Short-term lets through online collaborative economy platforms, UK: July 2023 to June 2026

• From July 2025 to June 2026, there were 104,617,530 guest nights spent in short-term lets in the UK.

• There was a 10.2% increase in guest nights in July 2025 to June 2026 from the previous 12-month period, July 2024 to June 2025; this was a 22.9% increase over two years.

• Nearly a quarter (24.5%) of guest nights were spent in 9 of the 361 UK local authorities, between July 2025 and June 2026.

• The United States was the country of origin for most international guests in UK short-term lets, followed by Germany and France; together, these accounted for around a third (35.6%) of all international guest nights between July 2025 and June 2026.

In this bulletin, "short-term lets" refers to rentals, such as apartments or rooms, booked through Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia Group, excluding other forms of accommodation, such as hotels or campsites.

We publish further statistics on our Leisure and tourism web page.

This analysis provides aggregated data booked through the three large online collaborative economy platforms on the number of guest nights, nights, and stays spent in short-term lets offered via online platforms.

The "number of guest nights" accounts for the number of nights spent during a stay multiplied by the number of visitors in the travel party. This can be influenced by guest group size and length of stay. For example, a group of four staying for two nights would be eight guest nights, but one guest staying for two nights would be two guest nights.

The "number of nights" refers to the number of nights that a property or room offered by the platforms was occupied during a stay. The "number of stays" refers to the number of times that a facility offered by the platforms was occupied by a single booking, regardless of length of stay.

This bulletin focuses on the number of guest nights, unless otherwise stated.

Guest nights in UK short-term lets increased across all four UK countries in July 2025 to June 2026, compared with the previous 12 months. Wales recorded the largest percentage growth over this period, with August 2025 remaining the busiest month.

There were 104,617,530 guest nights spent in short-term lets in the UK from July 2025 to June 2026. This was an increase of 10.2% from the previous 12-month period, July 2024 to June 2025 (94,959,330), and of 22.9% from July 2023 to June 2024 (85,157,810).

Wales recorded the largest percentage increase in guest nights among UK countries between both July 2024 to June 2025 and July 2025 to June 2026, rising by a combined 14.3%, from 6,769,470 to 7,739,500. Scotland recorded an increase of 12.0%, followed by Northern Ireland, at 10.1%. England had the smallest percentage increase, at 9.5%.

Guest nights generally increased year-on-year in each month. Comparisons for March and April may be affected by the timing of the Easter bank holiday. Following the previous periods trend, January had the fewest number of guest nights in 2026 (4,707,920 guest nights), although this was an 8.4% increase in the number of guest nights from January 2025 (4,344,890 guest nights). August 2025 was the most popular month, with a 13.5% share of the 2025 to 2026 total (14,143,560).

Figure 1: Guest nights rose every month between July 2025 and June 2026, compared with previous years

Number of guest nights, by month, UK, July 2023 to June 2026

Guest nights increased in all nine English regions in July 2025 to June 2026, compared with July 2024 to June 2025. The North East recorded the largest percentage increase, at 17.3%, from 2,463,640 to 2,888,820 guest nights. London had by far the largest number of guest nights but the smallest percentage increase, at 5.4%, from 20,782,290 to 21,901,250.

Guest nights increased across all nine regions between both July 2023 to June 2024 and July 2025 to June 2026. The North East recorded the strongest percentage growth over the two-year period (38.6%), while growth was smallest in the South East (15.7%) and London (16.7%).

Guest nights continue to be concentrated in a small number of local authorities, with nearly a quarter (24.5%) spent in 9 of the 361 local authorities in the UK, between July 2025 and June 2026. Seven of these are in England (Westminster, Cornwall, North Yorkshire, Kensington and Chelsea, Camden, Westmorland and Furness, and Liverpool) and two in Scotland (City of Edinburgh and Highland).

In July 2025 to June 2026, guest nights increased in 327 of the 361 UK local authorities, compared with July 2024 to June 2025, and in 344 compared with July 2023 to June 2024.

Cornwall recorded the largest year-on-year increase in the number of guest nights, by 394,430 guest nights (10.8%), compared with the previous period, and reached 4,041,390 guest nights. This was 22.8% above its July 2023 to June 2024 level. Westminster added 380,940 guest nights (9.2%) year-on-year and recorded the largest increase in the number of guest nights over the two-year period, at 980,730 (27.9%).

The remaining 34 UK local authorities recorded year-on-year declines, with Gedling recording the largest percentage decline, at 16.8%.

Figure 2: Guests spent almost a quarter of all guest nights in nine local authority areas

Number of guest nights for each local authority, UK, July 2023 to June 2026

Domestic guest nights grew faster than international guest nights across all four UK countries in July 2025 to June 2026. Across the UK, domestic guest nights increased by 13.4%, to 70,990,590, while international guest nights increased by 4.1%, to 32,712,380.

Wales had the highest domestic share, at 89.7%, and the strongest growth in domestic guest nights, at 15.4%. Scotland had the highest international share, at 43.3%, and the strongest growth in international guest nights, at 9.4%. In Northern Ireland, domestic guest nights increased by 10.8%, and international guest nights increased by 8.9%.

Figure 3: Scotland had the highest percentage of international guests in the UK

Percentage of guest nights by domestic and international guests, by country, July 2025 to June 2026

Domestic guest nights grew faster than international guest nights across all nine English regions in July 2025 to June 2026. The South West recorded the most domestic guest nights, at 12,767,360, up by 12.1%, while London recorded the most international guest nights, at 15,614,090, up by 3.2%. London was the only region where international guests accounted for a majority of guest nights, at 71.3%. In contrast, the North East had the highest domestic share, at 89.1%, and the strongest growth in domestic guest nights, at 18.8%. 

