London 90 day letting regulation 2017

[Susi7]

Hi all,

So I've received the email today from AirBnB saying that listings will automatically be stopped after 90 days hosting due to the new regulation in 2017 for London. 

I rent my whole house out now and then when I'm away, and separate rooms when I am there. 

Do you know if the regulation applies to single lodging rooms (which would presumably fall under the Rent-A-Room scheme rather than whole home letting?).

Thanks!

Susi

[John498]

Thanks Michael. I suppose it could be done. It would be complicate to market and I feel that many guests would not understand it or feel uncomfortable with it. They may feel you are misrepresenting the place and would say so in reviews. You would also be asking for the price of the full place I assume while just asking them to book prima facie for just a room. Quite tricky one to pull off!

[Jim247]

Thanks, Clare, 

@Clare0 Im in an apartment block. I’m thinking if I meet clients outside the block, and show them in, I could just list the space as my neighbours at flat 13 without telling them, but then show them to my space at flat 12. Do you think Airbnb would be bothered about that? I could put it on a slightly different place on the map, Use a different host name, and use different pics. Maybe two different price levels to attract different markets.  The point is.. Are Airbnb motivated to do anything about it or will I get away with it?

two differenttwotwo different price levels, to attract different markets. 

[Clare0]

@Jim247. Well, I can't tell you how to "cheat" the system and Airbnb won't likely tell you either as they won't want to compromise their ability to do business in London, the second largest city for Airbnb listings after Paris.  

Keep in mind you will need to provide ID, email, phone number for whatever host profile you establish and I'm quite sure Airbnb has methods to detect whenever a user tries to create an "Alias" profile / account.   Many users try to do this to escape bad reviews or get around their account being removed by Airbnb.  

Also, keep in mind that guests regularly report to Airbnb any host they they feel is not representing thier space honestly.  You'd be surprised how many guests report listings where the host does not have permission to rent their space (not your situation, but similar). 

If a guest believes that they are renting flat 13 and then are redirected by you to flat 12, you could expect that guests will either comment this on a review or just flag the listing for review by Airbnb's Trust and Safety team.  

You might get away with it for some time, but eventually I think that doing this might come back to bite you where it hurts.  Once Airbnb detects some kind of subversion, a host's profile is removed for life which may be worse that the London restrictions.  

I'm sorry that the authorities in London have this restriction on short term rentals as I'm sure this really puts a crimp in your income. 

[Arvind6]

What is the prospect of 

London authority increasing the 90 days limit.In Paris it's 120 days.

[John498]

Very little to zero chance. The only clamour for it would be from hosts and not councils,London tenants or anyone else. Even Airbnb are acquiescent. They might even clip the allowance if it is seen to be working.

[Andrea1805]

 Hi, And what if a host deletes the listing that has reached the 90 days limit and creates a new listing for the same house?

[Daniel-and-Marsio0]

Firstly, you'd always be starting from ZERO... zero reviews for the same property, so you'd hardly be likely to climb up the ranks of the property search. As Airbnb is a review-based platform, potential guests are looking at favourable reviews, not just the price of a place.

Secondly, you are running the risk of being 'found out' for doing somethig against the law... is that worth it?

[Michael502]

Hi Daniel & M, Weren't you doing long-term lets on Airb?  If I'm not mistaken, you're back to short-term. If so, what happened?

[Daniel-and-Marsio0]

Hi @Michael502 - yes, we are back to 'private room only'  (and the occasional 'entire place' if we are going away). Since the 90-night restriction came into force, we didn't bother trying to subvert it - and (continue to) break the law. 

So... we still keep two separate listings running - one for the 'entire place' (which we only have open on the calendar for our holiday times) and we set up a new listing for 'private room' - which was a pain having to start from zero reviews for that particular listing. But, we have been really busy wth renting that room, so good rviews have built up fast and we have managed to retain our Superhost status for an incredible 16 consecutive quarters...

I don't hold out ANY hope that the local laws in London will be changed re: 90-nights max for entire place, but I would welcome scrapping that rule entirely because I totally reject the arguments for it being in place. In my view, Airbnb in no way affects the regular 'long-term' rental market and Airbnb's independently-commissioned research proved this (which made me even madder when they caved-in so easily to London pressure...)

[Michael502]

Thx for reply - though don't fully understand. Thought your orig. point was that 90-day plus bookings were and are fully legal - and you were  v. successful. Not so any more?

Yes I've also tried the "Private room" route  - and it hasn't been worthless - I've had about a month of bookings - but hardly great.  V loosely comparable to you - my place is £90 plus - and that seems high-end for "Private room"  though otherwise v. reasonably priced. Best

[Daniel-and-Marsio0]

@Michael502 Yes, individual lettings of 90+ nights are LEGAL, but these type of bookings are no longer POSSIBLE on Airbnb since they brought in the 90-night countdown for 'entire places'. They made no provision for hosts who ONLY want to accept bookings of 90+ nights each time... very sad as there was definitely a market for that as we proved with our own listing (bfeore they introduced the 90-night countdown thingy).

Furthermore, since all the hoo-ha about this issue, even fewer potential guests will now see Airbnb as a suitable platform to find a 'long-term' place to stay, so the chances of getting this type of long-term enquiry are very low / not viable to rely on.

Don't get confused between individual bookings of 90+ nights and multiple shorter bookings adding up to 90 nights... two entirely different scenarios! 🙂

[Michael502]

Aha now I understand. Thx. How sad for you. And absurd. Maybe you could get them to change that. No real reason for it from anyone's POV.

[Katie327]

It seems that Airbnb doesn't ask for proof that you have received permission to rent your "entire apartment" for longer than 90 days, they rely only on a box-check confirmation - therefore subverting the blame to hosts should the authorities figure it out. It seems impossible that the local councils would be able to investigate active listings to determine credibility and Airbnb is definitely not going to do it. Anyone have any experience with this? 

[Ewa11]

In the UK/London- they say they share yours details with the local authorities - does anyone know anything about this

[Michael502]

I *think* - if I remember airbnb's London talks a while back - it's that they will share *if asked*, and won't share anything if you haven't ticked the box. That's only my memory