Dramatic shortage of short-term lets and B&B accommodation in Scotland

[SimOv]

As those north of the border may already be aware, the Scottish Government have very recently introduced new licensing legislation on short-terms lets (typically anything you might book via AirBnB from a room in an annex, to a cottage or a yurt) and B&B accommodation. I work for an organisation that has been fighting this legislation for the last 18 months. Without getting too political, what has been apparent during my meetings in this time is that the urban-centric SNP and Green parties who lead the Scottish Government really couldn't give a rats arse about how this is going to impact tourism across Scotland.

Such is the complexity, financial cost and additional burden of the scheme on hosts, that tourism and hospitality associations project up to 40% (no that's not a typo') will be closing their doors for good in the next six months. Highland region will be particularly badly hit and in Edinburgh the loss of such accommodation is projected to be in excess of 60% during 2024, which will possibly put the Festival and Fringe at risk. Mainstream hotels and guest houses are not affect by the scheme, however there will be a supply and demand situation and some accommodation providers have already significantly increased their prices by over 20% (October is more expensive on average than September).

With the legislation already being in place from 01 October 2023 my recommendation is that if you have already booked your accommodation in Scotland, you should check with your host that they will still be operating when you plan to stay. If you are planning to make a booking, do so as early as possible as there will be a massive shortage of accommodation across Scotland, and check that your host plans to be open when you arrive!

This is not a wind up. Just Google 'short-term let licensing in Scotland' and see what come up.

 

[gerarddwatts]

It was one of the industries in Scotland that the Scottish Government hadn't yet fucked up.
So they fucked it up.

 

[SimOv]

It was one of the industries in Scotland that the Scottish Government hadn't yet fucked up.
So they fucked it up.

That pretty much sums it up!

 

[MartinK]

I had heard a bit about this, but not looked into it properly until now - so thanks for sharing!

I can see this will be a disaster for the tourists but also for places which rely on tourism...like Aviemore

Aviemore (Badenoch and Strathspey) seems to be one of the places the new laws/rules are targeting.

It's understandable that the authorities want to have some sort of control in places like Aviemore as they'll want to control the strategic growth of the area. It has a big effect on schools, infrastructure and the overall planning requirements of the area. I had a holiday home in Aviemore from 2002 to 2015. When I first bought it (on a cul-de-sac of 15 houses) only two were holiday homes. Now over half of the houses in that street of 15 are holiday homes, or rented out short-term. Local schools are struggling because many locals moved to Kingussie or Nethy, and as such the Avirmore schools and public facilities no longer had the footfall of locals, but instead have times of the year when they are "mobbed" and parts of the year (October) when it's a ghost town!

Having said I understand why the authorities will want some kind of barometer/control/licensing, I know that they will royally f*ck it right up!!!

It's hard to fathom how much damage the SNP has done to Scotland in the last ~15 years. From drink drive laws causing local pubs to close, 20mph speed limits, hoardes of speed cameras on the A9 and the Crianlairich road, minimum pricing for alcohol, no "happy hours", their laughable gender recognition fiasco - all things no-one voted for!!! SNP assh0les. The number of large companies leaving Scotland is an obvious barometer. Back in the day there were over a dozen major international companies with Scottish HQ's...now there's only ONE, and it's state owned! (RBS)...actually 2 now because Clydesdale has come back from Australian ownership

 

[stever1]

The Scottish tourist industry is quite capable of crippling itself.
last year on tour in Scotland I was paying an average of £125 to £130 a night for B & B in hotels. Nothing fancy, just run of the mill ones.
this year I’ve just done about 6 weeks in Europe on 2 trips and on average paid £70 to £80 a night In hotels just as good.
As more people realise the way it’s going , more will choose abroad rather than Scotland. A shame really as all you’ll be left with is the rental motor home brigade leaving rubbish everywhere, and dumping waste tanks on the road.

 

[Berin]

The Scottish tourist industry is quite capable of crippling itself.
last year on tour in Scotland I was paying an average of £125 to £130 a night for B & B in hotels. Nothing fancy, just run of the mill ones.
this year I’ve just done about 6 weeks in Europe on 2 trips and on average paid £70 to £80 a night In hotels just as good.
As more people realise the way it’s going , more will choose abroad rather than Scotland. A shame really as all you’ll be left with is the rental motor home brigade leaving rubbish everywhere, and dumping waste tanks on the road.

