Short term lettings in Cornwall

The Office for National Statistics (ONS), have released figures on the number of short-term lets by local authority.  The data covers rooms as well as dwellings so cannot be used to indicate the number of properties solely used as holiday lets. There are three sets of data and although all are interesting, the ‘stay' figures may be the most useful.

 

What is clear from the data is that for all the categories Q3 is the period with the highest share of lettings, accounting for 48% of guest nights and 42% of stays. 

 

Category/Period	Q3 2023	Q4 2023	Q1 2024	Q2 2024
Guest nights	1586060	429510	332770	943910
Number of nights	476910	145390	118550	310160
Number of stays	106450	37280	32220	79090
As % of total for year
Category/Period	Q3 2023	Q4 2023	Q1 2024	Q2 2024
Guest nights	48	13	10	29
Number of nights	45	14	11	30
Number of stays	42	15	13	31

 

Comparing the figures with the average for England indicates greater seasonality in Cornwall which is what would be expected.

 

Category/Period	Q3 2023	Q4 2023	Q1 2024	Q2 2024
Guest nights	33	22	17	28
Number of nights	32	23	18	27
Number of stays	30	23	18	29

 

Notes

In this bulletin, “short-term lets” refers to rentals, such as apartments or rooms, booked through Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia Group, excluding other forms of accommodation, such as hotels or campsites.

 

The number of guest nights accounts for the number of nights spent during a stay multiplied by the number of visitors in the travel party. This can be influenced by guest group size and length of stay. For example, a group of four staying for two nights would be eight guest nights, but one guest staying for two nights would be two guest nights. The number of nights refers to the number of nights a property or room offered by the platforms was occupied during a stay; whereas the number of stays refers to the number of times a facility offered by the platforms was occupied by a single booking, regardless of length of stay.

 

[ONS].

 

Sources

Office for National Statistics, 13th November 2024, Short-term lets through online collaborative economy platforms, UK: year to Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2024, Release.  Quarterly data set.