Originally AirBnB and the 'local vibe' home lets were a great concept. I loved the idea. Fast forward a few years, and these concepts have completely lost their way.
It's not the likes of the average you or I AirBnbing our room / flat / house when we go away. It's landlords with multiple properties, it's property developers, it's people buying up homes specifically to let out for holiday guests only, homes that could be for people.
There are less and less homes for real people, both private and social. Rent and housing prices have been driven up at an alarming rate, and continue to be, but nothing is being done. Holiday homes are sat empty in off peak seasons, while homelessness is on the rise. Unfortunately as with everything under a Tory government, a lack of legislation, and prioritising profit above all else means that the housing crisis is really really out of control. If you have a home that's yours, count yourself really lucky, even if it has issues.
The rise of holiday lets is growing throughout England, and councils outside London have even fewer powers to do anything about it. In popular uk holiday destinations like Plymouth and Cornwall, it's a huge issue.
Cornwall has 62 homes to rent on Rightmove but 10,290 AirBnB listings. In one village in Wales, three quarters of the houses are holiday homes.
The massive rise in companies like Airbnb and HomeStay means more evictions for long term tenants, because landlords are evicting people in favour of making more money from tourist rentals, resulting in less secure private rented housing available and rents being pushed up to extortionate prices. Tenants can be evicted for little reason, even if you've lived somewhere for 10 years, you have no rights to stay in a place you might call home.
I harp on about climate change most of the time, but my second largest societal concern is the state of housing in the UK. Small, young families are living in tiny one-beds with no gardens. When I was viewing a one bedroom flat in London, I met a single mother, working for the NHS, a wonderful lady, living with her teenage daughter who slept in the living room. They were so lovely, but they deserve better. That was costing them £1200 rent. Bills are on top.
In my building alone, one landlord owns three flats... not for holiday rentals but my point is where is the cap? We have no right to own multiple homes for an obscene amount of essentially passive income, when some have nothing, and even less right if we aren't renting to real people, but instead for short-term holiday lets. I'd be all for a cap on how many properties one person can own.
It is making society worse, full stop. It is making things worse. Everything is getting worse. Everyone should have the right to an affordable home. Every day more and more people don't. People are being evicted every day. The income that goes to landlords is extractive. The more we extract, the more the wealth divide continues to get bigger. Where are we ending it? Nothing is being done.
Homes are not businesses, yet they are treated as such. We say 'property' instead of 'home', we have a weird power hierarchy betweeen the 'tenant' and 'landlord' even the term 'landlord' is archaic. The power is with the landlord, and as tenants, people are as good as expected to get on their knees and beg their 'lord' for basic stuff like fixing things, and be grateful for it. I found a blog once for landlords that spoke of tenants like they are the scum of the earth, automatically... it made me feel sick that people think of others in that way. Tenants are subsidising your (landlord) lifestyle. They pay you a huge percentage of their wage regularly, they are paying you for very little work (in the grand scheme of things).
If you're a good landlord, you're likely to find a good tenant, and if you're a scummy, the same might follow, but people are still people, and all people deserve a place to live. The power structure is horrendous.
There is a huge difference between a side hustle and buying up several homes and making a passive income whereby what you're earning from that alone is far more than anyone needs for a comfortable lifestyle.
There are good landlords - they do exist. But overall, the system is shocking, tenants have very little rights and there needs to be tighter restrictions.
"Because there are loads of holiday let companies out there, landlords can bounce from Airbnb to HomeStay to Hostmaker and to FlipKey without regulation. Cash-strapped local councils don't have the staff or the data to track down landlords that are breaking the law."
I'm now really uncomfrotable using AirBnb until they get their legislation under control, and keep it to the original concept of staying with locals, or the random person making a little bit of side money.
Key takeaway: please don't support short-term holiday let companies that are literally driving locals away from communities through their accommodation business, driving up housing prices, and proftting off exploiting houses that are meant to be homes, and making this entire situation worse.
If booking accommodation, please think about who is beneftting, and what system you're supporting.
There's a petition here campaigning for homes, not hotels. https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/homes-not-hotels-demand-mandatory-data-sharing-by-short-term-lets-companies
Keep up with housing issues petitions with Generation Rent https://you.38degrees.org.uk/partnerships/generation-rent