Mrs Berin and I did a tour of the Hebrides and Highlands in 2021. It's one of those trips we'd been wanting to do a for long time and with all the bollocks Covid rules in Europe made sense to do it when we did. However, totting the cost up afterwards it was multiples of the cost of doing the same in Europe. Accommodation was short then as a lot of places seemed to have closed forever after Covid, and even eating out needed booking ahead.

Glad we one then we did.

 

[alan29]

Spent a week in the Highlands in June. Stayed in some of the worst hotels with the worst food I have ever experienced. I mean a room next to the hotels bins with no TV reception. No fresh fruit or veg.
And paid well over £100 plus dinner per night for the "privilege."

 

[listermint]

Knowing nothing about the legislation nor being from Scotland. If it is an attempt to wrap some hands around the proliferation of Air BnB I'm all for it.
These companies exist only to encourage purchasing of housing stock of all types to push them into short term rental sole purpose is personal profit generation. It isn't meant to make it easy for picking up accommodation for holidays It's wall street taking homes from individuals. Your own kids driven out of the future market.
Additionally the notion this is urban centric flies against the acquisition off all forms of housing in small tourist locations in many countries. Gobbling up the market from locals and driving them out of owning homes.

AirBnB is a race to the bottom. We should be looking for well regulated managed and customer focused tourist accommodation. It should not be at the cost of normal people in any location being capable of buying their own home in their local areas where wages are usually low anyway. i.e northern Scotland.

I'd also be extremely cynical of folks who are completely against some form of structure and rules around short term letting. No doubt they probably have one or more of them.

Globally, populations are sleep walking into an era were their 30 year old kids can't leave home because its unaffordable. Everything is being built for rent and anything else picked up by amateur landlords and throwing it up on AirBnb sans any rules and sod the laws or local council taxes.

I suppose people have to wake up and choose whats important.

 

[Jazbee]

Many of the hotels I regularly stayed in up and down the west coast / North west coast have tripled in price since covid. I now avoid most of the favoured NC500 towns like Ft William & Ullapool etc, even the dumps are extortionate. My advice is not to stay on the route but try other routes which may include some NC500 roads whilst staying in other very pleasant places, which you will find cheaper and good value. Google Crieff Cloverleaf as a starter

 

[Posh Pete]

This is about regulating short term lets. That's all. Owners require a license and they need to meet certain condions ...

2.14. The mandatory conditions relate to:

• day to day management of the short-term let only being carried out by the holder of the licence (see 3.10 to 3.14)
• only operating under the type of licence you have been granted (see 3.1)
• fire safety
• gas safety
• electrical safety
• water safety
• safety and repair standards
• maximum occupancy
• displaying information (see 5.1)
• planning permission (see 2.3 to 2.6)
• listings (see 5.2)
• insurance
• payment of fees
• providing true and accurate information (i.e. not providing false and misleading information)

All the above seem pretty basic to me and intended to protect short term tenants and long term residents who live nearby.

If owners of additional properties can afford to buy them in the first place, they can afford to spend time and money from their considerable profits to ensure that they meet the very reasonable requirements of the legislation.

All the other stuff about rip off prices in hotels up here and poor service etc may well be true but is not really relevant to the issue of short term lets such as airbnb etc.

 

[Posh Pete]

And while we're on the subject of housing, this was on last night and it's excellent...

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001rkmp

 

[listermint]

This is about regulating short term lets. That's all. Owners require a license and they need to meet certain condions ...

2.14. The mandatory conditions relate to:

• day to day management of the short-term let only being carried out by the holder of the licence (see 3.10 to 3.14)
• only operating under the type of licence you have been granted (see 3.1)
• fire safety
• gas safety
• electrical safety
• water safety
• safety and repair standards
• maximum occupancy
• displaying information (see 5.1)
• planning permission (see 2.3 to 2.6)
• listings (see 5.2)
• insurance
• payment of fees
• providing true and accurate information (i.e. not providing false and misleading information)

All the above seem pretty basic to me and intended to protect short term tenants and long term residents who live nearby.

If owners of additional properties can afford to buy them in the first place, they can afford to spend time and money from their considerable profits to ensure that they meet the very reasonable requirements of the legislation.

All the other stuff about rip off prices in hotels up here and poor service etc may well be true but is not really relevant to the issue of short term lets such as airbnb etc.

Seems fair.

