Short-term lets through online collaborative economy platforms, UK: July 2024 to June 2025

• From July 2024 to June 2025, there were 93,823,780 guest nights spent in short-term lets in the UK.

• There was a 10.2% increase in the number of guest nights from the previous 12-month period, July 2023 to June 2024 (85,157,810).

• Guest nights increased by 12.4% in Wales, 10.8% in England, 10.2% in Northern Ireland and 5.5% in Scotland compared with the previous 12-month period.

• Westminster had the greatest increase within the top four local authorities with the highest count of guest nights, with 16.7% more guest nights compared with the same time period the year before.

• Edinburgh was the only local authority in the top 15 local authorities to see a reduction in the number of guest nights between the two periods, from 3,072,720 to 3,030,570 (a decrease of 1.4%).

• Cornwall had the largest seasonal variation, with the highest number of guest nights of all local authorities (803,920) in August 2024, 10 times higher than guest nights in January 2025 (78,700), the lowest month in the time period.

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 more statistics about leisure and tourism.

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 a property or room offered by the platforms was occupied during a stay; whereas the number of stays refers to the number of times 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.

There were 93,823,780 guest nights spent in short-term lets in the UK from July 2024 to June 2025. This was an increase of 10.2% from the previous 12-month period, July 2023 to June 2024 (85,157,810). Across individual countries, the increase in the number of guest nights between the two most recent time periods was relatively consistent: Northern Ireland increased by 10.2%, England by 10.8% and Wales by 12.4%. However, the number of guest nights in Scotland increased by 5.5% between the two periods, around half that of the other UK countries.

The distribution of guest nights across the year in the UK was strongly affected by the seasons. August was the most popular month in both periods, with 12,788,560 guest nights during the month in 2024 (13.6% of the July 2024 to June 2025 total). This was an increase of 14.7% from the previous August (11,146,260 guest nights; 13.1% of the July 2023 to June 2024 total).

January had the fewest guest nights across both periods, with 4,241,980 guest nights in 2025 (4.5% of the July 2024 to June 2025 total), a 16.2% increase from the year before (3,651,460 guest nights; 4.3% of the July 2023 to June 2024 total).

The only month with a decrease between the two periods was March, where guest nights reduced by 8.5% from 2024 to 2025. April saw the largest increase in guest nights, rising by 25.8% compared with the previous period. These are likely affected by the changing date of the Easter bank and school holidays between the years. In 2024, 29 March and 1 April were bank holidays, compared with 18 and 21 April in 2025. As such, guests taking advantage of the bank holidays for weekend trips or visits to family would be counted in March in 2024 but April in 2025. When March and April are combined, the increase across the two periods was 9.6%, largely in line with the overall annual increase.

Figure 1: The percentage of guest nights in short-term lets is at its highest in August and lowest in January for all UK countries

Percentage of guest nights in short-term lets offered through collaborative economy platforms, by month and country, UK, July 2023 to June 2025

Across countries and regions, guest nights were concentrated in relatively few local authorities, with about a quarter of guest nights (24.4%) being spent in nine local authorities (out of 361 local authorities in the UK) across the July 2024 to June 2025 time period.

Across all English regions, the East Midlands saw the largest increase between the two most recent periods (17.0%) and the South East the smallest increase (5.8%).

Figure 2 shows how the number of guest nights varies between local authorities and the effects of seasonality on the totals.

Figure 2: Guest nights were concentrated in relatively few local authorities

Number of guest nights for each local authority, UK, July 2023 to June 2025

Download the data

The four local authorities in the UK with the highest total number of guest nights in short-term lets over the July 2024 to June 2025 period were:

• Westminster (4,107,880)

• Cornwall (3,574,320)

• City of Edinburgh (3,030,570)

• Highland (2,698,780)

Of these local authorities, Cornwall had the largest seasonal variation, with the highest number of guest nights of all local authorities in August 2024 (803,920), 10 times higher than the lowest month in the period (January 2025; 78,700 guest nights).

The total number of guest nights increased in the July 2024 to June 2025 period for three of the four top local authorities when compared with the previous year. City of Edinburgh was the only local authority in the top 15 local authorities to see a reduction in the number of guest nights between the two periods, from 3,072,720 to 3,030,570 (a decrease of 1.4%).

Westminster had the greatest increase within the top four, with 16.7% more guest nights compared with the same period the year before (3,520,480 to 4,107,880). Cornwall also had an increase of 8.6% (3,292,260 to 3,574,320) and Highland an increase of 7.7% (2,505,090 to 2,698,780).

In Wales, Gwynedd had the largest number of guest nights across the July 2024 to June 2025 period (1,224,110), an increase of 13.3% over the previous 12-month period (1,080,520).

Belfast remained the most popular area for guest nights in Northern Ireland, with an increase of 12.6% in the number of guest nights in the July 2024 to June 2025 period (829,150) compared with the previous 12-month period (736,130).

Figure 3: The four local authorities with highest number of guest nights showed different patterns of seasonality

Top four local authorities by number of guest nights in short-term lets offered through collaborative economy platforms, UK, July 2023 to June 2025

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

The article 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.

The Scottish Government introduced licensing for short-term lets in October 2022 with new and existing short-term let operators required to obtain a licence to operate a short-term let property in Scotland from October 2023. They publish Short Term Lets Licensing Statistics, with the latest data available as of 28 October 2025.

There will be differences between the Scottish Government data and our Hosts, listings, and bed spaces of short-term lets, UK 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 released on hosts, listings and bedspaces 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.

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.

In November 2024, the Welsh Government introduced the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill to the Senedd. Part of this Bill establishes a register of visitor accommodation in Wales. In September 2025, the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Act 2025 received Royal Assent, giving councils in Wales the authority to introduce an overnight visitor levy. In November 2025, the draft Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill was laid before Senedd Cymru. If passed, this Bill would establish a legal framework for a licensing scheme for visitor accommodation in Wales, focusing on self-catering properties first. Additionally, this Bill would build upon the plans for a national register of visitor accommodation providers.

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), which the current government remains committed to implementing.

The House of Commons Library published a paper examining the growth in short-term lettings and measures to strengthen regulation in England. It also provides a brief overview of the regulatory approaches in other countries at that time.