Is this necessary? I’m about to buy a property for airbnb and wondered whether i’d be better setting it up as a business, but i know this has become more difficult recently. Any advice on this (or anything frankly!) is much appreciated.
Ask your accountant 
Only joking. In the UK it’ll depend on a lot of factors (i.e. your personal financial and tax situation) whether you become a “business” or simply fire it all through with your tax return as income, with relevant running expense deductions.
Online forums are not the best place to find the right advice, maybe start with the UK HMRC site, there’s a lot of good, and correct, advice on there.
JF
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I don’t use one, but if I was looking at buying a property as a buy to let holiday investment I would definitely be doing some advance research a) with the local authority around business rates/planning b) speaking to an accountant - how you set up your Airbnb business very much depends on your personal tax situation/costs etc.
Definitely speak to an accountant.
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Well, it is a business so I don’t really know what you mean there. Yes, unless you are an experienced bookkeeper or similar then of course you’re going to need an accountant as would any other business.
Even if you have account experience, would you have the time to do it all yourself? Also, do you have experience of all the legal requirements you’ll need such as licences and local taxes?
I can’t imagine running a business without an accountant but if you’ve got experience, you can give it a try. I wouldn’t advise it though. I’d get an accountant right from the start as he/she will probably be able to save you a lot of money in the long run.
Speak to an accountant because if it is for business purposes - it might be more tax efficient to buy/run through a Ltd company.
Worth investing a little time and money to ensure you do the right thing.