Setting the Record Straight on Self-Catering
The Scottish self-catering and holiday let sector has been the target of a recent campaign of misinformation led by some in politics and in the media. The hardworking professionals who make their living in the industry, many of whom are members of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, have been blamed for everything from housing shortages to anti-social behaviour. This is simply unfair.
Given that we live at a time in which wrong or inaccurate information is easier than ever to spread and truth is at a premium, we at the ASSC thought we’d address a couple of the inaccuracies surrounding the self-catering industry and set the record straight. Because, given that it accounts for over 15,000 Scottish jobs and £723million in consumer spending in Scotland, £470million of which comes from overseas visitors, the short-term letting sector is too important to have such damaging myths go unchallenged.
So, without further ado, here are some of the top self-catering sector myths – DEBUNKED!
- Short-term rentals and holiday lets are directly linked to anti-social behaviour.
It needs to be said clearly, for the avoidance of doubt, there is no substantive connection between short-term lets and anti-social behaviour. Anti-social behaviour occurs throughout society, in hotels, shops, private residences, and occasionally and regrettably in some short-term lets. It happens across society and impacts all of us. However, at the ASSC we have recently taken a major step towards addressing poor behaviour on the rare occasions that it does occur in our sector. We recently published our Code of Conduct for our members and our partners which provides a framework to ensure best practice. By abiding by the Code we can help stamp out inappropriate behaviour when it does happen and avoid such isolated incidents having a detrimental and disproportionate effect on the vast majority in our sector that do their jobs and do them well.
- Short-term rentals and holiday lets contribute to a shortage of housing for local residents.
Similar to the argument around anti-social behaviour, the accusation that short-term and holiday renting is connected with shortages is a case of confusing correlation for causation. The short-term sector is not new – it has been operating in Scotland and across the UK and the world for many, many years and has seen housing shortages and surpluses over the years. Just because short-term letting exists alongside variations in supply within the housing market is not indicative of a connection between the two – to suggest so is only indicative of faulty logic.
- Short-term rentals and holiday letting makes it easy for people to avoid tax.
The ASSC fundamentally disagrees with anyone who is looking to shirk their share of tax and takes pride in how much our members help to generate for their local economies and for the country as a whole. There have also been some grave exaggerations when it comes to this issue and a closer inspection of how short-term let hosts operate will show that they pay income tax on the income they accrue from letting as well as the appropriate levels of Council and other taxes. We have welcomed the publication of the Barclay Review of business rates and welcome the cooperation we have had with government aimed at making sure that the burden not only provides the best deal for taxpayers but is also fair to our hardworking and enterprising hosts.
Nobody in any industry genuinely believes that their industry is perfect – and the self-catering sector is no exception. However, across the sector, talented and enterprising individuals are working with those in government and the third sector to promote best practice and weed out unacceptable habits wherever they may be. The future for the sector is bright and it has an excellent legacy on which to build but this may be jeopardised if irresponsible agitators in the media and politics continue to spread false or misleading information.