10,000 door-knocks, prosecutions and an untamed holiday let black market

Policing the Capital's short-term lets crackdown

The Old Town has some of the highest concentrations of short-term lets in the Capital.

From one-puppet musical journeys through the zombie apocalypse to the world’s most boring card trick. When it comes to the Fringe, anything goes.

The same, it seems, can now be said of accommodation in Edinburgh.

As demand continues to outstrip supply, visitors and Festival performers seeking affordable options are being exposed to a flourishing black market in short-term lets.

With soaring demand seeing 'budget' hotel rooms advertised for £600 a night at peak times this summer, and even bunk beds in hostels going for hundreds of pounds, demand for cheaper alternatives is soaring.

One Facebook group has proved particularly popular, especially for last-minute requests for digs. The rooms and homes on offer on the platform’s Edinburgh Fringe Accommodation group range in price, but many step in to accommodate last-minute requests.

What has raised alarm bells in some quarters is the high number of apparently unlicensed properties being advertised, raising fears bookers are being exposed to ‘rogue’ landlords, scams and unsafe properties.

When the admins of the Facebook group asked those posting adverts to include license numbers to prove their property had been officially vetted, they were met with a backlash.

One poster hit out at the “vigilante policing”. “I don’t encourage anyone else to do anything wrong, but lets’ be reasonable people,” they posted. “It [requests for license numbers] is putting people off, getting rather repetitive and kind of ‘Karen’.”