Mark Drakeford’s new 'second-home' regulations will shackle post-pandemic recovery and cultural exchange when we need it the most

The Welsh government is planning to clamp down on short-term holiday lets. Under proposed rules, councils will be allowed to make second homeowners pay four times as much council tax as other residents and will be subject to new local tax rules. Similar clampdowns are taking place in Scotland, including Edinburgh, where stricter rules for self-catering accommodation are set to come into effect in 2024. 

Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford this week announced during a press conference that he himself has owned a chalet in Pembrokeshire for 27 years, and stated that the new tax regulations – conveniently – won’t affect his holiday home as it’s “not counted as a second home if it's somewhere you can't occupy the year round”.

But preventing people from bumping up their incomes with their own properties, and simply excluding those that qualify as ‘chalets’ does not help in "levelling the playing field” for tourism accommodation providers as the scheme proposes – quite the opposite – it simply rigs tourism in favour of big business and prevents travellers from seeking affordable and authentic experiences.

A recent Airbnb survey of 10,000 hosts and guests found that a third of British hosts let out their properties and homes on a short-term basis to afford the rising cost of living, and nearly a third say the additional income helps them make ends meet. Holiday rental platforms allow families to let out their places, make a bit of extra cash (perhaps to spend on their own summer holidays) and soften the effects of inflation.

A host in Britain doesn’t actually make as much as you might think – typically those letting their places on Airbnb earn around £6,000 a year on the platform. There’s a big difference between the very few people who buy huge swathes of properties to rent them as holiday lets and the thousands of families who own a main residence or holiday home and let it out from time to time. Blanket policies like Wales' don’t take into consideration individual circumstances, and are "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut”, as Wales Brecon and Radnorshire MP James Evans commented.

Homesharing puts money into the pockets of regular people. Why should big chains and investors have a monopoly on places (like in New York and Barcelona)? And why are we policing what individuals can and can’t do with their own houses?

From a traveller’s perspective, home sharing is a revelation. For the past decade, I’ve stayed overnight in places that wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for online marketplaces offering short-term rentals. I’ve had experiences that you can’t book on a tour; made dumplings in a hutong with a Chinese grandma; met lifelong friends in the suburbs of Georgia while staying in a couple’s spare room; and watched sloths in the tree above my off-grid Costa Rica jungle cabin – you don’t get that in a cookie-cutter hotel.

The success of platforms such as Airbnb – which is worth around £55bn, and grew by 77.4 per cent in 2021 despite the pandemic – shows I'm not alone. It’s clear travel trends have changed. Hordes of us are looking beyond generic stays and convenience to have unique experiences.

Renting a whole house or apartment also appeals to those who value privacy, those who don’t want to be spied on in a hotel or bothered in a B&B, and those who want the facilities of home, away from home. These are people who don’t want the “genuine” stays the Welsh government is referring to. They don’t want to call room service to request the use of an iron and would rather not fill out a card in advance about how many slices of bacon they want for breakfast.

They want a real sense of the place they are staying in. They pick breezy thatched roofs and lopsided Tudor beams over homogenised decor and a Nespresso machine. Online short-term rentals have changed the way we travel for the better. It’s now realistically possible to stay in any small British hamlet, dip our toes into rural life, and truly understand what these communities are about. All while spending money in the local pubs and shops, buying local produce and stimulating the local economy. We can visit the places that don’t have space for a big hotel, and nor do they want one.

Homesharing plugs accommodation gaps when needed. Global climate summit Cop26, for example, attracted 40,000 delegates to Glasgow in late 2021 despite there only being a capacity for 15,000 people in local hotel accommodation.

Admittedly, there are occasional lifestyle clashes with short-term lets in close quarters with long-term residents – midnight joviality is infuriating when you have an important work shift the next day. But one thing you can be sure of – the paying guests next door will be gone soon. Can you say the same for the long-term renter with the barking dog?

It’s also easy to understand why a hotelier would be peeved at having to pay higher fees and jump through more hoops than a homestay (even if the latter is only operational for a few months a year). But the point they are missing is that these are different markets, like cinemas and theatres, books and magazines. Not everyone is going to want a quirky homestay – people will still want to be pampered in a five-star hotel with a spa, concierge and a cleaner who puts your slippers by the bed and folds your towel into a swan.

Lower-end offerings may well need to adapt to survive in the face of competition, but it could also present an opportunity. Many guesthouses and B&Bs have changed their offerings for the better, and registered with home-renting platforms. And many once angry residents have chosen to rent out their own spare rooms. Good for them, because if you can’t beat them, join them.

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