The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed some interesting data on the total number of guest nights on short-term accommodation offered on platforms such as Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia. It excludes stays in hotels and campsites.
Overview of some of the interesting short-term stay data points
Total UK short-term guest nights in 2024: During the calendar year of 2024, approximately, 90.1 million guest nights were spent in short-term rental across the UK. Based on the below table, it clearly reveals that England received the giant share of these short-term stays with over 70.3 million. And this is based on the night stay per individual and not per occupied room. For example, if you have two guests staying in the same room for 3 nights that will be equal to 6 nights of stay. And if the room is occupied by a single guest for the same duration of stay, that will be considered as 3 nights of stay. Over 78% of total short term night stays are spent in England.
The most guest-nights were in August: In 2024, August had more short-term guest nights than any other month in the year. The popularity of August is no surprise as it is the last month of the summer holiday season and most students are off school and parents try to make the most of this period with either a staycation within the country or inbound tourism from other countries. There is also a bank holiday in August and popularity of events such as the Nottinghill Carnival, Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition and food festivals at notable places such as the Hampton Court Palace. These are some of the reasons driving more stay in August.
Local Authorities with the highest number of guest nights: The top 5 local authorities with the highest number of guest nights are Westminster (3.9 million), Cornwall (3.4 million), Edinburgh (3.0 million) and Highlands (2.6 million). Westminster is not a surprise with proximity to so many attractions like the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, London Eye and to name a few. In addition, the average number of guest nights per local authority is about 250,000.
How this rise in short-term stays in the UK is impacting linen hire
The previous bulletin from the ONS revealed a total of 85,157,810 short-term stay nights in the UK from July 1st 2023 to June 30th 2024. In comparison to the 90.1 million nights captured in the entirety of 2024, it clearly indicates about 5-6% of growth in guest-nights in short term accommodation in the UK.
The increase in guest nights over the years is a combination of the attractiveness of the UK as a tourist destination and the increase in short-term accommodation to meet the increasing demand.
The coming together of all of these leads to an increase in demand for linens, towels and more cleaning cycles. With quick turnaround due to the short-term nature of these stays, Airbnb hosts and owners of short-term accommodation would continue to strive towards maintaining a positive customer satisfaction and providing clean linen and towels to these guests is a key aspect of their overall experience.
Property owners will find the purchases, cleaning and replacement of linens and towels a challenging operational task and are increasingly seeking leading linen hire and commercial laundry companies like Londonist Hospitality to be their outsourced hospitality provider to elevate the overall guest experience.