UK short-term let guest nights rise 10.2% to 104.6 million in a year

Guests spent 104,617,530 nights in UK short-term lets booked through online platforms in the 12 months to June 2026, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday 13 November.

That was 10.2% more than the 94,959,330 guest nights recorded in the previous 12 months, from July 2024 to June 2025.

Compared with July 2023 to June 2024, when the total was 85,157,810, the latest 12 months show growth of 22.9% over two years.

A guest night is each night of a stay multiplied by the number of people in the party, so four guests staying two nights count as eight.

The count draws on three platforms, Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia Group, and the ONS said data from other providers are not included.

Domestic guest nights rose 13.4% to 70,990,590, growing faster than international demand in all four UK countries and in all nine English regions.

International guest nights increased by a slower 4.1%, reaching 32,712,380 over the same 12 months.

Wales recorded the largest percentage rise among the four nations, at 14.3%, with guest nights climbing from 6,769,470 to 7,739,500.

Scotland followed with growth of 12.0% and Northern Ireland with 10.1%, while England had the smallest increase of the four, at 9.5%.

Among English regions, the North East saw the biggest jump, up 17.3% from 2,463,640 to 2,888,820 guest nights.

London had by far the most guest nights, at 21,901,250, but the smallest percentage rise, 5.4% from 20,782,290 a year earlier.

London was the only region where international guests made up a majority of guest nights, at 71.3%, against 89.1% domestic in the North East.

Nearly a quarter of all guest nights, 24.5%, were spent in just 9 of the 361 UK local authorities, against 24.4% in the 12 months before.

Seven of the nine are in England: Westminster, Cornwall, North Yorkshire, Kensington and Chelsea, Camden, Westmorland and Furness, and Liverpool. The City of Edinburgh and Highland are the two in Scotland.

Cornwall recorded the largest annual increase, adding 394,430 guest nights, or 10.8%, to reach 4,041,390, while Westminster added 380,940, up 9.2%.

Guest nights rose in 327 of the 361 local authorities on a year earlier, and in 344 when set against July 2023 to June 2024.

The United States was again the largest source of international guests, with 6,164,480 guest nights, slightly down from 6,244,740 in the previous 12 months.

Germany recorded 3,133,850 guest nights, up from 2,835,340, while France had 2,679,270, and the three countries together made up 35.6% of international guest nights.

August 2025 remained the busiest month for guest nights across the UK, the ONS said.

The base year has been restated: the ONS now puts July 2024 to June 2025 at 94,959,330 guest nights, above the 93,823,780 first reported for that period, and said data are subject to revision in future.

The next update in the series is due in May 2027.