The rules that shift by council, not by country.

A national register introduced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Every short-let property in England will need to be registered on a central database, receive a unique registration number, and display that number on any listing published on an OTA like Airbnb, Booking.com or Vrbo.

Listings without a registration number will be prohibited from platform distribution. Civil penalties for operating without registration are set at up to £5,000 per property.

A proposed new C5 use class for short-let dwellings would give local planning authorities a direct handle on which properties in their area can be used for short letting. Alongside this, councils are being given expanded powers to issue Article 4 directions, which remove the automatic right to change a residential property to short-let use in a specified area.

In practice this means change of use may need planning permission on a street-by-street basis. Cornwall, Manchester and parts of the Lake District are already using existing Article 4 powers for exactly this.

A residential dwelling in Greater London can be let for periods of less than 90 consecutive nights, for a total of no more than 90 nights across a calendar year, without planning permission. Beyond 90 nights of short-let activity in a year, planning consent from the local borough is required, and is often refused.

Some boroughs, notably Westminster, Camden and Kensington & Chelsea, actively monitor and enforce the 90 night limit through platform data-sharing agreements and complaints-led investigations. Others enforce less actively. The exposure sits on the property either way.

Every short-let property in Scotland requires a licence issued by the local council. Applications include property details, floor plans, gas and electrical safety certificates, a fire risk assessment and a Legionella assessment. Councils have discretion over the fee and processing time, and both vary widely.

Operating a short let without a valid licence is a criminal offence, with fines of up to £2,500 on conviction. Continued operation after refusal can result in a landlord being disqualified from holding future licences.

Councils can designate their whole area, or parts of it, as a Short-Term Let Control Area. Inside a control area, change of use to short-let requires planning permission on top of the licence. Central Edinburgh is the highest-profile example. Applications for change of use inside the Edinburgh control area are frequently refused.

All properties offered as tourist accommodation, including short lets, must be certified by Tourism NI. Certification requires an inspection against a set of statutory minimum standards covering fire safety, sanitation, equipment and record-keeping. Inspections repeat on a four-year cycle.

Operating without certification carries fines of up to £2,500. Continued operation without certification, or serious breach of the standards, can carry a custodial sentence of up to six months. Enforcement in Northern Ireland has historically been more active than in the rest of the UK.

The Welsh Government has committed to a statutory registration scheme for short-let accommodation, alongside a licensing framework for holiday accommodation. Consultation has closed, primary legislation is expected within the current Senedd term.

Since April 2023, Welsh properties classed as self-catering accommodation must be available to let for 252 days a year and actually let for at least 182 days to qualify for business rates. Properties that fall short face council tax at up to 300 percent of the standard rate in some counties. Gwynedd and Pembrokeshire have applied the premium most aggressively.