When I load the Airbnb homepage to check rentals in North Cornwall, it tells me I can earn up to £1,622 per month in accommodation where I live. Given skyrocketing energy bills and rampant inflation, that’s tempting. I live on a farm near Pendle Hill in Lancashire. It’s remote and windswept, but that might appeal to a city dweller after some gritty weather up north.
But Airbnb tells me there are 344 homes nearby already listed. Maybe not a winter option, then.
In Braunton, North Devon, the site boasts “over 1,000” vacation rentals. That seems huge for a village of about 7,000 people. But the rate in other bathing establishments is even higher. Recent research by the campaign group Inside Airbnb found thatAcross the country, one in 67 coastal accommodations are listed on the rental site, up from one in 105 in 2019.
In Newquay (Cornwall) and Whitby (North Yorkshire), one in six homes is on Airbnb; in St Ives (Cornwall) it is one in five; in Woolacombe and Croyde (both also in North Devon) as well as St Andrews (Scotland) it is one in four.
Emma Dee Hookway, 43, was living in Braunton in the summer of 2021 when her landlady asked her to leave so her own daughter could move in.
“I’ve lived in North Devon all my life,” she says. “I always rented because it was too expensive for me to buy as a single parent.
“My son, then six years old, has autism. He could see that I was worried so on the way to school I explained to him that a lot of people want to visit or move here because it’s beautiful and people want a better quality of life after Covid.
Comments are closed.