Renting our flat in London via AirBNB

[claptomania]

I was wondering if any Londoners have rented their place via Airbnb and what your experiences were?

We’re hoping to go on an extended 4 month+ trip with the kids next year, before out oldest starts school. It’s an amazing opportunity but we’ll really struggle to pay the mortgage plus travelling costs. I’ve seen that we can only rent for a max of 90 days per year, which actually would be ideal.

Those that have rented your whole place: did you use a management company? Which of your own possessions did you leave (books etc)? Did you give access to your garden? What else should we think about?

Claptomania - haven't rented through Airbnb, but we rented our house for six months via Sabbatical homes.com when we went away for in 2015. Have a look. We did change our home insurance (building and contents ) to allow for a tenancy; had to change it back and pay a cancellation fee on return.

Oh and re other questions : we put all the clothes and toiletries we weren't taking in one room, which the tenants could access, we trusted them to leave them alone. Everything else stayed where it was. Tenants were a Spanish couple with a toddler, we met them before agreeing the tenancy.

Thank you! Will look into it. Obviously need to start a long list of admin tasks. Should be worth it!

One of my adult children has but more like for 5 days or a long weekend when they have been away. Check any restrictions in your mortgage and secondly check any restrictions in your lease (if you have leasehold not freehold) as they often do prevent it. My child just leaves everything in except lap top as there is not much to steal there anyway. I think once they had some noise - the nice people above told her about it later but nothing too much, not a massive loud party and no damage so it's worked very well.

the tax position you may need to take advice on. I am not sure if letting the whole place falls within the rent a room scheme (tax free) - I think not but there is another exemption for small amounts of income from lettings I think which is quite recent. Anyway just something also to consider and your insurance policy may not cover it.

I missed your reply Xenia. Anyway, much appreciated - I hadn’t considered the tax implications at all.

I occasionally let my place through Gumtree when I'm away for long periods for work. They have a short lets section. People rent short term for lots of reasons and I've had zero problem filling the spot.

The first tenants I rented to were a professional couple in between selling their place and buying a new one, so four months was perfect for them. I did a tenant check via the National Landlord Association (£29.50 for non-members) and took a standard deposit.

You would need to nominate a friend nearby to be your designate in case of emergency and you can't be reached.

A friend rents their flat through hostmakers who makes it a lot easier for them - could be good to look into considering you wouldn't be there to meet the people staying at your house and settle them in so would need to hire someone anyway!