All you need to know about Airbnb's 90-day limit

Understanding Airbnb's 90-day limit in London

If you list a property in London on Airbnb, you may be affected by the city’s 90-day annual limit. This regulation restricts how often you can rent out your property as a short-term rental each year.

What is the 90-day limit?

Airbnb introduced the 90-day annual limit for “entire home” listings across Greater London in early 2017. This means properties in London can only be rented for a maximum of 90 nights per calendar year unless you have special permission (known as a planning permit) from your local council.

If a host rents their property for more than 90 nights without a permit, they may be asked to stop hosting and could face fines of up to £20,000.

Why was this rule introduced? 

The 90-day limit comes from the Deregulation Act 2015, which aimed to simplify the rules for short-term letting in Greater London. However, many listings were exceeding the 90-day threshold, which led to concerns about the impact of short-term rentals on London’s housing market.

With an increasing number of properties being used as holiday lets, there were growing worries about housing shortages and rising rents for local residents.

Why did Airbnb get involved?

As Airbnb’s popularity grew rapidly in London, it introduced the 90-day limit to ensure that all hosts follow local regulations. The change was part of Airbnb’s wider effort to support responsible home-sharing and reduce the number of full-time commercial operators using the platform.

In Airbnb’s own words:

“We want to help ensure that home sharing grows responsibly and sustainably, and makes London’s communities stronger.”

How does the 90-day limit work?

For entire home listings in London:

• Airbnb displays a nights booked counter to show how many nights have been used and how many remain within the 90-day limit.
• Once a listing reaches 90 nights, Airbnb automatically closes the calendar for the rest of that year.
• The counter resets on January 1st each year.

If you hold a valid planning permit from your local council, you can continue hosting beyond the 90-day limit by submitting the permit details to us, so we can provide this to Airbnb on your behalf.

Airbnb also provides full guidance and FAQs for London hosts on how this rule works in practice, which you can find here.