Short-term lettings in London

A difference must be made between reckless businesses who buy and let homes in quantity and legit homeowners who let their flats to help with expenses.
My wife and I always let our home when we go on holiday; one of our neighbours helps us manage it while we are away, making sure everything is safe and up to the necessary standards, plus they make some money out of it. We write extensive guides about what to do in the area giving particular attention to small independent businesses and how to support them. We are in constant contact with the guests, only accept vetted users and keep the prices high enough to avoid attracting younger demographics who may be more prone to partying, not observing rules or overcrowding the space.
Never ever had a problem. Never had a complaint.
The 90 days restriction on short-term needs to make a distinction between those private individuals who do short-let as an almost informal way of covering expenses / making little money out of an asset such as a flat in London, and companies who don't have any skin in the game as it's not even their properties they let out.
Leave private, one-home owners out of the 90 days restriction.

Letting out a spare room with the owner in the house is acceptable, sub-letting a number of flats to holiday makers is not. The latter is a business which is not properly taxed or regulated. Often too many people are crammed into a flat, rubbish is dumped in the street, the tenants are noisy at all times of the day and night. Short term lettings lead to often empty properties in an area which loses all sense of community. Serviced apartments which are businesses are one solution, they would have proper facilities, fire escapes etc and pay business rates. There is a demand for self-catering facilities from tourists which needs to be addressed. If the limit of 90 days could be enforced this might be acceptable. Currently short term letting merely decreases the number of properties for ordinary Londoners to rent and increases rents because of the shortage of accommodation.

If the alternative to short term lets is not letting a property at all, then it must be good for property to be let rather than left empty. That will tend to reduce rents. However, it may tend to raise house prices, if an economic return can be owned from house ownership and letting which is greater than the value to a home owner who lives there.

Landlords shnould be made to report their activity. As soon as one tenant goes, the next moves in. This inflates the rental market and means that people wanting a long term tenancy cannont obtain one due to shortage of accommodation. The standard of housing in London is dreadful and more checks should be made on landlords to provide decent habitable housing. Very heavy penalities should be introduced for bad landlords, many of whom make a lot of money. I suspect that the majority of people in London have no idea how bad much of the housing is. We need tourism. Foreign students need accommodation but the needs of Londoners seeking somewhere to live must come first.

the issue is not short term lets per-se but that the rules are blatantly flouted. Our neighbour lives abroad and permanently rents his property to a company who then do short term lets to supposedly get round the rules. We have to put up with repeated disturbance from "young" tourists making lots of noise, parties, drunkenness, etc, rubbish everywhere, there is no management, no supervision, longer term tenants could be held accountable but the tourists just don't care, and the company seems to turn a blind eye to maximise their income. Gov't/mayor/LA spending time redesigning rules and processes such as registers is absolutely pointless if there is no enforecement. The other issue is that the properties are not 100% occupied, and the unfortunate people who are homeless and dependent on drugs use the front garden and porch to shoot up etc with all the antisocial behaviour this brings but as no long term occupant there is not the push to discourage it.

Air bnbs etc do not have to be regulated or comply with gas safety, electrical safety, have public liability insurance, or comply with the fire safety regulations of normal lettings. They also use the local council services for waste collection. It is bad that Air bnbs etc are no longer just renting out a room in the home you live in but have developed as a separate property/ies and a cheap way of being a holiday let without the responsibilties of a regular holiday let.

There is a massive housing crisis and landlords are buying up properties just to use them in short term lets where the tenant doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of rights a proper renter would have. They’re stopping people from having proper housing just to make money, it’s disgusting.

I rented a property in Clapham from a landlord who lived away in a different country. The building banned short term letting but it was very clear he'd been doing it anyway. There were welcome labels on the inside of the door etc.
There is a huge housing crisis in London which is made much worse by landlords renting out flats for short term purposes in order to make more money. But it stops people from being able to live in key areas and drives rental prices up higher due to demand. There are enough empty properties in London to give every homeless person a place to live and there would STILL be properties left over. Short term lets just add to the issue. It draws money away from the community as well as those short term let properties will have times where they are empty.
I have no problem with people renting out spare rooms in their house as it does not contribute to the housing crisis in the same way.

I have stayed in short term let’s before but it is very expensive and would actually put people off, especially tourists.

Not all privately owened properties have correct health and safety standards. This is very important to have when the traveller is especially in medical need or disabled. At least in hotels, they have trained first-time aiders and can react to any problems promptly.
As well as we need to support the hotel industry as they employ people who pay taxes, when in the short term lets, who knows if they even pay a minimum wage and those are paying taxes.

Some of the room letting agencies from the Spareroom are quite shaddy. They charge you as much as they can when you leave. I just saw a review that said the agency claim him a professional cleaning fee after they left although it's banned. I think there should be more decent enforcement of the existing law on banned charges.

I’ve got a mixed view on this. The negative impact on the affordability of rent for Londoners is undeniable. That said, having a young family with a disabled child, when we travel we do use airbnbs etc as the only feasible way to travel. Sensible limits seems a good way forward.

Short term lettings have reduced number of long term rental properties available causing rental increases.
Some short lettings should be available but more controlled and audited than currently.
Our Visitors have rented Airbnb flats which have been sub let by existing tenants and are poor quality and illegal.

A flat in our building was used for short term lets via AirBnB.

• Our buzzer would be rung at all times of the day and night - tourists asking to get in.
• Loud parties and groups of people would rent the rooms.
• The landlord/person renting it was unresponsive and arrogant.
• As each room is let separately this is unhygenic , and probably against fire regulations.
• The flat should be available to people or families who work in London.

The problem with all these shiny, new tech business models (Air BnB, Uber, Deliveroo etc.) is that they provide convenience for some people, but there are always other people who have to pay the price for this convenience - people like me who have to put with an Air BnB let, Uber drivers and delivery cyclists on low pay with no benefits or security. The only people who really win are the shareholders. Unfortunately, no-one really thinks it through to this logical conclusion.

When visiting cities abroad I often rely on short term lets as hotel rooms aren't practical for a family. Restricting property owners to renting their property for 90 days per year is already restrictive, without any additional restrictions being put in place.

For those who talk about the loss of community through short term lets, I have found that my neighbours who live in properties they rent on a long term basis are equally as uninterested in community as short term renters.

STLs can help local economy by bringing in money but can have negative effect on local community as there is no sense of belonging or care for the area, no emotional investment.

It is important to distinguish between whole property let’s and spare rooms - letting a spare room might be the only way someone can afford their home especially if renting a room full time is not desirable or practical for whatever reasons. Airbnb initially started by renting spare rooms but has moved beyond this model to big business to such an extent that foreign investors buy property in London to STL

The difficulty with short term rental is that the renters have no vested interest in the community. Often they are holiday makers who want a good time and can be very noisy night and day. That is very unfair to the stable local community who want to enjoy their locality and neighbours without late night music & party making to awaken them and their sleeping children.

Houses or flats surrounded by AirBnB can be difficult to sell because noise and local tidiness/cleanliness cannot be controlled.

Some time back a local apartment building became short term rental. It quickly filled with prostitutes which meant women passing in the street were regularly accosted by people seeking personal services!

We have had some nightmare people next door via AirBnB. One chap was violent to his partner and the police were called. Another bunch of students or young people partied all night. There ought to be more control over the building standards and the vetting of short-term tenants.