Air BnB or renting out spare room?

[SnowflakeSmasher86]

I’m looking to buy somewhere with an annexe or room in the garden to put one or two of those shepherds huts or similar, to give me some (fairly) passive income. I live near a major theme park destination so I know it would be easy to let - although cabins etc maybe more-so over summer than winter.

I don’t want to fuck up with such a major purchase but I don’t know who to ask for advice on the legality of letting rooms in/attached to your house for business.

Has anyone done this and could you possibly share the potential pitfalls with me re planning/neighbours/hmrc etc or point me to resources that could help. TIA.

For starters with a shepherds hut (or cabin) you will need planning permission from the council if it’s to rent out. Shepherds hut for family use may not as they’re deemed temporary as on wheels, but you start connecting to mains sewerage etc, it’s not longer temporary. You will also need insurance for the hut and as a business. The market is saturated with shepherds hut. You say you’re near a theme park, most shepherds hut accommodate an adult couple, theme parks by their very nature are for children. Shepherds hut rentals are struggling a bit even in the most picturesque of places. If it’s a small extra income, this isn’t the way to go. A decent hut will set you back a minimum of £30k (I have one, I did my research). Do you have a large spare room you could change to a family room for air BnB guests?

Shepherds hut will need planning permission. An annex is likely to need it as well assuming your are installing a kitchen and en suite. If not unlikely to need it. Renting out a room in your house if you still live there doesn’t need planning permission.

I’d recommend searching up some key words of your proposal on the councils planning portal to see what similar things were approved and refused

We rent out our annexes, I would say it really really isn't "passive". To make much of a profit you'll need to clean and manage guest relations yourself. I would say for our 3 properties my cleaning, legal requirements, paperwork, guest relations takes up about 4 hours a day. There's constant maintenance and liaising with contractors (this week alone, a blocked toilet, a step that's got a loose brick and a wasp nest for example), constant questions about check in time, location, places to eat, facilities on site etc etc (yes I send all the info out, people still ask). There are really stringent regulations for fire in the UK for holiday let's and you'll need electrical inspections, every appliance pat tested, risk assessment etc (worth googling and really digesting), for a business you'd need planning permission and you'd need to work out parking, sewerage, waste disposal (your council tax doesn't cover waste collection for a business). You'll need a laundry provider to wash and iron all your sheets, if you provide a welcome basket or any food you need a food hygiene inspection and rating from the council. You'll need specific insurance in place too. Lots of places don't bother with all of this but this puts them at risk legally but also the potential to harm someone by mistake.
It's a good income I make (we are in a tourist location and I turnover about 6k a month) but there are huge time and cost implications. I think it's easy to assume you can pay a cleaner £20, make up a few beds, automate some air bnb messages and bobs your uncle - people who do that don't last. If you want to outsource cleaning to save your time, check your profit margins, in our area an air bnb turnover specialist cleaning company charge 50-100 pounds per 1 bed.
Really research this before your make a purchase.

Thank you all, lots to think about! I do already have a lot of that in place for my current business (food hygiene, PLI etc) but will look further into it before making the leap. Appreciate the points already made.