their own supplies.
Finally complaining to the organisations like Airbnb, is famously futile as they are extremely adept at deflecting any blame behind bland formulas ("we take complaints extremely seriously" etc..) but ultimately simply defend their brand and their interests.
Expecting Big Tech to police themselves is sadly unrealistic, only more strict legislation will make any meaningful difference.

I have both rented out a room and my whole flat on Air Bnb. I have also rented out a room in London with Air Bnb. Mostly I have experienced guests who were respectful of my space and my neighbours. There were a couple who were not. I'm sure hotels experience similar problems - some customers are good, others are not. Short of having staff on the premises I'm not sure how else one would police people, short of getting them banned on AirBnB or calling the police on them.
In terms of short let accommodation I think its' great for Londoners to have flexbility to earn extra money, and its' great for the local economy when people shop locally. I also feel its' disgraceful we have so many empty buildings in London and no one can live in them, and yet we have a housing/homeless problem.
Short let accommodation is also useful for people arriving in the UK for the first time, whilst they look for more long term accommodation.

Short term lets have caused a lot of problems in my locality. Examples include the noise nuisance of people & suitcases coming and going at all hours of the day or night, noise made by the temporary tenants because they won't be here long & they are on holiday or just feel free because they are not at home, so they don't care. We even had young men in a short term let flat leaning out of the windows shouting at passing women - insulting and sexist remarks, just sport to them. There is insufficient regulation or 'policing'. It is good to have a flexible range of accommodation for tourists and other visitors, but it must be controlled. Maybe purpose built tiny-pods accommodation with staff on site would be best.

I know some neighbours in my area let out their spare room and sometimes the whole house, but usually the spare room is to regulars who sometimes tend to work in the area or commute into London, but leave elsewhere in country. I fully support this, as I use the system myself. It is cheaper than using/staying in hotels, it is more homely (especially if you get to know your hosts), and it means you have familiarity. I have had the chance to meet some of the new arrivals, and have even hired them for their skills on some work I am involved in or for other purposes, so it has had a positive impact of my network, my personal life and business. I am sure it has had a positive impact on the local economy as well, as they tend to eat out more, or use the local facilities more.

I can understand the concerns around short term lettings reducing the housing availability for the locals. However, this is squarely the government's fault in failing to impose and police the regulations already in place for maximum of 90 days of short term lettings in a year. Most landlords, would prefer longer term occupation (reduces maintenance costs, improves security of the house), rather than short term letting of the whole property. I feel that renting out spare room on a short term basis is a brilliant win win. It gives the home owner a bit of spare income (especially in Cost of Living Crisis), whilst saving the visitor money. It also brings wider benefit to the area (with lower rent payable compared to a hotel, there is more money available to spend in local restaurants).

Finally, around concerns of lack of housing stock, I think second home owners and short term lets are being made scapegoats for the government's failure to build enough affordable homes. In the borough of Harrow for example, the social housing stock in 2020 actually went down - how is this even possible, when all new developments are supposed to have social housing elements. This a way to distract from govt failure

It's such a vicious circle!
The landlords that rent long term have been under so much pressure that it makes sense for some to take advantage of the short term market which is more profitable. From higher taxes, demanding fussy tenants, having to go to court to evict tenants that sublet or are in rent arrears, section 21 removed; all these have been adding up and resulted in higher rents for long term tenants.

The need for short term accomodation is due to expensive hotels as well as workers/students coming to London for study/work projects and needing the comfort of a home. London is a diverse city and with the increase of remote working, the short let demand is increasing.

If the landlords are banned from short term letting, some may do it anyway, some may rent long term and others will probably prefer to sell.

We shouldn't assume the shortage in properties will be resolved easily. The landlords should in theory be able to do whatever they want with their properties but as it always happens, more punitive strategies on the landlords will ultimately affect the tenants that will foot the bill.

I think we need to start with banning foreign investors from buying in London as they seem to own 40% of the real estate and are only looking for their profits. They have contributed masively to the properties being unaffordable to rent or buy as the average london worker looking to get a mortgage can't compete with cash buyers or foreign companies looking to invest/do money laundering.

For the uk residents renting a spare room or a second house, we should find a more friendly and fair strategy for both the landlord and the lodger on the short term markets. Some restrictions and regulations should be enforced in the same way as the long term tenancies.
I think there should be a clear distinction and taxation between tourism short lets that is more of a business and short lets for work/studies purposes.

Short-term letting in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, as it can provide accommodation for those who can’t or prefer not to stay in hotels, b&bs, and the like, or those who can’t obtain ASTAs, and for reasons such as this it has validity. Ninety days a year though is clearly excessive, as the housing situation in London is under too much pressure. Private letting of this kind must be treated as a second or third option, not as routine.

There are strong examples from other cities in Europe (noticeably Berlin and Barcelona) that show the negative impact on local communities and economies from an overly-lenient approach to services like AirBnB, and we can learn from that.

