A London short let is a furnished flat or house rented by the night, with a kitchen, a washing machine and room for a family to spread out. It beats a hotel once there are three or more of you, or once the stay runs past about four nights. Two things decide whether it works: the cleaning fee, charged per booking rather than per night, and the fact that nobody is usually there to let you in.
The word "apartment" covers three products in London. One is somebody's home, let while they are away or run as a holiday let. The second is a private bedroom in a flat where the owner still lives. The third is operated by a company rather than a person, with staff on call, and the trade calls it a serviced apartment; our guide to aparthotels and serviced apartments covers that one in detail. This page is about the first two.
London also limits the first kind in a way no other English city does. A home here may be used as visitor accommodation for 90 nights in a calendar year before the owner needs planning permission, and that shapes who is letting, at what price, and how safe your booking is from being cancelled.
Short lets in London: key points
- What you are renting
- A whole flat or house, or a private room in a home the owner still lives in
- 90-night rule
- Letting a London home as short-term accommodation for more than 90 nights in a calendar year needs planning permission (in force since 26 May 2015)
- National register
- A registration scheme for short lets in England is planned but not yet in force (September 2026)
- Almost always extra
- A cleaning fee per booking, and often a refundable damage deposit
- Getting in
- Usually a key box or a smart lock with a code sent by message, rarely a person
- What you will not get
- Daily housekeeping, replaced toiletries, a left-luggage room or a 24-hour telephone
Whole flat, spare room or a company's flat
The three kinds look alike in a listing and behave very differently at eleven at night, which is when the difference becomes expensive.
| Type | What it is | Good for | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole home from a private host | Someone's flat or house, let while they are away or as a dedicated holiday let | Families, groups, stays of a week or more | Key collection, house rules, a host who may be asleep when the boiler stops |
| Room in a host's home | A private bedroom; you share the kitchen and sometimes the bathroom with the host | Solo travellers and couples on a budget who want local advice | Less privacy; you live by the host's routine |
| Flat managed by a letting agency | A privately owned flat with an agency handling bookings and keys | People who want a flat but prefer a company to answer | Response times vary; one agent may look after dozens of flats |
If what you want is a cheap bed in a central street and you will eat every meal out, a flat is the wrong tool. Our guides to London hostels and budget hotels cover that end of the market.
The 90-night rule, and why a guest should care about it
Under the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973, using a home in Greater London as "temporary sleeping accommodation" normally counts as a change of use that needs planning permission. The Deregulation Act 2015 added an exception, in force since 26 May 2015. No permission is needed as long as two conditions are met:
- the property is let as temporary accommodation for no more than 90 nights in a calendar year, and
- the person providing the accommodation is liable to pay council tax on it.
Councils, or the government, can also direct that the exception does not apply to a particular property or area. In plain terms: renting out a London home as short-term accommodation for more than 90 nights a year needs planning permission. The law talks about residential premises in general rather than "entire homes", though it is mostly discussed in connection with whole flats let while the owner is away.
The rule binds hosts, not guests, and nobody will ask you about it. It matters for a duller reason: availability. A host near the limit may close the calendar for the rest of the year, and one told by the council to stop may cancel bookings already made, which happens most often in late autumn. If a cancellation in November would wreck your trip, a company-run flat or a hotel room is the safer booking.
The national register of short lets is still not switched on. The government has chosen a mandatory registration scheme for short-term lets in England, and GOV.UK describes it as not yet in force, expected to begin in 2026. Until it starts there is no official list you can search to see whether a London flat is registered, which is why the checks below fall to you.
What a flat gives you that a hotel room cannot
The gain is space and independence rather than luxury. A two-bedroom flat lets small children go to bed at seven while the adults stay up in another room, which on a family holiday is worth more than anything on a hotel's list of facilities.
What a short let does well
- Separate bedrooms with doors, and a sofa to sit on that is not a bed
- A kitchen, which takes breakfast and some dinners out of the daily budget
- A washing machine, so a fortnight needs no more clothes than a week
- A residential street, a local supermarket and the bus stop everyone else uses
- Room to store food for a baby or a restricted diet
Where it can let you down
- Nobody on site: a jammed lock or a cold radiator waits for the host to wake up
- The cleaning fee falls hardest on stays of one or two nights
- Many London flats sit above two or three flights of stairs with no lift
- One set of towels and one roll of bin bags, and then it is your problem
- Cancellation terms are usually stricter than a hotel's flexible rate
Do not underrate the washing machine. London hotels charge laundry by the garment, so a machine in the flat takes that line out of the budget completely. Most flats have a washer and no dryer: our page on doing laundry in London explains what that means in a damp February.
