Airbnb hosting is one of the more realistic ways to turn a spare room, or a flat that sits empty while you travel, into extra income. This guide covers listing a room or a whole home specifically. If you would rather host an activity or list a skill instead, see our separate guides to becoming an Airbnb Experience host and becoming an Airbnb Services host.
Room or whole home? Pick the version that matches your situation
The tax rules, legal limits and effort involved are genuinely different depending on which one you’re doing, so it’s worth being clear which applies to you before you list anything.
| Renting a room in your home | Renting your whole home | |
|---|---|---|
| You still live there | Yes | No, guests have the property to themselves |
| Tax allowance | Rent a Room Scheme: £7,500 a year tax-free | No automatic allowance, normal property income rules apply |
| London’s 90 night rule | Does not apply | Applies: whole property, capped at 90 nights a year without planning permission |
| Typical effort | Lower, you’re on site to manage things | Higher, remote check-in and turnaround cleaning between guests |
The Rent a Room Scheme: up to £7,500 a year, tax-free
If you let a furnished room in the home you live in as your main residence, the UK’s Rent a Room Scheme lets you earn up to £7,500 a year completely tax-free (£3,750 each if you share the income with a partner or joint owner), confirmed directly on gov.uk. Below that threshold, the allowance applies automatically, no paperwork needed. Go over it, and you need to complete a Self Assessment return, where you can then opt into the scheme and claim the tax-free part, or opt out and report your actual income and expenses instead.
London’s 90 night rule, and why it doesn’t apply to a room let
If you let an entire property short-term in Greater London, there’s a hard legal limit: no more than 90 nights in a calendar year (1 January to 31 December, all short lets in the year added together) without planning permission. This is confirmed directly by London borough planning guidance, for example Tower Hamlets Council’s short-term lets page, which also states that letting beyond 90 nights without permission is against the law, with fines that can now be unlimited, and that ignoring a council enforcement notice is a criminal offence.
Two things matter here. First, the 90 nights are counted across the whole year and all bookings together, not per booking. Second, you (or someone providing the accommodation) generally need to be the person liable for council tax on the property for the 90 night exemption to apply at all; if you’re not, planning permission is required regardless of how many nights you let it for.
This rule applies specifically to letting the whole property. It doesn’t apply to renting a room while you continue to live there, which is Rent a Room Scheme territory above.
What Airbnb actually takes from your booking
Airbnb changed its fee structure in 2026. It previously charged a separate fee to guests and a smaller fee to hosts on the same booking. It has now moved to a single 15.5% host-only service fee (16% in Brazil and Mexico), confirmed on Airbnb’s own Resource Center. In practice, this means the price you set is closer to what the guest actually pays, and the 15.5% comes out of your side rather than being split across both of you. Existing listings moved onto the new single fee on a rolling basis through September and October 2026.
How to list your first Airbnb space
- Decide room or whole home.
This decides which tax rule and which legal limit actually applies to you, so settle it first using the sections above.
- Check the Rent a Room threshold or the 90 night count.
Know your number before you start taking bookings, not after.
- Create your listing.
Photos, an honest description, house rules and your cancellation policy.
- Set your price.
Airbnb’s own pricing tool suggests a starting nightly rate based on similar listings nearby; treat it as a starting point, not a fixed answer.
- Publish and take your first booking.
Your listing goes live once published, though it can take a little time to get any real visibility in search.
Is Airbnb hosting worth it?
Pros
- A spare room can produce genuinely tax-free income up to £7,500 a year.
- You control your own price, availability and house rules.
- No stock, no inventory, you’re renting space you already have.
- Airbnb handles payment collection and (for eligible bookings) some guest verification.
Cons
- Whole-property letting in London is capped at 90 nights a year without planning permission.
- Cleaning, changeovers and guest messages take real time, especially for a whole property.
- Income above the Rent a Room threshold, or from a whole-property let, is taxable and needs declaring.
- The 15.5% host service fee comes off every booking.