Domestic guest nights grew faster than international guest nights in 309 local authorities in July 2025 to June 2026. Cornwall recorded the most domestic guest nights, at 3,462,740, up by 12.1%, followed by North Yorkshire at 2,594,860, up by15.7%. Westminster recorded the most international guest nights, at 3,643,310, up by 9.5%, followed by the City of Edinburgh at 2,298,800, up by 12.8%. Kensington and Chelsea had the highest international share of guest nights, at 81.6%, while East Lindsey had the highest domestic share, at 98.0%.

Figure 4: Coastal areas in England and Wales mainly had domestic visitors

Proportion of guest nights by country of origin, by local authority, UK, July 2023 to June 2026

The United States was the largest country of origin for international guests in UK short-term lets between July 2025 and June 2026, accounting for 6,164,480 guest nights, or 18.3% of the total. This was nearly twice Germany's 3,133,850 guest nights, followed by France, with 2,679,270. Together, these three countries accounted for 35.6% of international guest nights.

The five largest countries of origin remained unchanged across the last three July to June periods in three years, although their growth patterns differed:

• the United States remained the largest, recording 6,164,480 guest nights in July 2025 to June 2026, down from 6,244,740 the previous year but above 5,883,870 in July 2023 to June 2024

• Germany increased steadily, from 2,585,260 guest nights in July 2023 to June 2024, to 2,835,340 in in July 2024 to June 2025, and 3,133,850 in July 2025 to June 2026

• France rose from 2,523,630 to 2,653,630, and then to 2,679,270 in the same period

• Australia recorded 2,108,000 guest nights in in July 2025 to June 2026, below both 2,178,580 the previous year and 2,145,670 two years earlier

• Spain showed the strongest percentage growth among these five countries in this period, increasing from 1,432,070 to 1,639,650, and then to 1,919,580 guest nights, a rise of 34.0%

Number of guest nights

The number of nights spent during a stay, with a night counted per individual member of the visiting group. This can be influenced by guest group size and length of stay. For example, a group of four staying for two nights would be eight guest nights, but two nights and one stay.

Number of nights

The number of nights a short-term let offered via the platforms was occupied.

Number of stays

The number of times a short-term let offered via the platforms was occupied.

Short-term lets

Refers to rentals, such as apartments or rooms, booked through three online booking platforms (Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia Group), excluding other forms of accommodation, such as hotels or campsites.

Data from three online collaborative economy platforms (Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia Group) provide data on short-term lets to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Data from Vrbo, Expedia, Hotels.com, Orbitz, Ebookers, CheapTickets, Trivago and others under the Expedia Group umbrella are included as part of Expedia Group. We then aggregate the data for these statistics.

Data are provided at the local administrative unit (LAU) level in the UK, which is also aggregated to form local authorities, counties, combined authorities, international territorial levels (ITLs), countries, and the UK as a whole.

The data have a strong seasonal tread. Therefore, changes over time should generally be compared year-on-year, rather than month-on-month or quarter-on-quarter.

Strengths and limitations

This release is based on data provided to us by three international platforms (Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia Group). The data covers short-stay accommodation in the UK, offered by service providers via one of these three online collaborative economy platforms.

Only accommodation offered through the three platforms is included in this bulletin and dataset. It cannot be added to other tourism statistics on holiday rentals or other types of accommodation, such as hotels, because of potential overlaps. Only the merged data for the three platforms are available; individual data on each platform will not be disclosed.

While we believe these statistics cover a large proportion of short-term lets activity in the UK, they do not cover all activity, as data from other providers and platforms are not included.

The data we receive cannot be de-duplicated across the three platforms, which means we cannot calculate the number of unique hosts or visitors.

Short-term lets in Scotland

The Scottish Government introduced licensing for short-term lets in October 2022. New and existing short-term let operators are required to obtain a licence to operate a short-term let property in Scotland from October 2023. The Scottish Government publish Short-term lets licensing statistics, which are available at the Scotland, local authority and data zone levels.

There will be differences between the Scottish Government data and our Hosts, listings, and bed spaces of short-term lets, UK: 2023 dataset for a few reasons. Firstly, the Scottish Government publish data on the number of short-term let license applications that were validated by local authorities up to 31 December 2024. Because of the large volume of applications received by the October deadline for existing hosts and some applications being incomplete, some applications were not validated in time to be reflected in their published data. Data are subject to revision in future releases.

Secondly, the data that we have previously released on hosts, listings and bed spaces refer to the number of hosts and visitors of short-term lets listed by one of the three online collaborative economy platforms in 2023. The number of unique hosts cannot be identified, as there will be duplication because of hosts advertising their property on more than one platform. Consequently, we would generally expect the number of hosts in the data accompanying this release to be higher than the number of licenses in Scottish Government data.

Short-term lets in Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, it is a legal requirement that all tourist accommodation providers receive certification from Tourism Northern Ireland before they are allowed to begin operating.

Short-term lets in Wales

In September 2025, the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Act 2025 received Royal Assent. Following this, registration will be compulsory for all visitor accommodation in Wales from Autumn 2026. Additionally, local councils may apply an overnight visitor levy from April 2027.

On 27 April 2026, the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill received Royal Assent, at which point the Bill became an Act of the Senedd. This Bill builds upon the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Act 2025, and provides the legislative framework for a licensing scheme for visitor accommodation in Wales.

Short-term lets in England

In 2023, the previous UK government consulted on a registration scheme for short-term lets, and Parliament legislated for a registration scheme for short-term lets in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023. In February 2024, the proposal to introduce a mandatory, national register of short-term lets in England was announced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) (known at the time as the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities). The current government remains committed to implementing this proposal.