What is missing compared with a hotel
None of this is a fault in the flat. It is the part of a hotel that a short let leaves out, and first-time renters meet it in a predictable order.
- Nobody cleans while you are there. The flat is cleaned before you arrive and after you leave; in between, the washing-up is yours.
- Consumables run out. Expect one set of towels each, one bar of soap and whatever washing-up liquid the last guest left. Nothing is replaced mid-stay.
- There is no luggage room. A hotel minds your bags on the morning you leave; a flat cannot. Our page on early check-in and bag storage lists the alternatives.
- The climate controls are somebody else's. Heating runs on a timer you did not set, so ask how to override it in writing. Cooling is rarer still, so read the listing carefully before booking a July stay.
Cleaning fees, deposits and the price you actually pay
The nightly rate is rarely the price. Two charges sit on top of it, and one of them quietly ruins short stays.
The cleaning fee is charged once per booking. That is the whole arithmetic. Spread across seven nights it barely registers; spread across two it can add a third to what you pay per night, which is why a flat that looks cheaper than a hotel for a weekend usually is not. Work out the total for your exact dates, divide by the number of nights, and compare that figure with a hotel in the same district. Our guide to the cost of a week in London puts the result into a wider budget.
The deposit is held against damage. Ask three questions before agreeing to one: the amount, the form it is taken in, and how soon after check-out it comes back. A hold on a card is much the better arrangement, because the money never leaves your account. Cash handed over at the door is the hardest thing to recover, and a deposit demanded by bank transfer to a private account is a reason to book elsewhere. Photograph the flat as you walk in, including any damage already there, and again as you leave; dated pictures settle most deposit disputes before they start.
Watch too for charges that apply only to some bookings: an extra-guest fee above a certain number of people, a charge for a cot, a linen fee on longer stays, a late check-in fee. Mandatory charges belong inside the total you are shown before you pay, and a flat's extras work much like a hotel's hidden costs.
Fake flat listings are the scam aimed specifically at people renting a home. Photographs are lifted from a real property, the price is good, and the "host" then wants the conversation moved off the site and the money sent by bank transfer. Keep every message and every payment inside the site you booked through, and read our guide to accommodation fraud and safe payment before you send a deposit to anyone. It has the warning signs, the payment protections and the steps to take if you have already paid.
Getting in when there is no reception desk
Check-in is where a short let differs most from a hotel, and where an evening can be lost. The usual arrangement is a key box bolted to a railing, or a smart lock, with a code that reaches you shortly before the stay begins. Settle the details in advance.
- Get the entry instructions in writing and save them offline. Screenshot the code, the door number and the address, because you may land with no mobile data and platform messages sit behind a login.
- Ask about the street door as well as the flat door. London blocks often have an entryphone, a front door on a timer, and a lift that moves only for a resident's fob. A code for the flat is no use if the building keeps you out.
- Get a telephone number that a human picks up, as a number rather than a chat thread, and ask who is on call at the time your flight actually lands.
- Have a plan for a code that fails. It happens, usually because the previous guest left late or the lock's battery is flat. Know the nearest hotel or hostel with a staffed desk, and keep enough credit free on a card to use it.
Travelling with children? Our advice on family-friendly places to stay covers cots, stairs and quiet streets.
Which parts of London suit a rented flat
Short lets exist in every borough, but the districts that work best for self-catering have ordinary residential streets, a supermarket open late and a quick route into the centre. A flat in a business quarter with no shops makes a worse holiday than a hotel in the same building.
- Islington in north London has Georgian squares, a long high street of shops and restaurants, and the Northern and Victoria lines close by: our Islington guide describes it.
- Greenwich, on the river in the south-east, feels like a small town, with parks and museums and a choice of the DLR, trains and river boats. See our Greenwich neighbourhood guide.
- Stratford has newer blocks around the Olympic Park, big shopping centres and fast links into town on three lines. Read more about Stratford.
