Should Edinburgh delight in success of Airbnb?

Kirsty Mcluckie on the online platform’s growth in the city

At this time of year the Scottish capital is inundated with visitors from around the globe but whether yearround residents see the festivals as a blessing or a curse tends to depend on their involvement.

For those going about their daily lives – if they aren’t entranced by the myriad cultural offerings – the buzz around the city can be an annoying distraction.

But if you have a business, particularly one dependent on the tourist trade, your appreciation might not be about catching the hottest comedy show but your bottom line.

When it comes to accommodation, it seems more of us have a vested interest in the continuing success of the festivals than ever before.

The proportion of visitors to Edinburgh using Airbnb last year jumped to 20 per cent as the online platform accounted for more than 1.1 million overnight stays, according to data from Colliers International.

The firm found that bookings on Airbnb for properties in the capital were up 70 per cent in 2017 compared with the year before, while the website’s share of this huge visitor accommodation market grew from 13 to 20 per cent, so a fifth of all visitors are using the platform to find places to stay.

While many of these bookings will be residents cashing in on renting out spare rooms – private rooms remain the most popular type of accommodation among Airbnb users in Edinburgh, representing 38 per cent of bookings, at an average of €61 a night – the whole business is becoming increasingly commercialised.

Almost a third of bookings are taken by landlords with three or more properties listed on the site. The study, carried out in partnership with Hotelschool The Hague, comes at a time when tourist destinations around the world have been calling for Airbnb to be regulated, capped or even banned.

In Edinburgh, the city council recently announced that it would lobby the Scottish Government for a licensing regime to potentially cap the number of Airbnb properties.

Alistair Letham, director of Colliers International in Edinburgh, said there were concerns in the hospitality industry that, while the Airbnb website is an undoubted success story, it has, in part, been as a result of an “unlevel playing field”.

Its accommodation platform is unregulated, unlike other parts of the market, such as hotels and guest houses – and demands for licensing and regulation have been made by politicians.

He said: “However, you can’t blame property owners for taking the opportunity that has been provided. Airbnb is clearly filling a gap.

“But demand could also be met through more limited service hotel accommodation and aparthotels.”

The most notable rise in types of Airbnb bookings has been in larger properties, with bookings of three and four-bedroom properties up, with daily rates substantially higher than the Edinburgh average.

So for residents, there is an added impetus for budget hotels over further rises in Airbnb lets.

I suspect most of us would prefer to live next to a well run B&B or a budget hotel rather than a flat let to an unsupervised group of young people in town for a jolly – no matter how well meaning they may be.