Short-term lets: Save our brilliant B&Bs

One day was particularly memorable. After booking into a B&B in Killiecrankie, run by Mrs Braid, a widow who charged 50p extra for luxuries such as a boiled egg with breakfast, Parini found himself sharing a small double bed with the poet.

Not only did the great man wear yellow silk pyjamas, but he had drunk three pints of beer before they retired, meaning that more than once during the small hours Parini had to help him to the bathroom.

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Bad enough, you might think, but the toilet was off Mrs Braid’s bedroom. Waiting for Borges to re-emerge, Parini had to stand outside the bathroom door, the shadowy sight of his landlady under her quilt sending a shiver up his spine.

B&Bs have come a long way since then, although each of them is different, sometimes wonderfully so. Part of the charm of childhood holidays in Yarrow Feus in the Borders was our landlady Mrs Potts, who gave us the run of her cottage.

Retreating to the nether quarters, she’d emerge three times a day to provide a hearty breakfast, afternoon tea (the drop scones!) and dinner. My father always had to go on a diet when we got home.

Without B&Bs, Scotland would barely be on the map. Since the middle of the last century they, along with guesthouses, small hotels and self-catering cottages, have been the lifeblood of tourism, making it possible to explore the country without breaking the bank. Some might be eccentric, but all offer an insight into the personality and culture of the country in a way big hotels cannot.

Now, however, the future of the bed & breakfast trade, and others like them, is under threat. New legislation, coming into effect next July, means that all providers of short-term lets – B&Bs, guesthouses, self-catering accommodation, hotels, Airbnbs, boathouses, house swaps – anyone, essentially, providing a room for rent - must be licensed with their local authority. The deadline for applications is 1 October.

As part of their application, property owners must provide evidence of their buildings and public liability insurance, as well as energy performance, fire safety, gas and electricity compliance reports. These new stipulations come on top of existing health & safety and fire regulations.

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Each local authority can set its own charge for licensing, with some fearing they could be expected to pay up to £1500. Councils can also stipulate additional conditions, as in Edinburgh, where every applicant must get planning permission for change of use for the property. Any breach of the rules can lead to a fine of up to £2500.

Since this legislation is intended to reduce noise and anti-social behaviour (which, critics say, are already legislated for), it is presumably primarily aimed at curbing and monitoring Airbnbs, not B&Bs.

Admittedly I’m no fan of this sort of letting. For Edinburgh in particular, the hollowing-out of central post-codes for year-round short-term lets can be nightmarish for neighbours. Even in rural areas Airbnbs can pose problems, as a friend who recently bought a semi-detached house in the wilds of Galloway found after discovering that the house next door was rowdier than the Merchant City in Freshers’ Week.

Airbnbs, however, are a distinct issue. To catch them in this manner is like deep sea trawling, dragging everything else into the net along with them. And if one of the other underlying problems the new regulations aim to address is the scarcity of housing, it’s not clear how it will help achieve this.

Airbnb owners in tourist hotspots who sell up will go for the highest offer, likely far beyond the budgets of those already priced out of the market. The same goes for many guesthouses, B&Bs and self-catering cottages and chalets.

Indeed, the problem for B&B owners, and other bijou short-term letting businesses, is that so much paperwork is required in order to be licensed, there’s a risk that many intermittent or ad hoc landlords will simply stop renting out.

One guesthouse owner on Arran, who has been in business for over 20 years, says it is insulting to have his credentials as a responsible person checked out when he is already annually inspected; the daughter of an elderly landlady says being asked to prove she is “a fit and proper person” is “demeaning”, and she thinks her mother might simply stop letting her house.

Not surprisingly, organisations such as the Scottish Bed & Breakfast Association and the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers (ASSC) are dismayed at the conditions about to be imposed upon their members. The ASSC has suggested self-regulation rather than licensing. So far, however, there’s been no hint of a change of plan by the government.

Instead, this new raft of directives - described by MSP Fergus Ewing as “draconian” - looks set to go ahead, despite the uncertainty and distress it is already causing. Yet if something is not done to mitigate its impact on the most vulnerable and least resilient landlords, the hospitality map will shrink.

All across the country lights will metaphorically – but also literally – go out, thereby diminishing the options available to tourists. It will also impact on the cafes, shops, restaurants and other businesses (not to mention their employees) that rely on visitors staying in the area rather than simply passing through.

Meanwhile, those who have no option but to comply with bureaucracy and stump up for a licence will doubtless pass the cost on to guests, thereby potentially seeing a reduction in bookings.

At this point, many rural B&Bs and hotels are still recovering from the impact of Covid and are in no position to absorb further expenses or upheaval.

In the words of the Chief Executive of VisitArran, this legislation is “a sledgehammer to crack a nut”. I agree. I can only imagine what Mrs Potts, or indeed Mrs Braid, would have said about it.