For landlords waiting to move into the highly lucrative short-term rental market, changes and adjustments are likely to be made to meet legal regulations and requirements regarding the letting of short-term properties as opposed to housing long-term tenants or stand contracts.
While the industry is booming right now, the UK’s short-term vacation rental market, as described by Statistica, is expected to hit $4.86 billion by the end of 2024 and have a projected market value of $4,73 billion by 2028. It makes financial sense to readjust your rental empire to accommodate the increase in demand for these types of rentals and cater to the growing need for alternative accommodation to hotels or on a short-term basis.
But, before you make any rash decisions, you need to consider the following points and aspects of short-term rentals before committing.
It’s A Lot More Work
It goes without saying that it’s a lot more work to operate short-term rentals than to find one long-term tenant. With a contrast runover and frequent (hopefully) bookings, you will be dealing with new people, queries and requests on a near-constant basis. If this is something you can accommodate, amazingly, an increase in the workload can be well worth the time invested in this aspect of short-term rentals. If not, you might want to either reconsider or look into using a short-term rental property management company or hope you find, manage bookings and take care of all of the other details like housekeeping, too.
Bookings Are Not Guaranteed
A kind of obvious point but an important one nonetheless. Bookings for short-term rentals aren’t actually guaranteed. When you sign a contract with long-term renters, you can guarantee an income for the duration of the tenancy. While you might come across non-payers, which can be a massive problem, the likelihood is if you have done your due diligence, you can expect to get your rent on time each month. With a short-term rental, while you might have a different pay structure and frequency, such as only booking Monday to Friday, overnight for a quick stay or a maximum of 10 nights per booking, for example, at a higher rate accommodate sporadic occupancy, you aren’t actually guaranteed someone will book. So, while it can be extremely lucrative, it can also be hard to gain bookings.
There Are Different Rules and Regulations
Long-term and short-term rentals have different laws governing them, and you, as the property owner, need to desire to abide by your legal obligations as a short-term rental landlord. New laws regulating the use of properties as short-term lets in communities are designed to protect homes and avoid residents being forced out of the area or priced out of the market.
Landlords will need to register their property as a short-term let to gain permission to operate in this capacity legally, and depending on the area or current volume of similar properties, you might not achieve the status required to facilitate this venture. Always be aware of the laws and local council requirements to ensure you’re operating legally.
