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Hi there, my Airbnb listing is in London - in the Borough of Lewisham. I’m a remote host as I moved abroad for work 18 months after purchasing and furnishing my home and wanted the flexibility to not sell it in case I decide to return one day.
Since 2017 Airbnb has enforced a countdown ticker on my listing thanks to George Osbourne (the Chancellor at the time) suggesting he was helping the sharing economy in London by changing a capital-specific centuries-old rule of not-subletting-for-less-than-30-days-at-a-time to subletting-is-OK-for-up-to-90-days-per-year. I was a fan of the former as I usually enforce my own rule of a month’s minimum reservation to ease the admin and hassle of juggling being a host from 3,500 miles and a chunky time difference away.
I used to go home for a few months here and there so wasn’t overly bothered by the change as it allowed for decent availability for me to live in my listing/home instead, plus individual bookings of at least 90 days in length are excluded from this quota and I’ve had a couple of those. However this year I won’t be travelling to London and would love to earn as much money as possible through Airbnb.
My council has previously said it doesn’t have a problem/policy on Airbnb listings provided no nuisance occurs, which it then investigates on an individual basis.
Are there any other London hosts here who experienced this 90-day countdown ticker and filled out Airbnb’s form to have it removed? I’d love to hear from you and understand if you were happy with the process or if there were any repercussions. I’m not a fan of the list of government bodies Airbnb forces you to agree to it passing your listing information to in exchange. Thank you!
I have been reading up on London scams. To get around the 90 day limit, they create new hosts for the same listing. Don’t ask me how! But apparently it’s big.
The article added that policing a listing across multiple platforms and direct is nearly impossible.
Thanks! I have thought that would be a way around it but even if it were a legit loophole, which I can see it isn’t, I can’t be bothered with it. I’m tempted to re-categorize the listing as a room (as I keep my bedroom locked so I could say it’s shared with me and I have access to it when I’m in the country), but then that impacts the search functions and I would most likely have to lessen my rate considerably for my listing to be caught in people’s search parameters. Hmmmm…
Because my council has said I do not need to apply for planning permission when it comes to Airbnb; or are you suggesting I shouldn’t mention Airbnb and there’s a standard application category that’s simply for any STR (without time limits each year) with any/most councils?
If I make it clear in my listing that I can be in my property as I like and it’s a shared space, which I have done in the past, I certainly believe I can. All I have to do is be honest in my listing. I’ve never heard of having two linked listings. That’s an interesting concept.
I think you may be a little confused. You can let your place up to 90 days without permission if you have a whole listing as you have (regardless of whether you have a locked bedroom there). After that you have to apply for planning permission whichever London borough you are in.
No, thank you very much, I’m not confused. Just because Airbnb says you need something (eg: planning permission) it doesn’t necessarily mean it is true. Airbnb says a lot of things to mitigate itself but will fall on its sword if challenged.
As per my original post’s question, it would be wonderful to speak with someone with a listing in London who has experience with this. Do and have you?
It is not Airbnb that says you need planning permission. That has been decided by the GLA and each local authority will decide what that looks like in their borough. Look at the legislation I linked you to in an earlier thread.
Which borough told you, you don’t need planning permission for post 90 days STRs?
Have you kept the 90-day restriction or have you got rid of it, judging by what you previously mentioned about getting planning permission from the council? Which borough is it in? Mine is Lewisham.
No the 90 day restriction isn’t an issue for us, as it’s easy to get the rest of the year covered by student or other shorter term corporate lets. @FaitAccompli
As mentioned to you in earlier posts you can’t get rid of the 90 day restriction in London unless you apply for planning permission. I do hope you have it in writing from Lewisham that you don’t need planning permission to exceed the 90 day limit laid down for STRs in the capital.
The listing I co-host is in an outer London borough.