Considering the hoops that regulated tourist accommodation providers have to go through from various things like health and safety food hygiene to liability insurance and fire regulations.

Why should airbnb folks be allowed undercut businesses who have to be compliant whilst also snapping up housing stock of normal day to day buyers.

Governments get an awful lot of stick but housing is a serious problem no matter what country you live in. Allowing it to get to a space where wall street is active in your local suburb no matter where you live is a banana's prospect. No one should be promoting that. Regardless of your political persuasion.

 

[busy builder]

Talk of rip off prices in Scotland???

Try some of the Camping sites in England and Wales, like £45 or more to park a motorhome on a piece of grass or gravel. Now compare that to my current stay in France. We've been here 6 weeks and never paid more than €12 per night, includes water and electric supply, same as UK. Some offer same facilities for free. Okay to be fair, for your £45 in UK you may get a shower and shit house.
France has it all down to a tee, so easy to use as well, if an aire is full, just go a few miles to next village to next aire.

I tried my local village council to put in an aire, this would bring in customers to the shops and supermarket but too short sighted to see the benefits.

 

[gerarddwatts]

Hmm...this from the Association of Scottish Self Caterers...

Sadly, Humza Yousaf has stuck his head in the sand and decided not to listen to the thousands of businesses which are under threat thanks to this onerous scheme. The numerous warnings from across the sector have fallen on deaf ears. The ASSC still contends that the regulations remain unfit for purpose and will wreak untold damage on Scottish tourism and our reputation as a welcoming place to visit and do business.

The First Minister needs to show leadership right now and support small tourism accommodation providers who are so vital to local economies across Scotland. Thousands of jobs remain at risk in the heart of our tourist economy – self-catering and B&Bs – and that’s before we even consider the impact on related tourism and hospitality industries that rely on their guest spend.

There’s still time pause and reflect on the mess that this legislation is creating, it will be much more difficult to unpick once the damage has been done.”

 

[SimOv]

This isn't about regulating short-term lets...the industry put that proposal forward a long while ago but the Scottish Government rejected the idea. The recently introduced licensing goes wayyyyy beyond that. During the past 18 months of discussions I and others within the hospitality industry have had with numerous Scottish Government Ministers and MSP, they have consistently failed to really understand the rationale for the introduction of the scheme. One day it's health & safety, the next it's to overcome the lack of rented accommodation (despite there being an estimated 45,000 uninhabitable local authority homes across Scotland), and the following day it's all about second homes which have reduced by over 40% in the last decade according to their own statistics...but are now likely to increase again because of the legislation.

With respect, the arguments from @listermint don't stack up if you understand the very real and tragic situation for long term and well run small accommodation providers in Scotland... and the statistics prove that. To clarify, when I say that 'the urban-centric SNP and Green parties who lead the Scottish Government really couldn't give a rats arse about how this is going to impact tourism across Scotland', this relates to their primary lack of understanding of the industry in rural areas where the greatest negative impacts will be felt.

Regardless of the politics, my original concerns for visitors trying to find accommodation across Scotland remain. For those who have nothing better to do I have attached the transcript from a blog (more of a brain dump actually!) that I wrote just a few days before the licensing came into force.

 

[SimOv]

Hmm...this from the Association of Scottish Self Caterers...

Sadly, Humza Yousaf has stuck his head in the sand and decided not to listen to the thousands of businesses which are under threat thanks to this onerous scheme. The numerous warnings from across the sector have fallen on deaf ears. The ASSC still contends that the regulations remain unfit for purpose and will wreak untold damage on Scottish tourism and our reputation as a welcoming place to visit and do business.

The First Minister needs to show leadership right now and support small tourism accommodation providers who are so vital to local economies across Scotland. Thousands of jobs remain at risk in the heart of our tourist economy – self-catering and B&Bs – and that’s before we even consider the impact on related tourism and hospitality industries that rely on their guest spend.

There’s still time pause and reflect on the mess that this legislation is creating, it will be much more difficult to unpick once the damage has been done.”

I have been working with the ASSC on this matter over the last 18 months, and the Scottish Tourism Alliance and more. Their comment is absolutely spot on.

 

[gerarddwatts]

Sadly this awful alliance of Greens and SNP will do much lasting damage to Scotland before enough folk wake up and get rid of them.
Unfortunately the demographic in Scotland is such that the central belt, and its urban centric msp's will always be the 'power' in Holyrood....neither a thought nor a care for the rest of the country.
But as long as 'they' can promise 'freedom' over the horizon, what do they care?