Perhaps a distinction in licensing ought to be made between properties let for residents and those let for tourists.

I don't think this survey allows enough differentiation between short-term lettings in shared buildings with communal services (eg: rubbish) versus standalone properties (where the occupants generally have less scope for disruption). Either activity in shared buildings should be significantly restricted or owners should be held far more accountable for their occupants disruptive actions (things like dumping rubbish in hallways, being sick on carpets or in lifts, making excessive noise, etc). Whilst most visitors probably want to be - and are - responsible - it is the duty of the owner to ensure that guests are properly briefed, adequately equipped and compliant with building rules at all times. Failure to take this duty seriously should result in a ban from activity.

Why don't open up thousands of tenacy association (flats). They're held for meetings once ever few months. There's loads of them.

We have had some horrible experiences in our block in the City of London when airbnb visitors carried on parties half the night and smoked dope. And then other airbnb people placed their rubbish, in tesco carrier bags, outside on our corridor containing babies smelly nappies. Of course the bigger issues are the availability and affordability of places to live for Londoners, which is a real concern. When one of the flats near us was airbnb it was borderline frightening and certainly it removes any sense of community or familiarity or neighbourliness . I do hope the laws on short term lettings can be tightened up. When we moved into the City of London in 2000, there wasn't one single hotel in the square mile. There are more than a couple of dozen hotels in the City that welcome visitors now.

The current laws should be rigorously enforced then we could reassess if any further regulation is needed. However short term lets of a single spare room in a house might benefit the home owner and individuals such as students. The bigger issue for communities is entire houses flats let short term where that property is then taken out of the stock of housing available to people who want to put down roots and contribute to the community. I am sure many of these properties are let for more than 90 days per year and yet don't pay the tax or have the necessary checks. Who is responsible for monitoring the lettings and at the minimum ensuring that the properties are safe and that the owners are paying the correct council tax or business/income tax.

Short term letting inevitably is deleterious to the social fabric of an area and reduces the amount of accommodation for those who need to live in the area. Space used as short-term lets should only be permitted where there is no housing waiting list. If the arrangement is between friends then it is not a short-time let - personally I would ban all the advertised airbnb arrangements! If someone wants to run a guesthouse let them run a guesthouse. Otherwise leave housing for those who need it. If there is demand for guesthouses, hotels, holiday chalets, caravan parks and the like then that should be met through the usual planning process so that services can be properly coordinated and the status of the use is properly recognised. Short-term holiday letting should be acted against.

My experience of short term lets in my street is disastrous: noise, dirt, destruction of community/neighbourly spirit. Airbnb type lets do not benefit tourism. I fully appreciate London does need tourism to support transport, hospitality and other services, but the Airbnb attracts the wrong type of tourist and does not offer the managed structural services offered by well run hotels.

often when asked people are given either or options and so all the choices about solutions ot problems are not examined. Agreed peole do no need to be able to have short term lets, but I believe that there are hotels who do offer this type of accommodation so it is not actually missing, what may be missing is information about where to dfind such offers? teh paper version of accommodation listings that the aussies used to offer free have gone from our streets haven 't they.
air BnB has stolen local housing from many areas of London, second home owners go away and take what should be local housing for people in places such as Cornwall- this has to stop- especially if the law is changed on van and car living which many working people now find themselves having to do.
Living ont he edge because private landlord offers to tenants is not regulated to protect people who may lose voting rights because they have to live in such instability is not just.
teh poster who has written about giving family space to UL students is not part of the issue for letting out here, she is regulated that facility for visiting students has been one of the positives of sharing our lives with others.
air Bn B is having the cake and eating it- that it has become practice to be selfish is very, very sad, regulated hotels and BnB's had to meet food standards, fire standards- how many Air B nB people have proerly regulated fire panels , smoke detectors wired intot eh meters, carbon monoxide monitors, annual gas safety checks and the extra insurance to protect visitors?
How many jobs have been lost to people who worked in regulated hotel business have gone because of Air BnB?

I love Airbnb and using short term let’s as it’s cheaper and more convenient with young kids and the standard of accommodation is better. Going away would be unaffordable for us . Also we don’t have space to accommodate friends or my mum in London.
Letting out your flat while you are away helps pay for the holiday.
There are so many other reasons for the housing crisis - chronic underinvestment, selling off council homes etc.

As I'm on a very low income I have frequently needed to rent out a spare room in my flat in the past, mostly to postgraduate students from University of London, and usually for 3-6 months, but sometimes longer. The pandemic and lockdowns put paid to this and I haven't yet resumed renting out the spare room, but I will need to do it now and again to help pay the bills. I wouldn't want to have to go through multiple hoops and pay lots of money to be registered further to do this - the University of London accommodation service has all the usual checks for people like me who rent out a room.
But renting out a whole property short-term is not at all good for the local community on lots of levels. Communities need commitment to the local area, which short-termers aren't going to give