Renting out flat as short-term let

[TigerJoy]

I've been renting out a flat on a long-term let, managed by an estate agent, and my tenant is moving out within a month.

The only replacement they can find is apparently someone who wants to rent it out as a short-term let (think Airbnb). This is a bit annoying - my idea was that I would have this managed by someone else, I have a mortgage to pay on this but it's an investment property (my pension, effectively), so I'm not making any money day to day from it. I get £1.5k/month before fees and all of my "profit" goes on fees, mortgage, repairs etc and a surplus I've been building up so if it goes unoccupied I can still pay the mortgage.

However in the area I'm in, you could easily make about £1k/week. It sort of annoys me that someone else would be making money hand over fist, plus the agency fees. Plus I quite liked the idea that it was someone's home - I lived there for a few years and loved it.

Would I be bonkers to switch to running an Airbnb from it, and making money myself? There are agencies that can manage the letting - I'd just need to do the cleaning / key drop off / linen washing.

Has anyone else done this? Any advice?

I'm quite tempted to switch to

Various people in my block of flats did this - right up to the point the management company found out and pointed out it was a breach of their leasehold and threatened fines and eventual forfeiture of the lease. Therefore, I would suggest reading the leasehold contract to make sure this is allowed before you do anything.

Ah this is a fabulous point, thank you! I will check

All the cleaning linenchange etc every Two Or three days? Not for me.
You could pay someone but then how much you left with? And may still get voids.... and need good insurance in case

People do it illegally. It's not just breaches of lease but also it'd need to be registered as a holiday let to do such short term stuff by the book.

If it's meant to be your pension, have you actually worked out the numbers? Usually, you'd be much, much better off saving into an actual pension.

Oh, and it fits mortgages, you'd need to speak to your bank as a holiday let is different to a long term BTL.

OK, looks like I've found a long-term letter and might just stick with that!

Thanks for the advice, I hadn't considered all these aspects.