 

[Barnoe]

Talk of rip off prices in Scotland???

Try some of the Camping sites in England and Wales, like £45 or more to park a motorhome on a piece of grass or gravel. Now compare that to my current stay in France. We've been here 6 weeks and never paid more than €12 per night, includes water and electric supply, same as UK. Some offer same facilities for free. Okay to be fair, for your £45 in UK you may get a shower and shit house.
France has it all down to a tee, so easy to use as well, if an aire is full, just go a few miles to next village to next aire.

I tried my local village council to put in an aire, this would bring in customers to the shops and supermarket but too short sighted to see the benefits.

Its easy for people to knock Scotland for this.

We have all done it, for me 7 days on the NC500 costs the same as 16 nights and 11 countries touring Europe... that's including fuel!

Truth is, this isn't just Scotland's fault and not a recent thing either.

In Britain as a whole we have been getting ripped off for 50 years, which is why since the introduction of package holidays abroad in the 60s, places like Blackpool and Rhyl to name just 2 of hundreds of seaside resorts that have gone downhill and in fact look quite sad these days.

2 weeks in Blackpool would cost much more than an all inclusive holiday in the sun of another country.

Not just Scottish tourism but UK tourism need to take a good look at itself.
and you can include public transport in this for getting to these places.

RIP off Britain indeed.

 

[DANE]

Well, glad I didn’t jump right in after OP !

Having provided short term let in a remote rural cottage for nearly 20 years in Scotland I have some things to add, I will avoid discussing city centre lets as I have limited experience of these.

We purchased Auldallan Farm Cottage in Angus 4 miles from my childhood home, it had been restored from derelict by previous owner in the mid 70’s, and we competed for purchase on the open market. There are few places to work locally - mainly in agriculture or services.

We used local architect for our extension and complete restoration, local builder, plumber, electrician. Purchased furniture locally, use local turnaround and cleaning staff, decorator, chimney sweep, heating engineer, purchase local firewood etc. etc.

Our visitors use local shops and restaurants and use local and further tourist activities. Additionally we regularly provide slightly longer term accommodation, upto 30 days at a time, for local people during house moves, in emergencies etc. All these contribute to the local economy.

Licensing - Let’s talk about that - we have a two bed very rural cottage that sleeps 4 with a glamping pod for 2 that is rented out as a holiday let.
We use it ourselves occasionally and undertake basic maintenance when there, our aim is to provide a great experience for visitors to rural Angus and get five star reviews so we keep getting visitors and maintain things ticking over.

We have completed the Local Authority licence application and paid the money. (I have heard some councils have set up complete new departments to handle the additional administration).

Our estimated cost to provide the required evidence is £2-3000
First issue - prove we have planning permission (or apply for lawful use) £500 (Takes several months)
Then .. Floor drawings, Energy Certificate, Electrical Certificate, PAT, Legionella Risk Assessment, Emergency Lighting, Fire RA, Waste management, Access, etc.etc (plus associated recommendations)
Licence application £350

Lets not mention the admin time we have put in getting stretched contractors to visit, produce their reports and then we can the process the on line application (don’t start me on intermittent broadband in rural Angus).

I accept this will make it safer for visitors to our and similar properties, and some likely need this. I am confident as per the OP, many will drop out of short term letting to the detriment of tourism and the wider economy.

This Licence comes with a not insignificant cost and this is ongoing, we could absorb this, however, we like every one else are experiencing widespread significant cost increases. We cannot now compare costs with our former European counterparts, that boat has sailed.

I am hoping our Licence is approved, however know we can and will continue, as our application is being processed.

What is very clear is that our costs will have to increase to cover the additional certification and management this Licensing will incur. We do expect to have more and earlier bookings next year as the availability of similar rural self catering cottages will reduce.

One only has to look to the situation developing in coastal towns and villages (in Devon, Cornwall and other areas) to see this Licensing will roll out over England and other areas of UK in a matter of time. When this happens the accommodation available across the UK will drop and costs increase.

BUT - Now is a good time to book Auldallan Farm Cottage in Angus !

 

[gerarddwatts]

Additionally, as I understand it, each local authority goes about it differently, making it very difficult to have a common, and therefore cheaper, approach.