And when guests travel across the U.K., they spend locally. A family booking an Airbnb in Whitby or Winchester doesn’t just sleep there. They eat out, visit the independent deli, drink the local ale, explore local attractions. In 2025 guests on Airbnb spent £3.2 billion in local restaurants, pubs, cafés and attractions across the U.K. An average of £450 per stay going directly into local economies and fueling small, local and family run businesses. Host recommendations alone drove 7.5 million visits to local spots, generating £620 million for hospitality businesses and venues. Direct support for exactly the kinds of businesses that the government’s Pride in Place program is designed to protect. The staycation, at scale, is an integral part of regional growth.
Hospitality at a tipping point
Here is the catch. The average cost of a U.K. overnight stay is up more than 25 percent in just two years.4 The result of seemingly small changes: tax increases, changes to business rates thresholds, higher National Insurance contributions and the abolition of tax relief for self-catering businesses, among others. Higher operating costs land on hospitality businesses, who pass them to guests already squeezed by inflation. Almost half of the general public recently said that booking a U.K. holiday now felt out of reach.5 Local businesses bear the consequences and families miss out. The government’s VAT cut on family attractions and kids meals was a welcome acknowledgement that many of the joyful things working people value most are becoming harder to afford. But it is a small step.
Millions of families choose to travel and holiday at home every year. It is often the most practical, affordable way to take a break, spend time together and explore parts of the country that you would otherwise miss.
Meanwhile, further regulation continues to be added to the sector, fueling additional pressure. We will soon see registration systems for short-term lets and tourism taxes across the country. The political instinct here is not irrational. Proportionate oversight is rightly justified and the case will be made for small levies to be put to public use, which should benefit residents and visitors alike. But there is a difference between targeted, fair and cohesive regulation and an accumulation of measures that treats the travel sector as a problem to be managed. Further calls for licensing requirements, health and safety checks, and new planning regimes for short stays will likely linger: each individually defensible, but collectively threatening further weight to the shoulders of small businesses.
The lesson from destinations that have continued to slide down this road is unambiguous. Add too much friction to the system and you will reduce the supply of affordable accommodation. Prices rise, demand falls and local businesses suffer the consequences. One year after Edinburgh introduced new licensing requirements, the average hotel price rose to a record high, increasing by 11.5 percent, while doing nothing to alleviate housing pressures across the city.6 Across the U.K., four in five Brits say that even a modest accommodation price increase would change their travel plans entirely. We should heed the warning signs.
A simple choice