Being reported by SW chamber of commerce
that there is a 40% increase in the number of holiday lets in Cornwall over the past 2/3 years. So massive oversupply. The larger letting platforms run dynamic pricing, so prices rocketed too over the last two years of staycations. Plus DishiRishi handing out Covid grants….
But important to note there are three types of accommodation all being conflated into one by a number of parties, with the media and sadly local councillors not truly reporting / understanding the issue.
First are long term businesses who provide self catering holiday accommodation, or who act as agents for it (and who hopefully do it well, unlike the OPs experience!). These businesses are (in the main, and I acknowledge there are always exceptions) fully risk assessed, well maintained and DO contribute to the local economy (approx 30% of Cornwall’s economy overall and more in hotspots). And it’s not just seasonal waiting and bar work. Out of season they employ local trades, they employ local laundries, cleaners etc. They are crucial for the part time work many locals want. Many of the things that make Cornwall nice to live in out of season are subsidised by these long term tourist attracting businesses in the peak. Also worth noting that many of the things that make a holiday let attractive (rural, remote etc) make them crap to live in permanently due to lack of facilities / transport links / schools etc (though that’s a whole other issue
too!). These guys were heavily impacted by Covid, and needed the grants imo.
Second set are the second home owners. Who contribute when they are there, but otherwise the property is closed up. Some (and again not all) of them advertise the property to be let but at hugely inflated prices so that they don’t get bookings, or if they do it’s very much worth the effort. They do this to meet the local assessors threshold of number of days a property should be advertised to qualify for business rates rather than have to pay council taxes. Worth noting though that the local councils have always had the legislative power to investigate and deal with these, but in practice they don’t.
Final lot are the previous long term landlords who have flipped to holiday letting. The driver for this category is partly the increased demand over the last couple of years (which has mainly gone this year as foreign travel reopened) but mainly is a response to increased legislation of the AST market. Whilst this has rightly tightened up on the bad landlords in reality it has also moved a lot of the better landlords out of the sector too, especially the semi retired who put their pension into property (also a government initiative) and now feel exposed as they can’t evict problem tenants.
The sector needs better legislation to identify the true businesses and ensure they are run correctly, Scotland have introduced legislation which should work, Wales are following suit but (imo) setting the number of nights to be let at too high a level for a very seasonal economy - think they run the risk of nerfing their tourism and impacting farm diversification etc too.
By all means have an opinion, but please understand the difference between the types of property in play. The real issue here is the 40% increase / new to letting / flipping, not the long term proper businesses. Also the lack of social housing and the lack of appetite to build and maintain it. It isn’t fair to lump all self catering accommodation in one bucket.
Go on holidays, but book direct with good quality properly registered local agencies and owners. Read reviews, and look for properties registered with PASC, VisitEngland / Scotland / Wales etc. Ask them if they pay living wage to cleaners, check they have fire blankets, smoke and heat alarms etc etc. Make good choices re your accommodation and then enjoy them while being respectful to the locals.