Short-term lets through online collaborative economy platforms, UK - Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2023

4th March 2024

Number of guest nights, nights, and stays for short-term lets offered via online collaborative economy platforms (Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia Group).

From July to September 2023, there were nearly 2.8 million stays in short-term lets booked through the three online collaborative economy platforms in the UK (Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia Group); this totalled nearly 28.9 million guest nights with an average of 313,879 guest nights each day.

In the UK, domestic visitors made up 63.6% of guest nights (18.4 million) compared with 36.4% by international visitors (10.5 million); Wales was the UK country with the highest proportion of domestic guest nights (85.3%).

The local administrative units (LAUs) in the UK with the highest number of total guest nights in Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2023 were Cornwall (1,586,060), City of Edinburgh (1,157,180) and Westminster (871,900).

The LAUs with the highest share of guest nights for each UK country were Cornwall (7.3% of England), City of Edinburgh (26.9% of Scotland), Gwynedd (19.1% of Wales), and Belfast (29.2% of Northern Ireland).

The most popular LAUs for domestic guest nights were Cornwall (1,311,380), Gwynedd (365,750), and City of Edinburgh (345,000).

The most popular LAUs for international guest nights were City of Edinburgh (812,190), Westminster (757,350), and Kensington and Chelsea (389,720).

Nights, guest nights and stays
The statistics in this bulletin are official statistics in development. In this release, 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. See our leisure and tourism releases for more related statistics .

Interest in short-term letting has increased substantially with the growth of digital platforms, making it easier for property owners and managers to advertise their rooms or properties to potential guests (domestic and international). People can generate income by renting for short periods of time and allowing tourists a wider choice of accommodation beyond traditional hotels, hostels or bed and breakfasts.

For the first time, this analysis provides aggregated data from three large online collaborative economy platforms (Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia Group) on the number of guest nights, nights, and stays spent in short-term lets offered via online platforms during Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2023.

The number of guest nights takes into account 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 via the platforms was occupied; the number of stays refers to the number of times a facility offered via the platforms was occupied.

Between July and September 2023, there were nearly 28.9 million guest nights spent in accommodation booked via one of the three platforms in the UK across 2.8 million stays. On average, this is 313,879 guest nights each day over the three-month summer period.

The average number of guest nights each day refer to the number of guest nights divided by the number of days in Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2023. This does not tell us the total number of guests staying in short-term lets as guests can stay more than one night.

In future publications we will have UK data for other time periods, but similar international data published by Eurostat suggests that the summer months are the busiest. In the EU, guest nights in Quarter 3 2023 made up nearly half (47.3%) of annual guest nights (Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2022 to Quarter 3 2023). This means we would not expect to see similar levels throughout the rest of the year. Certain events or seasonal trends may have an additional impact at a local level, for example the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.

Looking at the data across countries and English regions (mainly International Territorial Level 1 (ITL1)), in Quarter 3 2023 there were:

21,598,290 guest nights (on average 234,764 guest nights each day) in England

4,301,420 guest nights (on average 46,755 guest nights each day) in Scotland

2,217,030 guest nights (on average 24,098 guest nights each day) in Wales

760,080 guest nights (on average 8,262 guest nights each day) in Northern Ireland

5,125,710 guest nights (on average 55,714 guest nights each day) in London

4,992,280 guest nights (on average 54,264 guest nights each day) in the South West (England)

3,236,360 guest nights (on average 35,178 guest nights each day) in the South East (England)

2,283,840 guest nights (on average 24,824 guest nights each day) in the North West (England)

1,680,000 guest nights (on average 18,261 guest nights each day) in Yorkshire and The Humber

1,508,190 guest nights (on average 16,393 guest nights each day) in the East (England)

1,080,980 guest nights (on average 11,750 guest nights each day) in the West Midlands (England)

990,680 guest nights (on average 10,768 guest nights each day) in the East Midlands (England)

700,260 guest nights (on average 7,612 guest nights each day) in the North East (England)

Read the full ONS report HERE