Scots Libdem hopeful rents out his garden cabin on Airbnb for £10k a year

SCOTS politician Alex Colehamilton earns up to £10,000 a year renting out a cabin in his back garden on Airbnb.

The Libdem MSP uses the popular site to advertise the space that comes with a double bed and an airbed

The cabin sits in the back garden of Hamilton’s Edinburgh home and is available to rent for up to a maximum of three guests a night on Airbnb.

Users are charged £49 per night and also an £8 service fee.

Cole-hamilton, who is standing to succeed Willie Rennie as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, includes his rental on his register of interests.

He says: “I sublet part of my own property in Edinburgh through online holiday property website Airbnb. This yields a gross annual income of between £5,001 and £10,000.”

Advertising the accommodation, Cole-hamilton, who first registered the Airbnb let in August 2017, says: “It’s a beautiful, newly-built, wellinsulated cabin in suburban west central Edinburgh.

“Cosy, self-contained and utterly private, you won’t have to worry about other guests or creeping in late at night.”

Cole-hamilton, 44, tells guests to access the cabin on a path which gives access to his back garden.

The Edinburgh Western MSP announced his standing for party leader last month and said he believed Scotland needed “new hope” after everything it had been through.

And he said he believed the country had been held back by a “clash of nationalisms” between the SNP and Conservatives.

Cole-hamilton is widely expected to replace Rennie, with nominations for the contest closing on August 20.

He has been an MSP since 2016, and is currently the party’s health spokesman at Holyrood.

A spokesman for the Scottish Libdems said: “Alex’s Airbnb is fully reported on his register of interests.”