Britain’s staycation boom may be over. During the pandemic, the demand for holiday-lets skyrocketed as British holidaymakers swapped Mediterranean sunshine for domestic seaside breaks.
So far this year, holiday-let owners across the country are reporting a sharp decline in bookings, as the sector feels the pinch amid the cost of living crisis, blustery weather and a saturated market.
Woodland Collection Holidays managing director Helen Angove, 58, said her four three-bed property lets in Townshend, Cornwall, about 10 miles from tourist hub St Ives, saw an 80 percent fall in bookings in January and February, compared to the same period last year.
The Observer reported: “This year we had hardly any bookings at all in January or February. March and April bookings are down 20 percent.”
Ms Angove blames the weather for the decline. She said: “So many [people] are fed up with the wet weather. They are going abroad to get some sunshine.
“The second big factor is the massive oversupply of holiday lets. A lot of people thought they could make easy money because of what happened during Covid.”
According to AirDNA, on Airbnb and Vrbo there were 342,000 short-term lets available in the UK in the year to February 2024, a 19 percent jump on the previous year.
Horsham resident Yvonne Turnbull, 58, who for six years has been renting out a three-bedroom apartment in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, said the oversupply on holiday lets in the seaside town has seen her business dry up.
She said: “When we started there were about 200 Airbnbs in the town. Now you’re looking at 1,000.”
The industry at large is also facing challenges from the Government. Increased regulation and the end of tax relief from April 2025 is set to make the climate even more difficult.
A mandatory national registration scheme is going to be brought in this summer at the same time as councils will get more powers to control short-term lets by making them subject to the planning process.