- Canary Wharf is full of modern towers aimed at business travellers, and quiet in the evenings and at weekends: our Canary Wharf guide explains the trade-off.
Going further out buys space and costs travel. In 2026 a contactless day inside Zones 1 and 2 is capped at £8.90, while a flat in Zone 3 lifts that ceiling to £10.50 for every traveller, every day, which for a family of four on a week's trip often cancels the saving on the rent. Our explainer on how London's fare zones work has the detail, and our comparison of districts covers the central options.
When a hotel is simply the better answer
We recommend flats often, and there are trips where we would not. Choose a hotel room instead if:
- The stay is three nights or fewer. The cleaning fee, the shopping trip and the self check-in all cost you something, and on a short break they buy nothing back.
- You are alone, or a couple who eat out. The kitchen is the reason the flat costs what it does; unused, it is a room you are paying for.
- Your plans might change, because flats lean towards strict cancellation terms: see our page on rooms that stay cancellable.
- Anyone needs step-free access. Period conversions are London's worst buildings for this, and "second floor" rarely means there is a lift. Our guide to accessible London explains what to ask.
House rules, identity checks and the neighbours
Expect to be asked for identification even by a private host. The Immigration (Hotel Records) Order 1972 covers any premises where sleeping accommodation is provided for payment, not only hotels, and hosts commonly meet it by asking for a photograph of the passport page through the booking platform. Send it inside the platform, never to a personal email address.
When you arrive, find three things before you unpack: the smoke alarm, the way out of the building and the heating controls. GOV.UK says people letting self-catering holiday homes in England must follow fire safety guidance and Health and Safety Executive guidance on gas safety, so a missing or disconnected alarm is worth raising with the host at once rather than at the end of the stay.
You are living in somebody's block, not a hotel. Keep noise down late, follow the written rules on rubbish and recycling, which often means carrying bags down to a basement store behind its own keypad, and do not hold a party: in most lettings that ends the booking on the spot. British plugs are the three-pin type on 230 volts, and a flat asks more of them than a hotel room does, since you will be running kitchen appliances as well as chargers: see our guide to plugs, adapters and voltage.
If the flat is not what the listing described
Most problems are ordinary rather than criminal: the second bedroom is a curtained alcove, the lift is out of service, the flat is dirty, or a building site starts at seven. Deal with it in this order.
- Photograph the problem at once, with the timestamp intact, and save the listing text, because descriptions can be edited after you complain.
- Message the host inside the platform, so the complaint is on the record. Say plainly what is wrong and what you want done.
- Give a fixable fault a short chance to be fixed. A cleaner can be sent; a missing bedroom cannot.
- Escalate quickly if it is not. Platforms set deadlines for reporting a problem, often within a day of arrival, and a late complaint is a weak one. Do not move out first and ask afterwards unless the flat is unsafe.
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to rent an apartment in London for a holiday?
Yes. Staying in a short-let flat is legal for guests. The 90-night rule applies to hosts: letting a London home as short-term accommodation for more than 90 nights a year needs planning permission. Serviced apartments and aparthotels are run as businesses under different rules.
What is the 90-night rule in London?
It is a planning rule from the Deregulation Act 2015. A London home can be used as temporary sleeping accommodation for up to 90 nights in a calendar year without planning permission, provided the person letting it pays council tax on it. Beyond 90 nights, the host needs permission from the council.
Why do London flats charge a cleaning fee, and can I avoid it?
It pays for the clean between guests and is charged once per booking, whether you stay two nights or twelve. You cannot usually avoid it, so the way to blunt it is to stay longer or to take a hotel room for a short break. Always divide the fee by your number of nights before comparing prices.
How do I get the keys to a London short let?
Most hosts use a key box with a numeric code or a smart lock, and send the code shortly before check-in day. Some meet guests in person, and agency-managed flats sometimes use a concierge. Ask which it is, save the instructions offline, and make sure someone is on call when your flight gets in.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk - Deregulation Act 2015, section 44 (short-term use of London accommodation) (checked September 2026)
- GOV.UK - Letting out a self-catering holiday home in England: rules and regulations (checked September 2026)
- GOV.UK - Delivering a registration scheme for short-term lets (checked September 2026)
- legislation.gov.uk - The Immigration (Hotel Records) Order 1972 (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Daily and weekly capping (checked September 2026)