Short-term lets continue to grow in popularity despite increasing regulation, according to new government figures which show the number of guest nights rose 10% in a year and 22% over two years.

Guest nights in UK short-term lets increased across all four UK countries, according to the ONS. There were 104,617,530 guest nights spent in the sector from July 2025 to June 2026 compared with 94,959,330 the previous year, and 85,157,810 between July 2023 and June 2024.

Wales recorded the largest percentage growth, with 7.74 million guest nights, up 14% over two years. This is particularly relevant given that since April 2023, self-catering holiday lets in the country have had to meet much higher occupancy thresholds to qualify for business rates rather than council tax while councils already have the power to introduce a visitor levy on overnight stays. Short lets have also needed to join a national register since October.

In England, landlords will have to sign up to a mandatory short-lets registration scheme from next March while they have been included in government plans to introduce a visitor levy, giving mayors and local leaders the ability to introduce a small fee on overnight stays.

Treasury

The Treasury is also weighing up a tax that would classify holiday lets as second homes rather than businesses, which would strip small business rates relief and move self-catering properties onto council tax instead.

The ONS figures show that the North East recorded the largest percentage increase in stays during the last year, up 17% to 2,888,820 guest nights, while London had by far the largest number of guest nights but the smallest percentage increase, up 5% to 21,901,250.

Quarter

Nearly a quarter of holiday-let stays were concentrated in nine local authority areas: Westminster, Cornwall, North Yorkshire, City of Edinburgh, Highland, Kensington and Chelsea, Camden, Westmorland and Furness, and Liverpool.

Domestic guest nights increased by 13% compared with 4% for international visitors. Guests from the United States made up the bulk of these visitors with 6,164,480 guest nights, or 18.3% of the total - twice Germany’s 3,133,850 guest nights, followed by France, with 2,679,270.

The ONS data covers bookings through Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia Group, not the entire short-term let market.

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